Walloon Flanders (Dutch: ''Waals Vlaanderen'', French: ''Flandre wallonne'') was a semi-independent part of the

County of Flanders The County of Flanders was a historic territory in the Low Countries. From 862 onwards, the counts of Flanders were among the original twelve peers of the Kingdom of France. For centuries, their estates around the cities of Ghent, Bruges and Ypr ...

, composed of the burgraviates of

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

Douai Douai (, , ,; pcd, Doï; nl, Dowaai; formerly spelled Douay or Doway in English) is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some from Lille and from Arras, D ...

and

Orchies Orchies (; nl, Oorschie) is a commune in the department of Nord in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. Orchies is the biggest town of the Pévèle. It is especially known for its ''Musée de la chicorée'', the museum of chicory. ...

. It is sometimes referred to as ''Lille–Douai–Orchies.'' The population of the region speak Walloon and Picardy dialects.

History

The term "Walloon Flanders" appeared after the French conquest and was fixed in the literature by the beginning of the 19th century. Walloon Flanders was part of the

from the early Middle Ages, but was ceded to the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period. ...

from 1304 to 1369, by the

Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge The Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge was a peace treaty signed on 23 June 1305 between King Philip IV of France and Robert III of Flanders. The treaty was signed at Athis-sur-Orge after the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle and concluded the Franco-Flemish War ...

which concluded the

Franco-Flemish War (1297-1305) The Franco-Flemish War (french: Guerre de Flandre; nl, Vlaamse opstand) was a conflict between the Kingdom of France and the County of Flanders between 1297 and 1305. Causes Philip IV of France became king in 1285, and was determined to stren ...

. As a result, it was to some degree institutionally distinct from the County of Flanders and in some lists it even features as one of the

Seventeen Provinces The Seventeen Provinces were the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 16th century. They roughly covered the Low Countries, i.e., what is now the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and most of the French departments of Nord (Fre ...

. Furthermore, Walloon Flanders adhered to the

Union of Arras The Union of Arras (Dutch: ''Unie van Atrecht'', French: ''Union d'Arras'', Spanish: ''Unión de Arrás'') was an alliance between the County of Artois, the County of Hainaut and the city of Douai in the Habsburg Netherlands in early 1579 during ...

in 1579, whereas the County of Flanders joined the

Union of Utrecht The Union of Utrecht ( nl, Unie van Utrecht) was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain. History The Union of Utrecht is r ...

. In 1678, Walloon Flanders was annexed to France after the

Treaties of Nijmegen The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen ('; german: Friede von Nimwegen) were a series of treaties signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen between August 1678 and October 1679. The treaties ended various interconnected wars among France, the Dutch Republi ...

. Together with Maritime Flanders (Westhoek), it forms

French Flanders French Flanders (french: La Flandre française) is a part of the historical County of Flanders in present-day France where a dialect of Dutch was or still is traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day region of Hauts-de-France and r ...

, and is today the part of the Departement du Nord roughly corresponding with the

Arrondissement of Lille The arrondissement of Lille is an arrondissement of France in the Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region. It has 124 communes. Its population is 1,237,472 (2016), and its area is . Composition The communes of the arrondissement of Lille ...

and the Arrondissement of Douai.

References

{{Authority control County of Flanders Wallonia

History

See also

References