Burgundy has a long history stretching back to the Roman era. The Burgundians, a Germanic people, established a kingdom in the region during the fifth century, giving Burgundy its name. Their kingdom was conquered by the Franks in 534, but Burgundy retained a distinct regional identity and subsequently became one of the great territories of medieval France.  

Burgundy reached the height of its power and prosperity under the Valois dukes in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first of these, Philip the Bold, was a younger son of King John II of France and was granted the Duchy of Burgundy in 1363. Through marriage, inheritance, diplomacy and conquest, Philip and his successors accumulated territories stretching northwards from Burgundy into what are now Belgium and the Netherlands. The result was an extraordinarily wealthy collection of territories lying between, and sometimes owing allegiance to, France and the Holy Roman Empire.

The Burgundian court became one of the most magnificent in Europe and an important centre of art, music and culture. Under Philip’s grandson Philip the Good, who ruled from 1419 to 1467, Burgundy reached a new level of wealth and influence. In 1430 Philip founded the Order of the Golden Fleece, which became one of Europe’s most prestigious orders of chivalry.

The rise of Burgundy was closely entangled with the Hundred Years’ War and the internal struggle for control of France. Philip the Bold’s son, John the Fearless, became the leader of the Burgundian faction opposed to the Armagnacs, supporters of the rival house of Orléans and, later, of the Dauphin Charles. The struggle became a civil war within France. In 1419 John was murdered at Montereau during a meeting with the Dauphin. The Dauphin’s personal responsibility for the killing remains disputed, but the murder drove John’s son Philip the Good into an alliance with England.  

This Anglo-Burgundian alliance became one of the decisive political relationships of the later Hundred Years’ War. Following Henry V’s victory at Agincourt in 1415 and his conquest of Normandy, the Treaty of Troyes was concluded in 1420 between Henry and Charles VI of France, with Burgundian support. Henry married Charles’s daughter Catherine of Valois and was recognised as regent and heir to the French throne, displacing the Dauphin Charles. Burgundy supported the settlement and cooperated militarily with the English against the Dauphin and his supporters.  

The alliance was nevertheless one of political expediency rather than permanent allegiance. By the 1430s circumstances had changed. In 1435 Philip the Good reconciled with Charles VII under the Treaty of Arras, effectively ending the Burgundian civil war with the French crown and depriving England of its most important continental ally. France subsequently recovered much of the territory held by the English, and by the end of the Hundred Years’ War in 1453 England retained only Calais.  

Burgundy’s relationship with England did not end with the Treaty of Arras. The Burgundian Netherlands had strong commercial links with England, particularly through the wool and cloth trades, and Burgundy again became involved in English affairs during the Wars of the Roses. Under Philip’s son Charles the Bold, relations became particularly close to the Yorkist dynasty. Charles married Margaret of York, sister of King Edward IV, in 1468, and Burgundy subsequently provided support to the Yorkist cause. The relationship was nevertheless governed as much by Burgundy’s commercial and strategic interests as by dynastic loyalty.

Burgundian power reached its greatest territorial extent under Charles the Bold, who succeeded Philip the Good in 1467. Charles sought to join his scattered northern and southern possessions into a continuous and effectively independent state stretching from the Netherlands towards the Alps. His ambitions brought him into conflict with Louis XI of France and with neighbouring powers, most notably the Swiss Confederacy. After a series of military defeats, Charles was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477.

His death without a male heir brought the independent ambitions of the Valois dukes to an end, but Burgundy was not simply absorbed into France. Louis XI took possession of the Duchy of Burgundy itself, while Charles’s daughter Mary inherited much of the remainder of the Burgundian territories. Her marriage to Maximilian of Habsburg meant that the rich Burgundian Netherlands ultimately passed into Habsburg hands. The political inheritance of the Burgundian dukes was therefore divided between France and the Habsburgs, with consequences for European politics that lasted for centuries.

The Duchy of Burgundy was now firmly part of France, but the region retained its distinctive identity and prosperity. Dijon remained an important administrative and cultural centre, while Beaune became closely associated with the wine trade. The architecture of both cities still reflects the wealth generated during the ducal period.

Wine, however, provides the strongest continuity between medieval and modern Burgundy. Viticulture had flourished here for centuries, encouraged particularly by the great monastic estates and subsequently by the dukes themselves. Over generations, growers developed an increasingly detailed understanding of the differences between individual vineyard sites — differences of soil, aspect, drainage and microclimate that eventually became embodied in the Burgundian concept of the climat. That relationship between a particular piece of land and the wine it produces remains at the heart of Burgundy today.

The Gauthey Family

Maison Philibert and Jacquette are named after the family that built them in 1742, Philibert and Jacquette Gauthey.  Philibert came from a long line of vignerons in the Côte de Beaune villages. He married Jacquette Boulley (Bouley) of Volnay on the 3rd February 1727. Nine months later they had their first child, Etienne, who lived only 2 days. Philibert and Jacquette had a total of 12 children between 1729 and 1747. Sadly, only Antoine, Philibert, Jean and Etienne 3rd survived beyond infancy. There are Bouleys in Volnay making wine to this day and 1er cru Clos de Gauthey is near Monthlie. Philibert died in 1773 aged 74 and Jacquette in 1785 aged 83. 

Philibert Gauthey	1699 – 1773, Pommard buried Volnay
Jacquette Gauthey (née Bouley)	1702-1785, married 3.2.1727
Etienne	14.9.1727 to 7.11.1727
Claude	2.9.1728 to ?
Antoine	10.7.1729 to ?
Claude 2nd	15.12.30 to 21.7.32
Philibert	26.8.1732 to ?
Jean	18.1.1735 to 25.05.1814
Etienne 2nd	14.9.1737 to 14.9.1737
Jeanne	12.4.1739 to 27.2.1740
Etienne 3rd	30.10.1740 to ?
Jacquette	10.8.1742 to 11.9.1743
Claude 3rd	4.5.1744 to 10.5.1744
Claude 4th	28.3.1747 to 2.5.1747

Translation: “Today, 3 February 1727, I, the undersigned, gave the nuptial blessing to Philibert Gauthey, son of Étienne Gauthey, merchant at Pommard, and Pierrette Nicolas, and to Jacquette Bouley, daughter of Antoine Boulley, winegrower at Volnay, and Pierrette Vincent.

This was done after the banns had been published at the parish masses of Volnay and Pommard, and after I had received [confirmation of] the final publication concerning the said Gauthey from the Curé of Pommard, dated 2 February 1727, and after all the other customary ceremonies had been performed, no impediment or opposition having been found.

The marriage took place in the presence of their aforementioned fathers and mothers; Jean Gauthey, merchant at Pommard and paternal uncle of the groom; Jacques Vincent; François Grozelier, maternal uncle of the bride; François Gouliot, brother-in-law of the bride; Monsieur Pierre Boulley, a student/scholar at Volnay; and several other relatives and friends.“

Pommard

Pommard (pronounced Poe-mar) takes its name from Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit trees and gardens. Less than 5 km from Beaune, it lies at the heart of the Côte de Beaune and within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, The Climats, Terroirs of Burgundy. South of Pommard, the vineyard road passes through some of Burgundy’s most celebrated wine villages: Volnay, Monthélie, Auxey-Duresses, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Santenay.

Like Nuits-Saint-Georges, Pommard established its reputation in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries not only for its own wines but also as a centre for the trade in wines from the surrounding villages. Today its 337 hectares of vineyards produce around 130,000 cases a year, making it one of the largest appellations of the Côte de Beaune. Some 135 hectares are classified Premier Cru, with Les Epenots and Les Rugiens the best known and most highly regarded.