The County of Flanders was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries, located on the North Sea coast of modern-day Belgium and north-eastern France. Unlike the neighbouring states of Brabant and Hainaut, it was within the territory of the Kingdom of France. The counts of Flanders held the northernmost part of the kingdom, and were among the original twelve peers of France. For centuries, the economic activity of the Flemish cities, such as Ghent, Bruges, Ypres and Lille, made Flanders one of the most affluent regions in Europe, and also gave them strong international connections to trading partners.
Up to 1477, the core area under French suzerainty was west of the Scheldt. Historians call this area "Royal Flanders" (Dutch: Kroon-Vlaanderen, French: Flandre royale). Aside from this, the counts, from the 11th century onward, held land east of the river as a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and this is referred to as "Imperial Flanders" (Rijks-Vlaanderen or Flandre impériale). From 1384, the county was politically united to the Duchy of Burgundy, and it formed the starting point for more acquisitions in the area by the duchy, and the eventual creation of the Burgundian Netherlands. The expansion of Flemish ("Burgundian") power deep into the Holy Roman Empire further complicated the relationship between Flanders and France, but reinforced the connections with Brabant, Hainaut, Holland and other parts of the Low Countries. The link to the empire was strengthened even more when the Burgundian Netherlands came into the hands of the imperial Habsburg dynasty in 1477. Most of Flanders became part of the empire after the Peace of Madrid in 1526 and the Peace of the Ladies in 1529, although it came to be ruled under the Habsburg crown of Spain. Most of the old county's territory lies outside of present-day France, one of only two parts of medieval France that are no longer part of the country; the other being Catalonia, renounced in 1258.
By 1795, the entire Austrian Netherlands, the successor of the Spanish Netherlands, was acquired by France under the French First Republic, and this was recognized by treaty in 1797. After the 1815 Battle of Waterloo, these territories, including most of the old county of Flanders, passed to the newly established United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which was split up between 1830 and 1839 into the modern countries of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Although the French Republic had avoided using the names of the great medieval counties for their administrative départements, the Dutch and Belgian regimes brought back such names, and as a consequence the two westernmost provinces of the Flanders region of modern Belgium are now called West Flanders and East Flanders.
Etymology
A Germanic etymology for Flanders, Fleming and Flemish (Dutch: Vlaanderen, Vlaams) was proposed by Maurits Gysseling in 1948, based upon an article by René Verdeyen in 1943. According to this proposal, the terms Fleming and Flemish are likely derived from words derived from Proto-Germanic *flaumaz, meaning stream, current, flood or eddy. It is related to the Middle English flem (stream) , the Old Norse flaumr (current), the Danish flom (flood) and the Old High German floum (mud). This allows to reconstruct the words Flaumisk and Flauming, which became Flämisk and Fläming in the eighth century. To name the region, the Latin suffix -dra is used.
The region Flanders is first mentioned as "in Flandris" in the biography of Saint Eligius (c. 590–660), the Vita sancti Eligii, which was written in the eighth century. Its inhabitants are called "Flandrensis". The name refers to a region, larger than the original "Pagus Flandrensis" around Bruges.
Geography
The geography of the historic County of Flanders is similar to the modern Belgian provinces of West Flanders and East Flanders, although parts of the historic county are now in France and the Netherlands. In modern Belgium, East and West Flanders are only the western extremity of the five provinces of what is now the Belgian administrative region of Flanders, which extends eastwards far beyond the historical County of Flanders. The land covered by the medieval county is spread out over several modern territories:
- Belgium:
- two of the five Flemish provinces: West Flanders and East Flanders
- part of the Flemish province of Antwerp: the land of Bornem
- part of the Walloon province of Hainaut: Tournaisis and the region around Moeskroen (that belonged to West Flanders until 1962)
- France:
- French Flanders (in the Nord departement)
- the French westcorner: the region around Dunkirk, Bergues and Bailleul, an area where Flemish used to be the main language
- Walloon Flanders, where the Picard language, closely related to French, was spoken.
- Artois (in the Pas-de-Calais department): removed from Flanders in 1191 and created as independent county in 1237
- Netherlands:
- Zeelandic Flanders, a region between Belgium and the Western Scheldt in the southern part of the modern province of Zeeland, which from 1581 formed part of the Generality Lands under control of the Dutch Republic.
Flag and arms
The arms of the County of Flanders were allegedly created by Philip of Alsace, count of Flanders from 1168 to 1191; a climbing or rampant black lion on a gold field. In the story about the Battle of the Golden Spurs, the arms and its corresponding battlecry Vlaendr'n den leeuw ("Flanders, the Lion") plays a crucial role in the forming of a Flemish consciousness, which was popularised in the 19th century by the book De Leeuw van Vlaanderen by Hendrik Conscience. As a result, the arms of the county live on as arms of the Flemish community.
According to legend, Philip of Alsace brought the lion flag in 1177 from the Holy Land, where he supposedly acquired it in battle with a Saracen knight, but this is a myth. The simple fact that the lion appeared on his personal seal since 1163, well before his first voyage to the Levant, disproves it. In reality Philip was following a West-European trend: in the same period lions also appeared in the arms of Brabant, Luxembourg, Holland, Limburg and other territories. The lion as a heraldic symbol was mostly used in border territories and neighbouring countries of the Holy Roman Empire. It was in all likelihood a way of showing independence from the emperor, who used an eagle in his personal arms. In Europe, the lion had been a well-known figure since Roman times, through works such as the fables of Aesop.
History
Antiquity and early middle ages
Julius Caesar conquered the areas South of the Rhine in Gaul around 54 BC and the population was partially romanised from the 1st to the 3rd century. When the Roman Empire started to decline in the fifth century, most of the Roman population retreated below a line formed by the Roman road that connected Cologne with Boulogne-sur-Mer through Bavay. In the south, the Gallo-Romanic population was able to maintain itself, while the north became a no-mans land that also suffered from regular floods from the North Sea. This void was filled by Germanic speaking Franks.
The first wave of immigration in the present day Flemish territory was accompanied by limited Christianisation. In the wake of the immigrants, missionaries tried to convert the heathen population, but had little success. The bishoprics were reinstated, usually with the same natural borders of the Late-Roman era; the Silva Carbonaria separated the Bishopric of Cambrai from the Bishopric of Tongeren, while the Scheldt again became the border between the bishoprics of Cambrai and Tournai. Vedast and Eleutherius of Tournai were assigned to reinstate the bishoprics of Arras and Tournai. However, these bishoprics failed to survive independently. In the late 6th century the bishopric of Arras was connected to that of Cambrai, and at the start of the 7th century the same was done to the bishoprics of Tournai and Noyon.
7th century
At the end of the 6th and 7th centuries, a new inflow emerged from the western Pas-de-Calais. This area had been germanised in the 5th century and descendants of the Saxons and Franks had settled in future Flanders and the Duchy of Brabant. New groups of germanic settlers also came in from the Netherlands and Germany. Their new settlements often received the name of their germanic leader, with -inga haim added. -Inga haim meant 'the settlement of the tribe of X'. For example: Petegem comes from Petta-inga-haim, which meant 'the settlement of the tribe of Petta'.
The colonisation and germanisation of Flanders took place primarily in the 6th and 7th centuries. In the 7th century, the population-level had risen sufficiently to start rebuilding the religious, military and administrative infrastructure. In the area of linguistics, the situation stabilised so that a large, bilingual region with a linear language border could emerge in the 8th century. In Pas-de-Calais, which had been densely populated a long time, a language barrier had emerged in the 6th–7th century, but in the 9th century a romanisation-movement started that has continued until the present day.
The Christianisation attempts in the 6th century by bishops like Eleutherius and Vedast had largely failed. In the 7th century a new effort was made under influence from King Dagobert I. He appointed several devoted missionaries from the southern parts of his kingdom to his royal domains in the northern parts of his kingdom. The missionaries were tasked with founding monasteries and abbeys there, that were to serve as centers of Christianity in a pagan region. From these centers, the conversion of the local populace could be started.
In 649, Audomar founded an abbey at Sithiu (the Abbey of Saint Bertin) and in 680 Aubertus founded the Abbey of St. Vaast near Arras. The Christianisation of the population was mainly the work of missionaries like Amandus (St. Bavo's Abbey and St. Peter's Abbey in Ghent) and Eligius (coastal region and Antwerp). In his vita, Eligius makes the first mention of the word Flanders, when he toured the area around 650.
During the 7th century, the first gaue or pagi were created in the Flemish territories. Gaue were administrative subdivisions of the civitates. The gaue from the 7th and 8th centuries would form the basis of the county of Flanders. The pagus Tornacensis dates from c. 580, and from the 7th century we know of the pagus Cambracinsis in 663, the pagus Taroanensis from 649 and the pagus Bracbatensis at the end of the century. From the 8th century we know of the pagus Rodaninsis from 707, the pagus Gandao from the first quarter of the 8th century, the pagus Mempiscus from 723 and the pagus Flandrensis from around 745. Lastly, the pagus Austrebatensis and the pagus Curtracensis are also counted as Merovingian gaue.
Carolingians
In 751, the Carolingian Mayors of the Palace succeeded in removing the Merovingians from power and obtaining the throne for themselves. The last Merovingian king, Childeric III, was placed in captivity at the later Abbey of Saint Bertinus in St. Omer, and his long hair, a symbol of royal power, was cut off.
Charlemagne succeeded his father Pepin the Short in Neustria and Austrasia. After the death of his brother Karloman, he was able to reunite the entire Frankish Empire. Though he resided in Aachen, he spent much time travelling through his territories. In 811, he inspected the fleet that he had ordered built in Boulogne and Ghent, to protect against Viking invasions.
The region comprising future Flanders was, from an economic point of view, a flourishing region, with a series of ports along the Scheldt river: Ghent, Tournai, Valenciennes, Cambrai and Lambres at Douai on the Scarpe and a number of seaports: Quentovic, Boulogne and Isère portus, a port at the mouth of the Yser. Moreover, the region included a number of rich abbeys, such as Abbey of Saint Bertin, Saint Bavo's Abbey, Saint-Amand Abbey and the Abbey of St. Vaast.
Charlemagne was succeeded by his son Louis the Pious. Even during Louis' life, his three sons started fighting over his heritage. They eventually concluded multiple treaties, of which the Treaty of Verdun, signed in 843, would be the definitive one. These treaties created East Francia, Middle Francia and West Francia. West Francia, inherited by Charles the Bald, included the original county of Flanders, that spanned roughly between Oudenburg, Aardenburg and Torhout.
After the Middle-Frankish kings died out, the rulers of the West and East-Frankish Kingdoms divided the Middle-Frankish kingdom amongst themselves in the treaty of Meerssen in 870. Now, Western Europe had been divided into two sides: the solid West Francia (the later France) and the loose confederation of principalities of East Francia, that would become the Holy Roman Empire.
In the north, these two powers were separated by the Scheldt river, which had previously separated West Francia from Middle Francia. This separation remained unchanged until the times of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
Growth in the 9th to the 11th centuries (864–1071)
Militarily, economically and politically, Europe went through a deep crisis. The Vikings invaded from the north, the Magyar from the east and the Saracens from the south. All left trails of destruction. The central authorities of the two Frankish kingdoms were unable to organise an effective defensive, causing the population to lose faith and trust in their far-removed rulers. In the wake of this power vacuum, local powerful individuals saw their chance. Often these individuals were the descendants of people associated with Charlemagne.
The county of Flanders originated from the Gau or Pagus Flandrensis (Dutch: Vlaanderengouw). The first Margrave (Count) of Flanders was Baldwin I, who became count in 862 after he eloped with Judith of West Francia, the daughter of the Frankish king Charles the Bald. Judith, who had previously been married to two English kings, refused her father's command to return to him. After mediation by the pope, the Frankish king reconciled with his son-in-law, and gave him the title of margrave, and the corresponding beneficia.