County of Flanders
The County of Flanders (Dutch: Graafschap Vlaanderen; West Flemish: Groafschap Vloandern; French: Comté de Flandre) 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 Ypres formed one of the most affluent regions in Europe. Up to 1477, the area under French suzerainty was west of the Scheldt and was called "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: "Imperial Flanders" (Rijks-Vlaanderen or Flandre impériale). Part of the Burgundian Netherlands from 1384, which had a complex relation with France, the whole county fell to the Empire after the Peace of Madrid in 1526 and the Peace of the Ladies in 1529. Having already regained much, by 1795, the rest – within the Austrian Netherlands – was acquired likewise by France under the French First Republic. Resulting from the Battle of Waterloo of the same year, it passed to the newly established United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. The former County of Flanders, except for French Flanders, is the only part of the late medieval French kingdom outside of modern-day France (Catalonia having been renounced in 1258).
French fiefdom and historic territory in the Low Countries
historical country countship