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.
Provence was united under one ruler during the reigns of Clotaire II.
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.
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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