Kingdom of Burgundy

The heartland of historical Burgundy correlates with the border area between France and Switzerland, and includes the major modern cities of Geneva and Lyon.

Their situation worsened when about 430 their king Gunther started several invasions into neighbouring Gallia Belgica, which led to a crushing defeat by joined Roman and Hunnic troops under Flavius Aetius in 436 near Worms (the focus of the mediæval Nibelungenlied poem).

The remaining Burgundians from 443 onwards settled in the Sapaudia region, again as foederati in the Roman Maxima Sequanorum province (modern day western Switzerland and northeastern France).

In 523 the sons of Clovis I campaigned in the Burgundian lands, instigated by their mother Clotilde, whose father king Chilperic II of Burgundy had been killed by Gundobad.

While there no longer was an independent Burgundian kingdom, Burgundy remained as one of the three main polities that together defined the core Frankish realm, together with Austrasia and Neustria.

Partitions of Charlemagne's empire by his immediate Carolingian heirs led to a short-lived kingdom of Middle Francia, which was created after the 843 Treaty of Verdun.

The northwestern part of the former Burgundian lands was included in the kingdom of West Francia as the Duchy of Burgundy, with its capital in Dijon.

The Kingdom of Burgundy existed independently until 1033, even though the reality of its monarchs' power did not extend much beyond the region of Lake Geneva.

Emperors generally neglected its administration, even though Frederick I and Charles IV both performed a Burgundian coronation ceremony in Arles, in 1178 and 1365 respectively.