Editing Provence (section)

=== Germanic invasions, Merovingians and Carolingians (5th–9th centuries) ===
[[File:King Boson of Provence.JPG|thumb|[[Boso of Provence|King Boson]] and [[List of protomartyrs|San Stephen]] (fragment of fresco at [[Charlieu Abbey]])]]
Beginning in the second half of the 5th century, as Roman power waned, successive waves of Germanic tribes entered Provence: first the [[Visigoths]] (480), then the [[Ostrogoths]], then the [[Burgundians]], finally, the [[Franks]] in the 6th century. [[Arab]] invaders and [[Berber people|Berber]] pirates came from North Africa to the Coast of Provence in the early 7th century.

During the late 7th and the early 8th centuries, Provence was formally subject to the Frankish kings of the [[Merovingian dynasty]], but it was in fact ruled by its own regional nobility of Gallo-Roman stock, which ruled themselves according to Roman, not Frankish, law. Actually, the region enjoyed more prestige than the northern Franks had, but the local aristocracy feared [[Charles Martel]]'s expansionist ambitions.<ref name=rogercollins>{{cite book | author = Collins, Roger| year = 1989 | title = The Arab Conquest of Spain 710–797 | publisher = Blackwell |location = Oxford, UK / Cambridge, USA|isbn= 0-631-19405-3|page=92}}</ref> In 737, Charles Martel headed down the Rhône Valley after subduing Burgundy. He attacked [[Battle of Avignon|Avignon]] and [[Arles]], garrisoned by the [[Islamic invasion of Gaul|Umayyads]], and came back in 739 to capture for a second time Avignon and chase the duke [[Maurontus]] to his stronghold of Marseille.<ref name=rogercollins/> The city was brought to heel and the duke had to flee to an island. The region was thereafter under the rule of [[Carolingian]] kings, descended from Charles Martel, and then was part of the empire of [[Charlemagne]] (742–814).

In 879, after the death of the Carolingian ruler [[Charles the Bald]], [[Boso of Provence]] (also known as Boson), his brother-in-law, broke away from the Carolingian kingdom of [[Louis the Younger|Louis III]] and was elected the first ruler of an independent state of Provence.