But, though the Burgundian kingdom might be thought to have, on three sides at least, a good natural frontier, it had but little real unity. The northern part naturally clave to its connexion with the Empire much longer than the southern. ♦The Burgundian Palatinate.♦ The _County Palatine_ of Burgundy often passed from one dynasty to another, and it is remarkable for the number of times that it was held as a separate state by several of the great princes of Europe. ♦Held by the Emperor Frederick, 1156-1189; | by Philip of France, 1315-1330.♦ It was held by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in right of his wife; the marriage of one of his female descendants carried it to Philip the Fifth of France. ♦United with the French Duchy.♦ Then it became united with the French duchy of Burgundy under the dukes of the House of Valois. ♦1477. | Held by the House of Austria, Charles the Fifth Count of Burgundy.♦ Saving a momentary French occupation after the death of Charles the Bold, it remained with them and their Austrian and Spanish representatives. Among these it had a second Imperial Count in the person of Charles the Fifth. ♦Annexed to France, 1674.♦ But, through all these changes of dynasty, it remained an acknowledged fief of the Empire, till its annexation to France under Lewis the Fourteenth. ♦Dole the capital of the county.♦ The capital of this county, it must be remembered, was _Dole_. ♦Besançon a Free Imperial city. 1189-1651.♦ The ecclesiastical metropolis of _Besançon_, though surrounded by the county, remained a free city of the Empire from the days of Frederick Barbarossa to those of Ferdinand the Third. ♦United to France.♦ It was then merged in the county, and along with the county it passed to France. ♦Montbeilliard.♦ And it should be noticed that a small Burgundian land in this quarter, the county of _Montbeilliard_ or _Mümpelgard_, first as a separate state, then in union with the duchy of Württemberg, kept its allegiance to the Empire till the wars of the French Revolution, when it was annexed to France and was never restored. ♦The Lesser Burgundy.♦