County of Hainaut

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source

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

The County of Hainaut (Comté de Hainaut, Graafschap Henegouwen) was a historical region in the Low Countries. It consisted of what is now the Belgian province of Hainaut and the southern part of the French département Nord. In Roman times, Hainaut was situated in the Roman provinces of Belgica and Germania Inferior and inhabited by Celtic tribes, until Germanic peoples replaced them and made an end to Roman Imperial rule. Its most important cities were Mons (Bergen), Cambrai (Kamerijk) and Charleroi. Today the historic county of Hainaut is territorially divided between Belgium and France.

History

The county of Hainaut, located in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, near to the borders with the Kingdom of France, emerged from the refeudalisation of three counties in 1071:

the county of Mons
the southern part of the landgraviate of Brabant
the Ottonian margraviate of Valenciennes

The unification of the county of Hainaut as imperial fief was accomplished in 1071, when Richilde, Countess of Mons and Hainaut tried to sell her fiefs to Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor after she was defeated in the Battle of Kassel. Henry IV ordered the Bishop of Liège to purchase the fiefs, then return them as a unified county to the countess Richilde and under feudal intermediance to the Duke of Lower Lotharingia. The counts of Hainaut had several historical connections with the counts of Flanders and Holland, to whom they had strong family ties.

Throughout its history, the county of Hainaut formed a personal union with other states, e.g.:

Hainaut and Flanders: 1067–71 and 1191–1246
Hainaut and Holland: 1299–1436
Hainaut and Bavaria-Straubing: 1356–1429

In October 8 1436, with the early death of Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut and Holland (presumably of tuberculosis) in Teilingen Castle, near The Hague (where she is buried), her estates were acquired by Philip III of Valois, Duke of Burgundy. After the marriage of Mary I of Valois, Duchess of Burgundy to Emperor Maximilian I von Habsburg, the lands became a part of the Habsburg Southern Netherlands.

County of Hainaut

History

See also