The County of Ferrette emerged in the twelfth century alongside the County of Montbéliard as a division of the pagus of Elsgau, traditionally regarded as the southernmost pagus of Alsace.[2][3] This was a Francophone region.[3]
In the late Middle Ages, the County of Ferrette was the most westerly Habsburg possession and a part of Further Austria. It bordered the French Duchy of Burgundy and all four dukes of the House of Valois who ruled from 1363 until 1477 made efforts to acquire it.[4] It was the object of a complicated series of marriage negotiations under the first duke, Philip the Bold. In 1387, Duke Leopold IV of Austria married Catherine, daughter of Philip the Bold, fulfilling an agreement first reached in 1378. For her dower she received some rents in the county and finally in 1403 the entire county, whose officers paid homage to her on 6 February 1404.[5]
When Leopold died childless in 1411, he was succeeded by his brother, Frederick IV, who seized the county of Ferrette, leaving Catherine only two castles, one of which was Belfort.[4] Catherine, however, claimed the whole county belonged to her. Her brother, Duke John the Fearless, garrisoned the castles on her behalf. These garrisons were small. To Belfort he sent only a castellan, nine squires, a cannoneer and some valets.[6]
The dispute over Ferrette continued into the reign of John's son, Philip the Good. In 1420, he made an agreement with Catherine whereby he gave her an annual pension of 3,000 francs and promised to help recover the county in return for being named as her heir. Philip opened negotiations with Frederick, even threatening war in 1422–23, but made no progress. There were hostilities between Catherine's men and the Habsburgs' in those same years, but Frederick even managed to take back Belfort. Catherine died childless in 1425, but the Burgundian claim was not immediately or permanently dropped.[4]
In 1427, a conference was held at Montbéliard (Moempelgard) whereat Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, mediated the dispute. A treaty between the Archduke of Austria and the Duke of Burgundy seems to have been signed in mid-1428. Nevertheless, Ferrette, because it lay on the common border between the two houses, was as at the centre of the fighting in the brief Austro-Burgundian War of 1431. During the war, Philip's men successfully captured Belfort in a night attack. A truce was signed in October 1431 and a peace treaty in May 1432.[7] In 1434, Philip bought up the claim of Catherine's sister, Margaret, to the county of Ferrette.[8]
On 9 May 1469, by the Treaty of Saint-Omer, Archduke Sigismund of Austria mortgaged the County of Ferrette along with the Landgraviate of Upper Alsace to Duke Charles of Burgundy to secure a loan of 50,000 florins. By the terms of the loan, the principal as well as Charles's administrative expenses had to be repaid in a single lump sum, making it unlikely that the Habsburgs would ever discharge it. Charles's own power, however, was limited by the fact that many of the rights of the counts had been pawned by the Habsburgs. Ferrette itself, for example, was in pawn for 7,000 florins.[1]
Sigismund, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1439 until his death. As a scion of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, he ruled over Further Austria and the County of Tyrol from 1446 until his resignation in 1490.
Philip II the Bold was Duke of Burgundy and jure uxoris Count of Flanders, Artois and Burgundy. He was the fourth and youngest son of King John II of France and Bonne of Luxembourg.
Charles Martin, called the Bold, was the last duke of Burgundy from the House of Valois-Burgundy, ruling from 1467 to 1477. He was the only legitimate son of Philip the Good and his third wife, Isabella of Portugal. As heir and as ruler, Charles vied for power and influence with rivals such as his overlord, King Louis XI of France. In 1465 Charles led a successful revolt of Louis's vassals in the War of the Public Weal.
Duke of Burgundy was a title used by the rulers of the Duchy of Burgundy, from its establishment in 843 to its annexation by the French crown in 1477, and later by members of the House of Habsburg, including Holy Roman Emperors and kings of Spain, who claimed Burgundy proper and ruled the Burgundian Netherlands.
Margaret III was a ruling Countess of Flanders, Countess of Artois, and Countess of Auvergne and Boulogne between 1384 and 1405. She was the last Countess of Flanders of the House of Dampierre.
Charolais is a historic region of France, named after the central town of Charolles, and located in today's Saône-et-Loire département, in Burgundy.
The Burgundian Wars (1474–1477) were a conflict between the Burgundian State and the Old Swiss Confederacy and its allies. Open war broke out in 1474, and the Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold, was defeated three times on the battlefield in the following years and was killed at the Battle of Nancy in 1477. The Duchy of Burgundy and several other Burgundian lands then became part of France, and the Burgundian Netherlands and Franche-Comté were inherited by Charles's daughter, Mary of Burgundy, and eventually passed to the House of Habsburg upon her death because of her marriage to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria was the collective name for the early possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-western Germany, including territories in the Alsace region west of the Rhine and in Vorarlberg.
Leopold III, known as the Just, a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1365. As head and progenitor of the Leopoldian line, he ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Carinthia, Styria and Carniola as well as the County of Tyrol and Further Austria from 1379 until his death.
Sundgau is a geographical territory in the southern Alsace region, on the eastern edge of France. The name is derived from Alemannic German Sunt-gowe, denoting an Alemannic county in the Old High German period. The principal city and historical capital is Altkirch.
Arnold of Egmond was Duke of Guelders, Count of Zutphen.
The Château de Ferrette is a ruined castle in the commune of Ferrette in the Haut-Rhin département of France. It is a recognized historical monument since 1930.
Ferrette is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France.
Dannemarie (French pronunciation:[danmaʁi] is the French name of Dàmmerkìrch, a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Alsace in north-eastern France. It was the seat of a canton of the same name and is the seat of the Communauté de communes de la Porte d'Alsace.
The Belfort Gap or Burgundian Gate is the area of relatively flat terrain in Eastern France between the Vosges Mountains to the north and the Jura Mountains to the south. It marks the watershed between the drainage basins of the River Rhine to the east and the River Rhône to the west, part of the European Watershed between the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is also the boundary between the historic regions of Burgundy to the west and Alsace to the east, and as such has marked the Franco-German border for long periods of its history.
Joanna of Pfirt was the Countess of Pfirt in her own right from 1324 and Duchess of Austria as consort of Duke Albert II from 1330 until her death.
Catharine of Burgundy was Duchess of Further Austria by marriage to Leopold IV, Duke of Austria.
Upper Alsace was a landgraviate of the Holy Roman Empire centred on Ensisheim and Landser, north of the County of Ferrette (Pfirt). The counts of Habsburg ruled the territory from the 1130s down to its cession to France in the 17th century.
In the Treaty of Saint-Omer, Archduke Sigismund of Habsburg mortgaged the County of Ferrette along with the Landgraviate of Upper Alsace to Duke Charles the Bold, in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) on 9 May 1469. The treaty laid the foundation for the Burgundian Wars.
The Burgundian State is a concept coined by historians to describe the vast complex of territories that is also referred to as Valois Burgundy.
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