Historical summary (1)
The origins
In 1050, the German Emperor Henry III the Black formed a county in the north of Burgundy. This county consisted of the cities, Montbéliard, Ferrette and Altkirch. Henry then gave the county to Louis of Mousson, count of Bar.
From 1125, the sons and heirs of Thierry I, the Count of Montbéliard and Ferrette, shared the county between them. When Thierry I died, his sons Frédéric I and Thierry II became respectively Count of Ferrette (Upper Alsace) and Count of Montbéliard. Montbéliard is presently north of Franche Comté. Belfort was included in the second county.
When the last Count of Montbéliard died in 1282, the county fell into the hands of Renaud of Burgundy, who had married the Count of Montbéliard’s great-grand-daughter. Renaud gave certain liberties to Belfort and Delle beginning in 1307.
Upper Alsace Ruled by the House of Austria
When Renaud of Burgundy died in 1322, his
daughter, Jeanne of Montbéliard, the wife of Count Ulrich
III of Ferrette, inherited her father's domains.
Jeanne and Ulrich had 4 daughters and no sons. When Ulrich died in 1324, Jeanne sold her domains (including Belfort) to Albert of Habsburg, the Duke of Austria.
In 1347, Albert of Habsburg also called Albert the Wise, whose family was important in the German Empire, married Jeanne of Ferrette, one of the four daughters of Jeanne and Ulrich. These Habsburgs already held the title of "Landvogt" (provincial count) of Upper-Alsace. Albert soon bought the remaining domains of his wife's parents in Upper-Alsace. This region, including Belfort, remained part of the Habsburg properties (directly or indirectly) for the next 300 years. These Habsburg properties were called the "Vorder Österreich", with the city of Ensisheim as the capital.
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Upper
Alsace in 1648 |
Upper-Alsace has always been prosperous land, producting wheat and wine. On the other hand, the region of Belfort is rather less fertile. In the north of Belfort, very early in the XIVth century, there was a little mining industry. In the end of the XVth century, Giromagny had 3 times more inhabitants than Belfort.
The province, due to the lack of money of his possessors, was often pawned or sold, partially or totally, to different lords. Among them, Charles the Bold, Count and Duke of Burgundy and Lorraine, ruled Alsace from 1469 to his death in 1474. He used it to briefly link together his domains. He dreamed of building a kingdom between France and Germany and nearly succeeded.
The Habsburgs bought Alsace back in 1474. Then Maximilian I, Archduke of Austria, married the daughter of Charles the Bold about 1477. With this purchase, Maximilian I owned Lower Lorraine, what is now the main part of Belgium and the Netherlands, and the County of Burgundy (Franche-Comté). In 1493, Maximilian I then became king of the Romans and the Emperor of Germany. Maximilian’s son, Philip, married the heiress of Spain who was also the heiress of New Spain -South America-. His grandson was Emperor Charles V.
The Holy Roman Empire was not centralized and had no Treasury, unlike France its more modern counterpart during that time. This situation along with the Protestantism crisis, wore down the power of the Habsburgs in the XVII century. They lost Franche-Comté, the Netherlands and Alsace, after wars against France. This was often to the benefit of France.
The Thirty-Years War
The war began in Praha (Bohemia) in 1618. It brought into conflict the Lutherians and the Catholics German princes. The Habsburgs were Catholics, but to become Emperor, they had to be elected by princes, some of whom were protestant. The princes imposed their religion to all their people "Cujus regio, ejus religio" : "Whose Prince, his religion". Up until this time, there had been no major religious problems in Alsace. Alsace as Franche Comté suffered during the Thirty-Years War because mainly it belonged to the Habsburgs and was poorly defended.
During the Thirty Years War, troops of mercenaries crossed Germany (there where no regular armies in German Empire) and devastated countries (nobody had enough money to pay them). The Catholics would have won the war, had the kings of Sweden and France become involved in the mélée. The king of France was Catholic but he couldn’t accept a victorious Habsburg as a neighbor.
Swedish troops suddenly swept through Alsace in 1632, with incredible violence. Upper-Alsace, Habsburg fief, was a major goal for the protestant party. The Swedes were succeeded in 1634 by French troops, cities were taken. However until 1640, the region was looted, ravaged and laid to ruins. Three out of four inhabitants died or fled, especially in the countryside where no parochial records for this time period were kept.
After 1640, peace came slowly. The treaties of Westphalia - in 1848 - put an end to the war. In Alsace, the King of France received all properties and titles held by the Habsburgs. However the treaties don't clearly tell if Alsacia remains under German or French rule. At the end of the XVIIth century, the king of France, Louis XIV, imposed his will and Alsace was annexed to the French kingdom, without any real problems in the process.
Louis XIV finally put to an end all attempts to build a strong
State on the left side of the Rhine or to include it to any state
other than France. This action resolved a division that stemmed
from the time of the Emperor Charlemagne, in 832 when his empire
was partitioned between his three sons. 
In 1659, to reward him for services rendered to the Crown, Louis XIV granted the Counties of Ferrette and Belfort, and the Seigniories of Delle, Altkirch, Thann and Issenheim as hereditary fiefs to the Cardinal Duke de Mazarin, Louis’ prime minister since 1642. The areas deserted since the war were repopulated by active immigration from Germany, Switzerland and Tyrol.