County of Flanders

County of Flanders
Graafschap Vlaanderen (Dutch)
Comté de Flandre (French)
Comitatus Flandriae (Latin)
862–1797
County of Flanders, 1350, in relation to the Low Countries and the Holy Roman Empire. The county was located where the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire met the North Sea.
County of Flanders, 1350, in relation to the Low Countries and the Holy Roman Empire. The county was located where the border between France and the Holy Roman Empire met the North Sea.
StatusFrench and Imperial fiefdom
CapitalBruges, later Ghent and Lille
Common languages
Religion
GovernmentFeudal monarchy
Count of Flanders[a] 
• 862–879
Baldwin I
• 1792–1797
Francis II
Historical eraMiddle Ages/Early modern period
• Fief granted to Count Baldwin I
862
• Annexed by France
1797
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Magraviate of Ename
Burgundian Netherlands
Dutch Republic
Kingdom of France
Escaut (department)
Lys (department)
Today part of
History of the Low Countries
Frisii Belgae
Cana–
nefates
Chamavi,
Tubantes
Gallia Belgica (55 BC–c. 5th AD)
Germania Inferior (83–c. 5th)
Salian Franks Batavi
unpopulated
(4th–c. 5th)
Saxons Salian Franks
(4th–c. 5th)
Frisian Kingdom
(c. 6th–734)
Frankish Kingdom (481–843)Carolingian Empire (800–843)
Austrasia (511–687)
Middle Francia (843–855) West
Francia

(843–)
Kingdom of Lotharingia (855– 959)
Duchy of Lower Lorraine (959–)
Frisia


Frisian
Freedom

(11–16th
century)

County of
Holland

(880–1432)

Bishopric of
Utrecht

(695–1456)

Duchy of
Brabant

(1183–1430)

Duchy of
Guelders

(1046–1543)

County of
Flanders

(862–1384)

County of
Hainaut

(1071–1432)

County of
Namur

(981–1421)

P.-Bish.
of Liège


(980–1794)

Duchy of
Luxem-
bourg

(1059–1443)
 
Burgundian Netherlands (1384–1482)

Habsburg Netherlands (1482–1795)
(Seventeen Provinces after 1543)
 

Dutch Republic
(1581–1795)

Spanish Netherlands
(1556–1714)
 
 
Austrian Netherlands
(1714–1795)
 
United States of Belgium
(1790)

R. Liège
(1789–'91)
     

Batavian Republic (1795–1806)
Kingdom of Holland (1806–1810)

associated with French First Republic (1795–1804)
part of First French Empire (1804–1815)
   

Princip. of the Netherlands (1813–1815)
 
Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1830)
Gr D. L.
(1815–)

Kingdom of the Netherlands (1839–)

Kingdom of Belgium (1830–)

Gr D. of
Luxem-
bourg

(1890–)

The County of Flanders[b] was one of the most powerful political entities in the medieval Low Countries, located on the North Sea coast of what is now Belgium. Unlike its neighbours, such as the counties of Brabant and Hainaut, it was within the territory of the Kingdom of France. The counts of Flanders held the most northerly 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 and Ypres, 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 and historians call this "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, 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. The territories of the old county are now the only part of the late medieval French kingdom outside of modern-day France, Catalonia having been 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 Battle of Waterloo in 1815, 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.

  1. ^ "Medieval Flanders was a cultural crossroads full of multilingualism - News - Utrecht University". 18 November 2022.


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