This book brings together the papers presented at the symposium "Franche-Comté and the former Netherlands", held in Vesoul and Tournai in October 2006, which focused on political, diplomatic, religious and artistic aspects. A second volume should bring together the proceedings of another symposium currently in preparation, focusing on military, demographic and economic aspects. The aim of the conference was to study the links between Franche-Comté and the former Netherlands over a long period, from the marriage of Otto and Mahaut d'Artois (1285) to the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678). Twenty-two papers provide a wide range of insights into the political, diplomatic, artistic and religious influences and exchanges between the countries 'beyond' and the countries 'beyond'. The results of the research presented here have profoundly renewed historiography. Lucien Febvre himself wrote: "Thus, it was a very loose link that united the County to the Netherlands. Or rather, there was no link at all between these two countries". Everything now points to the contrary.