Yonne (French: [jɔn], in Burgundian: Ghienne) is a département in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in France.

In that period, the area came under the control of the Roman Empire, whose chief town was Sens, which they called Agendicum.

[citation needed] The present main roads from Lyon to Boulogne, and from Sens to Alise-Sainte-Reine date from this period.

[citation needed] In 1771, the north-westerly part of the present department belonged to Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony, the uncle of Louis XVI of France.

The current Yonne department was organized and defined during the French Revolution, on March 4, 1790, as a result of the passing of an Act on December 22, 1789.

The Canal de Bourgogne, which connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean, joins the River Yonne through locks at Migennes a little further north.

To the south lies the mountainous massif of Morvan, the highest parts of which are in the neighbouring department of Nièvre.

As French industry flourished elsewhere in the late nineteenth century, the young people left Yonne seeking better opportunities, and the department stagnated.

[citation needed] The viticulture industry was severely affected by the advent of powdery mildew and the arrival of Phylloxera in the nineteenth century; at the same time, the development of the railway network allowed cheaper wines from other regions to undercut Chablis wine in the Paris market.

However, with a population of 46 inhabitants per square kilometre, the density in Yonne is still less than half that for the whole of France, which was 100.5 for the same year.

In the 2012–17 parliamentary term, two represented the right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and one the Socialist Party (France) (PS).