List of kings of Burgundy


List of kings of Burgundy includes all kings of Burgundy, as a historical realm that went through several political transformations, being established at first as the Ancient Kingdom of Burgundy, and later revived as the Welfish Kingdom of Burgundy. It continued to exist as the Kingdom of Burgundy (Arles) within the Holy Roman Empire.

Kings of the Burgundians

Flavius Aëtius moves the Burgundians into Sapaudia .

Frankish kings in Burgundy

''Gradually conquered by the Frankish kings Childebert I and Chlothar I from 532-534''

Merovingian kings

United with Neustria under one king, but a separate administration

Carolingian kings in Burgundy

The sons of Louis the Pious divided the Frankish kingdom in the treaty of Verdun in 843. Burgundy was divided between the brothers.
After Lothair's death in 855, his realm was divided between his sons. The Burgundian territories were divided between:

Kings of Lower Burgundy

The Kingdom of Lower Burgundy was also known as the Kingdom of Provence. Its capital was initially Vienne, then Arles.
On his death, Provence divided between surviving brothers, Lothair II and the Emperor Louis II. The bulk goes to Louis.
On his death, as with his Kingdom of Italy, Louis's Provence goes to his uncle Charles the Bald.
With the death of Louis the Stammerer, the nobles of Provence refused to elect his two sons and instead elected one of their own, Boso, as king. Boso married Ermengard, daughter of Louis II, to strengthen his and his son's claim.
Louis's kingdom did not pass to his children, but instead to his brother-in-law, the husband of his sister, Hugh, who had acted as his regent since 905. Hugh never used the royal title in Provence.
''In 933, Provence ceases to be a separate kingdom as Hugh exchanged it with Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy for the Iron Crown of Lombardy, that is, rule of Italy.''

Kings of Upper Burgundy

Lothair subsumed his portion of Burgundy into the Kingdom of Lotharingia and at his brother Charles of Provence's death, gained some northern districts from his kingdom. When Lothair II died in 869, his realm was divided between his uncles Charles the Bald and Louis the German in the Treaty of Mersen.
On the death in 888 of Emperor Charles the Fat, who until 884 had united all Frankish kingdoms except for Kingdom of Provence, the nobles and leading clergy of Upper Burgundy assembled at St Maurice and elected Rudolph, count of Auxerre, from the Elder Welf family, as king. At first, he tried to reunite the realm of Lothair II, but opposition by Arnulf of Carinthia forced him to focus on his Burgundian territory.
In 1032, the Kingdom of Burgundy was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire as a third kingdom, with the German king as the king of Burgundy. From the 12th century it was often referred to as Kingdom of Arles.

Kings of Burgundy (Arles) within the Holy Roman Empire

Salian (Frankish) dynasty

  • Conrad II, king 1032–1039, emperor after 1027
  • Henry III, king 1039–1056, emperor 1046–1056
  • Henry IV, king 1056–1105, emperor 1084–1105
  • Henry V, king 1105–1125, emperor 1111–1125

Supplinburger

Staufen (or [Hohenstaufen] dynasty)

Luxemburg

Rectors of Burgundy

Since the incorporation of the Kingdom of Burgundy into the Holy Roman Empire in 1032, several feudal lords were appointed by various emperors as the imperial representatives or governors in the Burgundian realm. Acting as the regent for her young son, emperor Henry IV, the empress Agnes appointed Rudolf of Rheinfelden as imperial representative and governor of Burgundy in 1057.
Emperor Lothair III appointed Conrad I, Duke of Zähringen as the imperial representative in the Arlesian kingdom. Conrad was titled as the Rector of Burgundy, and the same office was held by his successors from the House of Zähringen, until emperor Frederick II decided to confirm that title to his own son and designated heir Henry. That appointment was made in order to keep feudal lords from further pretensions to regal powers associated with the rectoral title. After young Henry had been elected king of Germany in April 1220, the title disappeared for good.
During the Zähringen era, the effective power of the Rectors of Burgundy was restricted mainly to the northern parts of the Burgundian realm, since the Zähringer had vast possessions in that region, particularly to the east of the Jura Mountains. Various attempts to enforce the Zähringer's rectoral authority into the southern parts of the kingdom failed, most notably a military campaign in 1153. After these failures, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa gained a firm hold of the western districts in 1156 by marrying Countess Beatrice I of Burgundy.