FRANCHE-COMT

rgion compassing the eastern French dpartements of Jura, Doubs, Haute-Sane, and the Territoire de Belfort. The capital is Besanon. The region has an area of 6,256 square miles (16,202 square km) and is bounded by the dpartements of Ain to the south, Sane-et-Loire, Cte-d'Or, and Haute-Marne to the west, and Vosges and Haut-Rhin to the north. Switzerland lies to the east. Franche-Comt (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; and, 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 Lothair II (later Holy Roman emperor). Lothair 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 the Franche-Comt. 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-Comt 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-Comt to Austria (Treaty of Senlis, 1493). For the next 185 years, Franche-Comt was a Habsburg possession. Franche-Comt 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-Comt'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, it was invaded and ravaged annually from 1636 to 1639, but in 1648, though the Franco-Spanish war went on, Franche-Comt, as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire held by Spain, was included in the Peace of Westphalia. Conquered in 1668 by the Great Cond in the War of Devolution but retroceded to Spain by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), Franche-Comt was finally conquered for France by Cond 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 had violently opposed the French invaders, and pro-Spanish feeling lasted until the 18th century. In 1790, along with the rest of France, Franche-Comt was broken up into dpartements. Franche-Comt is dominated by the Jura Mountains. The basin of the upper Sane River extends into Jura. Annual precipitation is high, and forests cover much of Franche-Comt. The region is sparsely populated. The population decreased by more than 16 percent between 1872 and 1946, as it did in much of rural France during that period, but has subsequently grown. Demographic recovery has favoured Doubs and the Territoire de Belfort over Jura and Haute-Sane, whose rural population has been depleted by emigration. Much of the population is concentrated in the agglomeration of Besanon-Montbliard-Belfort. Many factory workers continue to live in the villages and commute to work. Animal husbandry in Franche-Comt centres on the mountains and dominates agriculture. The region is a leading producer of milk and cheese. Fruits are grown in the lowlands. Forestry remains an economically important industry. Other industries are highly developed as well and are concentrated along the Doubs River. Clocks and watches are manufactured in Besanon; the Peugeot automobile company has factories in Vesoul and Montbliard. Other manufactures include textiles, chemicals, and woodwork. Saint-Claude in Jura produces fine pipes and polishes diamonds. Salt is mined in Jura around Salins-les-Bains and Montmorot. Highways and railways are concentrated in the valley of the Doubs River. Pop. (1990) 1,097,276.