Franche-Comté

Franche-Comté , historical region and former région of France. As a région, it encompassed the eastern départements of Jura, Doubs, Haute-Saône, and the Territoire de Belfort. In 2016 the Franche-Comté région was joined with the neighbouring région of Burgundy to form the new administrative entity of Bourgogne–Franche-Comté.

Geography

The region is dominated by the Jura Mountains, and much of the area is covered by forests. The basin of the upper Saône River extends into Jura. Annual precipitation is high, and much of it falls as snow in the upper elevations of the Jura Mountains, which reach heights of more than 4,905 feet (1,495 metres) in Pela Ridge. Winters in the mountains are long and severe.

The region is sparsely populated. Like much of rural France, the population fell by more than one-sixth between 1872 and 1946, and, despite a rise in population in the years following World War II, population growth slowed in the 1980s, largely because industrial restructuring and reduced employment resulted in an outflow of population. Much of the population is concentrated in the urban areas of Montbéliard, Belfort, and Besançon. Commuting to these centres from surrounding rural settlements is common, while a large number of workers are also employed in neighbouring Switzerland.

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Despite the importance of industry, the region retains a strong rural character. Animal husbandry dominates agriculture and is most prevalent in the mountains. Milk, a substantial amount of which is used to produce butter and cheeses (e.g., Comté and Emmentaler), is the most important product. In the western lowland areas, cereal cultivation (wheat, barley, and oats) is of greater importance, often with much of the harvest used as animal feed. The raising of beef and dairy cattle also is more predominant in the lowlands than in the mountains. Areas such as Arbois and Château-Chalon in the Jura foothills produce fruits and wines. Fougerolles in Haute-Saône is well known for its production of kirsch (cherry brandy). Because more than 40 percent of the area is forested, industries that rely on timber are important.

The region has a long history of industry, which developed principally in the valleys of the Jura Mountains in towns such as Saint-Claude and Morez. Today this tradition is represented by the continued manufacture of clocks, furniture, and toys. However, the major concentrations of industry lie in the northeast, around Montbéliard-Sochaux, and are dominated by automobile manufacturing and heavy metallurgy. Besançon also has considerable industry but, as the regional capital, one of its prime functions is administrative. In the area of Dole, salt mining has given rise to a related chemical industry. The Jura Mountains as well as the southern Vosges (in the north) offer a wide range of opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, mountaineering, and skiing, and tourism is well developed.

Highways and railways are concentrated in the valley of the Doubs River. Between the south face of the Vosges and the hills around Delle lies the Belfort Depression, also known as the Belfort Gap or Burgundy Gate. This strategic passageway, approximately 20 miles (32 km) in length, connects the Rhine River valley with the Paris Basin and carries a ship canal as well as roads and railways.

History

Franche-Comté (“Free County”) was the name given in the 12th century to the county of Burgundy. After the new kingdom of Burgundy emerged in 888, its kings secured very little control over the local counts in Cisjurane Burgundy. Even after the kingdom of Burgundy passed to the Holy Roman emperor Conrad II in 1032, the control was intermittent or haphazard. Finally, in 1127, a local count, Raynald III, refused to do homage to the German king, Lothar II (later Holy Roman emperor). Lothar tried to set up a rival in Raynald’s place, but, after 10 years of conflict, Raynald was victorious. Thereafter, he was the franc-comte (“free count”; German: Freigraf), and his territory became known as Franche-Comté.

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The succeeding two centuries were years of repeated female succession and dynastic changes. Finally, in 1384, the heiress Margaret of Flanders brought the countship to Philip II (the Bold), duke of Burgundy, to whom she had been married in 1369. After the death of Charles the Bold in 1477, his heiress, Mary, married the Austrian archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg (later Holy Roman emperor). The Treaty of Arras (1482), however, ceded Franche-Comté to the dauphin of France on his betrothal to Mary’s daughter Margaret of Austria. When the dauphin became King Charles VIII, he broke this engagement and had to retrocede Franche-Comté to Austria (Treaty of Senlis, 1493). For the next 185 years, Franche-Comté was a Habsburg possession.

Franche-Comté passed to the Spanish Habsburgs with the rest of the Burgundian inheritance through Charles V’s partition of his dominions. Under Philip II of Spain, a forceful repression of the Protestants took place, and Henry IV of France, in his war against Philip, violated Franche-Comté’s neutrality. From 1598 to 1635 peace was maintained. The fact, however, that the country was a geographic link in the Spanish Habsburgs’ encirclement of France made the French want to annex it. In Louis XIII’s war against Spain, Franche-Comté was invaded and ravaged annually from 1636 to 1639, but in 1648, though the Franco-Spanish war went on, Franche-Comté, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire held by Spain, was included in the Peace of Westphalia.

Conquered in 1668 by the Great Condé in the War of Devolution but retroceded to Spain by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Franche-Comté was finally conquered for France by Condé in 1674, in the last of the so-called Dutch Wars. The annexation was recognized by the Peace of Nijmegen (1678), and it was made a French province. The Franc-Comtois people had violently opposed the French invaders, and pro-Spanish feeling lasted until the 18th century.

In 1790, along with the rest of France, Franche-Comté was broken up into départements. In 2016 Franche-Comté was merged with Burgundy as part of a national plan to increase bureaucratic efficiency.