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. Namur is the name of a city in Belgium, capital of Wallonia, as well as a province and a diocese named after it. ... Meuse is a département in northeast France, named after the Meuse River. ... Liège (Dutch: Luik, German: Lüttich; before 1946, the citys name was written Liége, with the acute accent) is a major city located in the Belgian province of Liège, of which it is the capital. ... Under the system of feudalism, a fiefdom, fief, feud or fee, consisted of heritable lands or revenue-producing property granted by a liege lord in return for a vassal knights service (usually fealty, military service, and security). ... Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ... For other uses of the term Merovingian, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ... Austrasia & Neustria Austrasia formed the north-eastern portion of the Kingdom of the Merovingian Franks, comprising parts of the territory of present-day eastern France, western Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. ... The Eiffel Tower Gustave Eiffel, builder of said tower Eiffel programming language Eifel region of Germany (Eiffel is a common misspelling) Eiffel 65, an electronic dance pop band This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Mark or march (or various plural forms of these words) are derived from the Frankish word marka (boundary) and refer to an area along a border, e. ... Limburgian (Dutch: Limburgs, German: Limburgisch, French: Limbourgeois) is a group of Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Selfkant regions, near the common Dutch/Flemish(Belgium)/German border. ... Gau can denote Gau, the German term for shire. ...

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. Location within France Poitiers (population 85,000) is a small city located in west central France. ... Charles the Bald - Detail from a painting in the First Bible of Charles the Bald, painted ca. ... Louis the German (also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian) (804 - August 28, 876), the third son of the emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye, was the king of Bavaria from 817, when his father partitioned the empire, and king of East Francia... The Bishopric of Liège or Prince-Bishopric of Liège was a state of the Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire in present Belgium. ...

Gunderland, Count of Hesbaye was son of Sigrand, Count of Hesbaye and Landrade of Austrasia. Landrade was reportedly the daughter of Charles Martel For the 13th century titular King of Hungary, see Charles Martel dAnjou. ...

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. Ermengarde, or Irmengarde de Hesbaye (born about 778) was the daughter of Ingerman, Count of Hesbania (Hesbaye, now in Liège, Belgium) and Hedwig of Bavaria. ... Louis the Pious doing penance at Attigny in 822. ... Charlemagne (742 or 747 – 28 January 814) (also Charles the Great; from Latin, Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), son of King Pippin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, was the king of the Franks from 768 to 814 and king of the Lombards from 774 to 814. ...

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

External links

• 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