The Kingdom of Burgundy, known from the 12th century[1]: 140 as the Kingdom of Arles, also referred to in various context as Arelat, the Kingdom of Arles and Vienne, or Kingdom of Burgundy-Provence,[2] was a realm established in 933 by the merger of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Burgundy under King Rudolf II. It was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire in 1033 and from then on was one of the empire's three constituent realms, together with the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy.[1] By the mid-13th century at the latest, however, it had lost its concrete political relevance.[2]: 35
Shortly before his death in 855, Emperor Lothair I in turn divided his realm among his three sons in accordance with the Treaty of Prüm. His Burgundian heritage would pass to his younger son Charles of Provence (845–863). Then in 869 Lothair I's son, Lothair II, died without legitimate children, and in 870 his uncle Charles the Bald and Louis the German by the 870 Treaty of Meerssen partitioned his territory: Upper Burgundy, the territory north of the Jura mountains (Bourgogne Transjurane), went to Louis the German. The rest went to Charles the Bald. By 875, all of the sons of Lothair I had died without heirs, and the other Burgundian territories were held by Charles the Bald.
In 933, Hugh of Arles ceded Lower Burgundy to Rudolph II of Upper Burgundy in return for Rudolph relinquishing his claim to the Italian throne. Rudolph merged both Upper and Lower Burgundy to form the Kingdom of Arles (Arelat). In 937, Rudolph was succeeded by his son Conrad the Peaceful. Inheritance claims by Hugh of Arles were rejected, with the support of Emperor Otto I.
In 993, Conrad was succeeded by his son Rudolph III, who in 1006 was forced to sign a succession treaty in favor of the future Emperor Henry II. Rudolph attempted to renounce the treaty in 1016 without success.
Imperial kingdom
In 1032, Rudolph III died without any surviving heirs, and, in accordance with the 1006 treaty, the kingdom passed to Henry's successor, Emperor Conrad II from the Salian dynasty, and Arelat was incorporated in the Holy Roman Empire, though the kingdom's territories operated with considerable autonomy.[3] Though from that time the emperors held the title "King of Arles", few went to be crowned in the cathedral of Arles. An exception was Frederick Barbarossa, who in 1157 held a diet in Besançon and in 1178 was crowned King of Burgundy by the archbishop of Arles.
The Vivarais see of Viviers was the first of the kingdom's territories to be annexed to the Kingdom of France, gradually during the 13th century with formal recognition in 1306.[2]: 37 The Lyonnais had been practically beyond the reach of the Empire since the late 12th century. Its incorporation into France was the result of internal conflicts between the Archbishop of Lyon, the cathedral chapter and the city council. It was cemented in the early 14th century and formalized in a 1312 treaty between Archbishop Peter of Savoy and Philip IV of France. Emperor Henry VII protested against this but did not seriously challenge it.[2]: 37 The Dauphiné was effectively annexed by France through a series of largely accidental developments between 1343 and 1349, but the issue of whether the king or emperor had ultimate sovereignty over it was left unclear until well into the 15th century.[2]: 39-40 . The County of Provence was ruled by junior branches of the House of France from 1246 onwards, but only became formally part of the Kingdom of France with the death of Charles du Maine on 11 December 1481.[2]: 41
A stillborn attempt to revive the kingdom of Burgundy/Arles was made by Charles of Anjou in coordination with Pope Nicholas III. Between 1277 and 1279, Charles, at that time already King of Sicily, Rudolf of Habsburg, King of the Romans and aspirant to the Imperial crown, and Margaret of Provence, queen dowager of France, settled their dispute over the County of Provence, and also over Rudolf's bid to become the sole Imperial candidate. Rudolf agreed that his daughter Clemence of Austria would marry Charles's grandson Charles Martel of Anjou, with the whole Arelat kingdom as her dowry. In exchange, Charles would support the imperial crown being made hereditary in the House of Habsburg. Nicholas III expected Northern Italy to become a kingdom carved out of the Imperial territory, to be given to his family, the Orsini. In 1282, Charles was ready to send the child couple to reclaim the old royal title of Kings of Arles, but the War of the Sicilian Vespers frustrated his plans.[4]
On 4 June 1365, Charles IV was the last emperor to be crowned king at Arles, after a gap of nearly two centuries following the previous Arlesian coronation of Frederick I in 1178.[5] That attempt to revive the imperial hold on the kingdom did not succeed, however, and as a consequence Charles annexed the County of Savoy to the Kingdom of Germany.[2]: 36
During his visit to Paris in early 1378, Charles IV granted the title of Imperial vicar over the Kingdom of Arles to the nine-year-old Dauphin Charles of France, later King Charles VI, but only for his lifetime (i.e. not lineally).[6] The title "King of Arles" remained one of the Holy Roman Emperor's subsidiary titles until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806. The Archbishop of Trier continued to act as archchancellor of Burgundy/Arles, as codified by the Golden Bull of 1356.
^ abGrosse, Rolf (2014). Du royaume franc aux origines de la France et de l'Allemagne 800–1214 (in French). Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
^ abcdefgJean-Marie Moeglin (2011). L'Empire et le Royaume : Entre indifférence et fascination 1214–1500 (in French). Presses Universitaires du Septentrion.
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Chiffoleau, Jacques (2005). "Arles, regno di". Federico II: enciclopedia fridericiana. Vol. 1. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
Cope, Christopher (1987). Phoenix Frustrated: The Lost Kingdom of Burgundy. Constable.
Cox, Eugene L. (1974). The Eagles of Savoy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Cox, Eugene L. (1999). "The Kingdom of Burgundy, the Lands of the House of Savoy and Adjacent Territories". In David Abulafia (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History, Volume V: c. 1198–c. 1300. Cambridge University Press. pp. 358–74.
Davies, Norman (2011). Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe. Penguin.
Heckmann, Marie-Luise (2000). "Das Reichsvikariat des Dauphins im Arelat 1378: vier Diplome zur Westpolitik Kaiser Karls IV". In Ellen Widder; Mark Mersiowsky; Maria-Theresia Leuker (eds.). Manipulus florum: Festschrift für Peter Johanek zum 60. Geburtstag. Münster: Waxmann. pp. 63–97.
Viard, Paul (1911). "La dîme ecclésiastique dans le royaume d'Arles et de Vienne aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles". Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung. 1 (1): 126–59. doi:10.7767/zrgka.1911.1.1.126. S2CID180419125.
Wilson, Peter (2016). Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
