Texandria (alsoToxiandria; later Toxandria, Taxandria),[note 1] is a region mentioned in the 4th century AD and during theMiddle Ages. It was situated in the southern part of the modernNetherlands and in the northern part of present-dayBelgium, an area currently known asCampine (Kempen in Dutch).
The tribal nameTexandri, which may be related to the name of the region,[1] is mentioned asTexand(ri) by an inscription dated 100–225 AD, asTexuandri by Pliny (1st c. AD),[2] and perhaps asTexu<...> on an inscription from Romania dated 102–103 AD.[3]
The variant formToxiandria is only attested once in a 9th-century manuscript ofAmmianus Marcellinus'Res Gestae (ca. 390) to designate the region, and the variantTaxandria occurs five times in 9th-century sources, and also in later documents.[3] The inconsistencies in spelling may be explained bydittography (errors by copyists), or by the fact that the older formTexandria had fallen out of usage.[3][4]
The nameTexandria is generally assumed to derive from theProto-Germanic stem*tehswō(n)- ('right [hand], south'; cf.Old Saxontesewa,Gothictaihswa, 'right, south') attached to the contrasting suffix*-dra-.[5][6][1]Texandria may thus be interpreted as the 'land of the southerners'.[1]
The region of Texandria is first mentioned by the Roman historianAmmianus Marcellinus ca. 390 AD.[4] In the 380s, theSalian Franks, after being defeated byJulian ca. 358, were given permission to settleapud Toxiandriam locum ('at a place in Toxiandria').[7]
Between 709 and ca. 1100, the nameTexandria was used to designate an area in the modern region ofCampine, straddling southern Netherlands and northern Belgium. In sources of the period 709–795, thepagus Texandrie appears concentrated in the basin of the riverDommel and its tributaries, with a first cluster of settlement betweenAlphen in the west andWaalre in the east, and a second cluster to the south aroundOverpelt.[7]
As a result of a growing elite network of alliances, Texandria expanded between 815 and 914 to a region covering modernNorth Brabant and adjacent parts of the provinces ofAntwerp andLimburg (possibly betweenOosterhout,Laakdal andReppel).[8] In the mid-11th century, Stepelinus, a monk fromSaint-Trond, located the region of Campania (firstly attested in this document) within Texandria.[9] From ca. 1225,Campania (modern Campine) replacedTexandria as the name of the region. The later had nonetheless survived as the name of a vastarchdeaconry within thediocese of Liège, although it was eventually also replaced withCampania by the end of the 14th century, then disappeared from historical records.[10][note 2]