Lords of Baux
Les Baux was a family of southern French nobility.
History
It is first attested in the second half of the 10th century. They occur from 1032 as lords of Les Baux, but branch out quickly across large parts of the western Mediterranean. Individual lines of the families earn in Provence the viscounty Marseille and the Principality of Orange, the hereditary office of judge ( Iudicarius ) in Arborea in Sardinia, and after the conquest of southern Italy by Charles of Anjou, the county of Avellino and the Duchy of Andria. Here the family bore the name del Balzo. A branch line of the Dukes of Andria is the family of the Dukes of Presenzano, which still exists today. Another branch line bequeathed their property to the house Orsini with the condition that the name del Balzo add their names.