I'm setting a game in the County of Provence in lower Burgundy in the period. And most importantly Particularly with regard to notable villages, castles, and the like. How much attention did Frederick II pay to it, as one of his crowns?
While it was nominally part of his direct Burgundy possession, it was too far for any real authority. The Archbishop of Arles controlled it in his name. In , the Emperor married his niece Douce to Barcelone. In , the Emperor let Barcelone crush Baux who wanted the rights reverted to Douce sister. Frederick II was more powerful but too busy elsewhere. Could you be a bit more clear on who specifically you're referring to?
The Emperor in was Henry V, so I presume that's who you mean there. I'm not sure who Baux is. I'm a bit unclear on what you're saying, over all. Here's what I got from it, regarding Provence: Provence had some extensive if rather low-yield cattle and sheep rearing in the mountains moving into the valleys and plains in winter, and up into the mountains in summer , enough salt production to actually export it from a few salt water springs and wells as well as salt marshes on the coast, wine, some fruit trees, and basic agriculture for the period grain, cabbage, that sort of things , as well as basic fishing along the coast.
From what I found, Provence was very much a poor country at the time, it had lost a lot of population in the preceding centuries and hadn't yet started to recover. The only true 'cash crop' appears to have been salt, all the rest was pretty much subsistence agriculture, even the cattle and sheep, traded internally for grain and vegetables. Interesting fact : cattle and sheep rearing was starting to threaten forests from the end of the XIIth century, and there were some tensions because of that.
Here's a few interesting snippet my translation "The accounts for the toll of Valensole, between the High and Low Provence and controlling the whole Durance basin, show for the period , a busy period, were sold there: cattle, sheep and goat, a few hides, wool and cheese, exchanged for salt, some wheat, oil, and manufactured objects note : probably not the best traduction, but it gets the point across. You have the Albigensian Crusade from to mostly.
