Burgundians

This article is about the Germanic tribe that lived during the Roman era. For the royal dynasty, seeHouse of Burgundy.For the political group during the Hundred Years War, seeBurgundian (party).

The Roman EmpireunderHadrian(ruled 117–138 AD), showing a possible location of the Burgundiones Germanic group, inhabiting the region between the Viadua (Oder) and Visula (Vistula) rivers (Poland)

TheBurgundians(Latin:Burgundes, Burgundiōnes, Burgundī;Old Norse:Burgundar;Old English:Burgendas;Greek:Βούργουνδοι) were an earlyGermanictribe or group of tribes. They appeared in themiddle Rhineregion, near theRoman Empire,and were later moved into the empire, in easternGaul.They were possibly mentioned much earlier in the time of the Roman Empire as living in part of the region ofGermaniathat is now part of Poland.

The Burgundians are first mentioned together with theAlamannias early as the 11th panegyric to emperorMaximiangiven inTrierin 291 AD, referring to events that must have happened between 248 and 291, and they apparently remained neighbours for centuries.By 411 a Burgundian group had established themselves on the Rhine, betweenFranksand Alamanni, holding the cities ofWorms,Speyer,andStrasbourg.In 436 AD,Aëtiusdefeated the Burgundians on the Rhine with the help ofHunnishforces, and then in 443, he re-settled the Burgundians within the empire, in easternGaul.

This Gaulish domain became theKingdom of the Burgundians.This later became a component of theFrankish Empire.The name of this kingdom survives in the regional appellation,Burgundy,which is a region in modern France, representing only a part of that kingdom.

Another part of the Burgundians formed a contingent inAttila'sHunnicarmy by 451 AD.

Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from the Baltic island ofBornholmto theVistulabasin, in the middle of what is now Poland.

Name

TheethnonymBurgundians is commonly used in English to refer to theBurgundi(Burgundionei,BurgundionesorBurgunds) who settled in eastern Gaul and the western Alps during the 5th century AD. The originalKingdom of the Burgundiansbarely intersected the modernBourgogneand more closely matched the boundaries ofFranche-Comtéin northeastern France, theRhône-Alpesin southeastern France,Romandyin west Switzerland, andAosta Valley,in north west Italy.

In modern usage, however, "Burgundians" can sometimes refer to later inhabitants of the geographicalBourgogneorBorgogne(Burgundy), named after the old kingdom, but not corresponding to the original boundaries of it. Between the 6th and 20th centuries, the boundaries and political connections of "Burgundy" have changed frequently. In modern times the only area still referred to asBurgundyis in France, which derives its name from theDuchy of Burgundy.But in the context of the Middle Ages the term Burgundian (or similar spellings) can refer even to the powerful political entity the Dukes controlled which included not only Burgundy itself but had actually expanded to have a strong association with areas now in modern Belgium and Southern Netherlands. The parts of the old Kingdom not within the French controlled Duchy tended to come under different names, except for theCounty of Burgundy.

History

Uncertain early history

Location of the island ofBornholm

The origins of the Burgundians before they reached the area near the Roman-controlled Rhine is a subject of various old proposals, but these are doubted by some modern scholars such as Ian Wood and Walter Goffart. As remarked by Susan Reynolds:

Wood suggests that those who were called Burgundians in their early sixth-century laws were not a single ethnic group, but covered any non-Roman follower of Gundobad and Sigismund. Some of the leaders of Goths and Burgundians may have descended from long-distant ancestors somewhere around the Baltic. Maybe, but everyone has a lot of ancestors, and some of theirs may well have come from elsewhere. There is, as Walter Goffart has repeatedly argued, little reason to believe that sixth-century or later references to what looks like names for Scandinavia, or for places in it, mean that traditions from those particular ancestors had been handed through thick and thin.

They have long been associated with Scandinavian origin based on place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g. Musset, p. 62). According to such proposals, the Burgundians are believed to have then emigrated to the Baltic island ofBornholm( "the island of the Burgundians" inOld Norse). By about 250 AD, the population of Bornholm had largely disappeared from the island. Most cemeteries ceased to be used, and those that were still used had few burials (Stjerna, in German 1925:176). InÞorsteins saga Víkingssonar(The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son), a man (or group) namedVesetisettled on aholm(island) calledborgundarhólmrin Old Norse, i.e. Bornholm.Alfred the Great's translation ofOrosiususes the nameBurgenda landto refer to a territory next to the land ofSweons( "Swedes" ).The 19th century poet and mythologistViktor Rydbergasserted from an early medieval source,Vita Sigismundi,that they themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin.

Early Roman sources, such asTacitusandPliny the Elder,knew little concerning the Germanic peoples east of theElbe river,or on the Baltic Sea. Pliny (IV.28) however mentions a group with a similar name among theVandalicorEastern GermanicGermani peoples, including theGoths.Claudius Ptolemylists these as living between the Suevus (probably theOder) and Vistula rivers, north of theLugii,and south of the coast dwelling tribes. It has been proposed that there several important Germanic tribes originally had their origins around the Baltic sea, including theRugii,Goths,Gepidae,Vandals,and others.According to such proposals, their,movement south created turmoil along the entire Roman frontier.These migrations culminated in theMarcomannic Wars,which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period.Jordanesreports that during the 3rd century AD, the Burgundians living in the Vistula basin were almost annihilated byFastida,king of the Gepids, whose kingdom was at the mouth of the Vistula.

In the late 3rd century AD, the Burgundians appeared on the east bank of the Rhine, apparently confronting Roman Gaul.Zosimus(1.68) reports them being defeated by the emperorProbusin 278 near a river, together with theSilingiand Vandals. A few years later,Claudius Mamertinusmentions them along with theAlamanni,aSuebicpeople. These two peoples had moved into theAgri Decumateson the eastern side of the Rhine, an area still referred to today asSwabia,at times attacking Roman Gaul together and sometimes fighting each other. He also mentions that the Goths had previously defeated the Burgundians.

Ammianus Marcellinus,on the other hand, claimed that the Burgundians descended from the Romans. The Roman sources do not speak of any specific migration from Poland by the Burgundians (although other Vandalic peoples are more clearly mentioned as having moved west in this period), and so there have historically been some doubts about the link between the eastern and western Burgundians.

In 369/370 AD, the EmperorValentinian Ienlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alamanni.

Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. FollowingStilicho's withdrawal of troops to fightAlaric ItheVisigothin 406–408 AD, a large group of peoples from central Europe north of the Danube came west and crossed the Rhine, entering the Empire near the lands of the Burgundians who had moved much earlier. The dominant groups wereAlans,Vandals(HasdingiandSilingi), and DanubianSuevi.The majority of these Danubian peoples moved through Gaul and eventually established themselves in kingdoms in Roman Hispania. One group of Alans was settled in northern Gaul by the Romans.

Some Burgundians also migrated westwards and settled asfoederatiin the Roman province ofGermania Primaalong theMiddle Rhine.Other Burgundians, however, remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent inAttila'sHunnicarmy by 451 AD.

Kingdom

Main article:Kingdom of the Burgundians

Rhineland

In 411, the Burgundian kingGundahar(orGundicar) set up a puppet emperor,Jovinus,in cooperation withGoar,king of theAlans.With the authority of theGallic emperorthat he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the riverLauterand theNahe,seizingWorms,Speyer,andStrassburg.Apparently as part of a truce, the EmperorHonoriuslater officially "granted" them the land,with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (presentWorms).

Main article:Burgundian Revolt of Gunther

Despite their new status asfoederati,Burgundian raids into Roman UpperGallia Belgicabecame intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in 436, when the Roman generalAëtiuscalled inHunmercenaries, who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom in 437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe.

The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in theNibelungenlied—on whichWagnerbased hisRing Cycle—where King Gunther (Gundahar) and QueenBrünhildhold their court at Worms, andSiegfriedcomes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources the names areGunnar,Brynhild,andGudrúnas normally rendered in English.) In fact, theEtzelof theNibelungenliedis based onAttila the Hun.

Settlement in eastern Gaul

The Second Burgundian Kingdom between 443 and 476

For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were grantedfoederatistatus a second time, and in 443 were resettled byAëtiusinSapaudia,part of the Gallo-Roman province ofMaxima Sequanorum.Burgundians probably even lived nearLugdunum,known today asLyon.A new king,GundiocorGunderic,presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death.The historian Plinetells us that Gunderic ruled the areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set upVienneas the capital of the kingdom of Burgundy. In all, eight Burgundian kings of the house of Gundahar ruled until the kingdom was overrun by the Franks in 534.

As allies of Rome in its last decades, the Burgundians fought alongside Aëtius and a confederation of Visigoths and others againstAttilaat theBattle of Châlons(also called "The Battle of the Catalaunian Fields" ) in 451. The alliance between Burgundians and Visigoths seems to have been strong, as Gundioc and his brother Chilperic I accompaniedTheodoric IIto Spain to fight the Sueves in 455.

Aspirations to the empire

Also in 455, an ambiguous referenceinfidoque tibi Burdundio ductuimplicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperorPetronius Maximusin the chaos preceding the sack of Rome by theVandals.The PatricianRicimeris also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law andGundobad's uncle.

In 456, the Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators.

In 457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor,Avitus,raisingMajorianto the throne. This new emperor proved unhelpful to Ricimer and the Burgundians. The year after his ascension, Majorian stripped the Burgundians of the lands they had acquired two years earlier. After showing further signs of independence, he was murdered by Ricimer in 461.

Ten years later, in 472, Ricimer–who was by now the son-in-law of the Western EmperorAnthemius–was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded the emperor (apparently personally).Ricimer then appointedOlybrius;both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raisedGlyceriusto the throne.

In 474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor ofJulius Nepos,and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at the death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterwards, the Burgundian kingdom was divided among Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I.

Consolidation of the kingdom

Kingdom of the Burgundians in around 500

According toGregory of Tours,the years following Gundobad's return to Burgundy saw a bloody consolidation of power. Gregory states that Gundobad murdered his brother Chilperic, drowning his wife and exiling their daughters (one of whom was to become the wife ofClovistheFrank,and was reputedly responsible for his conversion).This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events.

In c. 500, when Gundobad and Clovis were at war, Gundobad appears to have been betrayed by his brother Godegisel, who joined the Franks; together Godegisel's and Clovis' forces "crushed the army of Gundobad".Gundobad was temporarily holed up in Avignon, but was able to re-muster his army and sacked Vienne, where Godegisel and many of his followers were put to death. From this point, Gundobad appears to have been the sole king of Burgundy.This would imply that his brother Gundomar was already dead, though there are no specific mentions of the event in the sources.

Either Gundobad and Clovis reconciled their differences, or Gundobad was forced into some sort of vassalage by Clovis' earlier victory, as the Burgundian king appears to have assisted the Franks in 507 in their victory overAlaric IIthe Visigoth.

During the upheaval, sometime between 483 and 501, Gundobad began to set forth theLex Gundobada(see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon theLex Visigothorum.Following his consolidation of power, between 501 and his death in 516, Gundobad issued the second half of his law, which was more originally Burgundian.

Fall

Burgundy as part of the Frankish Empire between 534 and 843

The Burgundians were extending their power over easternGaul—that is western Switzerland and eastern France, as well as northern Italy. In 493,Clovis,king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princessClotilda(daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith.

At first allied withClovis'Franksagainst theVisigothsin the early 6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered atAutunby the Franks in 532 after a first attempt in theBattle of Vézeronce.The Burgundian kingdom was made part of theMerovingiankingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well.

Physical appearance

The 5th centuryGallo-Romanpoet and landownerSidonius,who at one point lived with the Burgundians, described them as a long-haired people of immense physical size:

Why... do you [an obscure senator by the name of Catullinus] bid me compose a song dedicated to Venus... placed as I am among long-haired hordes, having to endure Germanic speech, praising often with a wry face the song of the gluttonous Burgundian who spreads rancid butter on his hair?... You don't have a reek of garlic and foul onions discharged upon you at early morn from ten breakfasts, and you are not invaded before dawn... by a crowd of giants.

Language

Burgundian
Region	Germania
Extinct	6th century
Language family	Indo-European Germanic East Germanic† (?) Burgundian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None(mis)
Linguist List	qlb
Glottolog	None

The Burgundians and their language were described as Germanic by the poetSidonius Apollinaris.Herwig Wolframhas interpreted this as being because they had entered Gaul fromGermania.

More specifically their language is thought to have belonged to theEast Germanic language group,based upon their presumed equivalence to the Burgundians named much earlier by Pliny in the east, and some names and placenames. However this is now considered uncertain.Little is known of the language. Some proper names of Burgundians are recorded, and some words used in the area in modern times are thought to be derived from the ancient Burgundian language,but it is often difficult to distinguish these from Germanic words of other origin, and in any case the modern form of the words is rarely suitable to infer much about the form in the old language.

The language appears to have become extinct during the late 6th century, likely due to the early conversion of the Burgundians toLatin Christianity.

Religion

Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had converted to theArian Christianityfrom earlierGermanic paganism.Their Arianism proved a source of suspicion and distrust between the Burgundians and theCatholicWestern Roman Empire.

Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa 500, however, asGundobad,one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship withAvitus,thebishop of Vienne.Moreover, Gundobad's son and successor,Sigismund,was himself a Catholic, and there is evidence that many of the Burgundian people had converted by this time as well, including several female members of the ruling family.

Law

The Burgundians left threelegal codes,among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes.

TheLiber Constitutionum sive Lex Gundobada( "The Book of Constitutions or Law of Gundobad" ), also known as theLex Burgundionum,or more simply theLex Gundobadaor theLiber,was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund.It was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, theLiberborrowed from theLex Visigothorumand influenced the laterLex Ripuaria.TheLiberis one of the primary sources for contemporary Burgundian life, as well as the history of its kings.

Like many of the Germanic tribes, the Burgundians' legal traditions allowed the application of separate laws for separate ethnicities. Thus, in addition to theLex Gundobada,Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, theLex Romana Burgundionum(The Roman Law of the Burgundians).

In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published thePrima Constitutio.

See also

• Dauphiné
• Duchy of Burgundy
• Franche-Comté
• List of ancient Germanic peoples and tribes
• List of kings of Burgundy
• Nibelung(later legends of the Burgundian kings)

Sources

• Buchberger, Erica (2018)."Burgundians".In Nicholson, Oliver (ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780191744457.Archivedfrom the original on January 31, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 26,2020.
• Bury, J. B.The Invasion of Europe by the Barbarians.London: Macmillan and Co., 1928.
• Dalton, O. M.The History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours.Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1927.
• Darvill, Timothy,ed. (2009)."Burgundians".The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology(3 ed.).Oxford University Press.ISBN9780191727139.Archivedfrom the original on January 28, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 26,2020.
• Drew, Katherine Fischer.The Burgundian Code.Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
• Drinkwater, John Frederick(2012)."Burgundians".InHornblower, Simon;Spawforth, Antony;Eidinow, Esther(eds.).The Oxford Classical Dictionary(4 ed.).Oxford University Press.ISBN9780191735257.Archivedfrom the original on April 10, 2021.RetrievedJanuary 25,2020.
• Gordon, C.D.The Age of Attila.Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961.
• Guichard, Rene,Essai sur l'histoire du peuple burgonde, de Bornholm (Burgundarholm) vers la Bourgogne et les Bourguignons,1965, published by A. et J. Picard et Cie.
• Hartmann, Frederik / Riegger, Ciara. 2021.The Burgundian language and its phylogeny – A cladistical investigation.Nowele75, p. 42-80.
• Heather, Peter(June 11, 2007).The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians.Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0195325416.RetrievedMay 31,2015.
• Hitchner, R. Bruce(2005)."Burgundians".InKazhdan, Alexander P.(ed.).The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium.Oxford University Press.ISBN9780195187922.Archivedfrom the original on January 26, 2020.RetrievedJanuary 26,2020.
• Murray, Alexander Callander.From Roman to Merovingian Gaul.Broadview Press, 2000.
• Musset, Lucien.The Germanic Invasions: The Making of Europe AD 400–600.University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975.ISBN978-0-271-01198-1.
• Nerman, Birger.Det svenska rikets uppkomst.Generalstabens litagrafiska anstalt: Stockholm. 1925.
• Rivers, Theodore John.Laws of the Salian and Ripuarian Franks.New York: AMS Press, 1986.
• Rolfe, J.C., trans,Ammianus Marcellinus.Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1950.
• Shanzer, Danuta. 'Dating the Baptism of Clovis.' InEarly Medieval Europe,volume 7, pages 29–57. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1998.
• Shanzer, D. and I. Wood.Avitus of Vienne: Letters and Selected Prose. Translated with an Introduction and Notes.Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002.
• Werner, J. (1953). "Beiträge sur Archäologie des Attila-Reiches",Die Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaft. Abhandlungen.N.F. XXXVIII APhilosophische-philologische und historische Klasse. Münche
• Wolfram, Herwig(1997).The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples.University of California Press.ISBN978-0520085114.Archivedfrom the original on 2023-04-23.Retrieved2020-01-26.
• Wood, Ian N. "Ethnicity and the Ethnogenesis of the Burgundians". In Herwig Wolfram and Walter Pohl, editors,Typen der Ethnogenese unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Bayern,volume 1, pages 53–69. Vienna: Denkschriften der Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1990.
• Wood, Ian N.The Merovingian Kingdoms.Harlow, England: The Longman Group, 1994.

External links

• Media related toBurgundiansat Wikimedia Commons