From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hesbaye (Latinized as Hesbania in Medieval documents, modern French Hesbaye, modern Dutch Haspengouw), the region around Namur on the Meuse (Maas), Belgium, near Liège, was an important fief in the northwestern marches of the Merovingian kingdom of Austrasia. It lay in "that region where the western foreland of the Eiffel meets the south-western fringe of silva carbonaria, a woodland frequently mentioned in Frankish historiography"^[1] The Merovingian county was consolidated from the old mark Haspinga in which the final -ga element survives in the -gouw of the modern Limburgish name: Gau (plural Gaue) was an old Frankish term for a political division, equivalent in its etymology to the French pays.

Hesbania (confusingly spelled Hispania in old documents) was perhaps set apart for Lambertus (born 640), son of Guerin, count of Poitiers (ca. 612 in Austrasia, – 677/87). It was mentioned in the division of territories between Charles the Bald and Louis the German in 880. In 1040, the county of Hesbaye was absorbed by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

Gunderland, Count of Hesbaye was son of Sigrand, Count of Hesbaye and Landrada of Austrasia. Landrada was reportedly the daughter of Charles Martel. She founded the abbey of Munsterbilzen (Belgium), where in 2006 ten graves with massive treetrunk coffins were discovered.

The fortunes of the line of counts of Hesbaye were cemented when Ermengarde of Hesbaye (778 in Hesbaye –3 October 818 in Angers) married Louis the Pious, son of Charlemagne.

Small village in Hesbaye (Belgium)

Today Hesbaye/Haspengouw continues to be rural, with many small villages.

• Limburgish landscapes Map of the region
• Rolf Badenhausen, "Merovingians by the Svava?" Identifying Didrek of the Old Swedish Thidrekssaga with Theuderich, son of Clovis; includes Geographic glossary of placenames