Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/770

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BURGRAVE.
686
BURGUNDY.

BUR'GRAVE, or BURG'GRAVE (OHG. hunjffrfivo; of. Ger. Burg, town + iiraf, coiuit, governor). In the Middle Ages, an iniperiiil lieutenant in command of a castle or bnrg. The burgrave was an important factor in the develop- ment of towns and he held the rights of judi- ciary, surveillance, and police. Occasionally the jurisdiction of the burgiave extended to the coun- try immediately surrounding the stronghold proj)er. As a rule the ollice was given to a mem- ber of the lower nobility, and soon became heredi- tary. With the growth of ])0wcr in the cities, however, the dignity was abolished. The bur- graves of ilainz. Jlagdeljurg, and Nuremberg possessed extensive powers. In the last city the post was held by the Hohcnzollern family.


BURGSCHMIET, bnorK'shmet, J.^kob Dan- iel (1700-1858). A German statuary, born in Nuremberg. He studied sculpture under Eeindel, and in 1S25 was commissioned to execute from Heideloff's design a statue of Melanchthon for Nuremberg. His other works include a notable Diirer statue for Nuremberg, one of Beethoven, after Hiihnel, for Bonn, of the Emperor Charles IV. for Prague, and of Luther, after Miiller, for Mohra.


BURGUN'DIAN CROSS. See Saixt Ax- DREW'S (ROSS.


BURGUNDIANS. A people descended from a tall, blond Teutonic ancestry, who moved into Gaul in the Fifth Century. The present ])opula- tion of the region they occupied (see BvRGfXDY) has largely reverted to the Alpine tyi)e. and is said to be mole French than the Auvergnats. Consult Kiplev, llaces of Europe (New York, 1899).


BUR'GUNDY (Fr. Hourriogne) . A name applied at dillVrent periods during the Middle Ages to a number of kingdoms and principalities which arose in the region of western Switzerland, Savoy, and the valley of the Rhone. The nanie was derived from the Burginulians. a Gernuxnic tribe whose original home was located between the river Oder and the Vistula, and who in the first decade of the Fifth Centurj- invaded Gaul. After suffering defeat at the hands of the Ro- mans, the tribe, with the consent of their con- querors, passed across the Jura ilountains (443) and established the Kingdom of Sapaudia. the modern Savoy. In 470 their dominion embraced the entire valley of the Rhone north of Provence, with their chief strongholds at (Geneva. Lyons, and Vienne. They early embraced Christian- ity. In 534 they were s'ubdued by the Franks. When the Prankish territories, upon the death of Clovis. were divided among his three sons, the name Burgundy was applied to one of the three kingdoms, comprising the country between the Loire! the Alps, the Vosges, and Provence. In the general dismemVierment which followed upon the partition of the Prankish Empire at Verdun in 843, a new kingdom arose known as Provence, or, more frequently, Cisjurane Biir- gundv. It was founded by Boso of Vienne in 879, and included besides Provence the southern part of Savoy, the region between the .Jura and the Saone, and Dauphinc. Rudolph, a brother of Boso, established, in 888, the Kingdom of Transjurane Burgundy, which comprehended the northwestern part of Savoy and all that portion of Switzerland lying between the Reuss and the Jura. Those two kingdoms were united in 933 and constituted the new Kingdom of Burgundy, more commonly known as Aries or the Arlate. The dynasty of Arletan kings became extinct in 1032, when the territory was annexed to the Germanic Emi)ire by Conrad the Salic. Though the formal title was vested in the Emperor, the establishment of his authority over the country l)roceeded with great ditliculty, and for more ihan 300 years Aries was the subject of continu- ous dispute between the French and German in- lluence, a conflict which finally terminated in favor of the former.

'hen the two Burgundies had united in 933 to form the Kingdom of Aries, a small portion on the northwest, with Dijon as its chief town, re- mained an independent duchy, which came finally under the suzerainty of France. Up to 1301 its rulers were members of the House of Capet. In that year this ducal line became e.xtinct and the duchy reverted to the French Crown. In 1303 it was conferred as an appanage upon Pliiiip the Bold, the favorite son of John 11. of France. I'nder the energetic descendants of Philip the territories of the duchy were increased, and through marriage alliances and otherwise, Flan- ders, Artois, Franche-Comte. Namur. Brabant, Limburg. Holland, Hainaut, Zealand, Friesland, and Luxemburg were brought under the rule of the Bingundian dukes. By the middle of the F'ifteenth Ci'ntury these ha<l eomp to rank among the most powerful princes of Europe by reason of the extent of territory they controlled and the wealth which they derived from the flour- ishing cities of the Low Countries; and in- deed it seemed not improbable tnat between the German Empire and France a middle king- dom would arise equal in power to either. Especially dangerous were the diikes of Bur- gundy to the French kings, their feudal lords, whose territories they threatened from the Vosges Mountains and the Rhine on the east, and from Flanders on the north. The antagonism between the dukes of Burgundy and the French kings broke out in fierce wars carried on by Cliarles llie Bold (q.v.), who made himself the cham- ))ion of feudal rights against the centi-alizing pol- icy of Louis XL Trium]>hing at first in his struggle with France, Charles the Bold met his fate when, carried away by his ambition, he made an attack upon the Swiss of the Jura iMountains. He was defeated in two great battles and slain in the third, the battle of Nancy (1477), and the bulk of his possessions, passing to his daughter JMary, became merged, by her marriage to the Archduke Maximilian, with the possessions of the House of Hapsburg. The i)uchy of Burgundy itself, however, did not fol- low the fortunes of the great Burgimdian realm, being immediately seized by Louis XL as a fief of the French Crown. ( See Netherlands. ) In 1512 the Burgundian territories were formed into one of the t»n circles of the Empire.


BURGUNDY, Louis. Duke of (1682-1712). The grandson of Louis XIV. of France, and Dau- phin of France after the death of his father. He was born in Versailles. Even in childhood he was ungovernable, and in youth he became ex- cessively violent and haughty, and abandcmed to sensual pleasures. Although educated under the care of the Abbf- FOnehm, lie used to divert him- self with drowning flies in oil and blowing up living frogs with gunpowder. He had the mis- fortune to be deformed: his deportment and man-