Region of France
The arms of Franche-Comté, a crowned gold lion on blue strewn with gold billets, are those of the counts of Burgundy, who took up the lion in place of the imperial eagle under Othon IV at the end of the 13th century. The region used them from 1982 to 2015, and the flag drawn from them was created at the end of the 1980s under the regional president Edgar Faure.
Flag
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Coat of Arms
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| Region | Franche-Comté, a region until 2015, merged into Bourgogne-Franche-Comté on 1 January 2016; prefecture Besançon |
|---|---|
| Departments | Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, Territoire de Belfort |
| Arms | Azure semy of billets Or, a lion crowned Or, armed and langued Gules |
| Origin | The counts of Burgundy, under Othon IV, at the end of the 13th century |
| Flag | The banner of the arms, created at the end of the 1980s under Edgar Faure |
| Motto | “Comtois, rends-toi ! Nenni ma foi !” |
The coat of arms of Franche-Comté.
D’azur, semé de billettes d’or, au lion couronné du second, armé, lampassé de gueules.
That is: Azure semy of billets Or, a lion crowned Or, armed and langued Gules. These are the arms of the counts of Burgundy, and therefore of Franche-Comté, the historic and cultural region; they were used from 1982 to 2015 for the former Franche-Comté region.
When nobles began to take arms in the second half of the 12th century, the counts palatine of Burgundy, descended from a younger son of the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, chose the eagle: de gueules à l’aigle éployée d’argent, a silver eagle on red. According to French Wikipedia’s article on the arms of the county of Burgundy, in 1280 Count Othon IV changed alliance, leaving the imperial camp for the Guelph camp, and marked it by adopting new arms with a lion, an animal borne by many Guelph supporters, in the blue and gold that recalled the kingdom of France; he married the Capetian Mahaut d’Artois, and his two daughters married two sons of Philippe IV le Bel. Its article on the flag dates the new arms “certainly between 1278 and 1279”.
In the 16th century the States of Franche-Comté completed the arms on their seal, with a count’s crown above the lion and the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece around it, an ornamentation never officially decreed and applied more or less. After the annexation of Franche-Comté by the treaties of Nijmegen in 1678, the arms and all other symbols were disavowed in favour of the lilies of Louis XIV, and they almost disappeared after the French Revolution of 1789, one of whose decrees abolished local arms. The arms served as the basis for those of the departments of Doubs, Jura and Haute-Saône and of many communes; the arms of the Franche-Comté towns bear the lion of the province in chief, with the single exception of Besançon, which as capital bears full arms.
The flag of Franche-Comté, the banner of the arms with the crowned lion and billets.
The flag of Franche-Comté, the drapeau comtois, is a banner of the arms: on a field of azure strewn with countless gold billets, a gold lion of Burgundy rampant, armed and langued gules. It has its own motto: “Où flotte le drapeau comtois, qui que tu sois, tu es chez toi !”. At the end of the 1980s, the regional president Edgar Faure and those around him, at first reluctant because they saw it as regionalism, made the flag with the old arms of the province and put it at the disposal of communes and event organisers. According to French Wikipedia, although much less successful than in Brittany or Corsica, it has managed to establish itself, although the same article also calls it still uncommon in the region and says few municipalities fly it; it can be seen in Besançon on the town hall, and in Pontarlier, Dole, Belfort, Ornans and Arc-et-Senans. Many contemporary versions take liberties with the original, almost all of them leaving out the lion’s sex, and often its red claws and tongue.
The motto of Franche-Comté, “Comtois, rends-toi ! Nenni ma foi !”, is said to have been spoken in 1636 during the siege of Dole, in the Ten Years’ War: to the French attackers crying “Comtois, surrender!”, the besieged replied from the ramparts “Nenni, ma foi!”, “certainly not!”.
The Franche-Comté region, made up of the departments of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône and Territoire de Belfort, with its prefecture at Besançon, merged with Bourgogne on 1 January 2016 to form Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. In 2017 they were quartered with the arms of Bourgogne to form the new arms of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, composed by the heraldist Rémi Mathis, in which the second and third quarters come from the arms of Franche-Comté, themselves taken from those of the county of Burgundy. According to French Wikipedia, the lion of Franche-Comté is also found on the Peugeot brand, whose lion, unrelated at first, gradually drew closer to the arms, and on the logo of FC Sochaux-Montbéliard, which bears a lion resembling it.
Count Othon IV of Burgundy replaced the imperial eagle of his ancestors with a lion, an animal borne by many Guelph supporters, in the blue and gold of the kingdom of France, to mark his new alliance: in 1280 according to French Wikipedia’s article on the arms of the county of Burgundy, between 1278 and 1279 according to its article on the flag.
The arms of the province served as the basis for those of the departments of Doubs, Jura and Haute-Saône and of many communes; the arms of the Franche-Comté towns bear the lion of the province in chief, except Besançon, which as capital bears full arms.
At the end of the 1980s, the regional president Edgar Faure and those around him made the flag with the old arms of the province and put it at the disposal of communes and event organisers.
It is the motto of Franche-Comté, said to have been spoken in 1636 during the siege of Dole: to the French attackers crying “Comtois, surrender!”, the besieged replied “certainly not!”.
They represented the Franche-Comté region from 1982 to 2015, and since 2017 they have formed the second and third quarters of the arms of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.
Illustrations: Wikimedia Commons. Flag by Damouns (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Last reviewed by the Emblema Mundi editorial team on 27 October 2026.