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Rh Minor (lesser Burgundy), was, however, only effective to the east of the Jura, that is, practically over modern Switzerland, and it disappeared in 1217 on the extinction of the elder line of Zähringen. In 1215 Frederick II was to try a return to the same policy, making choice of William of Baux, Prince of Orange, then in 1220 of William, Marquess of Montferrat; from 1237 onwards, he was to be represented by imperial vicars. We shall see the Emperors make an appearance, in an intermittent fashion, in the kingdom and sometimes seeming to re-possess themselves of a more or less real authority in this or that district. Frederick Barbarossa, in particular, after his marriage with Beatrice, the heiress of the county of Burgundy, will appear as unquestioned master in the diocese of Besançon, and be crowned king of Arles in 1178; Frederick II will for a time recover a real power of action in Provence and the Lyonnais; and again in the fourteenth century, Henry VII, strong in the support of the princes of Savoy, will rally to his standard large numbers of the nobles of the kingdom. Charles IV will characteristically go through the empty form of coronation in 1365. But these will be isolated exceptions, leading to nothing.

Incapable of enforcing their authority, the Emperors, from the latter part of the twelfth century onwards, more than once will even meditate restoring the kingdom of Arles, as it is now most frequently called, to its former independence, reserving the right to exact from its new king the recognition of their suzerainty. Henry VI will offer it to his prisoner, Richard Cœur de Lion in 1193; Philip of Swabia to his competitor, Otto of Brunswick in 1207; Rudolf of Habsburg will consider entrusting it in 1274 to a prince of his family, and later on to an Angevin prince, an idea to be revived by Henry VII in 1310.

But all these efforts prove vain. For long centuries the kingdom of Arles remains in theory attached to the Empire, but little by little, this kingdom, over which the German sovereigns could never secure effective control, will crumble to pieces in their hands. Out of its eastern portion the Swiss confederation and the duchy of Savoy will be formed; the kings of France, in the course of the fourteenth century, will succeed in regaining their authority over the Vivarais, the Lyonnais, the Valentinois and Diois, and Dauphiné, successively. To these, a century later, will be added Provence, which had already been long in French hands.