The County of Savoy (Latin: Comitatus Sabaudiae) was a feudal state of the Holy Roman Empire which emerged, along with the free communes of Switzerland, from the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom in the 11th century.

[1] Sapaudia, stretching south of Lake Geneva from the Rhône River to the Western Alps, had been part of Upper Burgundy ruled by the Bosonid duke Hucbert from the mid-9th century.

He backed the inheritance claims of Emperor Henry II and in turn, was permitted to usurp the county of Aosta from its bishops at the death of Anselm.

When she inherited her father's lands in preference to other, male, relatives,[note 1] he thereby acquired control of the extensive March of Turin.

[3] The counts further enlarged their territory when, in 1218, they inherited the Vaud lands north of Lake Geneva from the extinct House of Zähringen.