Comtat Venaissin, Avignon and the Principality of Orange - Vaucluse
Avignon, Carpentras, Orange, Cavaillon, Apt, Valréas. Which empire held this ground in which years — and, the part that matters, which archive that means.
Whose archive this ground was
| Years | Who held it | Whose archive that means |
|---|---|---|
| 1000–1271 | Lands later held by the Holy See and the Princes of Orange | no registers survive Before registers. Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, died on 21 August 1271 and the lands of the Comtat were bequeathed to the Holy See. |
| 1271–1713 | Papal Comtat Venaissin and Avignon; Orange a separate principality | Archives départementales de Vaucluse · FamilySearch · Geneanet The Comtat became a papal territory in 1274, and the papacy bought Avignon from Joanna I in 1348; the capital moved from Venasque to Carpentras in 1320. Orange was a separate sovereign principality of the Holy Roman Empire from 1163, passing to William the Silent in 1544; French forces captured it in 1672 and 1682. |
| 1713–1791 | Papal Comtat and Avignon; Orange French from 1713 | Archives départementales de Vaucluse · FamilySearch · Geneanet Orange was ceded to France under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, while the Comtat and Avignon stayed papal, so two neighbouring towns can have French and papal records for the same decades. French troops also occupied the Comtat in 1663, 1668 and 1768-1774. |
| 1791–1793 | France - annexed by plebiscite, 14 September 1791 | Archives départementales de Vaucluse · FamilySearch · Geneanet The Comtat was incorporated into France on 14 September 1791 after an unauthorised plebiscite. Orange had been absorbed into the Drôme in 1790, later moving to Bouches-du-Rhône and then Vaucluse. |
| 1793–2026 | France - department of Vaucluse | Archives départementales de Vaucluse · FamilySearch · Geneanet The department of Vaucluse was created in 1793 (25 June or 12 August depending on the source). The Valréas exclave still lies inside the Drôme. |
The rings are approximate — deliberately. They exist to shade which filing system a place fell under, not to adjudicate a border. A place near a ring's edge should be checked against both neighbours.
See the whole span, 1000–2026, on the map →
The map takes a range, and a range that crosses one of the rows above is where records get lost: the family never moved, and the archive on the far side of the handover will tell you it holds nothing.