Thanks for working on these pre-carolingian and post-Roman Kingdom who often overlooked for their hands on bringing "dark age" on Europe by causing downfall of Rome. Would love to know if you are working on Amorian and Galician Britons..
The poetic epic known as the "Nibelungenlied" from which composer Wagner derived his stories for his epic opera cycle known as "The Ring of the Nibelungenlied" was inspired by the first Burgundian kingdom with characters like Brunnhilde, Siegfried (the hero) and many others. It came however through the prism of the Norse sagas.
@@napoleonfeanor I'd argue to the contrary that in this age of widely available information it's remembered more and more. I'm not gerrman, and even I know of the epic and some of the gist of it. Sure, it may be through the lense of popular culture, but I remember it, hence it isn't forgotten.
As I Rome fan I keep thinking, foolishly, that after the Western Roman Empire fell history in Western Europe became boring for the next 200 or so years. But this video has opened my eyes, and I thank it for that. I only ever knew Gundobad as the nephew of Ricimer who put Glycerius in charge of Rome, I had no idea he did so much other stuff afterwards.
The early middle ages are f*cking not known, and at the same time, if you like chaos, you have *a lot* of funny stuff. Wanna know how vendettas were outlawed in France? Well, we had a royale vendetta for about 50 years between 560 and 610, between a wisigothic queen, and a servant who became also queen.
Hype! The Burgundian Kingdom, it's post-Karolingian version, and the fragmentation of it are intriguing but I haven't seen the subject given much attention on youtube history channels.
What a joy to find a content creator covering this part of history in such depth. And I love your usage of art and symbols for characters, armies and events. Hope your channel grows as much as the Franks did in this video!
I really enjoy video’s about the Germanic kingdoms, especially ones about less know kingdoms such as the Burgundian or Suebi, so I would love to see more of it!
You are the goat my man. Not too much is spoken about the Barbarian Kingdoms from their migration to the Empire & afterwards because all of them except the Franks were conquered & passed on in a period of 100-300 years (409-721) I can't wait to watch this :)
Great video, bringing attention to an obscure and overlooked kingdom, its people, and its culture. I’m so happy to finally be informed on a topic that has close to no coverage on the internet. Say, what is the next video going to be about?
The next video will cover the reign of emperor Constans II. The topic of the next standalone video, for its part, will be voted by supporters on Patreon.
Incredibly detailed history. Love this. To carry on: Burgundy survived as a Duchy until the 15th century, making it one of the oldest in Europe. It has enabled the Low Countries to become a world power in its wake, rivaling French dominance.
When Burgundia resurfaced in the Middle Ages, it looked almost like Burgundia is on its first step to become one of the major powers in Europe. And when it did gain de facto independence from France, it entered into an alliance with the Habsburg of Austria. Sadly, Duchess Mary died before her time. If not, then Burgandy will survived much longer, maybe even into nowadays. But if she did survive, then her son with Maximilian will most likely become the Duke of Burgundy instead of the King of Castile unless he still married Queen Joanna of Castile like in our timeline. Sure, this means the Habsburg get to rule Austria, Castile and Burgundy if that happened. And that will terrified the heck out of the King of France for sure because with ports from both Spain and the Low Countries in Burgundy, the Habsburg can surround France by both on lands and by seas. Not to mention that this development also allowed the Habsburg to rule the Atlantic Ocean and possibly, colonize more territories in the New World than in our timeline. So King Francis might become more tolerant of the Protestant faith and may resort to asking his sister, Magaret who became the Queen of Navarre by marriage, for the refuge of the Huguenots in her husband's country when the Affair of the Placards happened and even encourage the Huguenots to colonize and claim territories in the New World on behalf of the King of France to counter the Habsburg's influence. As a result, Navarre entered into an alliance with France and became the buffer state between France and the Habsburg Spain and a large portion of the Huguenots left for the New World to expand France's territories overseas. However, this does not diminish the Habsburg's powers. Instead, they might resorted to unifying the German lands under the Habsburg banner much earlier in order to gain resources and manpower. However, the local Lutheran German rulers are not happy with this and will most likely either fled their domains or ask for the Protestant nations to intervene. And with England recently became the Protestant nation for political reasons and also because Sweden was engaged in a war for independence from Denmark-Norway, they will most likely asked King Henry VIII for an intervention. Seeing his chance to spread his influence, he might take it. However, this means leaving the northern frontiers of England to become vulnerable to raids by the Scots. Since neither options worked, they formed an anti-Habsburg alliance to resist the troops of King Charles' advance and his relatives. I have no idea how will that war ended. So this is as far as I can go.
I just want to thank you for making a video on the kingdoms and ongoings of this time period, it is incredibly stale and boring when trying to find information on this particular place and time and I am very grateful that someone finnaly covers it in an entertaining and informative way with good research and proper context 🙏 hope your small channel will grow, you deserve it! And hopefully you'll make a video about the Franks too in particular with all the inheritance shenanigans going on there, would definitly love to see it 🙏 anyhow, just thank you
Thanks so much for this video. It's the first time I see a so complete and acurate video on this subject. I'm from Vienne and I'm ashame there is no french video as good as your. I will check all your videos.
Wish i had have seen this earlier… i had previously chased around maps to work out were Burgundians come from and found them jumping seemingly without merging… this kind of explains why… well done, i thank you.
What a wonderful video! You did make a mistake with Marseilles, it was taken by Gundobad bad in late 490s, in 501, Gundobad gave it back to Alaric, in exchange of military support which allowed him to defeat his brother. Granted, it was the same mistake I made with my video, because most maps are wrong about the subject matter.
Enjoying the video so far, but you reached Worms and didn't mention Emperor Probus sending them to Britain in 278 where they ended in Silchester in Hampshire. From here they served the Emperor against insurrections in Britain according to Zosimus. You also cut out all the cool mythical stuff about them. Lets back up a minute. The Burgundians are first of all the most famous Dwarves or Dark Elves of Germanic mythology. They descend from the Alfheim, a historic region in Sweden where the Ynglings ruled. From here they went to Bornholm then entered Poland where the Myrkvidr runs through into Ukraine. This is likely the home of the Myrkalfar, Dokkalfar, or Svartalfar. Likely being the Svartalfheim. They are defeated by Goths and then from here they went to the Rhine where they were defeated by Probus. Then sent to England, where after they then entered south down the Rhine through the Netherlands, which is a translation of Nidavellir. Which in Old English was Nithawald, or Netherforest. Though Vellir has a broader land definition than forest, so Netherlands is a faithful translation. This makes Britain, Niflheim. The Island of Mist located just North of Nidavellir in the Saga's. From Worms at the Rhine they are then moved into France-Gaul. Here they are now in Midgard, Mannheim, or Valland. Mediterranean literally translates into Middle Earth. Some of the other locations include Asgard and Vanaheim which Snorri points out as being East and West of the Don River by the Black Sea. Professor Tolkien links Ethiopia to Muspelheim in his Essay on Sigelwara land. Leaving the Jotunheim, said to be North East of the Alfheim in the Saga's, making it Finland. This helps explain the later myths of the Niflung saga, or the Nibelungenlied. Once they moved into Valland they began to speak an Oil Language rather than their East Germanic Language, making them "Foreigners" to the Deutch/Dutch people. The Root in Val can be found in Wallachia, Wales and Cornwall among other places. While Deutch and Dutch mean "of the people/nation" in reference to the (West) Germanic peoples. As the Germanic peoples did have a sense of a collective culture, even with different kings and kingdoms. The Burgundians went from one of the people to one of the enemy. Hence their poor portrayal in the myths. Though they were renowned crafts man and had hordes of riches. One such horde was recently discovered and had gold coins from Byzantium. Showing they were playing all sides to their advantage. East Romans, West Romans, and their own peoples. They would have had a lot of interactions with the Saxons dating back to Britain going up through to Brunhilda of Austrasia.
Just discovered this treasure of channel. Thanks! I love the obscure or unknown history of the Germanic tribes transforming into the European kingdoms of later.
Very interesting. I have tried reading up on the history of the Burgundians, and it's not easy. I knew the broad outlines but enjoyed the greater detail.
Yes indeed, reading the history of this kingdom through ancient sources can be chaotic since there is no proper narrative story like a "History of the Burgundians" or something. If you can read french, there is a detailed modern book of everything we know of early Burgundian History and Archeology : "Katalin ESCHER, Les Burgondes Ve-VIe siècles apr. J.-C.: Errance & Picard; 2021".
@@ancientsight My interest was mainly in the later Burgundian state, and there are a fair number of books about that. But that lead on to this earlier one, and the details were not available. My interest came from the novel "Ash: A Secret History" by Mary Gentle, which exploits this fragmentary record to present Burgundy as a place that was erased from reality.
New subscriber here, I love the detail to which you cover this obscure content, it’s excellent. I have to ask, will you ever post videos on other Roman foes such as Dacia? Or maybe over post-Roman kingdoms in Brittania such as Mercia/Northumbria?
i recently discovered that my dna is 18% scandinavian while i am italian with a french grandfather. turns out my blond granpa was from Golbey, close to bourogne. those guys truly kept their nordic heritage until these days 😮
Golbey is in Lorraine but yeah, eastern France (Lorraine + the Ardennes + Bourgogne + Franche Comté) is where you'll find lighter phenotypes among the natives
3:30 Gundahars death is what inspired the Richard Wagner Opera, the Ring of the Nibelung. this defeat was so enourmous, that an Icelandic saga, written in the 14th century, mentions it.
From my sources, Gundahar has inspired characters from germanic epics such as the Nibelungenlied. The man in the painting would be one of his representations from one of these poems.
The last reminiscence of this Burgandian kingdom was in the XIV-XVe century, with the Duchy of Bourgogne (french name of burgundy). The ducal house was part of the french royal family (the Valois at this time), and took advantages of the Hundred years wars to make their duche an independant kingdom, reclaiming lands and heritage of this old burgandian kingdom. At this difficult time for France, it became one of the europeansuperpower. It was crushed by the french king Louis XI and the Swiss Confederacy, killing the duc Charles the temeraire (you don't have a translation for this word in english) at the battle of Nancy, in 1477. Very cool video you did, and very good to have such interesting barbaric tribes put in light, as they modeled the Europe we know now.
Question: by the time of Frankish conquest and start of middle age just how Burgundian see themselves as "Burgundians"? Like the concept of Burgundy was subject of obsession for house of Valois-Burgundy to create a strong state between HRE and France while the dynasty itself always see themselves as "children of Franks", were they could be counted as Burgundians or French?
I am no professionnal scholar but here is what I I know. Before the Frankish conquest, the Burgundian elite clearly saw itself different from the Franks. As much as two germanic tribes could be. However the local roman population did not have a Burgundian or Frankish identity. Later, under Frankish rule, part of the Burgundian nobility would have remained in place for some time. It seems that king of Frankish Burgundy Guntram did want to take advantage of any Burgundian identity among the local elites to legitimize his power. I do not know much about the Carolingian period and I cannot tell you if a Burgundian elite still persisted or if even the population became Burgundian in a sense. What is clear is that the Merovingian and Carolingian era Burgundy were geographicaly well positioned to be a coherent political entity, being between Alps and "Massif central" and centered on the Rhone valley. Late middle Ages version of Burgundy may have possessed some kind of regional identity. However, we must not forget that it was the trend of this era to centralize power in strong disinct kingdoms. The final answer is even more complicated by the fact that early Burgundy was centered on the Rhone valley (south) while latter Burgundy was centered on modern Burgundy (Dijon, Besançon) but also included parts of Belgium and Low countries (north). I hope this gives you some useful information
@@ancientsight They're referencing a Hearts of Iron 4 mod, that has a nation known as, Ordensstaat Burgundy. The mod is "The New Order: Last Days of Europe"
What a great video, I knew almost nothing about history just after the fall of western rome, perhaps you Will cover other barbarian kingdoms Such as odoacer and ostrogothic kingdom in the future.
Archeological evidence (compiled in Katalin Escher's book "Les Burgondes") suggests that they weren't taller than the local population on average, however they had some exceptionally tall specimens, like one Burgundian man who was found to be 196cm (6'5).
@@Cormarenc OK. They were of east-german-south polish origin. It may be that the elites were taller, like they are often today unless they dally with common girls who tend to be smaller. So, by marrying their own kin, the children would be considerably taller. If you can, have a look at the military museum in Les Invalides in Paris and ask for Burgundian harnesses.
I would recommend not citing Wikipedia, but looking at what articles they cite for their claims & what those contain, then list those sources as having been used. It's not just people looking down on Wiki, but "Wikipedia" itself is genuinely not the author of what is written on it. Looking at their sources also helps covering more detail (or finding mistakes).
Central Europe was always weird ethnically. In this period, there was apparently a lot of migration from Scandinavia towards the South. The Burgundians themselves were originally from Bornholm, the Cimbri and Teutons from Jutland. Then at a later point you have clear Slavic majorities on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, including what is now East Germany all the way almost to Hamburg. And then during the middle ages, there's again a big migration of Germans towards the East, settling much of what is now Poland. And then of course the Soviets forcefully resettled the eastern Poles in areas they had ethnically cleansed of Germans after World War 2. A really chaotic area that shows very well how little meaning the idea of people being native to a region can have.
As a descendant of Chrotechildis Franklin a well researched video. Any chance of you doing a video of Childeric King of the Salian Franks or his son Merovich who gave his name to the Mervingian dynasty. Gotfried Alamannen is also a great but missing person from history. But my personal favourite is Cerdic of the West Saxons.
It is "Highlands" by Philip Ayers. It is a slightly alterated version of the song you can only find on Epidemic Sound. The RU-vid version is here : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eMMMqoO3Xsk.html
Can anyone provide me resources on where to research Burgundian origins? It's really hard to find anything concrete on Bornholm, (aside from OId Norse Bornholm means Island of Burgundians) and why they would leave Bornholm. I'm so interested in entire culture groups migrating, but I would never have guesses the Burgundians began in Bornholm!
For me, a roman emperor is a roman emperor regardless of his success, but only if he has legitimacy and is operating under the roman legal framework. I will go for Julius Nepos for the west because he was recognized by the eastern court but also formally by Odoacer. Technically, Romulus Augustulus was no more than a usurper.
Oh dear! Its like Warhammer: after rome there's only war! Someone wanna leave the EU? Thank you, learned a lot! Greetings from the old territory of the burgundians
Kingdom of Soissons (457-486) is CONQUERED by the Franks. Kingdom of Alamannia (213-496) is CONQUERED by the Franks. Kingdom of the Burgundians with its capital Geneva (411-534) is CONQUERED by the Franks. Kingdom of the Rugii with its capital Vindobona (467-487) is CONQUERED by the Odoacer’s Kingdom of Italy. Odoacer’s Kingdom of Italy with its capital Ravenna (4 September 476 - 15 March 493) is CONQUERED by the Ostrogothic Kingdom (469-533). Brittany in today's France (population: 4,829,968 (2021 census)) became part of the Roman Republic in 51 BC. Kingdom of Brittany (22 August 851 - 1 August 939) was replaced with the Duchy of Brittany (939-1547), ... The territory of the Vascones during the Roman Republic and Roman Empire corresponded with present-day Navarre, the northeast extreme of Gipuzkoa, and parts of La Rioja, Zaragoza, and Huesca.
So the ostrogothic kingdom was really a continuation of the roman empire, it did not have a new germanic influx, just an ostrogoth was the successor. Isn't it?
As far as I know, the Ostrogothic elite under Theodoric settled around Ravenna and the Po valley. Like the other germanic kingdoms, the elite was broadly Arian christian and did not integrate with the locals. I'm not sure however
