The Ten Years' War (1634–1644) was a European Conflict fought between the Franco-Swedish Army and the Burgundian-Allied Army, and was one of the most destructive wars to involve the County of Burgundy—270,000 Burgundian civilians and tens of thousands of military personnel died. The war is also related to the Thirty Years' War, of which it formed part, Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659), and the reconqest of Lorraine by Duke Charles IV.
Situation in the Franche-Comté
During the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in the 16th century, Franche-Comté (County of Burgundy) was a prosperous region sheltered from the disputes between France and Spain, as well as Austria, thanks to its special status guaranteed in various neutrality treaties with neighboring Swiss cantons.
After the abdication of Charles V, Philip II became King of Spain and Count of Burgundy. He then engaged in a fight against Protestantism, which was spreading in Franche-Comté, close to both Switzerland and the County of Montbéliard.
The Parlement of Dole, strongly supported by Philip II, contributed to the success of the Catholic cause and spared Franche-Comté the troubles of the Wars of Religion that France had experienced for more than thirty years. However, the region was not spared from war. On January 17, 1595, Henry IV, then King of France, declared war on Spain. France was victorious over the Spanish at Fontaine-Française (in the Duchy of Burgundy). During the month of June 1595, the region was invaded by Henry IV himself, who ignored the regional neutrality treaties.
Several towns and villages were then mistreated, with Baume-les-Dames and Lons-le-Saunier forced to pay enormous sums or face devastation. But Henry IV, fearing that the Swiss would intervene to enforce the neutrality treaties, decided to leave Lons-le-Saunier quickly, burning its two suburbs along the way.
In 1598, the Peace of Vervins was signed, restoring France and Spain's mutual conquests. That same year, Philip II died; he left the Netherlands and Franche-Comté to his eldest daughter, Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria, wife of Archduke Albert of Austria.
Context
In 1611, Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria renewed the neutrality pact of 1522 between France and Franche-Comté by Archduchess Margaret of Austria. The pact clearly stated that neutrality was to be observed at least until 1640. A short-term respite was then granted to Franche-Comté, under the rule of Archduke Albert of Austria and Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria.
In 1621, Archduke Albert of Austria died, and at the same time, his nephew Philip IV of Spain acceded to the throne of Spain. Isabella Clara Eugenia of Austria died fourteen years later, leaving Franche-Comté to Philip IV. Meanwhile, in January 1629, Cardinal Richelieu wrote to Louis XIII: "One could think of Navarre and Franche-Comté as belonging to us, being contiguous to France and easy to conquer whenever and as long as we have nothing else to do."
Louis XIII, incensed by the expansion of the "House of Austria", allied himself with the Protestant Union, consisting of the princes of Germany and the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus. Opposing them was the Catholic Liga, which included the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, the King of Hungary, the Spanish King Philip IV, and Duke Charles IV of Lorraine. However, Gaston, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIII, who was rebelling against him, had connections with Charles IV of Lorraine and Philip IV.
Louis XIII then broke the Treaty of Neutrality, claiming that Besançon had welcomed Gaston d'Orléans, and on 27 May 1636, declared war, despite the opposition of the Parliament of Dole.
Initial successes in Franche-Comté (1634-1637)
The conflict began successfully for the people of Franche-Comté: in 1634, a Swedish attack from Alsace by Otto Louis of Salm-Kyrburg-Mörchingen was countered at Lure, and in 1635, other attacks in the northeast were also repelled.
In 1636, the threat became more serious: Richelieu then concentrated an army of more than 25,000 men at Auxonne (border between Burgundy and Franche-Comté), whose command he entrusted to Henri de Bourbon-Condé. On the Comtois side, the parliament had two years earlier assigned the command of the county troops to the field marshal Gérard de Joux de Watteville, Marquis of Conflans, assisted and seconded by the parliamentarian Jean Girardot de Nozeroy[4]. The Comtois troops, lacking resources and munitions, amounted to a little more than 12,000 men[5]. Outnumbered, Watteville did not want to attack the French head-on and opted for a dispersion of the troops, which were quartered in the most important towns[4]. On 29 May 1636, the Prince of Condé appeared before Dole, which was at the time the capital of Franche-Comté. The latter thought that after the fall of Dole, which was the seat of government and parliament, the conquest of Franche-Comté would be much easier. But after a difficult siege lasting more than three months and faced with the arrival of 13,000 soldiers from Franche-Comté, the Imperialists, and Lorrainers — led by Charles IV of Lorraine, Franz von Mercy and Matthias Gallas, the Prince of Condé — had to lift the siege and go to defend Corbie in Picardy. In September 1636, the French also failed to penetrate the northwest of the county and had to abandon the siege of Champlitte. The armies of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, seized the opportunity to invade the Duchy of Burgundy. But although the invasion was initially successful, it was halted during the Siege of Saint-Jean-de-Losne in November 1636. The Lorrainers and the Imperialists retreated into Franche-Comté, which was not without problems.
In 1637, Watteville organized a double offensive to regain the initiative against the French. He charged his son, the Count of Bussolin, with launching a major offensive against French Bugey. He himself led another offensive in Bresse, where he achieved great success at the Siege of Savigny. However, even after winning the battles of Martignat and conquering a dozen places, including Oyonnax, the Comtois in Bugey were unable to hold these territories due to a lack of troops. In late February and early March, the Comtois returned home, abandoning most of their conquests. These conquests were not possible because the parliament was in rivalry with the military command. The aborted Bresse campaign would lead to the French return to the County of Burgundy.
Without the support of Parliament, which refused him the artillery of the imperials returned from the Duchy of Burgundy as well as elements of cavalry, Watteville wanted to attack the French enclave of Cornod. Serious dissension between his officers, as well as a botched reconnaissance of the terrain, caused the defeat of Watteville's army, surprised by the French during the siege of the castle. The defeat of Cornod, on 13 March 1637, marked the end of this period of success for the Comtois and the beginning of difficult times for the county. Watteville would be dismissed from his duties and the Comtois army, which had lost two-thirds of its troops. The army was placed under the command of Charles de Lorraine. The Comtois authorities no longer had any say in the further conduct of the war.
France gains the advantage (1637-1638)
That year, three armies invaded the region simultaneously: Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar via the Saône, Jacques Rouxel de Grancey Montbéliard via Montbélliard, and Henri d'Orléans-Longueville via Bresse. On 29 March 1637, the wealthy town of Saint-Amour, Jura, in the Bailiwick of Aval, was besieged by the Duke of Longueville. After the town's inhabitants held out for a week, the town fell into French hands, along with several other villages in the surrounding area.
The French tactic was simple and terribly effective: besiege small towns to avoid having to attack the major centers of resistance, often located in the region's major cities. Thus, Saint-Claude and Moirans were taken, then Lons-le-Saunier, after a two-week siege. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who was in the service of the French, did the same, pillaging and devastating everything in his path. Many towns were stormed and besieged, including Jonvelle, Jussey, and Bletterans; other villages suffered an even crueler fate, such as Pierrecourt, which was completely destroyed by fire, and whose inhabitants were all executed. The Duke of Saxe-Weimar also besieged numerous castles and fortresses near the Saône.
In April, command of the armies of Franche-Comté was entrusted to Jean-Baptiste de la Baume, Marquis of Saint-Martin. Although the Comtois no longer had an army as such, they still had garrisons in large towns such as Gray, Dole, and Besançon. But there were also Lorraine contingents of several thousand men and a few smaller imperial and Spanish troops. Together, these forces were a challenge to France. Charles IV, the Duke of Lorraine, was entrusted with the government of Franche-Comté by Phillip IV. He decided to stay in Besançon, while his soldiers were tasked with defending the bailiwick of Amont. But his undisciplined soldiers pillaged the region. The bailiwick of Amont was sacked and weakened by both its enemies (the French), and its allies (the Lorrainers).
In 1638, the region was thus partly devastated by war, in addition to being a victim of the plague, which continued its ravages, begun in 1636 during the siege of Dole (1638). At the beginning of the year, the ultimate command of all the allied armies was entrusted to Charles IV of Lorraine. However, a huge victory won at Poligny over the French was not enough to reverse the course of the conflict, which became increasingly destructive for the region. Worse still, the strategic choices of Charles of Lorraine following the battle displeased the allies, creating deep divisions. The second battle of Poligny, added to other defeats in Germany, finally undermined the cohesion of the allies, and divided them for good. Lorrainers and Imperials returned home, leaving the province virtually defenseless.
A ravaged Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté was then faced with another, even more devastating scourge: famine. Many Franche-Comté residents fled hunger and emigrated to Savoy, Switzerland, and some even to Italy, Milan, and Rome. Here is what Girardot de Nozeroy says about it in his writings, entitled Ten-Year History of Franche-Comté of Burgundy:
"The sacred books recount with tears the sad afflictions of the Jewish people: Joseph narrates the famine that was in Jerusalem during its siege where mothers ate their own children: the siege of Paris (1590) under Henry IV has something approaching, but (without bidding anything) the famine of our Burgundy in this year 1638 surpassed all that incomparably. Posterity will not believe it, the rich who possessed many savings and had had savings at the beginning, were exhausted, the poor peasants were withdrawn to the cities without labor or employment, the corn (wheat) scarce everywhere was sold at excessive prices: one lived on the herbs of the gardens and those of the fields: the carrion of dead animals was sought in the roads, but this table did not remain long set: the gates of the cities were kept closed to avoid being overwhelmed by the number of starving people who came there, and outside the gates the roads half a league away were paved with people who were wasted and destroyed, most of them stretched out from weakness and dying: in the cities the dogs and cats were delicate morsels, then the rats being in reign were requisitioned, I myself saw people well covered collect dead rats from the streets, throw them out of the windows of houses, and hide them to eat. Finally, we came to human flesh, first in the army where the soldiers who were killed served as pasture for the others who cut off the more fleshy parts of the dead bodies to boil or roast, and outside the camp they pecked at human flesh to eat: in the villages, we discovered murders of children committed by their mothers to keep themselves from dying and of brothers by their brothers, and the face of the cities was everywhere the face of death."