The now-extinct title of Count of Provence belonged to local families of Frankish origin, to the House of Barcelona, to the House of Anjou and to a cadet branch of the House of Valois. From 1032 to 1246 the county was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and a fief of the French Crown from 1246. It was definitely incorporated into the French royal domain in 1481.
The first known rulers of Provence, some of whom may have styled themselves Kings or Dukes or Marquesses of Provence, descend from Rotbold or Roubaud (between 949 and 965) and his son Boson of Arles (b. 928 - d. 965/7), of a noble Frankish family which constituted the so called First House of Burgundy. Count Boson of Arles received Provence in 947. Upon his death his two sons, Guilhem I the Liberator (b. 950, d. 994) and Rotbold (Roubaud) II (b. 961, d. 1008) succeeded him without dividing his dominions. This indivisibility was maintained by their respective descendants. It is thus impossible to ascertain who succeeded whom in the County as various reigns overlap.
Descendants of Rotbold (or Roubaud) II and of Guilhem (or William or Guillaume) I as Counts of Provence include:
961-1008 - Rotbold (or Roubaud) III, son of Rotbold II
994-1018 - Guilhem (or William or Guillaume) II, son of Guilhem I
1014-1024 or 1037 - Guilhem (or William or Guillaume) IV of Arles, son of Rotbold III
1018-1030 - Guilhem (or William or Guillaume) III, son of Guilhem II
1018-1051 - Foulques (or Folch) Bertrand, son of Guilhem II
Ramon Berenguer IV left no male heirs, so he left the counties of Provence and Forcalquier to his fourth daughter, Beatrice, and her husband, Charles d'Anjou
NOTES:
To accommodate claims of the count of Toulouse in 1125 Provence was divided along the Durance. Lands north of the river constituted the marquessate of Provence, ruled by Toulouse, and south of the river was the county proper, ruled by the House of Barcelona.
The County of Forcalquier was incorporated into the domains of Alfonso II upon his marriage with Gersande de Forcalquier (1193)
Counts of Provence and Forcalquier, Dukes of Anjou and (nominal) Kings of Sicily, of the Valois-Anjou dynasty
1382-1384Louis I of Anjou, Count and then Duke of Anjou (1351), Duke of Calabria and Count of Maine (1356), Duke of Touraine (1370), nominal King of Sicily (1382)
1384-1417Louis II of Anjou, Duke of Anjou, Calabria and Touraine, Count of Maine, nominal King of Sicily (1384), Count of Guise (1404), son of Louis I
1417-1434Louis III of Anjou, Duke of Anjou and Touraine, nominal King of Sicily (1417), Duke of Calabria (1424), son of Louis II
1434-1480Rene I of Naplesthe Good, Count of Guise (1417-1422), Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1431), King of Naples and (nominal) Sicily and Jerusalem (1434-1442), Duke of Anjou and Touraine (1434), King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona (in dispute, 1466-1472), son of Louis II
1480-1481 Charles III (V of Maine), a.k.a. Charles of Maine, Count of Maine and Guise (1472), nephew of Rene I
Upon his death the heirless Charles du Maine bequests the counties of Provence-Forcalquier to King Louis XI of France. From this point, the title of Count of Provence becomes simply one of the many hereditary titles of the French monarchy.
PROVENCE (Provincia, Proenza), a province in the south-east of ancient France, bounded on the N. by the Dauphine, on the E. by the Rhone and Languedoc, on the W. by the Alps and Italy, and on the S. by the Mediterranean.
At this period the name of Provence was restricted to the southern cities, which had passed from the Gothic to the Frankish rule; it did not regain its original signification and denote the country extending as far as Lyonnais till the end of the 8th and the beginning of the 9th centuries.
Austrasian counts were given authority in the cities, and under Charlemagne and Louis the Pious the history of Provence became incorporated with that of the rest of the empire.
Provence is considered today as made of the departments of Var, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Bouches-du-Rhône, Vaucluse, Alpes-Maritimes, and the southern part of the department of Drôme (Drôme provençale).
Provence is limited by the Italian border (east), the traditional province of Dauphiné (north, the limit being more or less the limit between the Southern and the Northern Alps), the river Rhôone (west) and the Mediterranean Sea (south).
In 843, Provence was allocated to Lothaire by the treaty of Verdun.
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