In the late spring of 1683, electrifying news reached Besançon: Louis XIV was coming to visit the capital of Franche-Comté, his newest province. The Sun King was then at the zenith of his splendor, having achieved unprecedented stability at home and made France the dominant power abroad. At once, the mayor and échevins of the city hastened to the royal intendant and declared their intention “to make extraordinary sacrifices to display their veneration, their zeal, and their loyalty to a prince who is both the beloved of his people and the terror of his enemies.” Much to their surprise, the...

One day in March 1631, a dust-covered horseman appeared before the gates of Besançon. To the shouted questions of the sentries, he replied that he was a follower of Gaston, duc d’Orléans, brother of King Louis XIII of France, and he had an urgent message for the rulers of the city. Brought before the hastily assembled city council, he announced that his master was requesting sanctuary in Besançon. The loser in a bitter power struggle with Cardinal Richelieu, Gaston was now fleeing France in rebellion against his brother.

The duc d’Orléans’s messenger arrived at a time of acute anxiety in...

On the night of May 14, 1674, urgent messages summoned the rulers of Besançon to an emergency war council at the hôtel de ville. As they hurried through the darkened streets, a heavy rain fell from the skies. But above the pounding downpour, they could hear the threatening booms of a man-made thunder: French siege artillery at work. Over the past two weeks, that thunder had drawn ominously closer and closer.

The four companies of the Magistrat, the archbishop, the cathedral canons, and the judges of the Chamber of Justice gathered in the main meeting hall of the hôtel de...

Claude Boisot could barely contain his excitement as he sat at his writing desk early in July 1674. Two weeks earlier, his new patron, the marquis de Louvois, had summoned him to a meeting at the French army’s camp at La Loye near Dole. During it, the royal minister had asked him to nominate candidates for vacant offices in the Parlement of Franche-Comté. Blamed by the Spanish for the debacle of the first conquest and suppressed in 1668, the sovereign court was being restored by Louis XIV in one of his first acts as the province’s new ruler. Boisot had...

In the summer of 1692, Gabriel Boisot, procureur général of the Parlement of Besançon, wrote an unusual letter to his counterpart in Dijon. From his contacts at Versailles, the Bisontin had learned that the royal council had resolved to introduce venality of office to his corps. In exchange for converting their posts to heritable property, the royal treasury would charge a tax to each sitting judge and subaltern officer. Boisot was concerned about the possible effects of this decision not only on his personal finances but also on his family’s long-term prospects. To assuage these worries, he bombarded his Burgundian...

In January 1699 a spasm of anxiety jolted the judges of the Parlement of Besançon. Rumors had reached the capital of Franche-Comté that Louis XIV was considering the addition of a fourth chamber to the sovereign court. Such a measure would result in the creation and sale of numerous judicial offices. The Bisontin parlementaires feared that these new creations would saturate the venal market in Franche-Comté and thus depreciate the value of their own charges. Their concern became so great that they convinced Jean-Ferdinand Jobelot, the Parlement’s first president, to write a letter to the controller general of finances protesting...

In January 1703 Louis de Bernage, newly appointed intendant of Franche-Comté, was growing increasingly concerned about the financial plight of the province. To meet the gigantic costs of the War of the Spanish Succession, the royal government of Louis XIV had resorted to an unprecedented use of affaires extraordinaires. Yet after nearly two years of relentless fiscal demands, these expedients appeared to be reaching the end of their usefulness in Franche-Comté. Bernage was finding it increasingly difficult to convince or compel the province’s elites to buy up newly created privileges and venal offices. Even when they did so, they were...

On May 3, 1709, Pierre Hector Le Guerchoys, intendant of Franche-Comté, reached the limits of desperation. Although Louis XIV and his ministers had imposed immense military burdens on his province, the Extraordinaire des Guerres, the royal treasury responsible for furnishing funds for the army, had failed to send even a single sou. The Comtois authorities had already used up what little money there was available; Le Guerchoys had even exhausted his own personal credit. Yet the royal army’s expenses kept piling up, seemingly without end. The intendant now wrote to Nicolas Desmarets, the king’s controller general of finances, for permission...

Louis XIV died in his Palace of Versailles on September 1, 1715. At once, couriers hurried with the news to all the provinces of the kingdom. One of them reached Franche-Comté five days later. The Magistrat of Besançon immediately declared the provincial capital in mourning, ordered a ban on balls and all other forms of public gaiety, and awaited further instructions from the regent, the duc d’Orléans, on the proper rites to mark the passing of the king.¹ But when they came, the Bisontins observed them with none of the high emotion that had greeted the royal visit of 1683;...