BURGUNDY, the name of a once independent kingdom of wide extent, but most fre quently used of an old French province (Fr. Bourgogne) now divided between the depart ments of COte-d'Or, Saoue-et-Loire, and Yonne. The ancient Burgundians (Burgundi or Burgundiones), originally a German tribe, were at first settled on the banks of the Oder and the Vistula, and afterwards extended themselves to the Rhine and the Neckar, and, in 407, penetrated into Roman Gaul. Their conversion to Christianity took place in the course of eight days! They adopted a brief Arian confession of faith, and were bap tized. From 407 to 534, the kingdom of B. was several times divided; and in 451, Gundiear, king of B., with 10,000 men, confronted Attila, but was defeated and slain.
In 534, B. passed under the rule of the Franks; but the weak government of the later Carlovingian kings allowed a part of it once more to assert a separate existence as a dependency of the empire under Boso of Vienne in 832. Boso's realm, known as Cis juran B., or the kingdom of Arelate (Arles), lay mainly in the basin of the Rhone. A second Burgundian state arose about the same time in the country between the Saone and the Reuss, and was known as Transjuran or Upper Burgundy. These states, united
in 930, were for a time powerful and famous; but in 1038. on the extinction of the royal dynasty, B. became part of the German empire. It was afterwards broken into several fragments, which were gradually absorbed by France.
A similar fate befell the third Burgundian state, the dukedom of B. or Lower B., which was formed by a brother of Boso. Yet the dukes of 13. played a large part in the history of medheval Europe, and were long the dangerous rivals of the French kings. The nucleus of the dukedom was in Lower 13., the region which afterwards became the French province of B., to the n. and w. of the other Burgundian realms; but the second line of dukes, beginning in 1363 with Philip the hardy, son of the French king John, held under their sway not only Franche Comte and adjoining portions of France proper, but great part of the Low Countries. Charles the bold (q.v.) was one of the most power ful sovereigns of Europe. Louis XI. of France succeeded in incorporating the duchy with the kingdom of France.