FRANCHET D'ESPEREY, LOUIS (1856— ), French soldier, was born at Mostaganem in Algeria on May 25, 1856. Commissioned to the infantry in 1876, he saw active service in Tunisia, Tongking and N. China. In 1908 he became general of brigade and made a careful study on the spot of Balkan con ditions. In 1913, as general of division, he fought in Morocco, after which he was appointed to the I. Army Corps at Lille. This corps he commanded during the battle of the Frontiers, Aug. 1914, and on the eve of the battle of the Marne he succeeded Gen. Lanrezac as commander of the V. Army. In March 1916 he was advanced to command the eastern group of armies, and later the northern group. On the recall of Guillaumat in June 1918, Franchet d'Esperey was sent out to replace him as com mander-in-chief at Salonika. Adopting and developing his pred ecessor's plan for an offensive in the Balkans, he ensured the suc cess of his break-through by the skill with which he denuded the rest of the front to concentrate an overwhelming preponderance on the narrow Sokol-Dobropolye sector, west of the Vardar. Suc cess beyond anticipation crowned the stroke ; with their reserves pinned down by vigorous pressure elsewhere the Bulgarians were unable to repair the breach, and as the Serbian spearhead drove in deeper, the whole Bulgarian front collapsed, and on Sept. 29 Bul garia capitulated—the first defection among the Central Powers. He cleared Serbia of the Austrian troops and later, on Jan. 5, 1919, took prisoner the German Marshal von Mackensen, in Hun gary. He commanded the Allied forces in Turkey until Nov. 1920, and was created a marshal of France on Feb. 21, 1921.
See Graffet, Le marechal Franchet d'Esperey (1922). FRANCHISE, in English law, a royal privilege or branch of the Crown's prerogative subsisting in the hands of a subject. A franchise arises either from royal grants or from prescription which presupposes a grant. Such franchises are bodies corporate, the right to hold a fair, market, ferry, free fishery, etc. The term is also applied to the right of voting at elections and the qualifi cations upon which that right is based (see REGISTRATION ; REPRE SENTATION ; VOTE) . In the United States the term is especially applied to the right or powers of partial appropriation of public property by exclusive use, or to a privilege of a public nature conferred on a corporation created for the purpose, and also to the right of voting at elections.