[2]: 35 Its territory stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the High Rhine River in the north, roughly corresponding to the present-day French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes and Franche-Comté, as well as western Switzerland.

In 843, the three surviving sons of Emperor Louis the Pious, who had died in 840, signed the Treaty of Verdun which partitioned the Carolingian Empire among them: the former Burgundian kingdom became part of Middle Francia, which was allotted to Emperor Lothair I (Lotharii Regnum), with the exception of the later Duchy of Burgundy, the present-day Bourgogne, which went to Charles the Bald, king of West Francia.

At the Synod of Mantaille, Boso was proclaimed king, thus establishing a distinctive Kingdom in the regions of Provence and Lower Burgundy (Bourgogne Cisjurane), centered at Arles and Vienne, but his realm was much reduced by 882.

His son and heir, king Louis the Blind (d. 928) succeeded to consolidate the realm in 890, and even managed to capture northern Italy, becoming the emperor in 901.

[6] In 993, Conrad was succeeded by his son Rudolph III, who in 1006 was forced to sign a succession treaty in favor of the future Emperor Henry II.

[2]: 37  The Dauphiné was effectively annexed by France through a series of largely accidental developments between 1343 and 1349, but the issue of whether the king or emperor had ultimate sovereignty over it was left unclear until well into the 15th century.[2]: 39-40 .

In 1282, Charles was ready to send the child couple to reclaim the old royal title of Kings of Arles, but the War of the Sicilian Vespers frustrated his plans.

[7] On 4 June 1365, Charles IV was the last emperor to be crowned king at Arles, after a gap of nearly two centuries following the previous Arlesian coronation of Frederick I in 1178.

[9] This was seen as an effective renouncement of imperial authority over the old Burgundian regions, thus initiating the final stage of institutional dissolution of the Kingdom as a distinct entity.

[10] In 1463, the title of Imperial vicar was offered to Duke Philip himself, by Emperor Friedrich III, as part of a proposed dynastic alliance between the houses of Burgundy and Austria, but no final agreement was reached, and thus the appointment was not accepted.

The Dauphiny and the Provence were annexed into the Crown lands of France by the end of the 15th century, but those changes were not formally sanctioned by the Holy Roman Emperors.

He took Aix-en-Provence on August 5, affirming there his rights to the Kingdom of Arles, but those gains were soon lost, and the war ended by the Treaty of Nice (1538).