(also Free County of Burgundy), a historical region in eastern France. Franche-Comté includes the department known as the Territory of Belfort and the departments of Doubs, Jura, and Haute-Saône. Area, 16,300 sq km. Population, 1,070,000(1975).
The principal city in Franche-Comté is Besançon. As of 1975, industry and construction employed 50 percent of the region’s economically active population, and agriculture 14 percent. Automobiles are assembled at the Peugeot plants in Sochaux and Montbéliard. Watches and chemical and wood products are also manufactured. In the Jura Mountains livestock is raised, and cheese is made. Forestry is a major industry in Franche-Comté, more than 40 percent of which is forested. Franche-Comté produces handicrafts and attracts many tourists. It constitutes an economic planning region of France.
The area that is now Franche-Comté became a county in the tenth century; it was known as Burgundy, and its capital was the city of Dôle. The name “Franche-Comté” (Free County) was first applied to the county of Burgundy in the 14th century after its cities had acquired various privileges from the German kings and the Burgundian dukes.
The region became part of the Holy Roman Empire in the 11th century and belonged to the French king Philip V from 1316 to 1322. From 1322 to 1361 and again from 1384 to 1477 it was a possession of the dukes of Burgundy. Later Franche-Comté belonged to the Hapsburgs; it passed from the German branch of the Hapsburgs to the Spanish branch in 1558. The region, which had been occupied by French troops in 1674, was ceded to France by the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678. The treaty gave the French all of Franche-Comté except the district of Montbéliard, which France annexed in 1793. The French transferred the capital from Dole to Besançon. Franche-Comté was divided into departments during the French Revolution.