County of Hainaut - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article deals with the historical county of Hainaut, for other meanings see Hainaut (disambiguation).

The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....

with its capital at Mons

Mons

Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...

(Bergen). In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault.

It consisted of what is now the Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

province of Hainaut and the southern part of the French département Nord. In Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

times, Hainaut was situated in the Roman provinces of Belgica and Germania Inferior

Germania Inferior

Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the left bank of the Rhine, in today's Luxembourg, southern Netherlands, parts of Belgium, and North Rhine-Westphalia left of the Rhine....

and inhabited by Celtic tribes, until Germanic peoples

Germanic peoples

The Germanic peoples are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Indo-European Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.Originating about 1800 BCE from the Corded Ware Culture on the North...

replaced them and ended Roman Imperial rule

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

. Its most important cities were Mons

Mons

(Bergen), Cambrai

Cambrai

Cambrai is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Cambrai is the seat of an archdiocese whose jurisdiction was immense during the Middle Ages. The territory of the Bishopric of Cambrai, roughly coinciding with the shire of Brabant, included...

(Kamerijk) and Charleroi

Charleroi

Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...

. Today the historic county of Hainaut is territorially divided between Belgium

Belgium

and France.

History

The County of Hainaut arose about 900 in the Lotharingia

Lotharingia

Lotharingia was a region in northwest Europe, comprising the Low Countries, the western Rhineland, the lands today on the border between France and Germany, and what is now western Switzerland. It was born of the tripartite division in 855, of the kingdom of Middle Francia, itself formed of the...

region, when Duke Reginar I of Lorraine

Reginar, Duke of Lorraine

Reginar I Longneck was the Duke of Lorraine from 910 until his death. He stands at the head of the clan of Reginarids, an important Lotharingian noble family....

, a grandson of Frankish Emperor Lothair I

Lothair I

Lothair I or Lothar I was the Emperor of the Romans , co-ruling with his father until 840, and the King of Bavaria , Italy and Middle Francia...

, appeared as a "Count of Hainaut". After the death of the last Carolingian king in East Francia, Louis the Child

Louis the Child

Louis the Child , sometimes called Louis IV or Louis III, was the last Carolingian ruler of East Francia....

in 911, Reginar joined the West Frankish realm under King Charles the Simple

Charles the Simple

Charles III , called the Simple or the Straightforward , was the undisputed King of France from 898 until 922 and the King of Lotharingia from 911 until 919/23...

. His son and successor Duke Gilbert

Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine

Gilbert was the duke of Lotharingia until 939.The beginning of the reign of Gilbert is not clear. A dux Lotharingiae is mentioned in 910 and this may have been Gilbert...

in 925 in turn submitted himself to the German

Kingdom of Germany

The Kingdom of Germany developed out of the eastern half of the former Carolingian Empire....

king Henry the Fowler, whereafter the Duchy of Lotharingia remained a part of the German kingdom at the border with France

France in the Middle Ages

France in the Middle Ages covers an area roughly corresponding to modern day France, from the death of Louis the Pious in 840 to the middle of the 15th century...

.

After Gilbert's death in 939 his successors from the House of Reginar failed to retain the ducal title, but ruled over the Hainaut region until in 958 Count Reginar III Longneck, after he had revolted against Duke Bruno the Great, was deposed and banned. The county was then divided, however in 998 the Reginars regained the rule over the County of Mons

Mons

. When the last Count, Herman, died without issue in 1051, his widow Richilde

Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut

Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut .Since the county of Hainaut would pass to the Counts of Flanders through marriage to her, she has often been mistakenly recorded a daughter of Regnier V of Mons, who was actually her father-in-law.She was married firstly to Herman of Mons, count of Hainaut,...

married Baldwin VI

Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders

Baldwin VI of Flanders was briefly Count of Flanders, from 1067 to 1070. He was also count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070....

, the eldest son of Baldwin V

Baldwin V, Count of Flanders

Baldwin V of Flanders was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death.He was the son of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, who died in 1035.-History:...

, the Count of Flanders

County of Flanders

The County of Flanders was one of the territories constituting the Low Countries. The county existed from 862 to 1795. It was one of the original secular fiefs of France and for centuries was one of the most affluent regions in Europe....

and vassal of the French crown. Upon the death of his father in 1067, Baldwin VI became the ruler of both counties, succeeded by his son Arnulf III

Arnulf III, Count of Flanders

Arnulf III was Count of Flanders and Count of Hainaut, as Arnulf I from 1070 to his death.He was the eldest son of Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders and Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut.-History and Family:...

who died in an inheritance conflict with his uncle Robert I the Frisian

Robert I, Count of Flanders

thumb|Robert I of FlandersRobert I of Flanders , known as Robert the Frisian, was count of Flanders from 1071 to 1092.-History:...

at the 1071 Battle of Cassel

Battle of Cassel (1071)

The Battle of Cassel was fought on 22 February 1071 between Robert I of Flanders and his nephew, Arnulf III . The battle was a victory for Robert I of Flanders, Arnulf III was killed in the battle....

.

While victorious Robert acquired Flanders, his sister-in-law Richilde retained the adjacent Lower Lorraine

Lower Lorraine

The Duchy of Lower Lorraine or Lower Lotharingia , established in 959 was a stem duchy of the medieval German kingdom, which encompassed part of modern-day Belgium, the Netherlands, the northern part of the German Rhineland and a part of northern France east of the Schelde river.It was created out...

territories in the Holy Roman Empire

Holy Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...

as her dowry. Therebey the renewed County of Hainaut emerged from the refeudalisation

Feudalism

Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...

of three immediate counties:

the County of Mons
the southern part of the Landgraviate of Brabant
the Ottonian Margraviate of Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...

The unification of the County of Hainaut as an Imperial fief was accomplished in 1071, when Richilde and her son Baldwin II

Baldwin II, Count of Hainaut

Baldwin II of Mons was count of Hainaut from 1071 to his death. He was the younger son of Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders and Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut.-History:...

after Arnulf's defeat tried to sell their fiefs to Emperor Henry IV

Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor

Henry IV was King of the Romans from 1056 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1084 until his forced abdication in 1105. He was the third emperor of the Salian dynasty and one of the most powerful and important figures of the 11th century...

. Henry IV ordered the Prince-Bishop of Liège to purchase the fiefs and then return them as a unified county to the countess Richilde and under feudal intermediance to the Dukes of Lower Lorraine.

The Counts of Hainaut had several historical connections with the counts of Flanders

County of Flanders

and Holland

County of Holland

The County of Holland was a county in the Holy Roman Empire and from 1482 part of the Habsburg Netherlands in what is now the Netherlands. It covered an area roughly corresponding to the current Dutch provinces of North-Holland and South-Holland, as well as the islands of Terschelling, Vlieland,...

, to whom they had strong family ties. Throughout its history, the county of Hainaut formed a personal union

Personal union

A personal union is the combination by which two or more different states have the same monarch while their boundaries, their laws and their interests remain distinct. It should not be confused with a federation which is internationally considered a single state...

with other states, e.g.:

Hainaut and Flanders: 1067–71 and again 1191–1246
Hainaut and Holland: 1299–1436
Hainaut and Bavaria-Straubing: 1356–1417

After the death of Duke William II of Bavaria-Straubing in 1417, Hainaut was inherited by his daughter Jacqueline

Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut

Jacqueline of Wittelsbach was Duchess of Bavaria-Straubing, Countess of Hainaut and Holland from 1417 to 1432...

(Jacoba), who in 1432 had to cede the county together with Holland

County of Holland

to Duke Philip the Good from the House of Valois-Burgundy

House of Valois-Burgundy

The term "Valois Dukes of Burgundy" is employed to refer to the dynasty which began after John II of France granted the Duchy of Burgundy to his youngest son, Philip the Bold...

. The last independent countess died early on 8 October 1436 (presumably of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...

) in Teylingen Castle

Slot Teylingen

Slot Teylingen is a Dutch castle in the municipality of Teylingen, in Voorhout, near the border with Sassenheim. It is presumably the family keep of the noble family Van Teylingen, from which the Van Brederode family directly descended from....

, near The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

(where she is buried), her estates were incorporated into the Burgundian Netherlands

Burgundian Netherlands

In the history of the Low Countries, the Burgundian Netherlands refers to a number of Imperial and French fiefs ruled in personal union by the House of Valois-Burgundy and their Habsburg heirs in the period from 1384 to 1482...

.

When Charles the Bold was killed at the 1477 Battle of Nancy

Battle of Nancy

The Battle of Nancy was the final and decisive battle of the Burgundian Wars, fought outside the walls of Nancy on 5 January 1477 between Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and René II, Duke of Lorraine...

, the male line of the Burgundian dukes became extinct. In the same year Charles' daughter Mary of Burgundy

Mary of Burgundy

Mary of Burgundy ruled the Burgundian territories in Low Countries and was suo jure Duchess of Burgundy from 1477 until her death...

however married Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

, the son of Emperor Frederick III

Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick the Peaceful KG was Duke of Austria as Frederick V from 1424, the successor of Albert II as German King as Frederick IV from 1440, and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III from 1452...

. Maximilian rejected the claims of Charles' cousin King Louis XI of France

Louis XI of France

Louis XI , called the Prudent , was the King of France from 1461 to 1483. He was the son of Charles VII of France and Mary of Anjou, a member of the House of Valois....

at the 1479 Battle of Guinegate

Battle of Guinegate (1479)

The First Battle of Guinegate took place on August 7, 1479. French troops of King Louis XI were defeated by the Burgundians led by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg...

and Hainaut became a part of the Habsburg Netherlands

Habsburg Netherlands

The Habsburg Netherlands was a geo-political entity covering the whole of the Low Countries from 1482 to 1556/1581 and solely the Southern Netherlands from 1581 to 1794...

by the Treaty of Arras

Treaty of Arras (1482)

The Treaty of Arras was signed at Arras on 23 December 1482 by King Louis XI of France and Archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg as heir of the Burgundian Netherlands in the course of the Burgundian succession crisis....

in 1482, and of the Spanish Netherlands

Southern Netherlands

Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...

from 1556. In 1579 Hainaut was a member of the Union of Arras which submitted to the rule of Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain

Habsburg Spain refers to the history of Spain over the 16th and 17th centuries , when Spain was ruled by the major branch of the Habsburg dynasty...

, while the northern Union of Utrecht

Union of Utrecht

The Union of Utrecht was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain....

formed the Dutch Republic

Dutch Republic

The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...

in 1581.

By the 1659 Treaty of the Pyrenees

Treaty of the Pyrenees

The Treaty of the Pyrenees was signed to end the 1635 to 1659 war between France and Spain, a war that was initially a part of the wider Thirty Years' War. It was signed on Pheasant Island, a river island on the border between the two countries...

and the 1679 Treaties of Nijmegen

Treaties of Nijmegen

The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and December 1679...

the southern part around the town of Valenciennes fell to France

Early Modern France

Kingdom of France is the early modern period of French history from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 18th century...

under King Louis XIV

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

. The northern area around Mons was incorporated into the Austrian Netherlands after the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs according to the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht

Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...

. It was ruled by the Habsburg Emperors, the last one Francis II

Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis II was the last Holy Roman Emperor, ruling from 1792 until 6 August 1806, when he dissolved the Empire after the disastrous defeat of the Third Coalition by Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz...

, until in 1794 the Austrian Netherlands were occupied by the French First Republic

French First Republic

The French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...

in 1794.

History

See also