Concept
The County of Nice (Comté de Nice / Pays Niçois; Contea di Nizza / Paese Nizzardo; Niçard Contèa de Niça / País Niçard) is a historical region of France located around the southeastern city of Nice and roughly equivalent to the modern arrondissement of Nice. Its territory lies between the Mediterranean Sea (Côte d'Azur), Var River and the southernmost crest of the Alps. Ligurian tribes populated the County of Nice prior to its occupation by the Romans. These tribes, conquered by Augustus, had become fully Romanized (according to Theodore Mommsen) by the 4th century, when the barbarian invasions began. In those Roman centuries, the area was part of the Regio IX Liguria of Italy. The Franks conquered the region after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the local Romance populations became integrated within the County of Provence, with a period of independence as a maritime republic (1108–1176). It was initially a semi-autonomous part of the ancient County of Provence. Nice became part of the domains of the House of Savoy on 28 September 1388, with which Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy, taking advantage of the internal struggles in Provence, negotiated with Giovanni Grimaldi, baron of Boglio (governor of Nice and the Eastern Provence) the passage of Nice and the Ubaye Valley to the Savoy domains, with the name of Terre Nuove di Provenza. The Terre Nuove then took the name of County of Nice in 1526, where in this context the term "county" was used in an administrative and not a feudal sense. On 25 October 1561, following the Edict of Rivoli, Italian replaced Latin as the language for drafting the official documents of the County of Nice. Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, made Nice a free port in 1614 and established a senate there. The revolt of the count of Boglio was put down in 1621 and from that moment the county experienced a period of stability, unlike the nearby Provence battered by the revolts. Hostilities with France recommenced during the 17th century and the county was subjected to French occupation twice (1691–1697 and 1707–1713).
