TheCounty of Ferrette (orPfirt) was afeudal jurisdiction inAlsace in theMiddle Ages and theearly modern period. It roughly corresponds with theSundgau and comprised the lordships ofFerrette (Pfirt),Altkirch,Thann,Belfort,Rougemont and others. These territories were not contiguous, but formed a patchwork of jurisdictions under theHoly Roman Empire.^[1]

The County of Ferrette emerged in the twelfth century alongside theCounty of Montbéliard as a division of thepagus ofElsgau, traditionally regarded as the southernmostpagus of Alsace.^[2][3] This was aFrancophone region.^[3]

In the late Middle Ages, the County of Ferrette was the most westerlyHabsburg possession and a part ofFurther Austria. It bordered the FrenchDuchy of Burgundy and all four dukes of theHouse of Valois who ruled from 1363 until 1477 made efforts to acquire it.^[4] It was the object of a complicated series of marriage negotiations under the first duke,Philip the Bold. In 1387, DukeLeopold IV of Austria marriedCatherine, daughter of Philip the Bold, fulfilling an agreement first reached in 1378. For herdower she received some rents in the county and finally in 1403 the entire county, whose officers paidhomage to her on 6 February 1404.^[5]

When Leopold died childless in 1411, he was succeeded by his brother,Frederick IV, who seized the county of Ferrette, leaving Catherine only two castles, one of which was Belfort.^[4] Catherine, however, claimed the whole county belonged to her. Her brother, DukeJohn the Fearless, garrisoned the castles on her behalf. These garrisons were small. To Belfort he sent only acastellan, ninesquires, acannoneer and somevalets.^[6]

The dispute over Ferrette continued into the reign of John's son,Philip the Good. In 1420, he made an agreement with Catherine whereby he gave her an annual pension of 3,000francs and promised to help recover the county in return for being named as her heir. Philip opened negotiations with Frederick, even threatening war in 1422–23, but made no progress. There were hostilities between Catherine's men and the Habsburgs' in those same years, but Frederick even managed to take back Belfort. Catherine died childless in 1425, but the Burgundian claim was not immediately or permanently dropped.^[4]

In 1427, a conference was held atMontbéliard (Moempelgard) whereatAmadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, mediated the dispute. A treaty between the Archduke of Austria and the Duke of Burgundy seems to have been signed in mid-1428. Nevertheless, Ferrette, because it lay on the common border between the two houses, was as at the centre of the fighting in the briefAustro-Burgundian War of 1431. During the war, Philip's men successfully captured Belfort in a night attack. A truce was signed in October 1431 and a peace treaty in May 1432.^[7] In 1434, Philip bought up the claim of Catherine's sister,Margaret, to the county of Ferrette.^[8]

On 9 May 1469, by theTreaty of Saint-Omer, ArchdukeSigismund of Austria mortgaged the County of Ferrette along with theLandgraviate of Upper Alsace to DukeCharles of Burgundy to secure a loan of 50,000florins. By the terms of the loan, the principal as well as Charles's administrative expenses had to be repaid in a single lump sum, making it unlikely that the Habsburgs would ever discharge it. Charles's own power, however, was limited by the fact that many of the rights of the counts had been pawned by the Habsburgs. Ferrette itself, for example, was in pawn for 7,000 florins.^[1]

1105–1160Frederick I

1160–1191Louis

1191–1233Frederick II

1233–1275Ulrich II

1275–1311/16Theobald

1311/16–1324Ulrich III

1324–1351/52Joanna

The numbering of the Habsburgs is their family numbering.

1324–1358Albert II

1358–1365Rudolf IV

1365–1386Leopold III

1386–1395Albert III

1395–1406Leopold IV

1406–1439Frederick IV

1439–1469Sigismund

1469–1477Charles

1477–1482Mary

1477–1519Maximilian I

1519–1558Charles V

1558–1564Ferdinand I

1564–1595Ferdinand II

1595–1619Matthias

1619–1623Ferdinand II

1623–1632Leopold V

1632–1648Ferdinand Charles

• Goutzwiller, Charles.Le comté de Ferrette: esquisses historiques. Altkirch: J. Boehrer, 1868.
• Heider, Christine. "Thann, ville domaniale et chef-lieu de bailliage sous les Ferrette et les Habsbourg".Revue d'Alsace,128 (2002), pp. 101–122.
• Köbler, Gerhard.Historisches Lexikon der Deutschen Länder: die deutschen Territorien vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2007.
• Quiquerez, Auguste.Histoire des comtes de Ferrette. Montbéliard: Henri Barbier, 1863.
• Wilsdorf, Christian.Histoire des comtes de Ferrette (1105–1324). Altkirch: Société d'histoire Sundgauvienne, 1991.

• History of Haut-Rhin
• Counties of the Holy Roman Empire
• History of the Territoire de Belfort
• Further Austria
• Territories of the Valois dukes of Burgundy
• States and territories disestablished in 1648

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• Articles missing coordinates without coordinates on Wikidata