Antiquity Greek provence The Provençal coastline was colonized by the
Greeks: around 600 BCE, the
Phocaeans settled in
Marseille (
Massalia in Greek;
Massilia in Latin). They spread out to other areas, founding colonies in
Nice (Nikaia),
Antibes (Antipolis),
Hyères (Olbia),
Six-Fours (Tauroeis),
Arles,
La Ciotat (Citharista),
Brégançon (Pergantion),
Monaco (Monoïkos),
Athénopolis, and on certain parts of the
Languedoc coast such as
Agde (Agathé) and south of
Nîmes. To the north, they founded
Le Pègue near
Valréas and stopped at
La Laupie, east of Montélimar. Before the Roman invasion and colonization, the region was mainly inhabited by
Ligurians, who later mixed with some Celtic soldiers and founded what is now referred to as the Celto-Ligurians (formerly Celto-Lygians).
The Roman conquest in the 2nd century BCE Brief timeline • 181 BCE: The Phocaean Massaliotes of the city of
Marseille and their Helleno-Celtic allies, the
Cavares from the Cavaillon–Avignon–Orange region, called on
Rome for help against
Ligurian pirates. • 154 BCE: Nice and Antibes were besieged by Ligurians from the Maritime Alps; a Roman expedition led by Opimius. • 117 BCE: Beginning of the construction of the
Via Domitia (in honor of Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus) toward the
Pyrenees. It followed the route of an ancient Greek road (the
Heraclean Way). Its construction symbolized Romanization and stimulated commercial exchange. • 109–105 BCE: Incursions by Germanic tribes (
Cimbri,
Teutons, Tigurini,
Ambrones).
Marius defeated the Teutons at
Pourrières (near Aix-en-Provence) in 102 BCE and the Cimbri at Vercellae in 101 BCE. However, in 484, upon the death of the Visigoth king
Euric, the Burgundians crossed the Durance and seized all of
Provence, which they returned to the Visigoths in 501. In 508, the
Ostrogoths in turn seized Provence and established a duchy in the south of the
Burgundian kingdom, dependent on their Italo-Dalmatian realm: the Duchy of Provence, which would later become Lower Provence or the County of Provence (the Burgundian part would become the Margraviate of Provence). In 536, the Franks took possession of the duchy, partially integrating it into the
Frankish kingdom of Burgundy.
Charles Martel fought against the patrician of Provence,
Maurontus, an ally of the Moors of Gothia, and permanently brought Provence into the
Frankish domain in 736. In 843, the
Treaty of Verdun granted Provence to
Lothair I. His son,
Charles of Provence, made it the
Kingdom of Provence-Viennois or Lower Burgundy, a short-lived entity (855–863). Upon his death, Provence was incorporated into Italy and Viennois into the Lotharingia of Lothair II. After a period of unrest, Provence was once again included in the imperial domain by the
Treaty of Meerssen, though briefly, as it returned, upon the death of Emperor
Louis II in 875, to the King of West Francia,
Charles the Bald, again for a short time.
Boson of Provence, his brother-in-law, had himself proclaimed king of the second Kingdom of Provence in 879. Boson conflicted with the
Carolingians. In 947, the
Bosonid Boson,
Count of Arles, was invested with Provence. Upon his death, his two sons, Guilhem known as the Liberator (
William I) and Roubaud, jointly inherited the county, an indivision maintained by their descendants. The branch descending from Guilhem produced the Counts of Provence; the branch from Roubaud produced the Marquises of Provence.
The county of Provence within the Kingdom of Arles was divided in 1125 into the county and of Provence and the
county of Forcalquier. The County of Provence was one of the great fiefs of the
Rodolphian Kingdom of Burgundy. In 948,
Conrad the Peaceful, with the support of
Otto, King of Germany, reclaimed the territory south of Viennois to the Mediterranean Sea, which had been excluded from the 932 cession by
Hugh of Arles to
Rudolph II of Burgundy. To govern this territory, Conrad appointed counts who were loyal to him and chosen from outside Provence, since Conrad had no personal domain in Provence and thus only theoretical ownership, preferring to appoint counts who would remain faithful to him. He selected two brothers from the Mâcon region, Boson and Guillaume, sons of Rotbald or Roubaud, with the former as
Count of Arles and the latter as Count of
Avignon. It seems both brothers acted jointly, with the younger subordinate to the elder in managing the north, center, west, and southeast of the County of Provence. In eastern Provence, Conrad appointed a third count, , in the region of Apt and probably Glandèves and Senez, to administer Alpine Provence. This choice of two counts from the same family in Arles and Avignon may stem from
Hugh of Arles having, under the reign of
Louis the Blind, unified the administration of the domain in Provence. To limit the risk of the County of Provence becoming independent of his sovereignty, Conrad divided authority by appointing two viscounts: one in Marseille and one in Cavaillon. The territories entrusted to the lords of
Marseille and Cavaillon were separate from those of the counts of Arles, Avignon, and Apt. The viscounty of Apt quickly disappeared around 1017–1018. The appointment of distinct lords in Marseille deprived the counts of Arles and Avignon of easy access to the Mediterranean. This creation of the seigneury of Marseille is evidenced in a charter dated October 7, 948, where the
bishop of Marseille, , , and
Boson are mentioned. The term “viscounty” for Marseille first appeared in 977. The autonomy of the viscounty of Marseille relative to the County of Provence only ended with the authoritative actions of
Charles of Anjou in 1252 and 1257. Conrad only visited the County of Provence in 963. The Kings of Burgundy seemed to have little interest in Provence. During the reigns of Conrad I and his son
Rudolph III, four or five acts relating to Provence are known. In 972, following the kidnapping of
Mayeul, Abbot of
Cluny, William I, and Roubaud, with the help of
Provençal lords and the Marquis of Turin, liberated Provence from the Saracens who had been pillaging the region from the
Massif des Maures (above
Saint-Tropez). The
Battle of Tourtour marked William's final victory over the Saracens. This military campaign against the Saracens, conducted without
Conrad's troops, was a means to bring Provence, its local aristocracy, and its urban and rural communities—who had until then always resisted feudal transformation and comital power—into line. It allowed William to acquire de facto suzerainty over Provence. He distributed reconquered lands to his vassals, arbitrated disputes, and thereby established Provençal feudalism. The branch from Guilhem produced the
Counts of Provence; the branch from Roubaud, from 1054 onward, produced the
Counts of Forcalquier and the
Marquises of Provence. In 972, following the kidnapping of
Maïeul of Cluny, Abbot of
Cluny, William I, and Roubaud, with the help of Provençal lords and the Marquis of Turin, freed Provence from the
Saracens who, from their fortress of
Fraxinet, had been pillaging the region. As
Rudolph III of Burgundy had no offspring, he named
Conrad II the Salian, Holy Roman Emperor, as his heir. Upon Rudolph's death in 1032, the Kingdom of Burgundy—and with it the Kingdom of Arles, which included the County of Provence—was annexed to the
Holy Roman Empire. A treaty was concluded in 1125 between Raymond-Berenger and Alphonse-Jourdain of Toulouse: according to it, the County of Provence was divided into a marquisate north of the
Durance—granted to the Counts of Toulouse—and a county to the south, granted to the Counts of Barcelona.
Late Middle Ages as King of Sicily. Fresco in the in
Pernes-les-Fontaines. In 1245,
Raymond-Bérenger V of Provence died. His four daughters married respectively:
Marguerite to
Saint Louis (King Louis IX),
Sancie to
Richard of Cornwall,
Eleanor to
Henry III, King of England, and
Beatrice to
Charles,
Count of Anjou and Maine, brother of Saint Louis. It was the latter who inherited the two counties of Provence and Forcalquier, passing them on to the
first Capetian House of Anjou. That is why the city of Forcalquier is nicknamed "the city of the four queens." Accumulating royal titles (
Naples-Sicily,
Jerusalem,
Cyprus,
Acre,
Thessalonica, etc.), the counts began calling themselves kings. However, the County of Provence-Forcalquier was fragmented. Following the
Treaty of Meaux-Paris (1229), which marked the end of the
Albigensian Crusade, upon the death of
Alphonse of Poitiers in 1271, the marquisate passed to King
Philip III of France, who ceded it in 1274 to Pope
Gregory X to become the
Comtat Venaissin. In 1349, neighboring region of
Dauphiné became a feudal possession of the French royal
House of Valois, thus expanding French influence beyond the river
Rhône. In order to affirm imperial authority over the old
Kingdom of Burgundy (Arles), the emperor
Charles IV came to Provence in 1365, and was crowned as
king of Burgundy in
Arles. Since all of those regions were still considered as parts of the old Burgundian realm, within the
Holy Roman Empire, the emperor appointed
Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy as the
imperial vicar of Burgundy (Arles). By 1378, new arrangements were made by appointing the young French prince
Charles, lord of Dauphiné (future king Charles VI), as the imperial vicar of Burgundy (Arles), but only for his lifetime. Thus, the imperial influence on old Burgundian lands, including Porvence, was additionally weakened. In 1380, queen
Joanna I of Naples, who was also the ruling countess of Provence, adopted her distant cousin
Louis I of Anjou, who was brother of the French king
Charles V. Thus in 1382, when she died, two pretenders claimed to inherite Provence, Louis of Anjou and
Charles of Naples, from the cadet branch of the Capetian House of Anjou. The latter's followers formed the
Union of Aix (1382–1387), opposing Louis of Anjou, who gained supporters in western regions of Provence. Contrary to that, eastern Provence (east of the Var), being the only region that remained loyal to Charles, received no effective assistance, and thus Charles allowed it to submit to a lord of its choosing, as long as it was not an enemy. This led, in 1388, to the separation of the city of
Nice and its corresponding administrative division (the viguerie), the city of
Puget-Théniers, and the valleys of the
Tinée and the
Vésubie. Those cities nd regions formed the Terres Neuves de Provence (New Lands of Provence) and placed themselves under the protection of the
House of Savoy — this is known as the . These lands became known as the
County of Nice in 1526. On December 10, 1481, Count
Charles III of Provence dictated a will naming King
Louis XI of France as his universal heir. Charles III died the following day, December 11. In August 1486, the Estates requested
Charles VIII to proclaim the union of Provence with France as “definitive and eternal.” His son
Louis was a short lasting
Holy Roman Emperor who despite being crowned in 901 was twice expelled from Italy and on the second time was blinded and returned to Provence which was now effectively governed by his cousin,
Hugh of Arles. Hugh moved the capital of Provence from Vienne to Arles, and when Louis died took the title Duke of Provence. Hugh became
King of Italy in 926 ruling both Italy and Provence for twenty years. He traded Provence to
Rudolph I of Burgundy in exchange for preserving his power in Italy. After Hugh's death
Conrad of Burgundy became Count of Provence as King of Burgundy. He named a number of counts of Burgundian origin, one of whom
Rotbald founded a new dynasty who would control the county for the next century and a half. and raided throughout Provence getting as far east as the Italian Riviera and north to the alpine valleys of
Piedmont. == Expulsion of the Saracens ==