HAINAUT
. County in the Low Countries, bordering on Flanders. Medieval Hainaut was an
agricultural area, centering on the Scheldt, Sambre, and Dendre rivers. Its only large
towns were Valenciennes and Mons. Although its population was Romance, Hainaut was
entirely in the empire, and its bonds with France, which bordered it on the south, were
thus diplomatic rather than dynastic.
Hainaut’s first known count was Reginar “au long col,” who founded a dynasty that
lasted until after 1040. In 1170, Count Baudouin V of Hainaut married Marguerite, sister
of the childless Philippe d’Alsace, count of Flanders. Their son ruled Hainaut and
Flanders, beginning a dynastic union that persisted until the death of Countess Marguerite
in 1278, when Hainaut passed to her grandson, Jean d’Avesnes. Jean’s mother had been
the sister of Count William II of Holland; at the death of Florence V of Holland in 1299,
a dynastic union of Holland and Hainaut began that lasted until Hainaut was incorporated
into the Burgundian state in the 15th century.
After the extinction of the Avesnes line in 1345, Hainaut was ruled by the Bavarian
descendants of Marguerite, sister of Count William II and wife of the emperor Louis IV.
In 1417, Count William IV was succeeded by his daughter Jacqueline, wife of Jean IV,
the Burgundian duke of Brabant; but when she left her husband to marry Duke Humphrey
of Gloucester in 1422, the Burgundians invaded Hainaut. With Holland and Zeeland, it
was annexed formally to the domain of Philip the Good in 1433.
David M.Nicholas
[See also: AVESNES; BAUDOUIN; FLANDERS (genealogical table)]
de Hemptinne, Th. “Vlaanderen en Henegouwen onder de erfgenamen van de Boudewijns, 1070–
1244” and Vandermaesen, M. “Vlaanderen en Henegouwen onder het Huis van Dampierre,
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Dishoeck, 1982, Vol. 2, pp. 372–440.
Delcambre, Étienne. Les relations entre la France et le Hainaut (1280–1297). Mons: Union des
Imprimeries, 1929.
Falmagne, Jacques. Baudouin V, comte de Hainaut. Montreal: Presses de l’Université de Montréal,
1965.
Genicot, Léopold. Études sur les principautés lotharingiennes. Louvain: Bureau du Recueil,
Bibliothèque de l’Université, 1975.
Hasquin, Hervé. La Wallonie: le pays et les hommes: histoire, économies, sociétés. Brussels: La
Renaissance du Livre, 1975.
Vanderkindere, Léon. La formation territoriale des principautés belges au moyen âge. 2 vols.
Brussels: Lamertin, 1902.
HARCOURT
. The Norman barons of Harcourt (Eure) claimed descent from a 10th-century Viking
chief. Over the centuries, the branches of this family became connected to all the
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