Arles, kingdom of, was formed in 933, when Rudolf II, king of Transjurane Burgundy, united the kingdom of Provence or Cisjurane Burgundy to his lands and established his capital at Arles. Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II annexed the kingdom to the Holy Roman Empire in 1034, but few of his successors troubled to be crowned as king of Arles. The imperial rulers exercised little control, and the component parts of the realm (Provence, Vivarais, Lyonnais, Dauphiné, Savoy, W Switzerland, and Franche-Comté) gradually broke away. In 1378, Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV ceded the realm to the dauphin (later King Charles VI of France), and the kingdom for all practical purposes ceased to exist.
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