Free City of Besançon

The government comprised only a tiny area around the City of Besançon in the Franche-Comté, which meant that it had limited independence although it had considerable internal autonomy and still tried to claim neutrality.

The town authorities tried to argue that it was neutral in any hostilities as it was an Imperial City, something that the French commander, the Prince de Conde, rejected as archaic.

[4] The French agreed to very generous surrender terms with the town authorities, which included transferring the university from the then still recalcitrant Dole.

The City also laid down that it would be left the relic of a fragment of the holy winding sheet, and that Protestants should not have liberty of conscience in the same way as they then had in the rest of France.

[4] While the city was in French hands, the famed military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban visited Besançon and drew up plans for its fortification.

Unlike most Free Imperial Cities which gradually became oligarchies, Besançon had a very democratic form of government and municipal institutions.

[3] The protector — first the Dukes of Burgundy and then the Austrian and Spanish Habsburgs, and for two years the King of France — had the right to appoint a president for the governors and the commander of the soldiers who guarded the ramparts.