To the south of this group of states, and partly intermingled with them, lay another group, lying partly within the Cisjurane and partly within the Transjurane kingdom, which gradually grew into a great power. ♦Growth of Savoy.♦ These were the states which were united step by step under the Counts of _Maurienne_, afterwards Counts of _Savoy_. ♦Burgundian possession of its county.♦ When their dominions were at their greatest extent, they held south of the Lake of Geneva, besides Maurienne and Savoy strictly so called, the districts of _Aosta_, _Tarantaise_, the _Genevois_, _Chablais_, and _Faucigny_, together with _Vaud_ and _Gex_ north of the lake. Thus grew up the power of Savoy, which has already been noticed in its purely Italian aspect, but which must receive fuller separate treatment in a section of its own. ♦States between the Palatinate and the Mediterranean.♦ The remainder of the Burgundian Kingdom consisted of a number of small states stretching from the southern boundary of the Burgundian county to the Mediterranean. ♦Bresse and Bugey become Savoyard. | Bugey, 1137-1344; | Bresse, 1272-1402.♦ North of the Rhone lay the districts of _Bresse_ and _Bugey_, which passed at various times to the House of Savoy. ♦Lyons, Vienne, Orange, &c. | Provence.♦ Southwards on the Rhone lay a number of small states, among which the most important in history are the archbishopric, the county, and the free city of _Lyons_, the county or _Dauphiny_ of _Vienne_ and the city of _Vienne_, the county or principality _of Orange_, the city of _Avignon_, the county of _Venaissin_, the free city of _Arles_, the capital of the kingdom, the free city of _Massalia_ or _Marseilles_, the county of _Nizza_ or _Nice_, and the great county or marquisate of _Provence_. In this last power lay the first element of danger, especially to the republican independence of the free cities. ♦Changes of dynasty. | The Angevins, 1246.♦ After being held by separate princes of its own, as well as by the Aragonese kings, it passed by marriage into the hands of a French prince, Charles of Anjou, the conqueror of Sicily, and also the destroyer of the second freedom of Massalia. ♦Growing French connexion.♦ The possession of the greatest member of the kingdom by a French ruler, though it made no immediate change in the formal state of things, gave fresh strength to every tendency which tended to withdraw the Burgundian lands from their allegiance to the Empire and to bring them, first into connexion with France, and then into actual incorporation with the French kingdom. ♦Process of French annexation.♦