Provence
formerly a maritime province of France, bounded on the S. by the Mediterranean, and comprising the modern departments of Bouches du Rhône, Var, Basses-Alpes, and parts of Alpes Maritimes and Vaucluse. Provence was overrun in the 5th century by the Visigoths and Burgundians, for a time was under the Saracens, and in 879 was mostly incorporated with Cisjuran Burgundy and with it was attached to Germany. The main part of the region remained, however, under the Counts of Arles, also known as Counts of Provence, and was practically independent. Under the Angevin princes the constitution of Provence, with its three estates holding the power of the purse, was well balanced and free; and it is possible that through Simon de Montfort the English parliamentary constitution may be indebted to it. The last of the counts, Charles, grandson of René the Good, bequeathed his country to the dauphin of France; and it was united to that country in 1486 by Charles VIII.