FRANCESCHINI, MARCO ANTONIO Italian painter, born at Bologna on April 5, 1648. He studied under G. M. Galli Bibiena and Carlo Cignani, whose assistant and collaborator he was for some time in works at Bologna, Forli, Piacenza, Modena and Reggio. He rose to be one of the most favoured artists of his time, his reputation spreading beyond his native town. He received commissions from churches and mon asteries all over the country, from the duke of Parma, from the elector of the Palatinate, the prince of Liechtenstein and others. Pope Clement XI. made him a knight of the order of Christ in 1712 in recognition of his services after he had designed two car toons for mosaics in St. Peter's. He was called to Genoa twice, in 1702 and in 1714 ; and there decorated the Council palace with frescoes, no longer extant, representing scenes from the history of the republic, and there also painted pictures for the palaces of Pallavicini and Fil. Durazzo and frescoes for the church of the Padri Filippini. His most famous work was done for the church of Corpus Domini at Bologna (1687-94), where with the assist ance of Luigi Quaini and Enrico Haffner, he decorated the cupola and ceiling with frescoes and painted a number of altarpieces, the most notable being the one representing the "Death of St. Joseph." He was elected director of the Academia Clementina at Bologna. He died on Dec. 14, 1729. Franceschini was the last great repre sentative of the Bolognese school. He possessed a refined sense of colour and a power of disposing pictorially over vast surfaces with great variety and freedom of composition, with effective grouping of figures graceful in movement with boldly foreshort ened poses. However, his style was somewhat superficial and not free from mannerism.
See G. P. Zanotti, Storia dell' Academia Clementina (1745) a province of France from 1674 to the Revolution. It was bounded on the east by Switzerland, on the south by Bresse and Bugey, on the north by Lorraine, and on the west by the duchy of Burgundy and by Bassigny, embracing to the east of the Jura the valley of the Saone and most of that of the Doubs. Under the Romans it corresponded to Maxima Sequa forum, and after having formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy was in the early part of the middle ages split up into the four countships of Portois, Varais, Amons and Escuens. In the loth century these were united to form a whole, which came to be called the countship of Burgundy, and belonged at that time to the counts of Macon.
The limits of the countship were definitely settled under Otto William, son of Albert or Adalbert, king of Italy (d. 1027), who on the death of his father-in-law, Henry (1002) tried to seize the duchy of Burgundy, but without success. The countship, which formed a fief dependent on the kingdom of Burgundy, passed to Renaud I., the second son of Otto William. When the kingdom of Burgundy was joined to the Germanic empire, he refused to pay homage to the emperor Henry III., whose suzerainty over him never existed except in theory. William I. still further added to the power of his house by marrying Etiennette, heiress of the count of Vienne, and by acquiring from his cousin Guy, when the latter became a monk at Cluny, the countship of Macon. One of his sons, Guy, became pope, under the name of Calixtus II. His grandson, Renaud III. (1097-1148) in his turn refused to pay homage to the emperor Lothair, who retaliated by confiscating his dominions and giving them to Conrad of Zah ringen. Renaud, however, succeeded in maintaining until his death his possession of the countships of Burgundy, Vienne, and Macon. He left as sole heiress a daughter, Beatrix, whom his brother William III. imprisoned in order to make an attempt on her inheritance ; she was set free, however, by the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who married her in I156.
On the death of Beatrix (1185) the countship of Burgundy passed to Otto I. 0190-1200) the youngest but one of her sons, who had to dispute its possession with Stephen, count of Auxonne the grandson of William III. Beatrix, the daughter and heiress of Otto I. (1200-31), married Otto, duke of Meran (d. 1234), under whose government the inhabitants of Besancon, which had been since the time of Frederick Barbarossa an imperial city, formed themselves definitely into a commune. Alix, daughter of Beatrix and of Otto of Meran, and heiress to the countship of Burgundy, married Hugh of Chalon, son of John the Ancient or the Wise (d. 1248), a descendant of William III., restoring the countship to the family of its former lords. His son Otto IV. (1279-1303) engaged in war against the Bishop of Basle, and the German king Rudolph I., who supported the latter, entered Franche-Comte and besieged Besancon, but without success (1289). Otto, in fulfilment of the treaties of Ervennes and Vin cennes (1291-95) gave Jeanne, his daughter by Mahaut of Artois, in marriage to Philip, count of Poitiers, son of Philip the Fair. The latter took over the administration of the countship, in spite of strong opposition from the nobles of the country. Another of Otto's daughters married Charles IV., the Handsome, and both princesses, together with their sister-in-law Margaret of Burgundy, were concerned in the celebrated trial of the Tour de Nesle. Jeanne, however, continued to govern her countship when her husband became king of France (Philip V., "the Long"). Jeanne, their daughter and heiress, married Odo IV., duke of Burgundy and her sister Margaret became the wife of Louis II., count of Flanders. The countship returned to Margaret at the death of Odo IV., who was succeeded in his duchy by his grandson Philip of Rouvre.
The marriage of Philip the Bold with Margaret, daughter of Louis of Male, caused Franche-Comte to pass to the princes of the ducal house of Burgundy, who kept it until the death of Charles the Bold (1477). On his death Louis XI. claimed the government of the countship as well as of the duchy, as trustee for the property of the princess Mary, who was closely related to him and destined to marry the dauphin (later Charles VIII.) . French garrisons occupied the principal towns, and the lord of Craon was appointed governor of the county. In consequence of his severity there was a general rising, and at the same time Mary married Maximilian, archduke of Austria, to whom her father had formerly betrothed her (Aug. 1477). The French were ex pelled from the fortified towns and Craon beaten by the people of Dole. Charles of Amboise, who took his place, reconquered the province, and even Besancon submitted to the authority of the king of France, who promised to respect its privileges.
On the death of Louis XI. (1483), the estates of Franche Comte recognized as sovereign his son Charles, who was betrothed to the little Margaret of Burgundy, daughter of Maximilian and Mary (d. 1482) but when Charles VIII. refused Margaret's hand in order to marry Anne of Brittany there was a fresh rising, and the French were again driven out. The treaty of Senlis (May 23, 1483) put an end to the struggle. Charles abandoned all his pre tensions, and Maximilian was thus left in possession of Franche Comte, the sovereignty of which he handed on to his son Philip and ultimately to the crown of Spain. He had, however, consti tuted his daughter Margaret sovereign-governess of Franche Comte for life, and under the administration of this princess (d. 153o) as under the rule of Charles V., the county enjoyed comparative independence, paying a don gratuit of 200,000 livres every three years, and being actually governed by the parliament of Dole, and by governors chosen from the nobility of the country. Franche-Comte furnished Philip II. of Spain with one of his best counsellors, Cardinal Perrenot de Granvella.
In the i6th century the country was disturbed by the preaching of Protestant doctrines, which gained adherents especially in the district of Montbeliard, and later by the wars between France and Spain. In 1J95 the armies of Henry IV. levied contributions on Besancon and other towns; but the people of Franche-Comte succeeded in obtaining special terms of neutrality in order to shelter themselves from injury from either of the parties in the war, and enjoyed a period of calm under the government of the infanta Isabella Clara Eugenie and the archduke Albert 1621). But the country suffered greatly from the ravages of the Thirty Years' War, from the presence of the army of the Condes, which besieged Dole, from the devastation of the troops of Gallas, and later of those of Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The Peace of Westphalia (1648) confirmed Spain in the possession of Franche Comte. In 1668 the French again entered it, and the conquest, of which the foundations had been laid by the intrigues of the abbot of Watteville and the French party constituted by him, was easily accomplished by Conde and Luxemburg, Louis XIV. directing the army in Franche-Comte for some time in person. None the less, the country was restored to Spain at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), but in 1674 Louis headed another expedition there. Be sancon capitulated after a siege of 27 days, and Dole and Salins also fell into the hands of the invaders.
In 1678 the treaty of Nijmwegen gave Franche-Comte to France (the principality of Montbeliard remaining in the possession of the house of Wurttemberg which had acquired it by marriage. Franche-Comte became a military government (gouvernernent). The estates ceased to meet, and the old don gratuit was replaced by a tax which became increasingly heavy. Louis made Besancon, which Vauban fortified, into the capital of the province, and trans ferred to it the parliament and the university, the seat of which had hitherto been Dole. For purposes of administration, the county was divided among the four great bailliages of Besancon, Dole, Amont, (chief town Vesoul) and Aval (chief town Salins). At the Revolution were formed from it the departments of Jura, Doubs, and Haute-Saone.
See Dunod, Histoire de Sequanois: Hist. du comte de Bourgogne (Dijon, ; E. Clerc, Essai sur l'histoire de la Franche Comte (2nd ed., Besancon 187o). (R. P.)