Rudolph II of Burgundy

Rudolph II (/885 – 12 or 13 July 937) was King of Upper Burgundy from 912 until 933, and then King of the united Kingdom of Burgundy (the polity later known as the Kingdom of Arles) from 933 until his death in 937. He was also King of Italy from 922 to 926. He initially succeeded his father, king Rudolph I, in Upper Burgundy. In 933, Rudolph II acquired the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy (Provence) from King Hugh of Italy in exchange for the waiver of his claims to the Italian crown, thereby establishing the united Kingdom of Burgundy.

Life

A member of the Elder House of Welf, Rudolph was the son of the Upper Burgundian king Rudolph I, and his wife Guilla of Provence. Following his ascent to the throne in 912, Rudolph II entered into a border conflict with the neighbouring dukes of Swabia and campaigned the Thurgau and Zürich estates. Duke Burchard II of Swabia finally defeated him in the 919 Battle of Winterthur; both rulers made peace and Rudolph married Burchard's daughter Bertha in 922.

At the same time, Rudolph was asked by several Italian nobles led by Margrave Adalbert I of Ivrea to intervene in Italy on their behalf against Emperor Berengar. Having entered Italy, he was crowned king at Pavia in the Basilica of San Michele Maggiore. On 17 July 923, he defeated Berengar at the Battle of Fiorenzuola; Berengar was murdered the following year, possibly at the instigation of Rudolph. The king then ruled Upper Burgundy and Italy together, residing alternately in both kingdoms.

However, in 926 the Italian nobility turned against him and requested that Hugh of Arles, the regent in the Kingdom of Lower Burgundy, rule them instead. Rudolph's father-in-law Duke Burchard II of Swabia came for his support; however, he was attacked and killed near Novara by the henchmen of Lambert, Archbishop of Milan. The king returned to Upper Burgundy to protect himself, assuring Hugh's coronation as King of Italy in the process. In 926 or 935, Rudolph rendered the royal symbol of the Holy Lance to the East Frankish king Henry the Fowler in exchange for the Swabian Basel estates.

In 928, king Louis the Blind of Lower Burgundy died, and the rule over that territory was inherited by king Hugh of Italy, Rudolph's rival. In order to secure his position in Italy, Hugh agreed to cede his claims and rule over Lower Burgundy, in exchange for Rudolph's renunciation of any Italian claims. On those bases an agreement was reached, and the two Burgundian realms (Upper and Lower) were unified from 933, under Rudolph's rule. He died in 937 and was succeeded by his son Conrad.

After his death in 937, his daughter Adelaide was married to Hugh's son Lothair, while Hugh married Rudolph's widow Bertha. Adelaide later became the second wife of Otto the Great, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 962, and the mother of Emperor Otto II.