The County of Geneva, largely corresponding to the later Genevois province, originated in the tenth century, in the Burgundian Kingdom of Arles (Arelat) which fell to the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.

In 1124, the Bishops of Geneva had their rule over the city acknowledged and continued to make themselves an independent force, while the Counts of Savoy encircled the territory and controlled the trade routes.

With his death in 1394, the House of Geneva was extinguished and the title passed to the husband of the heiress, Humbert VII of Thoire and Villars who died in 1400.

Eventually in 1401, the year after Humbert's death, his heir Odo of Thoire-Geneva sold the comté to Count Amadeus VIII of Savoy.

Medieval historians connected the literary figures of Reynier and Olivier from the late-12th-century Girart de Vienne to the Genevois, but this is pure fiction.