Rudolf III

Rudolf III (born c. 970—died Sept. 5/6, 1032) was the last of the independent kings of Burgundy (993–1032). Son and successor of Conrad the Peaceful, Rudolf was unable to control the rising power of the nobility and the increasing encroachments of Otto-William, count of Besançon, and Emperor Henry II of Germany. In 1016 he was forced to name Henry as his successor, and after Henry’s death (1024) the new German king, Conrad II, whose wife...