Besançon

Besançon fills a tight loop of the Doubs, with the river on three sides and the steep Mont Saint-Étienne closing the fourth. Its archbishops ruled it as part of the Holy Roman Empire until the citizens won communal freedom in 1290, after which it governed itself as a free imperial city through a council of twenty-eight notables and fourteen governors. The loop gave the town a natural stronghold on the roads through the county of Burgundy.

Besançon passed under Habsburg influence after Mary of Burgundy married Maximilian. Charles V's chancellor Nicolas Perrenot de Granvelle built the Renaissance palace that bears his name there, and his son, Cardinal Granvelle, was born in the city in 1517. The town hall was finished in 1573. In 1664 it was exchanged with Spain for Frankenthal and lost its imperial status. Louis XIV's armies entered in 1668 and left in June, and the Spanish then began a citadel on the hill. After a siege of twenty-seven days in 1674 Vauban and Condé's son took the city, and the Treaty of Nijmegen confirmed French rule in 1678. Besançon replaced Dole as capital of Franche-Comté, gaining the parlement and, in 1691, the university. Vauban's new citadel crowned the hill above the river.