After the ravages of successive invaders, Marseilles was repeopled in the 10th century under the protection of its viscounts. The town gradually bought up their rights, and at the beginning of the 13th century was formed into a republic, governed by a _podestat_, who was appointed for life, and exercised his office in conjunction with 3 notables, and a municipal council, composed of 80 citizens, 3 clerics, and 6 principal tradesmen. During the rest of the middle ages, however, the higher town was governed by the bishop, and had its harbour at the creek of La Joliette which at that period ran inland to the north of the old town. The southern suburb was governed by the abbot of St Victor, and owned the Port des Catalans. Situated between the two, the lower town, the republic, retained the old harbour, and was the most powerful of the three divisions. The period of the crusades brought prosperity to Marseilles, though throughout the middle ages it suffered from the competition of Pisa, Genoa and Venice. In 1245 and 1256 Charles of Anjou, count of Provence, whose predecessors had left the citizens a large measure of independence, established his authority above that of the republic. In 1423 Alphonso V. of Aragon sacked the town. King René, who had made it his winter residence, however, caused trade, arts and manufactures again to flourish. On the embodiment of Provence in the kingdom of France in 1481, Marseilles preserved a separate administration directed by royal officials. Under Francis I. the disaffected constable Charles de Bourbon vainly besieged the town with the imperial forces in 1524. During the wars of religion, Marseilles took part against the Protestants, and long refused to acknowledge Henry IV. The loss of the ancient liberties of the town brought new disturbances under the Fronde, which Louis XIV. came in person to suppress. He entered the town by a breach in the walls and afterwards had Fort St Nicolas constructed. Marseilles repeatedly suffered from the plague, notably from May 1720 to May 1721.
During the Revolution the people rose against the aristocracy, who up to that time had governed the commune. In the Terror they rebelled against the Convention, but were promptly subdued by General Carteaux. The wars of the empire, by dealing a blow to their maritime commerce, excited the hatred of the inhabitants against Napoleon, and they hailed the return of the Bourbons and the defeat of Waterloo. The news of the latter provoked a bloody reaction in the town against those suspected of imperialism. The prosperity of the city received a considerable impulse from the conquest of Algeria and from the opening of the Suez Canal.