When the senior line of the House of Burgundy became extinct in 1361, the title was inherited by King John II of France through proximity of blood.

The first margrave (marchio), later duke (dux), of Burgundy was Richard of the House of Ardennes,[citation needed] whose duchy was created from the merging of several regional counties of the kingdom of Provence which had belonged to his brother Boso.

John II of France, the second Valois king, successfully claimed the duchy after the death of Philip, the last Capet duke.

In the same year, Mary married Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, giving the Habsburgs control of the remainder of the Burgundian Inheritance.

They often used the term Burgundy to refer to it (e.g. in the name of the Imperial Circle it was grouped into), until the late 18th century, when the Austrian Netherlands were lost to the French Republic.