The Burgundians were an East Germanic people who spoke a language similar to Gothic. Like the Goths, they traced their legendary origins back to Scandinavia - possibly originating on the island of Bornholm. By the First Century AD they had settled on the Vistula in Poland and later migrated south and east. They settled for a while in the area of modern Berlin, before being pushed westwards to the Rhineland.
In 411 AD the usurper Emperor Jovinus allowed a large group of Burgundians to establish a federate kingdom on the Rhine centred on Worms under their king Gundahar. In 435 AD the Burgundians tried to expand into Gaul and the Roman general Aetius called in a Hunnic army to destroy Gundahar's kingdom - a battle which cost Gundahar his life and later formed the basis for the Nibelunglied. The remnants of the Burgundians were later settled near Lake Geneva under Gundioc in 443 AD. In 451 AD they joined Aetius in beating off the invasion of Attila at the battle of Chalons, in which they fought other Burgundians who had joined the Huns. The second Burgundian kingdom was a loyal ally of the Romans, joining another usurper Emperor Avitus against the Suevi of Spain in 456 AD. After his death the Burgundians expanded their kingdom down the Rhone and took Lyon.
In 458 AD the Emperor Majorian re-asserted his dominance and Aegidius retook Lyon from the Burgundians, but when he died Lyons was retaken. Gundioc died in 470 AD and his successor, Chilperic, pushed back the Visigoths who were trying to expand up the Rhone into Burgundian territory and then fought a series of successful wars against the Alamanni.
In 480 AD Gundobad and his brother kings succeeded his uncle Chilperic after having supported his kinsman, the Roman general Ricimer, in Italy and then succeeded him briefly as commander in chief of the Western Roman Army. While Theodoric the Ostrogoth and Odoacer were fighting over Italy, Gundobad led his warriors to further expand his kingdom. With Theodoric now ruling Italy, the Burgundians and their expansionary neighbours the Franks were drawn into a complex series of marriage alliances with the Ostrogoths. But relations with both stayed tense and in 500 AD Clovis' Franks attacked the Burgundians.
In the wars which followed Gundobad's brother Godigisel allied with the Franks and the Visigoths intervened against him, killing him and defeating his Frankish allies. Then Gundobad switched sides and allied with the Franks against the Visigoths, probably due to pressure from another direction from the Alamanni. Frankish attacks on the Alamanni allowed the Burgundians to expand again, but when the Ostrogoths intervened in a war between the Franks and the Visigoths they suffered serious defeats at Theodoric's hands in 507 AD and again in 509 AD.
Sigismund succeeded his father Gundobad in 516 AD. He tried to align the Burgundians with the Eastern Roman Empire against the now combined kingdom of the Visigoths and Ostrogoths. In 522 Sigismund was caught by similtaneous invasions by the Franks and Ostrogoths and he and his family were captured and executed by the Franks. One of his sons, Godomar, survived to rule what was left of the Burgundian kingdom but in 534 AD the Franks invaded for the last time, Godomar was defeated and the Burgundians were absorbed into the Frankish kingdom, later to form the semi-independent territory of Burgundy.
A Brief History of the Burgundians
A Timeline of the Burgundian Kings
