Of all geographical names, that which has changed its meaning the greatest number of times is the name of _Burgundy_. ♦Various meanings of the name _Burgundy_.♦ It is specially needful to explain its different meanings at this stage, when there are always two, and sometimes more, distinct states bearing the Burgundian name. ♦The French Duchy.♦ Of the older Burgundian kingdom, the north-western part, forming the land best known as the _Duchy of Burgundy_, was, in the divisions of the ninth century, a fief of Karolingia or the Western kingdom. This is the Burgundy which has Dijon for its capital, and which was held by more than one dynasty of dukes as vassals of the Western kings, first at Laon and then at Paris. This Burgundy, which, as the name of France came to bear its modern sense, may be distinguished as the _French Duchy_, must be carefully distinguished from the _Royal_ Burgundy, the _Middle Kingdom_ of our own chronicler. ♦The Kingdom of Burgundy or Arles.♦ This is a state which arose out of the divisions of the ninth century, and which, sometimes as a single kingdom, sometimes as two, took in all the rest of the old Burgundian kingdom which did not form part of the French duchy. It may be roughly defined as the land between the Rhone and Saône and the Alps, though its somewhat fluctuating boundaries sometimes stretched west of the Rhone, and its eastern frontier towards Germany changed more than once. It thus took in the original Roman province in Gaul, which may be now spoken of as _Provence_, with its great cities, foremost among them _Arelate_ or _Arles_, which was the capital of the kingdom, and from which the land was sometimes called the _Kingdom of Arles_. ♦Cities of the Burgundian kingdom.♦ It also took in Lyons, the primatial city of Gaul, Geneva, Besançon, and other important Roman towns. In short, from its position, it contained a greater number of the former seats of Roman power than any of the new kingdoms except Italy itself. ♦Cis-jurane.♦ When Burgundy formed two kingdoms, the Northern or _Trans-jurane_ Burgundy took in, speaking roughly, the lands north of Lyons, and _Cis-jurane_ Burgundy those between Lyons and the sea. These last are now wholly French. The ancient Transjurane Burgundy is in modern geography divided between France and Switzerland. ♦Burgundy separated from the Frankish kingdoms.♦