FRANCONIA, one of the stem-duchies of mediaeval Ger many. It stretched along the valley of the Main from the Rhine to Bohemia, and was bounded on the north by Saxony and Thuringia, and on the south by Suabia and Bavaria. It also included a district around Mainz, Spires and Worms, on the left bank of the Rhine. This territory, occupied by the most easterly portion of the Frankish people, formed part of the kingdom of Austrasia. After the treaty of Verdun in 843 it became the centre of the East Frank ish or German kingdom, and remained for a time the most impor tant of the duchies which arose on the ruins of the Carolingian empire. Its influence began to decline under the kings of the Saxon house (see GERMANY). It lacked political unity, had no op portunities for extension, and soon became divided into Rhenish Franconia and Eastern Franconia. The most influential family in Rhenish Franconia was that of the Salians, the head of which early in the loth century was Conrad the Red, duke of Lorraine and son-in-law of Otto the Great. In 1024 his great-grandson Conrad, duke of Franconia, was elected German king as Conrad II. and founded the line of Franconian or Salian emperors. Rhenish Franconia gradually became a land of free towns and lesser nobles, and under the earlier Franconian emperors considerable portions passed to the count palatine of the Rhine, the archbishop of Mainz and the bishops of Worms and Spires, and the name Franconia was confined to the eastern portion of the duchy. Clerical authority was becoming predominant in this region. A series of charters dat ing from 822 to 1025 had granted considerable powers to the bish ops of Wurzburg, who, by the time of the emperor Henry II., pos sessed judicial authority over the whole of Eastern Franconia. The duchy was nominally retained by the emperors in their own hands until 1115, when the emperor Henry V., wishing to curb the epis copal influence in this neighbourhood, appointed his nephew Con rad of Hohenstaufen as duke of Franconia. Conrad's son Fred erick took the title of duke of Rothenburg instead of duke of Franconia, but in 1196, on the death of Conrad of Hohenstaufen, son of the emperor Frederick I., the title fell into disuse. Mean while the bishop of WUrzburg had regained his formal power in the duchy, and this was confirmed in 1168 by the emperor Frederick I.
The title was assumed by John II., bishop of Wurzburg early in the 15th century, and retained by his successors until the bishopric was secularized in 1802. The name Franconia was revived in 1837, when Louis I., king of Bavaria, gave to three northern portions of his kingdom the names of Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia. When Germany was divided into circles by the emperor Maxi milian I. in 1500, the name Franconia was given to that circle which included the eastern part of the old duchy. The lands for merly comprised in the duchy of Franconia are now divided among Bavaria, Wurttemberg, Baden, Hesse and the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau.
See T. Hennet, Die herzogliche Gewalt der Bischofe von Wurzburg (Wiirzburg, 1874) ; F. Stein, Geschichte Frankens (Schweinfurt, 1885-86).
The institution of the francs-archers was the first attempt at the formation of regular infantry in France. They were created by the ordinance of Montils-les-Tours on Aug. 28, 1448, which prescribed that in each parish an archer should be chosen from among the most apt in the use of arms; this archer to be exempt from the taille and certain obligations, to practise shooting with the bow on Sundays and feast-days and to hold himself ready to march fully equipped at the first signal. Under Charles VII. the francs-archers distinguished themselves in numerous battles with the English. During the succeeding reigns the institution languished and finally disappeared in the middle of the 16th century. The francs-archers were also called francs-taupins.
See Daniel, Histoire de la milice f rancaise (1721) ; and E. Boutaric, Institutions militaires de la France avant les armies permanentes (1863).
irregular troops, almost exclusively infantry ("free-shooters"), employed by the French in the war of 187o-71. They were originally rifle clubs or unofficial military societies formed in the east of France at the time of the Luxem bourg crisis of 1867. The members were chiefly concerned with the practice of rifle-shooting, and were expected in war to act as light troops. As under the then system of conscription the greater part of the nation's military energy was allowed to run to waste, the francs-tireurs were not only popular, but efficient workers in their sphere of action. As they wore no uniforms, were armed with the best rifles and elected their own officers, the Govern ment made repeated attempts to bring the societies, which were at once a valuable asset to the armed strength of France and a possible menace to internal order, under military discipline. This was strenuously resisted by the societies, to their sorrow as it turned out, for the Germans treated captured francs-tireurs as irresponsible non-combatants found with arms in their hands and usually exacted the death penalty. In July 187o, at the out break of the war, the societies were brought under the control of the minister of war and organized for field service, but it was not until November—by which time the levee en masse was in force —that they were placed under the orders of the generals in the field. After that they were sometimes organized in large bodies and incorporated in the mass of the armies, but more usually they continued to work in small bands, blowing up culverts on the invaders' lines of communication, cutting off small reconnoi tring parties, surprising small posts, etc. It is now acknowledged, even by the Germans, that though the francs-tireurs did relatively little active mischief, they paralyzed large detachments of the enemy, contested every step of his advance (as in the Loire campaign), and prevented him from gaining information. Their most celebrated feats were the blowing up of the Moselle rail way bridge at Fontenoy on Jan. 22, 1871 (see Les Chasseurs des Vosges by St. Etienne, Toul, 1906), and the heroic defence of Cha teaudun by Lipowski's Paris corps and the francs-tireurs of Cannes and Nantes (Oct. 18, 187o). Although the original members of the rifle clubs were joined by many bad characters, the patriotism of the majority was unquestionable, for little mercy was shown by the Germans to those francs-tireurs who fell into their hands. The severity of the German reprisals is itself the best testimony to the fear and anxiety inspired by the presence of active bands of francs-tireurs on the flanks and in rear of the invaders.