BRESSE

natural region of eastern France, embracing parts of the Ain and Sane-et-Loire dpartements. It extends for 60 mi (100 km) from the Dombes region in the south to the Doubs River in the north, and for 20 mi from the Jura in the east to the Sane River (west), toward which it gradually slopes. A moderately prosperous agricultural area, it is renowned for its poultry. The Antigny, Sainte-Croix, and Coligny families and the lords of Vienne were powerful landowners in the north until displaced by the dukes of Burgundy. With the death of Charles the Bold (1477) Bresse passed, with the rest of Burgundy, to the French crown. The southern part, where after 1272 the House of Savoy superseded smaller nobles in power, became the Province of Bresse, with Bourges as its capital in the 15th century; it was ceded to France under the Treaty of Lyons (1601). The whole of Bresse was later attached to the French military gouvernement of Burgundy and belongs today to the economic planning region of Rhne-Alpes.