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The Burgundians
Peoples & Kingdoms
Arian Germanic Kingdom of the Rhône-Saône Valley
Historical Accuracy
Gregory of Tours is the principal source for Burgundian political history, including the accusation that King Gundobad killed his own brother Chilperic II (Clotilde's father) — an accusation modern historians treat with some caution given Gregory's own moral framing of Burgundian kings, though it is not contradicted by other evidence. The Burgundians' real destruction by Hunnic forces in 436/437, referenced in this dossier, is also the historical root of the later medieval Nibelungenlied legend, a literary connection worth noting as a separate, much later tradition from the historical events themselves.
Historical Significance
Sources:
- Gregory of Tours; Lex Burgundionum. Modern: Ian Wood, Justin Favrod.
The Burgundians were one of the major Germanic successor kingdoms to emerge in post-Roman Gaul, and their conquest by Clovis I's sons in 534 completed the Frankish absorption of Gaul's other Germanic kingdoms that Clovis himself had begun against the Visigoths — an essential piece of how a unified Frankish Gaul came to exist. Their Arian Christianity, in a land converting to Catholicism, also makes them a key example of the religious fault lines running through 6th-century Gaul.
Historical Era
Book I
Timeline:
- 436/437 earlier kingdom destroyed; c. 480-516 Gundobad's reign; 534 (beyond this phase) conquered by Clovis's sons.
Witch's Rebirth Canon:
- Ch. 18 places travelers at 'the mighty Rhone River,' the Burgundian heartland.
Key Facts:
- Ruled chiefly by King Gundobad (c. 480-516), Arian Christian
- Gregory attributes to Gundobad the killing of his brother Chilperic II (Clotilde's father)
- Issued the Lex Burgundionum law code
the-burgundians
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