The
County of Bar, from 1354 the
Duchy of Bar, was a principality of the
Holy Roman Empire encompassing the
pays de Barrois and centred on the city of
Bar-le-Duc. Part of the county—the so-called
Barrois mouvant—became a
fief of the
Kingdom of France in 1301, while the
Barrois non-mouvant remained a part of the Empire. From 1480 it was united to the imperial
Duchy of Lorraine. Both imperial Bar and Lorraine were ceded to France in 1738. With the death of the last duke,
Stanislaus Leszczynski, in 1766 the duchy escheated to the French crown.