Burgundi

The Burgundians ( la, Burgundes, Burgundiōnes, Burgundī; on, Burgundar; ang, Burgendas; grc-gre, Βούργουνδοι) were an early Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared in the middle Rhine region, near the Roman Empire, and were later moved into the empire, in the western Alps and eastern Gaul. They were possibly mentioned much earlier in the time of the Roman Empire as living in part of the region of Germania that is now part of Poland.

The Burgundians are first mentioned together with the Alamanni as early as the 11th panegyric to emperor Maximian given in Trier in 291, and 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, between Franks and Alamanni, holding the cities of Worms, Speyer, and Strasbourg. In 436, Aëtius defeated the Burgundians on the Rhine with the help of Hunnish forces, and then in 443, he re-settled the Burgundians within the empire, in eastern Gaul.

This Gaulish domain became the Kingdom of the Burgundians, in the western Alps region. This later became a component of the Frankish 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 in Attila's Hunnic army by 451.Sidonnius Appolinarius, ''Carmina'', 7, 322Luebe, ''Die Burgunder'', in Krüger II, p. 373 n. 21, in Herbert Schutz, ''Tools, weapons and ornaments: Germanic material culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750'', BRILL, 2001, p.36

Before clear documentary evidence begins, the Burgundians may have originally emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the Baltic island of Bornholm, and from there to the Vistula basin, in the middle of what is now Poland.

Name

The ethnonym Burgundians is commonly used in English to refer to the ''Burgundi'' (''Burgundionei'', ''Burgundiones'' or ''Burgunds'') who settled in eastern Gaul and the western Alps during the 5th century. The original Kingdom of the Burgundians barely intersected the modern ''Bourgogne'' and more closely matched the boundaries of Franche-Comté in northeastern France, the Rhône-Alpes in southeastern France, Romandy in west Switzerland, and Aosta Valley, in north west Italy.

In modern usage, however, "Burgundians" can sometimes refer to later inhabitants of the geographical '' Bourgogne'' or ''Borgogne'' (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 as Burgundy is in France, which derives its name from the Duchy 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 the County of Burgundy.

History

Uncertain early history

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:

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 of Bornholm ("the island of the Burgundians" in Old 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). In '' Þorsteins saga Víkingssonar'' (''The Saga of Thorstein, Viking's Son''), a man (or group) named Veseti settled on a holm (island) called ''borgundarhólmr'' in Old Norse, i.e. Bornholm. Alfred the Great's translation of '' Orosius'' uses the name ''Burgenda land'' to refer to a territory next to the land of Sweons ("Swedes"). The 19th century poet and mythologist Viktor Rydberg asserted from an early medieval source, '' Vita Sigismundi'', that they themselves retained oral traditions about their Scandinavian origin.

Early Roman sources, such as Tacitus and Pliny the Elder, knew little concerning the Germanic peoples east of the Elbe river, or on the Baltic Sea. Pliny (IV.28) however mentions a group with a similar names among the Vandalic or Eastern Germanic Germani peoples, including also the Goths. Claudius Ptolemy lists these also, as living between the Suevus (probably the Oder) and Vistula rivers, north of the Lugii, and south of the coast dwelling tribes. Around the mid-2nd century AD, there was a significant migration by Germanic tribes of Scandinavian origin (Rugii, Goths, Gepidae, Vandals, Burgundians, and others) towards the south-east, creating turmoil along the entire Roman frontier. These migrations culminated in the Marcomannic Wars, which resulted in widespread destruction and the first invasion of Italy in the Roman Empire period. Jordanes reports that during the 3rd century, the Burgundians living in the Vistula basin were almost annihilated by Fastida, king of the Gepids, whose kingdom was at the mouth of the Vistula.

In the late 3rd century, the Burgundians appeared on the east bank of the Rhine, apparently confronting Roman Gaul. Zosimus (1.68) reports them being defeated by the emperor Probus in 278 near a river, together with Silingi and Vandals. A few years later, Claudius Mamertinus mentions them along with the Alamanni, a Suebic people. These two peoples had moved into the Agri Decumates on the eastern side of the Rhine, an area today referred to still as Swabia, 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, the Emperor Valentinian I enlisted the aid of the Burgundians in his war against the Alemanni.

Approximately four decades later, the Burgundians appear again. Following Stilicho's withdrawal of troops to fight Alaric I the Visigoth in AD 406–408, 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 were Alans, Vandals (Hasdingi and Silingi), and Danubian Suevi. 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 as '' foederati'' in the Roman province of Germania Prima along with the Middle Rhine. Other Burgundians however remained outside the empire and apparently formed a contingent in Attila's Hunnic army by 451.

Kingdom

Rhineland

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, with its capital at the old Celtic Roman settlement of Borbetomagus (present Worms).

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 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 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.

Settlement in eastern Gaul

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 Maxima Sequanorum. The Burgundians expanded their realm south into ''Sapaudia'', which corresponds to the modern-day Savoy, and Burgundians probably even lived near ''Lugdunum'', known today as Lyon. A new king, Gundioc or ''Gunderic'', presumed to be Gundahar's son, appears to have reigned following his father's death.Drew, p. 1 The historian Pline tells us that Gunderic ruled the areas of Saône, Dauphiny, Savoie and a part of Provence. He set up Vienne

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