This section is from "The American Cyclopaedia", by George Ripley And Charles A. Dana. Also available from Amazon: The New American Cyclopędia. 16 volumes complete..
Burgundy (Fr. Bourgogne), the name of three kingdoms, of a feudal duchy, and lastly of a French province. I. First Kingdom of. This was founded about 413 by the Burgundians, who gradually extended their dominions over the valleys of the Saone and the Rhone, their possessions being bounded N. by the Rhine, the Faucilles mountains, and a winding line falling in a S. W. direction to the Loire, E. by the Alps and the river Reuss, W. by the upper Loire, Ardeche, and lower Rh6ne, and S. by the Mediterranean; consequently including the French provinces known afterward as Burgundy, Franche-Comte, Lyonnais, the N. E. part of Languedoc, Dauphiny, and Provence, with the western parts of Switzerland and Savoy. About the year 500 Clovis, impelled by his wife Clotilda, a Burgundian princess, desirous of avenging her father's death, invaded Burgundy, and imposed a heavy tribute, and the sons of Clovis conquered the kingdom, which in 534 became part of the Frankish empire. It however preserved its name and local laws, and more than once had Merovingian kings of its own. H Cisjurane and Transjurae. The Frankish dominion over Burgundy had lasted 300 years when the dismemberment of the Carlovingian empire occurred, and Burgundy was among the first to assert its independence.
In 879 a number of bishops and noblemen conferred the crown upon Boso, count of Vienne, a mild and prudent prince, brother-in-law of Charles the Bald of France. His kingdom, from its situation in respect to France, was called Cisjurane, and sometimes Lower Burgundy, consisting of southwestern Franche-Comte, southern Savoy, Dauphiny, and Provence, with a part of Lyonnais. A little later, Count Rudolph of Upper Burgundy founded a second kingdom of Burgundy, the Transjurane, formed of .western Switzerland to the Reuss, northeastern Franche-Comte, and northern Savoy. The two kingdoms were united in 930, but net integrally, under the name of the kingdom of Aries, which continued for about a century. Meanwhile the kings of Aries or Provence, unable to contend successfully against the nobles, were obliged to acknowledge the supremacy of the German emperors. Consequently, on the death of Rudolph III., in 1032, the emperor Conrad II., as lord paramount, took possession of the kingdom, so that the S. E. part of France became one of the provinces of the German empire.
It was now governed by imperial vicars; but early in the 14th century the various provinces of which it consisted separated; some, like the Swiss cantons, asserting their independence, others acknowledging the power of their own feudal lords, but most of them reverting to the French kings. III. Dnchy of. - First Ducal House. While these kingdoms were passing through these vicissitudes, the N. W. part of old Burgundy had remained united to France, and formed one of its great feudal provinces. In the 10th century the duchy of Burgundy belonged to Henry, brother of Hugh Capet, and shortly afterward to the second son of Robert the Pious. This prince, who died in 1075, was the head of the first ducal house of Burgundy, which lasted till 1361. His successors, 11 in number, were among the 12 peers of France, and rivalled the most powerful princes of their times. They increased their hereditary dominions, especially by the annexation of the county of Burgundy or Franche-Comte, one of the provinces dismembered from the kingdom of Aries, and were besides during the 13th and 14th centuries possessors of a kingdom and two principalities in the East. They proved singularly constant in their loyalty to the kings of France. Several of them engaged in crusades, especially Hugh III. and his grandson Hugh IV. The latter accompanied Louis IX. in his expedition to Egypt, shared his captivity, and was liberated with him.
By a treaty with Baldwin II., emperor of Constantinople, he became king of Salonica. Eudes IV., the last but one of the family, besides that kingdom, had also the principalities of Achaia and Morea. - Second Ducal House. On the death of Philip the Rouvre, the last of the preceding family, the duchy of Burgundy reverted for a short time to the crown.of France. King John, to reward his third son, Philip the Bold, who had fought gallantly at Poitiers, bestowed this rich inheritance upon him, Sept. 6, 1363. He and his three successors were among the most famous historical characters of their age. (See Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, Philip the Good, and Charles the Bold.) The last two dukes possessed regal power, and their dominions included not only Burgundy proper and several adjoining French fiefs, but the whole of the Netherlands, and finally the duchy of Lorraine and the imperial vicariate of Alsace. On the death of Charles the Bold in battle against Rene II. of Lorraine, whom he had dispossessed, Louis XL at once seized on the duchy of Burgundy, Franche-Comte, Picardy, and Ar-tois, as escheated French fiefs; he was, however, obliged to resign Franche-Comte, but retained the other provinces.
Mary, the heiress of Charles, married Maximilian of Austria, whence the claims of Austria to the Burgundian provinces. The Low Countries and Franche-Comte were, however, all that it ever possessed. But these contests were the origin of protracted wars between France and Austria. IV. Province of. The duchy proper, from its reunion to France in 1477, became one of the most important provinces of the kingdom. It was, moreover, one of the most loyal. When Francis I. by the treaty of Madrid agreed to restore to Charles V. all the provinces once belonging to the ducal house of Burgundy, the states of the province solemnly protested that they were French, and that the king had no right to give up his subjects against their consent. .This province now forms most of the departments of Yonne, Cote d'Or, Sa6ne-et-Loire, Ain, and a small part of those of Aube and Nievre. It is celebrated for its industry, but above all for its wines. The Charolais and Cote d'Or ranges traverse it from S. to N., extending toward the plateau of Langres, and forming the watershed between the tributaries of the Rhone and those of the Seine and Loire. The Seine, which rises the Christian era. They embalmed not only human corpses, but the bodies of the ibis, hawk, monkey, cat, and other animals which were held sacred.
This preservation of the remains of the dead through a series of ages gave rise to an enormous multiplication of mummies. - The Hebrews buried their dead, though, from some Scriptural passages, it would seem that incineration was likewise practised. The cemeteries were invariably situated without the walls of the cities. The mourning ceremonies generally lasted seven days, and in the case of very eminent personages thirty days, during which period the nearest mourners fasted and imposed upon themselves other sacrifices. - Among the Greeks, in historical times, the bodies of the dead were interred or burned, and a common word ( ) is used for either burial or burning. When the body was not burned, it was placed in a coffin, generally made of baked clay or earthenware, and buried without the town; intramural interment being forbidden, from the belief that the presence of the dead brought pollution to the living. If burned, the body was placed upon a pyre built of wood, to which fire was communicated in the presence of those who had attended the funeral; when the flames were extinguished, the bones were collected and placed in the province, flows through the northwest, the Saone traverses the centre, and the Rhone and Ain water the southeast. The canal du Centre connects the Saone with the Loire. Adjoining it are the rich mines of Le Creuzot. Among the towns are Dijon, Macon, Autun, Chalon-sur-Saone, and Bourg.
Ancient Egyptian Funeral Procession.
Greek Funeral Urn.
 
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