County of Burgundy

The Free County of Burgundy (French: Franche Comté de Bourgogne; German: Freigrafschaft Burgund) was a medieval and early modern feudal polity ruled by a count from 982 to 1678. It became known as Franche-Comté (the Free County), and was located in the modern region of Franche-Comté. It belonged to the wider historical region of Upper Burgundy, and bordered the Duchy of Burgundy to the west.

Its territory had initially been part of the Kingdom of Upper Burgundy (888–933), and then the united Kingdom of Burgundy, later known as the Kingdom of Arles. The county was formed in 982 by count Otto-William, encompassing his domains in northern parts of the Burgundian realm. In 1032, the Kingdom of Arles was inherited by Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, who incorporated the Kingdom, including the County of Burgundy, into the Holy Roman Empire (HRE).

As a state of the HRE, the county was granted a high degree of autonomy. The largest city, Besançon, was granted the status of free imperial city. The rest of the county was given imperial immediacy (making it an imperial county) and its rulers were given the title of Freigraf (German for 'free count'), from which the French and English names of the county are derived.

From 1295 the county began to fall under the increasing influence of France and the House of Burgundy, which ruled the neighboring duchy of the same name. From 1330 to 1361 and again from 1405 to 1477, there was a personal union between the county (part of the HRE) and the adjacent duchy (part of France). In 1477, it was occupied by France, but already in 1493 the county was transferred to the House of Habsburg, which ruled it until it was finally conquered by France in 1674. French rule was made permanent by the Treaties of Nijmegen in 1678.