The 'Burgundians' or 'Burgundes' were an
East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of
Bornholm, whose old form in
Old Norse still was ''Burgundarholmr'' (the Island of the Burgundians), and from there to mainland
Europe. In ''
Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar'', Veseti settled in an island or holm, which was called Borgund's holm, i.e. Bornholm.
Alfred the Great's translation of ''
Orosius'' uses the name ''Burgenda land''. The poet and early mythologist
Viktor Rydberg (
1828–
1895), (''Our Fathers' Godsaga'') asserted from an early medieval source, ''
Vita Sigismundi,'' that the Burgundians themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin.
Early history
Tribal Origins
The Burgundians' tradition of Scandinavian origin finds support in place-name evidence and archaeological evidence (Stjerna) and many consider their tradition to be correct (e.g. Musset, p. 62). Possibly because Scandinavia was beyond the horizon of the earliest Roman sources, including
Tacitus (who only mentions one Scandinavian tribe, the
Suiones), they don't tell from where the Burgundians came, and the first Roman references place them east of the
Rhine (''inter alia'',
Ammianus Marcellinus, XVIII, 2, 15). Early Roman sources thought they were simply another East Germanic tribe.
Ca
300, the population of
Bornholm (the island of the Burgundians) largely disappeared from the island. Most gravefields ceased to be used, and those that were still used had few burials (Stjerna, in Nerman 1925:176).
In the year
369, the Emperor
Valentinian I enlisted their aid in his war against another Germanic tribe, the
Alamanni (Ammianus, XXVIII, 5, 8-15). At this time, the Burgundians were possibly living in the
Vistula basin, according to the mid-6th century historian of the
Goths,
Jordanes. Sometime after their war against the Alamanni, the Burgundians were beaten in battle by
Fastida, king of the
Gepids and were overwhelmed, almost annihilated.
Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following
Stilicho’s withdrawal of troops to fight
Alaric I the
Visigoth in AD
406-
408, the northern tribes crossed the Rhine and entered the Empire in the ''
Völkerwanderung'', or Germanic migrations. Among them were the
Alans,
Vandals, the
Suevi, and possibly the Burgundians. The Burgundians migrated westwards and settled in the
Rhine Valley.
There was, it seems, at times a friendly relationship between the
Huns and the Burgundians. It was a Hunnic custom for females to have their skull artificially elongated by tight binding of the skull when the child was an infant. Germanic graves are sometimes found with Hunnic ornaments but also with skulls of females that have been treated in this way; west of the
Rhine only Burgundian graves contain a large number of such skulls. (Werner, 1953)
Christianization
Somewhere in the east the Burgundians had
Christianized to the
Arian form of Christianity from their native
Germanic polytheism, which proved a source of suspicion and distrust between the Burgundians and the Catholic Western Roman Empire. Divisions were evidently healed or healing circa AD 500, however, as
Gundobad, one of the last Burgundian kings, maintained a close personal friendship with
Avitus, the Catholic
bishop 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.
Early Relationship with the Romans
Initially, the Burgundians seem to have had a stormy relationship with the Romans. They were used by the Empire to fend off other tribes, but also raided the border regions and expanded their influence when possible.
The Burgundian Kingdoms
The First Kingdom
In
411, the Burgundian king
Gundahar or ''Gundicar'' set up a puppet emperor,
Jovinus, in cooperation with
Goar, king of the
Alans. With the authority of the
Gallic emperor that he controlled, Gundahar settled on the left (Roman) bank of the Rhine, between the river
Lauter and the
Nahe, seizing
Worms,
Speyer, and
Straßburg. Apparently as part of a truce, the Emperor
Honorius later officially "granted" them the land. (Prosper, a. 386)
Despite their new status as ''
foederati'', Burgundian raids into Roman Upper
Gallia Belgica became intolerable and were ruthlessly brought to an end in
436, when the Roman general
Aëtius called in
Hun mercenaries who overwhelmed the Rhineland kingdom (with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus/Worms) in
437. Gundahar was killed in the fighting, reportedly along with the majority of the Burgundian tribe. (Prosper; ''Chronica Gallica 452''; Hydatius; and Sidonius Apollinaris)
The destruction of Worms and the Burgundian kingdom by the Huns became the subject of heroic legends that were afterwards incorporated in the ''
Nibelungenlied''—on which
Wagner based his
Ring Cycle—where King Gunther (Gundahar) and Queen
Brünhild hold their court at Worms, and
Siegfried comes to woo Kriemhild. (In Old Norse sources the names are ''Gunnar'', ''Brynhild'', and ''Gudrún'' as normally rendered in English.) In fact, the ''Etzel'' of the ''Nibelungenlied'' is based on
Attila the Hun.
The Second Kingdom
For reasons not cited in the sources, the Burgundians were granted ''foederati'' status a second time, and in
443 were resettled by Aëtius in the region of ''Sapaudia''. (''Chronica Gallica 452'') Though ''Sapaudia'' does not correspond to any modern-day region, the Burgundians probably lived near ''Lugdunum'', known today as
Lyon. (Wood 1994, Gregory II, 9) A new king
Gundioc, or ''Gunderic'', presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned from his father's death. (Drew, p. 1) 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 in the battle against
Attila at the
Battle of Chalons (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 accompanied
Theodoric II to Spain to fight the Sueves in
455. (Jordanes, ''Getica'', 231)
Aspirations to the Empire
Also in 455, an ambiguous reference ''infidoque tibi Burdundio ductu'' (
Sidonius Apollinaris in ''Panegyr. Avit''. 442.) implicates an unnamed treacherous Burgundian leader in the murder of the emperor
Petronius Maximus in the chaos preceding the sack of Rome by the
Vandals. The Patrician
Ricimer is also blamed; this event marks the first indication of the link between the Burgundians and Ricimer, who was probably Gundioc's brother-in-law and
Gundobad's uncle. (John Malalas, 374)
The Burgundians, apparently confident in their growing power, negotiated in
456 a territorial expansion and power sharing arrangement with the local Roman senators. (Marius of Avenches)
In
457, Ricimer overthrew another emperor,
Avitus, raising
Majorian to 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 Emperor Anthemius–was plotting with Gundobad to kill his father-in-law; Gundobad beheaded the emperor (apparently personally). (''Chronica Gallica 511''; John of Antioch, fr. 209; Jordanes, ''Getica'', 239) Ricimer then appointed
Olybrius; both died, surprisingly of natural causes, within a few months. Gundobad seems then to have succeeded his uncle as Patrician and king-maker, and raised
Glycerius to the throne. (Marius of Avenches; John of Antioch, fr. 209)
In
474, Burgundian influence over the empire seems to have ended. Glycerius was deposed in favor of
Julius Nepos, and Gundobad returned to Burgundy, presumably at the death of his father Gundioc. At this time or shortly afterward, the Burgundian kingdom was divided between Gundobad and his brothers, Godigisel, Chilperic II, and Gundomar I. (Gregory, II, 28)
Consolidation of the Kingdom
According to
Gregory 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 of
Clovis the
Frank, and was reputedly responsible for his conversion).
[1] This is contested by, e.g., Bury, who points out problems in much of Gregory's chronology for the events.
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." (Marius a. 500; Gregory, II, 32) 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. (e.g., Gregory, II, 33) 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 over
Alaric II the Visigoth.
During the upheaval, sometime between
483-
501, Gundobad began to set forth the ''Lex Gundobada'' (see below), issuing roughly the first half, which drew upon the ''Lex Visigothorum''. (Drew, p. 1) 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.
The Fall of the Second Kingdom
The Burgundians were extending their power over southeastern
Gaul; that is, northern
Italy, western
Switzerland, and southeastern
France. In 493
Clovis, king of the Franks, married the Burgundian princess
Clotilda (daughter of Chilperic), who converted him to the Catholic faith.
At first allies with
Clovis' Franks against the
Visigoths in the early
6th century, the Burgundians were eventually conquered by the Franks in
534. The Burgundian kingdom was made part of the
Merovingian kingdoms, and the Burgundians themselves were by and large absorbed as well.
The Burgundian Laws
The Burgundians left three
legal codes, among the earliest from any of the Germanic tribes.
The '
Liber Consitutionum sive Lex Gundobada' (''The Book of the Constitution following the Law of Gundobad''), also known as the ''Lex Burgundionum'', or more simply the ''Lex Gundobada'' or the ''Liber'', was issued in several parts between 483 and 516, principally by Gundobad, but also by his son, Sigismund. (Drew, p. 6-7) It was a record of Burgundian customary law and is typical of the many Germanic law codes from this period. In particular, the ''Liber'' borrowed from the ''
Lex Visigothorum'' (Drew, p. 6) and influenced the later ''
Lex Ribuaria''. (Rivers, p. 9) The ''Liber'' is 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 the ''Lex Gundobada'', Gundobad also issued (or codified) a set of laws for Roman subjects of the Burgundian kingdom, the ''
Lex Romana Burgundionum'' (''The Roman Law of the Burgundians'').
In addition to the above codes, Gundobad's son Sigismund later published the ''Prima Constitutio''.
Origin of Burgundy
:''see also
Bornholm
The name of the Burgundians has since remained connected to the area of modern France that still bears their name: see the later history of
Burgundy. Between the 6th and 20th centuries, however, the boundaries and political connections of this area have changed frequently; none of those changes have had anything to do with the original Burgundians. The name ''Burgundians'' used here and generally used by English writers to refer to the Burgundes is a later formation and more precisely refers to the inhabitants of the territory of Burgundy which was named from the people called Burgundes. The descendants of the Burgundians today are found primarily among the French-speaking
Swiss and neighbouring regions of France.
See also
★
Nibelung (later legends of the Burgundian kings).
★
King of Burgundy
Notes
1. Gregory, II, 28. Gregory's chronology of the events surrounding Clovis and Gundobad has been questioned by Bury, Shanzer, and Wood, among others. Gregory was somewhat of a Frankish apologist, and commonly discredited the enemies of Clovis by attributing to them some fairly shocking acts. As with Godegisel, he also commonly refers to the treachery of Clovis' allies, when in fact Clovis seems to have bought them off (e.g., in the case of the Ripuarians).
References
★ 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.
★ Drew, Katherine Fischer. ''The Burgundian Code.'' Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.
★ Gordon, C.D. ''The Age of Attila.'' Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961.
★ Murray, Alexander Calder. ''From Roman to Merovingian Gaul.'' Broadview Press, 2000.
★ Musset, Lucien. ''The Germanic Invasions: The Making of Europe AD 400-600.'' University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975.
★ 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, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950.
★ Shanzer, Danuta. ‘Dating the Baptism of Clovis.’ In ''Early 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 A Philosophische-philologische und historische Klasse. Münche
★ 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.
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