For a survey of historical highlights and an understanding of the political interrelations behind the genealogy below, see Kingdom of Burgundy and Burgundy (region).
The following is a list of the kings of the two kingdoms of Burgundy, and a number of related political entities devolving from Carolingian machinations over family relations.
Lothair I, 840–855, king under his father after 817
The sons of Louis the Pious divided the Frankish kingdom in the treaty of Verdun in 843. Burgundy was divided between the brothers.
Charles the Bald received the smaller part, west of the river Saône. This entity was officially called regnum burgundiae (Kingdom of Burgundy), but since the king of France delegated administration to dukes, the territory became known as the Duchy of Burgundy.
Lothair I received the larger part, east of the river Saône, which retained the name of Kingdom of Burgundy
After Lothair's death in 855, his realm was divided between his sons. The Burgundian territories were divided between:
Louis the Stammerer (877–879) With the death of Louis the Stammerer, the nobles of Provence refused to elect his two sons and instead elected one of their own, Boso, as king. Boso married Ermengard, daughter of Louis II, to strengthen his and his son's claim.
Louis the Blind (887–928), also Holy Roman Emperor from 901 to 905 Louis's kingdom did not pass to his children, but instead to his brother-in-law, the husband of his sister, Hugh, who had acted as his regent since 905. Hugh never used the royal title in Provence.
On the death in 888 of Emperor Charles the Fat, who until 884 had united all Frankish kingdoms except for Kingdom of Provence, the nobles and leading clergy of Upper Burgundy assembled at St Maurice and elected Rudolph, count of Auxerre, from the Elder Welf family, as king. At first, he tried to reunite the realm of Lothair II, but opposition by Arnulf of Carinthia forced him to focus on his Burgundian territory.
Rudolf II (912–937) In 933 Rudolph ceded his claims to the Kingdom of Italy to Hugh of Arles in return for the Kingdom of Provence, thus reuniting the two territories.
In 1032, the Kingdom of Burgundy was incorporated into the Holy Roman Empire as a third kingdom, with the Germn king as the king of Burgundy. From the 12th century it was often referred to as Kingdom of Arles.
Kingdom of Burgundy (Arelat) as part of the Holy Roman Empire
Lacking a proper title, the Zähringer called themselves dukes and rectors of Burgundy, to give themselves the status of the dukes of Burgundy. The royal chancellory, however, consistently avoided this term and the effective power of the rector (in Roman law, a generic term for provincial governor) was restricted to the possessions of the Zähringer east of the Jura.
Any attempts to enforce the Zähringer's claims and to extend royal authority into the western and southern parts of the kingdom failed, most notably a military campaign in 1153. After these failures, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa gained a firm hold of the western districts in 1156 by marrying Countess Beatrice I of Burgundy.
This confined the Zähringer between Jura and Alps, where they used their regal powers to expand their possessions.[clarification needed]
In 1218, Duke Berthold V of Zähringen died without issue. King Frederick II then conferred the title of the rector of Burgundy on his young son Henry, to keep the Zähringer heirs from the regal powers associated with that title. This appointment was of only momentary importance, and after Henry had been elected king of Germany in April 1220, the title disappeared for good. The decline of royal power inside the Kingdom of Burgundy also remained irreversible.[clarification needed]
