Burgundy²

 

(bûr'gəndē) , Fr. Bourgogne (bʊrgô'nyə), historic region, E France. The name once applied to a large area embracing several kingdoms, a free county (see Franche-Comté), and a duchy. The present region is identical with the province of Burgundy of the 17th and 18th cent. It is now administratively divided into the departments of Yonne, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Ain, and Nièvre. Dijon is the historic capital; other cities are Autun, Auxerre, Beaune, Bourg-en-Bresse, Chalon-sur-Saône, and Mâcon.

Burgundy west of the Saône River is generally hilly; the southeast includes the southern spurs of the Jura Mts.; the center is a lowland, extending south almost to the junction of the Saône and Rhône rivers (see Bresse). A rich agricultural country, Burgundy is especially famous for the wine produced in the Chablis region, the mountains of the Côte d'Or, and the Saône and Rhône valleys. There is some heavy industry and mechanical equipment manufacturing.

History

The territory, conquered by Caesar in the Gallic Wars, was divided first into the Roman provinces of Lugdunensis and Belgic Gaul, then into Lugdunensis and Upper Germany (see Gaul). It prospered, and Autun became a major intellectual center. In the 4th cent. Roman power dissolved, and the country was invaded by Germanic tribes. It was finally conquered (c.480) by the Burgundii, a tribe from Savoy. The Burgundii accepted Christianity, established their Lex Burgundionum, and formed the First Kingdom of Burgundy, which at its height covered SE France and reached as far south as Arles and W Switzerland.

Conquered (534) by the Franks, it was throughout the Merovingian period subjected to numerous partitions. Burgundy nevertheless survived as a political concept, and after the partitions of the Carolingian empire two new Burgundian kingdoms were founded, Cisjurane Burgundy, or Provence, in the south (879) and Transjurane Burgundy in the north (888). These two were united (933) in the Second Kingdom of Burgundy (see Arles, kingdom of). A smaller area, corresponding roughly to present Burgundy, was created as the duchy of Burgundy by Emperor Charles II in 877. In 1002, King Robert II of France made good his claim to the duchy, but his son, Henry I, gave it in 1031 as a fief to his brother Robert, whose line died out in 1361.

The golden age of Burgundy began (1364) when John II of France bestowed the fief on his son, Philip the Bold, thus founding the line of Valois-Bourgogne. Philip and his successors, John the Fearless, Philip the Good, and Charles the Bold, acquired—by conquest, treaty, and marriage—vast territories, including most of the present Netherlands and Belgium, the then extensive duchy of Luxembourg, Picardy, Artois, Lorraine, S Baden, Alsace, the Franche-Comté, Nivernais, and Charolais.

In the early 15th cent. the dukes of Burgundy, through their partisans in France, dominated French politics (see Armagnacs and Burgundians). England, at first supported by Burgundy in the Hundred Years War, suffered a crucial setback when Philip the Good withdrew that support in the Treaty of Arras (1435). A great power, Burgundy at that time had the most important trade, industry, and agriculture of Europe. Its court, a center of the arts, was second to none.

The wars of ambitious Charles the Bold, however, proved ruinous. Charles, opposed by the determined and resourceful Louis XI of France, was defeated by the Swiss at Grandson, Morat (1476), and Nancy (1477), where he lost his life. His daughter, Mary of Burgundy, by marrying Emperor Maximilian I, brought most of the Burgundian possessions (but not the original French duchy) to the house of Hapsburg. The duchy itself was seized by Louis XI, who incorporated it into the French crownlands as a province, to which Gex, Bresse, and Charolais were added later by Henry IV and Louis XIV.

Bibliography

See studies by O. Cartellieri (1929, repr. 1972), R. Aldrich (1984), E. Fried (1986), and C. Cope (1987).

Burgundy (French: Bourgogne; German: Burgund) is a region historically situated in modern-day France and Switzerland, originally inhabited in turn by Celts (Gauls), Romans (Gallo-Romans), and in the 4th century assigned by Romans to the Germanic people of the Burgundians, who settled there in their own kingdom. This Burgundian kingdom was conquered in the 6th century by Franks who continued this kingdom under their own rule.

Later in time, the region was divided between the Duchy of Burgundy (west of Burgundy) and the County of Burgundy (east of Burgundy). The Duchy of Burgundy is the more famous of the two, and the one which reached historical fame. Later, the Duchy of Burgundy became the French province of Burgundy, while the County of Burgundy became the French province of Franche-Comté, literally meaning free county.

The modern-day administrative région of Bourgogne comprises most of the former Duchy of Burgundy.

History

See also: History of the Franche-Comté

Further information: Duke of Burgundy and Counts of Burgundy

The Burgundians were one of the Germanic peoples who filled the power vacuum left by the collapse of the western half of the Roman Empire. In 411, they crossed the Rhine and established a kingdom at Worms. Amidst repeated clashes between the Romans and Huns, the Burgundian kingdom eventually occupied what is today the borderlands between Switzerland, France, and Italy. In 534, the Franks defeated Godomar, the last Burgundian king, and absorbed the territory into their growing empire.

Burgundy's modern existence is rooted in the dissolution of the Frankish Empire. When the dynastic succession was settled in the 880s, there were four Burgundies:

1. the Kingdom of Upper (Transjurane) Burgundy around Lake Geneva,
2. the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy in Provence, and
3. the Duchy of Burgundy west of the Saône
4. the County of Burgundy east of the Saône

The two kingdoms of Upper and Lower Burgundy were reunited in 937 and absorbed into the Holy Roman Empire under Conrad II in 1032, as the Kingdom of Arles. The Duchy of Burgundy was annexed by the French throne in 1477. The County of Burgundy remained loosely associated with the Holy Roman Empire (intermittently independent, whence the name "Franche-Comté"), and finally incorporated into France in 1678, with the Treaties of Nijmegen.

During the Middle Ages, Burgundy was the seat of some of the most important Western churches and monasteries, among them Cluny, Citeaux, and Vézelay.

During the Hundred Years' War, King John II of France gave the duchy to his younger son, rather than leaving it to his successor on the throne. The duchy soon became a major rival to the French throne, because the Dukes of Burgundy succeeded in assembling an empire stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea, mostly by marriage. The Burgundian Empire consisted of a number of fiefdoms on both sides of the (then largely symbolic) border between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Its economic heartland was in the Low Countries, particularly Flanders and Brabant. The court in Dijon outshone the French court by far, both economically and culturally. In Belgium and in the south of the Netherlands, a 'Burgundian lifestyle' still means 'enjoyment of life, good food, and extravagant spectacle'.

In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Burgundy provided a power base for the rise of the Habsburgs, after Maximilian of Austria had married into the ducal family. In 1477 the last duke Charles the Bold was killed in battle and Burgundy itself taken back by France. His daughter Mary and her husband Maximilian moved the court to the palace at Coudenberg, Brussels, and from there ruled the remnants of the empire, the Low Countries (Burgundian Netherlands) and Franche-Comté, then still an imperial fief. The latter territory was ceded to France in the Treaty of Nijmegen of 1678.

Wine

Main article: Burgundy wine

Burgundy produces wines of the same name. Although "Burgundy" means red, the Burgundy region produces both white wines and red wines. According to the AOC's regulations, they must only be made of either Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay or Pinot Blanc to be considered true Burgundy wines. The best-known wines are made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varietals, and come from the Côte d'Or, although also viticulturally part of Burgundy are Beaujolais, Chablis, Côte Chalonnaise, and Mâcon.

Burgundy wines can be described as varied, complex, human, and sophisticatedly homely. They are highly regarded because of historical tradition, and arguably because they transmit well the flavour of the land, what the French call terroir. The reputation, quality, and small numbers of production of the top wines mean high demand and high prices: Burgundy wines are among the most expensive wines in the world. Some consumers buy the high-end wines of this region purely for speculative purposes, as they are often regarded as Veblen goods.

Geography

Highest point: Haut-Folin (901m) in the Morvan.

The Canal of Burgundy joins the Rivers Yonne and Saône, allowing barges to navigate from the north to south of France. Construction began in 1765 and was completed in 1832. At the summit there is a tunnel 3.333 kilometers long in a straight line. The canal is 242 kilometers long, with a total 209 locks and crosses two counties of Burgundy, the Yonne and Cote d'Or. The canal is now mostly used for riverboat tourism; Dijon, the most important city along the canal, has a harbor for leisure boats.

Culture

Famous Burgundian dishes include coq au vin and beef bourguignon.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In 1430 the Burgundians captured Joan of Arc.
• The constructor of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower, Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon.
• There is a mustard museum called Le Musée De la Moutarde in Dijon. Dijon mustard and Grey Poupon were both invented in Dijon. Dijon mustard was first made with juice from grapes instead of vinegar there.

See also

• French wine

• Burgundy
• Kingdom of Burgundy
• King of Burgundy
• Duchy of Burgundy
• Duke of Burgundy
• County of Burgundy
• Count of Burgundy
• Dukes of Burgundy family tree
• Burgundian Netherlands

External links

• A guide to Buying houses in burgundy and other info per area
• A visitors' guide to Burgundy
• Seurre and the river Saone - Tourism and local life (French and English)
• Burgundy overview
• parc du morvan
• départements, arrondissements & cantons of Burgundy (INSEE site)
• Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at BibleWiki
• Burgundy in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia at NewAdvent.org

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