Hainaut

Hainaut or Hainault may refer to:

Hainaut (province)

Hainaut (Archaic English: Hainault, Heynalt, Heynowes; French: Hainaut, French pronunciation: ​[ɛno]; Dutch: Henegouwen, IPA: [ˈɦeːnəˌɣʌuwə(n)]; German: Hennegau; Walloon: Hinnot; Picard: Hénau) is a province of Belgium in the Walloon region.

To its south lies the French Nord department, while within Belgium it borders (clockwise from the North) on the Flemish provinces of West Flanders, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and the Walloon provinces of Walloon Brabant and Namur.

Its capital is Mons (Dutch Bergen) and the most populous city is Charleroi, also the province's major urban, economic and cultural hub. The city is also the financial capital of Hainaut and one of the most important commercial centers in Belgium, being the fifth largest city in the country by population.

History

The province derives from the French Revolutionary Jemmape department, formed in 1795 from part of the medieval County of Hainaut, Tournai and the Tournaisis, a part of the county of Namur (Charleroi) and of the Prince-Bishopric of Liège (Thuin). (A large part of the historical county is now within France and sometimes referred to as French Hainaut.)

County of Hainaut

The County of Hainaut (French: Comté de Hainaut, Dutch: Graafschap Henegouwen; German: Grafschaft Hennegau), sometimes given the archaic spelling Hainault, was a historical lordship within the medieval Holy Roman Empire, with its capital at Mons (Dutch: Bergen). The name comes from the river Haine (Dutch: Hene, German: Henne). Besides Mons, it included the cities of Cambrai (Kamerijk) and Charleroi. It consisted of what is now the Belgian province of Hainaut and the southern part of the French département of Nord.

Originally a gau of Lotharingia, Hainaut was briefly a part of West Francia (911–25) before becoming definitively attached to Germany. The county was divided in 958 and only emerged in its more or less final form in 1071. During the High Middle Ages, Hainaut became culturally and linguistically French. In 1432, Hainaut was acquired by the House of Valois-Burgundy and in 1477 passed to the Habsburgs with the rest of the Burgundian Netherlands and became part of the Burgundian Circle in 1512. It was ruled by the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs from 1555 to 1714. In 1659 and 1678 southern Hainaut was acquired by France, and in 1797 the rest of the county was ceded to France by the Emperor Francis II, who was also count of Hainaut.