Principality of Orange

The Principality of Orange (French: Principauté d'Orange; Occitan: Principat d'Oranja) was, from 1163 to 1713, a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the east bank of the river Rhone, north of the city of Avignon, and surrounded by the independent papal state of Comtat Venaissin. It was constituted in 1163, when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I elevated the Burgundian County of Orange (consisting of the city of Orange and the land surrounding it) to a sovereign principality within the Empire. The principality became part of the scattered holdings of the House of Orange-Nassau from the time that William the Silent inherited the title of Prince of Orange from his cousin in 1544, until it was.