The Duke of Burgundy was a powerful vassal to the King of France, with a great desire for power. Gradually, the Duke’s power grew and gained control over duchies and counties at the frontier between the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire. At the end of the middle-ages, the Duchy of Burgundy was the economical center of Europe, a place for commerce, arts and science. The Burgundian culture inherits from this position. Burgundy saw the rise of monachism in Western Europe, with the Abbey of Cluny being the most important and powerful abbey in Western Europe.