settled in the Roman Empire in the 5th century, who established a kingdom that lasted
close to a century; centered at Geneva, it stretched down the Rhône to Lyon and south
toward Arles, and north from Lyon along the Saône Valley as far as Dijon. The sons of
Clovis conquered Burgundy in the 530s, and, with Neustria and Austrasia, it became one
of the three principal divisions of Frankish territory. Frankish Burgundy was a large area,
comprising most of the Loire and Rhône-Saône river basins, stretching from Orléans, the
capital, to Arles and the Mediterranean. It was divided by the sons of Louis the Pious at
the 843 Treaty of Verdun. Charles the Bald received as one part of his share essentially
what became the duchy of Burgundy, the region between the Saône and the Loire. The
rest of Burgundy was subject to Lothair I and the empire: the area south along the Rhône
from Lyon to Arles, and also the region around Geneva and Besançon, where the original
Burgundian kingdom had been established five centuries earlier. Imperial Burgundy was
further divided in the late Carolingian period into upper, or trans-Saône, Burgundy, the
northeast portion, and the southern part, called variously lower, or cis-Jurane, Burgundy
or Provence.
Lower Burgundy, which had become subject to Charles the Bald when he took the
imperial throne in 875, became an independent kingdom in 879 under Boso (r. 879–87),
Charles’s brother-in-law and the first non-Carolingian king in the west for a century. At
the same time, Boso’s brother, Richard le Justicier, was establishing ducal power in
French Burgundy, the region taken by Charles the Bald in 843. This duchy was ill
defined in the late 9th and 10th centuries, but by the time of Richard’s death in 922 his
rule had been established in the area which was considered the duchy of Burgundy
throughout the high Middle Ages, plus the regions of Troyes and Sens.
Boso’s nine years as king of lower Burgundy were marked by constant wars with the
Carolingians, French dukes, and even his brother, Richard. But in 890, three years after
Boso’s death, his son Louis succeeded to his father’s kingdom. In 900, Louis also became
king of Italy, and in 901 he was crowned emperor. Louis’s success was short-lived. In
905, he was captured and blinded by Berengar, his principal Italian rival. Louis l’Aveugle
retreated to his capital of Vienne, where he lived until 928,
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