Duke of Burgundy was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by the French crown in 1477, and later by members of the House of Habsburg, including Holy Roman emperors and kings of Spain, who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian Netherlands.
Image: Robert le Vieux
Image: Odo II
Image: Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy
Image: Robert II of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy emerged in the 9th century as one of the successors of the ancient Kingdom of the Burgundians, which after its conquest in 532 had formed a constituent part of the Frankish Empire. Upon the 9th-century partitions, the French remnants of the Burgundian kingdom were reduced to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004. Robert II's son and heir, King Henry I of France, inherited the duchy but ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032.
Philip the Good presented with a Chronicles of Hainaut, flanked by his son Charles and his chancellor Nicolas Rolin c. 1447–8