The Reformation Opposed
The Parlement of Dole dealt harshly with the earliest adherents of the Reformation, including priests and schoolmasters. Throughout the latter part of the seventeenth century and until 1787, repression prevailed, rendering Franche-Comté a stronghold of the Counter-Reformation.
At Besançon, a clandestine church existed only fleetingly.
Franche-Comté might have remained devoid of Protestants; however, shortly before the Revolution, a substantial Swiss immigration, many of them watchmaking artisans, gave rise to the first Reformed community. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, it numbered approximately 2,500 faithful.
The present temple of Besançon is the former church of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit (fifteenth–eighteenth century), placed at the disposal of Protestants in 1805.
A special place within this region must be accorded to the country of Montbéliard, a former principality under the authority of the ducal princes of Montbéliard, annexed to France in 1793.
The Country of Montbéliard
The French-speaking country of Montbéliard came under the suzerainty of the Dukes of Württemberg through marriage in 1397.
Montbéliard first appears as a lordship in 1034. It belonged to an heir of the Dukes of Alsace, Louis of Mousson.
Upon the death of his son, Thierry I, his domains were divided among his three sons, one of whom, Thierry II, inherited Montbéliard, which was raised to the status of a county in 1162. One of his daughters, Sophie, inherited it and brought it as her dowry to her husband, Richard of Montfaucon, descended from a powerful lineage established in the East and North-East of the County of Burgundy, around its stronghold of Montfaucon, situated not far from Besançon. Thus, the Montfaucon-Montbéliard line ruled the county until 1397. The last count, Étienne, died after his four children. It was one of his granddaughters, Henriette, Countess of Montbéliard, who married in 1397 Eberhard IV of Württemberg. In this manner, the county passed under the suzerainty of a family which introduced the Lutheran Reformation there from 1525, formally establishing it in 1539.
Héricourt
The County of Montbéliard comprised five lordships: Clermont, Blamont, Héricourt, Châtelot, and Étobon. In the course of Louis XIV’s conquest of Franche-Comté, the county was wrested from the Duke of Württemberg in 1676 and restored to him in 1684.
The sovereignty of Württemberg over the country of Montbéliard came to an end in 1793. As early as 1790, France had annexed the lordships. On 10 October 1793, Bernard de Saintes, deputy to the Convention, peacefully took possession of Montbéliard, which Duke Frederick Eugene had abandoned in 1792 in order to join the coalition against France.
Thereafter, the country of Montbéliard was divided and apportioned among three départements—Doubs, Haute-Saône, and Haut-Rhin—in order to weaken Protestant predominance in the region.
In 1871, the southern part of Haut-Rhin became the Territoire de Belfort.
