Kingdom of Burgundy-Arles in the context of "King of Provence"

The Avignon Papacy (Occitan: Papat d'Avinhon; French: Papauté d'Avignon) was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (at the time within the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now part of France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by agents of Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip pressured a deadlocked conclave to elect the Archbishop of Bordeaux as pope Clement V in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity" of the Papacy (cf. Italian cattività avignonese, i.e. "Avignonese captivity").

A total of seven popes reigned at Avignon, all French, and all under the influence of the French Crown. In 1376, Gregory XI abandoned Avignon and moved his court to Rome, arriving in January 1377. After Gregory's death in 1378, deteriorating relations between his successor Urban VI and a faction of cardinals gave rise to the Western Schism. This started a second line of Avignon popes, subsequently regarded as illegitimate. The last Avignon antipope, Benedict XIII, lost most of his support in 1398, including that of France. After five years besieged by the French, he fled to Perpignan in 1403. The schism ended in 1417 at the Council of Constance.

In medieval historiography, West Francia (Medieval Latin: Francia occidentalis) or the Kingdom of the West Franks (Latin: regnum Francorum occidentalium) constitutes the initial stage of the Kingdom of France and extends from the Treaty of Verdun in 843 to 987, the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. It was created from the division of the Carolingian Empire following the death of Louis the Pious, with its neighbor East Francia eventually evolving into the Kingdom of Germany.

West Francia extended further north and south than modern metropolitan France, but it did not extend as far east. It did not include such future French holdings as Lorraine, the County and Kingdom of Burgundy (the duchy was already a part of West Francia), Alsace and Provence in the east and southeast for example. It also did not include the Brittany peninsula in the west.

The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by several different cultures on different sides, the Provençals maintained a unity which was reinforced when the region was made a separate kingdom during the Carolingian decline of the later ninth century. When Boso of Provence acquired the region in 879, it was known as Lower Burgundy until it was merged with Upper Burgundy in 933 to form the Kingdom of Arles. The counts of Arles began calling themselves "count of Provence"; although in name vassals, they were de facto autonomous princes. After 1032, the county was part of the Holy Roman Empire.

In the eleventh century, Provence became disputed between the traditional line and the counts of Toulouse, who claimed the title of "Margrave of Provence". In the High Middle Ages, the title of Count of Provence belonged to local families of Frankish origin, from 1112 to 1245 to the House of Barcelona (a cadet branch of the House of Aragón), from 1245 to 1382 to the House of Anjou, and from 1382 to 1481 to a cadet branch of the House of Valois. It was inherited by King Louis XI of France in 1481, and definitively incorporated into the French royal domain by his son Charles VIII in 1487.

The Hohenstaufen dynasty (/ˈhoʊənʃtaʊfən/, US also /-staʊ-/, German: [ˌhoːənˈʃtaʊfn̩]), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of German origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy. The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura, near the town of Göppingen. Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268.

The County of Provence was a largely autonomous medieval state that eventually became incorporated into the Kingdom of France in 1481. For four centuries Provence was ruled by a series of counts that were vassals of the Carolingian Empire, Burgundy and finally the Holy Roman Empire, but in practice they were largely independent.

Upper Burgundy (Latin: Burgundia superior; French: Bourgogne supérieure) was a historical region in the early medieval Burgundy, and a distinctive realm known as the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy, that existed from 888 to 933, when it was incorporated into the reunited Kingdom of Burgundy, that lasted until 1032. During those periods, the region of Upper Burgundy was encompassing the entire Juran Burgundy (French: Bourgogne jurane), including the County of Burgundy (modern region of Franche-Comté). The Kingdom of Upper Burgundy was established in 888 by the Welf king Rudolph I within the territory of former Middle Francia. Under his son and successor, king Rudolph II, Upper Burgundy was reunited with Lower Burgundy in 933 to form the Kingdom of Burgundy, that existed until 1032.