The cradle of the Savoyard power lay in the Burgundian lands immediately bordering upon Italy and stretching on both sides of the Alps. It was to their geographical position, as holding several great mountain passes, that the Savoyard princes owed their first importance, succeeding therein in some measure to the Burgundian kings themselves.[15] The early stages of the growth of the house are very obscure; and its power does not seem to have formed itself till after the union of Burgundy with the Empire. ♦Possessions of the Counts of Maurienne.♦ But it seems plain that, at the end of the eleventh century, the Counts of _Maurienne_, which was their earliest title, held rights of sovereignty in the Burgundian districts of _Maurienne_, _Savoy_ strictly so called, _Tarantaise_, and _Aosta_. ♦Aosta; its special position.♦ This last valley and city, though on the Italian side of the Alps, had hitherto been rather Burgundian than Italian.[16] Its allegiance had fluctuated several times between the two kingdoms; but, from the time that Savoy held lands in both, the question became of no practical importance. And, without entering into minute questions of tenure, it may be said that the early Savoyard possessions reached to the Lake of Geneva, and spread on both sides of the inland mouth of the Rhone. The power of the Savoyard princes in this region was largely due to their ecclesiastical position as advocates of the abbey of Saint Maurice. ♦Geographical character of the Burgundian territories.♦ Thus their possessions had a most irregular outline, nearly surrounding the lands of _Genevois_ and _Faucigny_. A state of this shape, like Prussia in a later age and on a greater scale, was, as it were, predestined to make further advances. But for some centuries those advances were made much more largely in Burgundy than in Italy. ♦Their early Italian possessions.♦ The original Italian possessions of the House bordered on their Burgundian counties of Maurienne and Aosta, taking in _Susa_ and _Turin_. ♦Marquesses in Italy.♦ This small marchland gave its princes the sounding title of _Marquesses in Italy_. The endless shiftings of territory in this quarter could be dealt with only at extreme length, and they are matters of purely local concern. ♦Fluctuations of dominion.♦ In truth, they are not always fluctuations of territory in any strict sense at all, but rather fluctuations of rights between the feudal princes, the cities, and their bishops. ♦Their position in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.♦ In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the princes of Savoy were still hemmed in in their own corner of Italy by princes of equal or greater power, at _Montferrat_, at _Saluzzo_, at _Iverea_, and at _Biandrate_. And it must be remembered that their position as princes at once Burgundian and Italian was not peculiar to them. ♦Other princes at once Italian and Burgundian.♦ The Dauphins of the Viennois and the Counts of