Editing Arras (section)

====Late Middle Ages====
The ownership of the town was repeatedly disputed along with the rest of Artois. During the Middle Ages, possession of Arras passed to a variety of feudal rulers and fiefs, including the [[County of Flanders]], the [[Duke of Burgundy|Duchy of Burgundy]], the Spanish branch of the [[House of Habsburg]] and the French crown. In 1430, [[Joan of Arc]] (''Jeanne d'Arc'' in French), was imprisoned in the region of Arras. The town was the site of the [[Congress of Arras]] in 1435, an unsuccessful attempt to end the [[Hundred Years' War]] that resulted in the Burgundians breaking their alliance with the English. After the death of Duke [[Charles the Bold]] of Burgundy in 1477, King [[Louis XI of France]] took control of Arras but the town's inhabitants, still loyal to the Burgundians, expelled the French. This prompted Louis XI to besiege Arras in person and, after taking it by assault, he had the town's walls razed and its inhabitants expelled, to be replaced by more loyal subjects from other parts of France. In a bid to erase the town's identity completely, Louis renamed it temporarily to ''Franchise''. In 1482, the [[Treaty of Arras (1482)|Peace of Arras]] was signed in the town to end a war between Louis XI and [[Maximilian I of Austria]]; ten years later, the town was ceded to Maximilian. It was eventually bequeathed to the Spanish Habsburgs as part of the [[Spanish Netherlands]].<ref>"Arras." ''Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary''. (2007).</ref><ref>"Arras." ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]''. 2008.</ref>