The Duchy of Burgundy (Latin: Ducatus Burgundiae, French: Duché de Bourgogne, Dutch: Hertogdom Bourgondië) from 1032 existed as a successor of an ancient and prestigious patrimony and a large division of the lands of the Kingdom of the Burgundians. The duchy roughly conforms to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy, but its dukes came to own considerable possession of numerous French and Imperial fiefs in the Low Countries known as the Burgundian Netherlands. In its own right, it was one of the larger ducal territories that existed at the time of the emergence of Early Modern Europe from Medieval Europe, reminiscent of the Middle Frankish realm of Lotharingia.
The French remnants of the Burgundian kingdom were demoted to a ducal rank by King Robert II of France in 1004 and in 1032 awarded to the House of Burgundy as a cadet branch inheritance via Salic law – other portions had passed to the Imperial Kingdom of Arles and the Free County of Burgundy. From 1363 the duchy was ruled by a succession of the Valois Burgundy dukes. Their extinction with the death of Charles the Bold in the 1477 Battle of Nancy led to the absorption of the duchy itself into the French crown lands by King Louis XI, while the Burgundian possessions in the Low Countries passed to the Habsburg archduke Maximilian I of Austria by his marriage with Charles' daughter Mary the Rich.
Even in its diminished size as it existed in the Early Modern Period, the Burgundian heritage that was divided between two heirs played a pivotal role in Europe's politics long after it lost its role as an independent political identity, due to marriages and wars over the territories between princes who were related to its former rulers. With the abdication of the Habsburg emperor Charles V (Charles I as King of Spain) in 1556, the Burgundian Netherlands passed to the Spanish Empire of King Philip II. During the Dutch Revolt or Eighty Years War (1568–1648), the northern provinces of the Low Countries gained their independence from Spanish rule and formed the Dutch Republic (today the Netherlands), while the southern provinces remained under Spanish rule and were known as the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands (corresponding roughly to present day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the areas in France corresponding to the Nord department and part of the Pas-de-Calais department).