Principality of Orange Principality of Orange The Principality of Orange () was, from 1163 to 1713, a feudal state in Provence, in the south of modern-day France, on the east bank of the river Rhone, north of the city of Avignon, and surrounded by the independent papal state of Comtat Venaissin. It was constituted in 1163, when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I elevated the Burgundian County of Orange (consisting of the city of Orange and the land surrounding it) to a sovereign principality within the Empire. The principality became part of the scattered holdings of the house of Orange-Nassau from the time that
Jacobite line of succession to the English and Scottish thrones in 1714 succession crisis which ultimately led to an Act of Parliament to designate Anne's successor. The Act of Settlement, drawn up in 1701, settled the succession on Sophia of the Palatinate, Electress of Hanover, and the heirs of her body, barring any Roman Catholics or spouses of Roman Catholics from the succession. This was a deliberate attempt to disinherit Anne's nearest blood relation, the exiled Roman Catholic James Stuart (who would later be known as the 'Old Pretender'), her half-brother, from inheriting the throne. The Act changed the course of British history and had many political consequences, primarily leading to the