in 956, the duchy was taken by Hugh Capet’s brother Otto, who married Giselbert’s
daughter, and, after Otto’s death, by Henri, another brother of Hugh Capet. The Capetian
dukes continued to rule Burgundy until the mid-14th century. When Henri died in 1002,
however, there was initially a war between his nephew, King Robert II, and his stepson,
Otto-William. Otto-William had become count of Mâcon by marriage and called himself
count of Burgundy as well, but he was unable to defeat the king’s forces. He settled for
Mâcon and the territory east of the Saône that he was able to control under the authority
of the Rudolphian kings; his descendants greatly increased their authority in this region
after 1032. King Robert II made his son Robert duke in Burgundy during his own
lifetime.
Once established under its own dukes, the French duchy of Burgundy was able to
maintain its political identity in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. Besides the dukes, the
most powerful figures were the counts of Chalon, of Mâcon, and of Auxerre, Nevers, and
Tonnerre. The last three counties were usually in the hands of one person in this period,
although Tonnerre had been an independent county until the middle of the 11th century;
younger brothers of the counts of Nevers took the other two counties for their lifetimes,
but they then reverted to the main line of the family.
The dynasty of the Capetian dukes of Burgundy ended in 1361, and the duchy was
taken by the crown. In 1363, it became an apanage of Philip the Bold, son of the Valois
king John the Good. Burgundy reached the height of its glory under the Valois dukes.
Under Philip the Bold (r. 1363–1404), the duchy grew by the addition of the county of
Nevers, which had once been attached to the duchy but had become separated in the 13th
century, and by the Franche-Comté of Burgundy and the counties of Flanders and Artois.
All these territories were part of the inheritance of Philip’s wife, and he succeeded in
1384, when his father-in-law died. The Franche-Comté was essentially the western part
of what had once been the Rudolphian kingdom of Burgundy. Succeeding dukes, John (r.
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