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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PRE-PYR |
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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
' Gras was Capoulie from 1891 till 1901, succeeding his brother-in-law, Roumanille, who held the office from 1888 till 1891. The first Capoulie was, of course, Mistral (18761888). Gras's successor was Pierre Devoluy, of Die (appointed in April 1901). the government to his brother-in-law, Duke Boso, who, taking advantage of the struggles between the Frankish princes which followed the death of Charles the Bald, reconstituted the former kingdom of Charles, the son of Lothair, and in 879 was acknowledged as its sovereign at Mantaille in Viennois. This is the kingdom of Provence (Provence, Viennois, Lyonnais and Vivarais), sometimes, but improperly, called Cisjuran Burgundy. Boso died in 887, having succeeded in maintaining his independence against the united Frankish princes. His widow Ermengarde, daughter of Louis II., with the assistance of the emperor Arnulf, had her son Louis acknowledged king at an assembly held at Valence in 890. Louis attempted to seize the crown of Italy in goo, and in got was even crowned emperor at Rome by Pope Benedict IV.; but in 905 he was surprised at Verona by his rival Berengar, who captured him, put out his eyes, and forced him to give up Italy and return to Provence; he lived here till his death in 928, leaving an illegitimate son, Charles Constantine. The principal figure in the country at this time was Hugo (Hugues) " of Arles," count, or duke, of Viennois and marquis of Provence, who had been king of Italy since 926. In order to retain possession of this country, he gave the kingdom of Louis the Blind to Rudolph II., king of Burgundy (q.v.), and thus the kingdom of Burgundy extended from the source of the Aar to the Mediterranean. But the sovereignty of Rudolph II. and his successors, Conrad (937993) and Rudolph III. (9931032), over Provence was almost purely nominal, and things were in much the same condition when, on the death of Rudolph III., the kingdom of Burgundy passed into the hands of the German kings, who now bore the title of kings of Arles, but very rarely exercised their authority in the country. At the beginning of the loth century Provence was in a state of complete disorganization, a result of the invasions of the Saracens, who, coming from Spain, took up their quarters in the neighbourhood of Fraxinetum (La Garde-Freinet in the department of Var) and ravaged the country pitilessly, the Christians being unable to oust them from their strongholds. All the real power was in the hands of the counts of the country. It is probable that from the 9th century several of the Provencal countships were united under one count, and that the count of Arles had the title of duke, or marquis, and exercised authority over the others. In the middle of the loth century the count-ship of Provence was in the hands of a certain Boso, of unknown origin, who left it to his two sons William and Roubaud (Rotbold). These two profited by the commotion caused by the capture of the famous abbot of Cluny, St Maiolus (Mayeul), in 973, who had fallen into the hands of the Saracens, and marched against the Mussulmans, definitely expelling them from Fraxinetum. About the same period the marquisate seems to have been re-established in favour of Count William, who died in 993, and from that time the descendants of the two brothers, without making any partition, ruled over the different countships of Provence, only one of them, however, bearing the title of marquis. The counts of Provence had, from about the middle of the 11th century, a tendency to add the name of their usual residence after their title, and thus the lordships, known later under the names of the countships of Arles (or more properly Provence), of Nice, and of Venaissin, grew up. Roubaud had one son named William, who died without children, about 1043, and one daughter, Emma, who married William, count of Toulouse, by whom she had a son, Pons (10301063), the father of Raymund of Saint-Gilles (10631105). William also had a son of the same name. This William II. had three sons by his wife GerbergeFulk, Geoffrey and William. The last-mentioned had a son, William Bertrand (1044-1067), whose daughter Adelaide married, first, Ermengaud, count of Urgel, and then Raimbaud of Nice. Geoffrey was the father of Gerberge, who married Gilbert, count of Gevaudan, and he had a daughter Douce, who in 1112 married Raymund-Berenger, count of Barcelona; by this marriage, Provence, in the correct sense of the word, passed over to the house of Barcelona. At the beginning of the 12th century the various marriages of the Provencal heiresses, of whom mention has just been made, ledto the land being divided up among the different branches of the ancient countly family (1105, 1125 and 1149), and thus the countships of Provence, Venaissin and Forcalquier were definitely formed. Under the command of Raymund of Saint-Gilles the Proven-gals took an important part in the first crusade, and the use of the term " Provencal" to denote the inhabitants of southern France, their language and their literature, seems to date from this period. The history of the princes of the house of Barcelona, Raymund-Berenger I. (rxr31131), Raymund-Berenger II. (11311144) and Raymund-Berenger III. (1144-1166), is full of accounts of their struggles with the powerful feudal house of Baux, which had extensive property in Provence; in 1146 one of the representatives of this house, Raymund, obtained from the emperor the investiture
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doubt following the example of those in Italy, began to form municipal administrations and consulates, independent of the viscounts, who in theory represented the authority of the count in the towns. This movement was occasionally interrupted by home disturbances, such as struggles against the civil and ecclesiastical authorities; nevertheless Marseilles, Arles, Tarascon, Avignon (whose consulate laws date from the 1zth century), Brignoles and Grasse were self-governing and elected their magistrates, sometimes negotiating with the count, as a power with a power, and concluding political or commercial treaties without consulting him. The city of Nice, which was joined to Provence in 1176, had retained its freedom. This state of affairs was in direct opposition to the authoritative government of Charles of Anjou, who tried to bring back the most independent of these towns under his sway. In 1251 he seized Arles and Avignon and placed them under a viguier (vicar) nominated by himself. In 1257 Marseilles was also subdued, and ministers nominated by the court performed their duties side by side with the municipal officials. The successors of Charles of Anjou also showed great interest
Joanna
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heir Charles of Anjou-Gravina, duke of Duras, who had married her niece Margaret, but to provide herself with a protector from Louis of Hungary, who accused her of murdering her first husband Andrew and wished to dispute her right to the kingdom of Naples, she married again and became the wife of Otto of Brunswick. Charles of Duras, discontented with this marriage, took part against her, and she in her turn disinherited him and named Louis of Anjou as her eventual successor (1380). The duke of Anjou took possession of Provence, whilst Charles of Duras made the queen prisoner at Naples and gave orders for her to be put to death (1382). Louis of Anjou also made an expedition to Naples, but did not arrive till after her death, and he died in 1384. His son Louis II. (1384-1417) banished the viscount of Turenne from Provence, because he had taken advantage of his sovereign's absence to ravage the country. He did not live in Provence till the last years of his life; in 1415 he established a parlement. The following year the country was devastated by a terrible plague. The wars carried on by his successor Louis III. (1417-34) against the kings of Aragon, his rivals at Naples, were the cause of the complete ruin of Marseilles by the Aragonese fleet. The town, however, regained its former state comparatively quickly. Although Louis III. had centred almost all his attention on the expeditions in Italy, he managed to secure the lands belonging to the house of Baux on the death of the last of the family, the Baroness Alix (1426). Rene, duke of Lorraine (q.v.), Louis's brother and successor, after an unsuccessful attack on Naples (146o-1461), went to live on his property in France, and after 1471 was principally in Provence, where he built the castle of Tarascon and interested himself in art, literature, and pastoral
In the 16th century Provence took part in a war between France and the imperialists. The constable de Bourbon, who had received the investiture
carrier out with great severity in 1545 by the president d'Oppede aad the baron de la Garde, who burned the villages and massacred the inhabitants. Protestantism did not take a great hold on Provence, but drew a fair number of followers from the ranks of the lesser nobles, who, with Paul de Mauvans at their head, began the struggle against the Catholics under the comte de Carces. Charles IX.'s journey in Provence in 1567, followed by the establishment in the parlement at Aix of a court (chambre) in which Catholics and Protestants had an equal number of seats, led to a momentary cessation of hostilities. These were resumed between the Carcistes (Roman Catholics) and Razats (Protestants), and again interrupted by the peace of 1576, which gave some guarantees to the Protestants, with La Seyne as a place of security, and also by the plague of 1579, which affected the whole country. The league, on the other hand, made rapid progress in Provence under the direction of the comte de Sault and Hubert de la Garde, seigneur of Vins, and the governors of Epernon
During the reign of Henry IV. the country was comparatively peaceful; but under Richelieu the restriction of local freedom and the creation of new offices led to the insurrection of the Cascaveous (small bells, a name derived from their rallying sign), which Conde came to suppress in 1630-1631. At the time of the Fronde additional taxes were levied by the parlement at Aix, and the struggle began between the Canivets (Mazarins) and the Sabreurs (prince's party), who captured the governor, the comte d'Alais, for a short time. The duke of Mercoeur calmed the country down. Louis XIV.'s tour in Provence (166o) was marked by an insurrection at Marseilles, which brought about the abolition of the last remaining municipal liberties of the town. Provence was severely tried by the imperialist invasions of 1706 and 1746, and 'the great plague of 1720. Towards the end of the ancien regime the movement which resulted in the revolution of 1789 made itself felt in Provence, and was most apparent in the double election at Aixand at Marseilles of Mirabeau as deputy for the states-general. Provence, with its own special language and its law so closely related to Roman law, has always been quite separate from the other French provinces. Theoretically it retained its provincial estates, the origin of which has been traced to the assemblages of the 12th century. They met annually, and included representatives of three orders: for the clergy, the archbishop of Aix, president ex officio of the estates, the other bishops of Provence, the abbots of St Victor at Marseilles, of Montmajour and of Thoronet; for the nobility, all the men of noble birth (gentilhommes) until 1623, when this privilege was restricted to actual holders of fiefs; for the third, the members of the twenty-two chief towns of the vigueries 1 and fifteen other privileged places, among which were Arles and Marseilles. There were theoretically no taxes, but only supplies given freely by the estates and assessed by them. However, this assembly did not meet after 1639. The administrative divisions of Provence were constantly changing. In 1307 Charles II. divided it into two senechaussees, Aix and Forcalquier, comprising twenty-two vigueries. At the end of the ancien regime the government (gouvernement) of Provence, which corresponded to the generalite of Aix, was made up of eight senechaussees, those of Lower ProvenceAix, Arles, Marseilles, Brignoles, Hyeres, Grasse, Draguignan, Toulon; and four of Upper ProvenceDigne, Sisteron, Forcalquier, Castellane. From a judicial point of view the parlement of Aix had replaced the former conseil eminent or cour souveraine. There was a chambre des comptes at Aix, and also a cour des aides. A decree, dated the 22nd of December 1789, divided Provence into the three departments of Bouche du Rhone, Basses-Alpes and Var, and in 1793 Vaucluse, the former county (comtat) of Venaissin, which be-longed to the pope, was added to these. The boundaries of the department of Var were modified in 1863 after the annexation, when the department of the Alpes Maritimes was formed. AurHOiITIES.There is no good general history of Provence. For a complete work consult the ancient works of H. Bouche, Chorographie et histoire chronologique de Provence (2 vols. in fol., Aix, 1664) ; Papon, Histoire generale de Provence (4 vols. in 4to, Paris, 17771786); L. Merv, Histoire de Provence (3 vols. in 8vo, Marseilles, 1830-1837). For special periods of history see F. Kiener, Verfassungsgeschichte der Provence, 5zo1200 (8vo, Leipzig
1826). (R. Po.) End of Article: PROVENCE (Provincia, Proenza) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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