TheCounty of Hainaut (/eɪˈnoʊ/ay-NOH;^[1]French:Comté de Hainaut;Dutch:Graafschap Henegouwen;Latin:comitatus hanoniensis), sometimes spelledHainault, was a territorial lordship within the medievalHoly Roman Empire that straddled the present-day border ofBelgium andFrance. Its most important towns includedMons (Dutch:Bergen), now in Belgium, andValenciennes, now in France.

County of Hainaut Comté de Hainaut (French) Graafschap Henegouwen (Dutch)
c. 900/1190
Flag Coat of arms
Status	County
Capital	Mons
Common languages	French Picard Latin (religious, theological)
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Government	Feudal lordship
Count of Hainaut
• ?–898	Reginar I (firstReginar count)
• 1071–98	Baldwin II
• 1432–67	Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy
• 1477–82	Mary of Burgundy
• 1792–97 (died 1835)	Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor (last count)
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Consolidation of county	c. 900/1190
• Absorbed into theHabsburg Netherlands	18 August 1477
• Joined theBurgundian Circle	1512
• Annexed by France	1797
Preceded by Succeeded by Mons Landgraviate of Brabant Valenciennes 1433: Burgundian Netherlands 1482: Habsburg Netherlands 1797: Jemmape
Today part of	Belgium France

The core of the county, named after the riverHaine, stretched southeast to include theAvesnois region and southwest to theSelle (Scheldt tributary). In theMiddle Ages, its Counts also gained control of part of the originalpagus of Brabant to its north and thepagus of Oosterbant to the east, but they did not form part of the oldpagus of Hainaut. In modern terms, the original core of Hainaut consisted of the central part of the Belgian province ofHainaut, and the eastern part of the Frenchdépartement ofNord (the arrondissements of Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Valenciennes).

Hainaut appears in 8th-century records as aFrankishgau orpagus which included the Roman towns ofFamars andBavay. In the 9th century, if not earlier, it was also described as acounty, which implies that it had a singlecount governing it. As with many counties of the region, there was apparently a 10th-century fragmentation of territories among different counts, which is difficult to reconstruct. In 1071 a single large territorial county was given its more-or-less final form that lasted for the rest of theMiddle Ages.

For much of its existence the County of Hainaut was a frontier territory, bordering upon theKingdom of France. From 843 the County formed part of the "middle kingdom" ofLotharingia. After about 925 Lotharingia was definitively attached by KingHenry the Fowler to his eastern Frankish realm that would become theKingdom of Germany. Hainaut and its neighbourhood remained an important frontier area, or"march", during theHigh Middle Ages. Though a part of theHoly Roman Empire, ruled from present-day Germany, it was culturally and linguisticallyFrench and ecclesiastically part of the CatholicArchdiocese of Reims. Like its neighbours such as the counties of Brabant and Flanders, it frequently became entangled in the politics of France.

The counts of Hainaut were often rulers of other counties, including Flanders and Holland. Examples of suchpersonal unions include the following:

• Hainaut and Flanders: 1067–71 and again 1191–1246
• Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland: 1299–1356
• Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland as part ofBavaria-Straubing: 1356–1432

In 1432, Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland joined Flanders,Artois, Namur, Brabant, Limbourg, and later Luxembourg, within the large agglomeration of territories in theLow Countries belonging to the FrenchHouse of Valois-Burgundy. This new state, theBurgundian Netherlands, was inherited by theHabsburg dynasty in the 1470s.

In 1659 and 1678 southern Hainaut was acquired by France. The northern part continued as part of theHabsburg Netherlands. Like much of that state, the northern part of Hainaut was absorbed into theFirst French Republic in 1797 after the end of theAncien Régime; it later became part of newly-formed Belgium in 1830.

The river Haine, for which the originalpagus (country or territory) is named, flows from east to west. It originates in the once forested area betweenBinche and modernCharleroi, near the Sambre. It empties into theScheldt. From the earliest records, Hainaut also extended south of the Haine to the upperSambre, theHelpe Majeure,Helpe Mineure and theAvesnois region in theArrondissement of Avesnes-sur-Helpe.

Hainaut'spagus also extended southwest along the Scheldt as far as the Selle river, where the most significant Roman city of the area wasFamars (RomanFanum Martis, literally 'shrine of Mars'), which had been a religious and administrative centre. In the early Middle Ages, records sometimes refer to places within thepagus of Hainaut as being within thepagus Fanomartenis, indicating that either Hainaut had an alternative name, or that Fanum Martis was base to a sub-pagus. According to the 10th-century monkFolcuin, Hainaut was simply a new name for the old Roman name, which had been connected to pre-Christiansuperstition.^[2]

The geographical definition of Hainaut as found in the oldest medieval records, was relatively stable, as shown by Faider-Feytman, Deru, and other historians of the region. According to archaeological evidence, geographical Hainaut, including Avesnes, formed the oldest region of development in thecivitas of theBelgicNervii. They had their early capital inBavay in Hainaut (RomanBagacum), which became a major Roman crossroads.

• To the south of theAvesnois, beyond the forest and hills ofThiérache was thepagus and bishopric ofLaon, the modern department ofAisne, which was one part of the oldcivitas of the Roman eraRemi.
• To the southwest, thepagus ofCambrai lay beyond theSenne river, and became the capital of thecivitas of the Nervii, and later the seat of the medieval bishop who had jurisdiction over Hainaut and Brabant. According to Xavier Deru, this region only developed during the Roman era, with Cambrai itself positioned on the point where a major Roman road crossed theScheldt. This region corresponds closely to the modern FrenchArrondissement of Cambrai, and both it and the bishopric are sometimes referred to as the "Cambrésis".
• Directly to the west across the Scheldt from Valenciennes, lay thepagus called the Osterbant (fr,de,nl), which was originally part of thecivitas of theAtrebates in Roman times, which has its traditional capital inArras. The medievalbishopric of Arras contained only two archdeaconries: Arras itself, and Osterbant. While Osterbant was a region that was competed over by the powerful counties ofFlanders and Hainaut in the Middle Ages, the rest of the Atrebates' old country became the basis of the medieval county ofArtois, which was normally under Flemish control. In modern France, Osterbant is similar in definition to theArrondissement of Douai.
• To the north, also within the originalcivitas of the Nervii, lay what would become the oldest form of thepagus of Brabant, stretching between the Scheldt andDyle and including modernAalst andBrussels. Medieval and modern Hainaut stretch into the south of the oldpagus of Brabant. As shown by Deru, archaeological evidence such as coin finds confirm the cultural connections between Brabant and Hainaut in Roman times.
• To the east of the River Haine lay theSilva Carbonaria ("charcoal forest") which once defined a major boundary. Beyond it, the regions which today containCharleroi,Namur andLeuven were all within the RomanCivitas Tungrorum and medievalBishopric of Liège.

The etymology of Hainaut is thought to beGermanic. The first part is the river name (the modern Haine, probably based on Germanic) and the second component was originally based upon Germanic*awja, which appears in several old Frankish gau names, such asMasau, the oldest name of thepagus on the Meuse river north of Maastricht. The related word "gau", used in the modern Dutch and German names of Hainaut,Henegouwen andHennegau, was also used but never became popular in medieval documents concerning this particular area.^[3][4]

The first surviving records indicating that Hainaut was a county are the records of theCarolingian dynasty being divided into parts in 831, 843 and 870. Most of the early medieval records mentioning Hainaut, starting in the 9th century, describe it as apagus, a land or country, rather than a county. 8th- and 9th-century attestations, as listed by Ulrich Nonn, however, never name any specific counts who ruled it:^[5]

• 750. A document ofPepin the Short refers to a placein pago Hainoavio.
• 779. A document ofCharlemagne refers to a placein pago Haginao.
• 831.Louis the Pious announced that the division of the empire would be such that his sonLouis the German's domain ofBavaria would include places west of the Meuse includingAinau. The record is not explicit about it being a county orpagus.
• 843. TheTreaty of Verdun, as recorded in theAnnales Bertiniani mentionshainaum among the regions between theScheldt andRhine to become part of the middle kingdom ofLothair I, and implies it is a county.
• 844. A document ofLothair I refers to placesin pago Hainoense [...]pago Hainnioense
• 847. A document ofCharles the Bald names places inpago Hagnuensi.
• 852. A document of Lothair I names places inpago Haynau.
• 855. A document ofLothair II names places inpago Hainau.
• 870. A document of Charles the Bald names places inpago Hainao.
• 870. TheTreaty of Meerssen mentions thecomitatus Hainoum, a county, and granted it to the western kingdom.
• 872. A document of Charles the Bald names places inpago Hainau.

Many such early medievalpagi in Europe have histories going back to theRoman Empire. As the Roman empire lost centralized control of this region, which lay in the Roman province ofBelgica II, it came under the administration ofChilderic I, who had been the military ruler of the Frankish army who previously fought under Romans inGaul, north of theLoire. TheMerovingian dynasty, and later the Carolingians, kept many of the Roman districts, and establishedcounts to administerpagi.

As explained by Nonn, there are very few, if any, clear records of counts of all Hainaut in the 10th century. The region is associated by many historians such asLeon Vanderkindere with the so-calledReginarid dynasty who were a powerful and rebelliousLotharingian family, known for their frequent use of the name Reginar. This is because later in the 10th century a branch of this family succeeded to take the county by force, after returning from exile. However, while the later family clearly claimed to have once had important rights throughout Lotharingia, the exact nature of most of these is unclear, and their possession of a county in Hainaut before Reginar III can not be proven.^[6]

The only medieval record which claims thatReginar I had direct lordship over Hainaut was the much laterDudo of Saint-Quentin, who is considered to be unreliable for this period. He names Reginar as "Duke" (Latindux) of bothHesbaye and Hainaut, and discusses his march againstRollo inWalcheren, together with a Frisian ruler named Radbod, at some point in late 9th or early 10th century. The late 14th centuryAnnales Hannoniae, which give legendary origins of the Counts of Hainaut, describes this Reginar I as a count of Mons – a title held by his descendants.[1]

The first recorded count who was associated as a count with any part of Hainaut in a contemporary record wasCount Sigehard.Leon Vanderkindere proposed that this Sigehard was given the county while Reginar I was out of favour. In fact no such connections can be proven.^[7] He was more clearly described as a count in thepagusLiugas, east ofLiège.

• 902. The county of Sigarhard includedWandre andEsneux in thepagus of Liège (in pago Leuchia in comitatu Sigarhardi).
• 908. He was recorded once as a count who was present agreements made about bothLobbes Abbey (Laubacensum abbatiam), which was described as part of the county andpagus of Hainaut (in pago ac in comitatu Hainuensi sitem), and Theux, which was described as being in thepagus and county of Liugas (in pago ac in comitatu Liwensi positum).[2]
• 915. Theux is described as being both in thepagus of Liugas and the county of Sigehard (in pago Leuviensi atque in comitatus Sichardi sitam).
• 916 and 919, Sigehard appears in two documents of West Francia kingCharles the Simple dated atHerstal near Liège.
• 920. Sigehard was also recorded as a "venerable" count in a document concerningCrespin Abbey, concerning a grant.[3]. According to Nonn, the record shows that he had held the land involved.

From 925, Lotharingia, including Hainaut, was continuously part of the eastern kingdom, "Germany". In 939, the Reginars led a rebellion against Germany which was defeated.Gilbert, Duke of Lorraine, the son of Reginar I who had been leader of this rebellion, was killed.

Reginar II (died before 943), the younger son of Reginar I, was named as a Count of Hainaut in the late 11th-century life story (Vita) ofGerard of Brogne (died 959), but this work is considered unreliable, and we can not be certain of this position.^[8] His sonCount Reginar III Longneck, may also have been a count in Hainaut. What is more certain is that he unsuccessfully rebelled against DukeBruno the Great, so he was deposed from all offices, exiled andbanned in 958. TheVita of Gerard of Brogne also names him as a count of Hainaut. Ulrich Nonn considers it likely that he held Mons because it aligns with other evidence.^[9]

A Count named Amelric who was "from" the pagus of Hainaut (Latin:ex pago Hainou) is named in or after 953 in theDeeds of the bishops of Cambrai.^[10] This is generally taken to mean that Hainaut already included the jurisdictions of more than one count. Apart from the one associated with Mons, Amulric perhaps held a county based in Valenciennes.^[11]

The second or third count of Hainaut to be named in a contemporary record was however called Godefrid, starting in 958, the year of Reginar III's exile. He is generally considered to beGodfrey I, Duke of Lower Lorraine who died in 964 in Italy.

After the death of Godfrey in Italy, he was replaced in Hainaut by aCount Richer, who was perhaps the same Count Richer who held a county in thepagus of Liège. In 972 he died. In 973 two noble brothers,Werner and Reynold, were killed near Mons fighting the two sons of Reginar III,Reginar IV andLambert, who had returned to claim their father's property. Also in 973, Counts named Amelric and Richizo appeared in a royal grant in favour of Crispin Abbey in Hainaut.^[12] Amelric is probably the count of 953 mentioned above, with his seat in or near Valenciennes. According to Hlawitchka, Richizo is probably Richwin, a brother of Count Richer who died in 972.

The Regnarid brothers apparently did not succeed in gaining Hainaut, or even Mons for some decades.^[13] TheGesta of the bishops of Cambrai records that two counts named Godefrid and Arnulf succeeded Richizo and Amelric, and these two counts were involved in a defense of Cambrai in 979, and appear in other records. They are believed to be the same asCount Godfrey "the captive", andArnulf of Valenciennes.

In 998 the Reginar IV regained control over the County ofMons, in Hainaut, from Godfrey according toAlberic of Trois-Fontaines.^[14] Historian Michel de Waha believes this late report can not be trusted, and that we can only say they took control in the period 985–1015, and probably after 1007. Reginar IV died 1013, and was succeeded by his son Reginar V. Reginar IV's brother Lambert, who made himself Count of Louvain, died in battle in Hainaut in 1015.

The County of Valenciennes disappears from records after the death of Arnulf of Valenciennes in about 1011, with this part of Hainaut possibly being taken over by the County of Flanders.

Reginar V, the son of Reginar IV, married the granddaughter of his father's old rival, Godefrid the "captive". The bishop, Gerard of Florennes, accepted this diplomatic marriage despite the couple being within the degrees of relationship where this would normally not be allowed.

When the last Reginarid Count of Hainaut, Herman, the son of Reginar V, died without issue in 1051, his widowRichilde marriedBaldwin VI, Count of Flanders, who was a vassal of the French crown. On the death of his father in 1067, Baldwin VI became the ruler of both Hainaut and Flanders. He was succeeded by his sonArnulf III, who was killed at theBattle of Cassel in 1071 in an inheritance dispute with his uncle,Robert I the Frisian. The victorious Robert acquired Flanders, but his sister-in-law Richilde retained the adjacentLower Lorraine territories in theHoly Roman Empire as her dowry. The revived County of Hainaut, therefore, emerged from therefeudalisation of threeimmediate counties:

• the County of Mons
• the southern part of the oldPagus of Brabant
• the Ottonian Margraviate ofValenciennes

The unification of the County of Hainaut as an Imperial fief was accomplished after Arnulf's defeat in 1071, when Richilde and her sonBaldwin II tried to sell their fiefs toEmperor Henry IV. Henry IV ordered thePrince-Bishop of Liège to purchase the fiefs and then return them as a unified county to the countess Richilde and, through the chain of feudal authority, to theDukes of Lower Lorraine.

Although Baldwin II did not inherit the County of Flanders, he and his descendants,Baldwin III,Baldwin IV, andBaldwin V, were in the male line of the Counts of Flanders, and the two lines joined again. Baldwin V married the heiress of Flanders,Margaret in 1169, becoming "Baldwin VIII" of Flanders, and during his lifetime Flanders, Hainaut and Namur were united under one lord.

In the next generation, Namur was given to a different son than Flanders and Hainaut, which remained together underBaldwin VI/IX, who became the firstemperor of the Latin Empire ofConstantinople. Baldwin's brother,Philip I of Namur was regent in Hainaut but also had to fight Luxembourg for control of Namur. Baldwin himself was killed in Bulgaria, leaving two heiresses,Joan who ruled but died childless in 1244, andMargaret who ruled from 1244 and married twice. The lines of her two husbands divided Flanders and Hainaut between them:

• Jean of Avesnes, eldest son of Margaret's first husband, founded a new line of Avesnes counts of Hainaut and died in 1257.
• Guy of Dampierre, eldest surviving son of Margaret's second husband, founded the new line of Flanders counts and died in 1305. He also became count of Namur, though this inheritance was given to a different child.

From 1299, Hainaut's countJean II, d'Avesnes, the son of Jean I, was alsoCount of Holland andZeeland, through his mother. He was also an unsuccessful claimant to become Count of Flanders. After his grandsonWilliam died in 1347, these same lordships went to his sister, and were held by members of theWittelsbach dynasty who also possessed the Dukedom ofBavaria-Straubing. This branch of the Wittelsbach family held Hainaut until 1436.

The Wittelsbachs struggled against each other in the so-calledHook and Cod wars which were partly driven by factions in Holland. After the death of DukeWilliam II of Bavaria-Straubing in 1417, Hainaut was inherited by his daughterJacqueline, who had a powerful opponent in her cousin, Philip the Good.

Already in 1428, effective control of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland was acquired byPhilip the Good. In 1432 Jacqueline had to cede the inheritance rights of Hainaut, Holland and Zeeland to Duke Philip. The last independent countess died early on 8 October 1436 (presumably oftuberculosis) inTeylingen Castle, nearThe Hague, where she is buried. Her estates were incorporated into theBurgundian Netherlands.

Philip was alreadyDuke of Burgundy, Count of Flanders,Artois,Namur andFranche-Comte, and would later becomeDuke of Brabant,Limbourg, andLuxembourg. His family, theHouse of Valois-Burgundy, a branch of the French royal family, created a powerful state between France and Germany and Hainaut was part of it.Charles the Bold of Burgundy, the son of Philip, was however killed at theBattle of Nancy in 1477, and the male line of the Burgundian dukes became extinct. In the same year, Charles' daughterMary of Burgundy married ArchdukeMaximilian I of Habsburg, the son ofEmperor Frederick III, and Hainaut passed to theHabsburg dynasty, who were emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and kings of Spain.

KingLouis XI of France had hoped to take advantage of the death of his cousin, Charles and sent an army to invade the Netherlands. However, the French were defeated at theBattle of Guinegate in 1479, and Hainaut was consolidated in theHabsburg Netherlands by theTreaty of Arras in 1482.

Hainaut became part of theBurgundian Circle in the Holy Roman empire in 1512. It was ruled by theSpanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1555 to 1714.

In 1579 Hainaut was a member of theUnion of Arras which submitted to the rule ofHabsburg Spain, while the northernUnion of Utrecht rebelled and formed theDutch Republic in 1581.

The 1659Treaty of the Pyrenees and the 1679Treaties of Nijmegen cut Hainaut in two. The southern area, around the towns ofValenciennes,Le Quesnoy andAvesnes, was ceded toFrance under KingLouis XIV. During the French revolution it formed the basis of the newly namedFrenchdépartement ofNord. Today the area is still referred to asFrench Hainaut.

The northern part of Hainaut, around Mons, remained part of the Spanish Netherlands, which became theAustrian Netherlands after the 1713Treaty of Utrecht – moving possession from one branch of the Habsburgs to another.

In 1797, during theFrench Revolution, the northern part of the county was ceded to France byEmperor Francis II, who was also count of Hainaut. It became theFrenchdépartement ofJemappe. After the defeat ofNapoleon at theBattle of Waterloo in 1815, the northern part, once again called Hainaut, went to the newKingdom of the Netherlands, and then in 1830 to the Kingdom of Belgium which was created from the southern part of that kingdom. It forms the basis of the modernProvince of Hainaut in Belgium.

In modern Hainaut the traditional county's heritage can still for example be seen in the dialect differences. The western part of Hainaut is a transitional area betweenPicard andWalloon dialects.

• Count of Hainaut
• Counts of Hainaut family tree

• Deru, Xavier (2009),"Cadres géographiques du territoire des Nerviens",Revue du Nord,5 (383):179–201,doi:10.3917/rdn.383.0179,ISSN 0035-2624
• Faider-Feytmans, Germaine (1952),"Les limites de la cité des Nerviens",L'Antiquité classique,21 (2):338–358,doi:10.3406/antiq.1952.3453
• Hlawitschka, Eduard (1969),Die Anfänge des Hauses Habsburg-Lothringen. Genealogische Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Lothringens und des Reiches im 9., 10. und 11. Jahrhundert
• Nonn, Ulrich (1983),Pagus und Comitatus
• De Waha, Michel (2000), "Filii Ragineri in terra patrum suorum relocati sunt. Pouvoir, opposition et intégration dans le Hainaut du Xème siècle", in Billen, Claire (ed.),Hainaut et Tournaisis, regards sur dix siècles d'histoire. Recueil d'études dédiées à la mémoire de Jacques Nazet (1944–1996), pp. 61–85

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