des Baux

The House of des Baux was a great lineage of medieval Provence, named after the cliff fortress of Les Baux, where the first castle was built in the tenth century; bau means cliff in Occitan. Its lords claimed descent from Balthazar, one of the Biblical Magi, and bore a silver sixteen-pointed star as their arms.

In the twelfth century they fought the counts of Barcelona in the Baussenque Wars, claiming Provence through a female heir in vain. The house split into three branches: the elder line kept Les Baux; the Berre branch settled in Angevin Naples, where its del Balzo line held Taranto; the youngest inherited Orange, made a principality in 1163. All three flourished in 1337.

Marie des Baux, last of the Orange line, brought the principality by marriage to Chalon-Arlay in 1386. The elder line ended with Alix des Baux in 1427, the barony annexed to Provence, and the Italian branch died out with Antoinette in 1538.