Franche-Comté Totally Explained

Franche-Comté (Franc-Comtois: Fràntche-Comté; Arpitan: Franche-Comtât) the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France. It is composed of the modern departments of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and Territoire de Belfort and has a population (2006) of 1,146,000.
The principal cities are Besançon (the historical and modern capital of the region), Belfort, and Montbéliard (Aire Urbaine Belfort-Montbéliard-Héricourt-Delle). Other important cities are Dole (capital before the region was conquered by Louis XIV in the late 17th century), Vesoul (capital of Haute-Saône), Arbois (the "wine capital" of the Jura), and Lons-le-Saunier (capital of Jura).

History

The region has been inhabited since the palaeolithic age and was occupied by the Gauls. Little touched by the Germanic migrations, it was part of the territory of the Alamanni in the 5th century, then the Kingdom of Burgundy from 457 to 534. It was Christianized after the development of monasticism and through the influence of St. Columbanus. In 534, it became part of the Frankish kingdom, before being set apart to provide a crown for Guntrum, the third son of Clotaire I in 561, as a Merovingian Kingdom of Burgundy. In 613 Clotaire II ordered the assassination of Sigebert II of Burgundy and Austrasia, and the kingdom was directly controlled thereafter by Merovingians and Carolingians.
The name Franche-Comté didn't officially appear until 1366. It had been a territory of the County of Burgundy from 888, the province becoming subject to the Holy Roman Empire in 1034, definitively separated from the neighbouring duchy of Burgundy upon the latter's incorporation into France in 1477. Transferred to Austria in 1481 and Spain in 1556, the Franche-Comté was occupied by the French in 1668 but handed back at the subsequent peace, under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; conquered a second time in 1674, it was finally ceded to France at the Treaty of Nijmegen, 1678.
The region's population fell by a fifth between the censuses of 1851 and 1946, reflecting low French natural growth and migration to more urbanised parts of the country. Most of the decline occurred in Haute-Saône and Jura, which remain among the country's more agriculture-dependent areas. It is one of the 26 regions of france

Culture

The regional language, Franc-Comtois, is a dialect of Langue d'Oïl spoken by a minority of people and is recognised as one of the Languages of France.
As early as the 13th century, inhabitants of the southern two-thirds of Jura and the southern third of Doubs spoke a dialect of the Arpitan language. It continued to be spoken in rural areas into the 20th century. Arpitan also is recognized as one of the official Languages of France.

Major communities

External results

Click here for more details on Franche-comt

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://franche-comt_.totallyexplained.com">Franche-Comté Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.