Provence thus became at length part of the kingdom of France. But the Emperor of Germany still continued his claim of suzerainty upon it, in which he was supported by the Constable, Charles of Bourbon. In pursuance of that claim, Charles V. of Spain invaded Provence in 1536, but without success. The country continued to be frequently attacked in the subsequent wars between France and Spain, but has remained part of France since the days of Louis XI. The boundary of the province on the east remained from that time till our own day, the river Var. It was a frontier badly fortified, and ever open to attack; and we shall see what efforts were made by Francis I. to render it secure against the attempts of his enemy of Spain. In 1861 the boundary between France and Italy was extended eastwards, as far as a ravine spanned by the “Pont St Louis,” a short way beyond Mentone, thus including Nice and Mentone, formerly part of Savoy, within the French territory. In treating of the architecture of this part of the country, we shall find that it bears in its architecture unmistakable signs of its former Italian allegiance. [Illustration] [Illustration] IV. The foregoing Sketch of the history of this region shews that its architecture must belong to two entirely distinct epochs--the Roman period and the Mediæval period. It is proposed in the following description of the various edifices to treat of these two periods separately,--taking up first the buildings of the Roman period in regular sequence as they are met with in descending the Rhone from Lyons, and in the various localities along the Riviera, both west and east of Marseilles. Having thus exhausted the Roman monuments in the province, we shall return to Lyons, and repeat the journey southwards to Marseilles, and thence westwards and eastwards along the coast, taking note of the more important of the many remarkable Mediæval structures in which these localities abound. This method will, we believe, be found to be much more satisfactory than any attempt to deal with the architecture in chronological order. That plan would be very confusing, the reader having under it to be constantly transferring himself from one region to another. By the system adopted he will at least always know where he is, and the situation of the buildings will thus be fixed in the mind. The disadvantage of this method admittedly is that structures of all the Mediæval periods are described together as they occur in each locality; but it is hoped that this disadvantage will be to some extent overcome by the introduction to the Mediæval period, in which the historic sequence and development of the architecture of the country in the Middle Ages is considered. Following the above arrangement we shall now proceed with the description of the buildings, commencing with THE ROMAN PERIOD.