County of Loon

County of Loon
Graafschap Loon (Dutch)
Comté de Looz (French)
1040–1795
Coat of arms of Loon
Coat of arms
The Low Countries around 1250, Loon in yellow
The Low Countries around 1250, Loon in yellow
StatusState of the Holy Roman Empire
CapitalBorgloon
Hasselt
Common languagesLimburgish
Religion
Roman Catholicism
GovernmentCounty
Historical eraMiddle Ages
• First mentioned
1040
• Gained Rieneck
1106
• Acquired Chiny
1227
• To Heinsberg
1336
• Incorporated by Liège
1366
• Annexed by
   France
1795
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Hasbania
Meuse-Inférieure

The County of Loon (Dutch: Graafschap Loon [ˈɣraːfsxɑp ˈloːn], Limburgish: Graafsjap Loeën [ˈɣʀaːfʃɑp ˈluən],[tone?] French: Comté de Looz) was a county in the Holy Roman Empire, which corresponded approximately with the modern Belgian province of Limburg. It was named after the original seat of its count, Loon, which is today called Borgloon. During the middle ages the counts moved their court to a more central position in Kuringen, which today forms part of Hasselt, capital of the province.

From its beginnings, Loon was associated with the nearby Prince-bishop of Liège, and by 1190 the count had come under the bishop's overlordship.[1] In the fourteenth century the male line ended for a second time, at which point the prince-bishops themselves took over the county directly. Loon approximately represented the Dutch-speaking (archaic French: thiois) part of the princedom. All of the Dutch-speaking towns in the Prince-Bishopric, with the status of being so-called "Good Cities" (French: bonnes villes), were in Loon, and are in Belgian Limburg today.[2] These were Beringen, Bilzen, Borgloon, Bree, Hamont, Hasselt, Herk-de-Stad, Maaseik, Peer and Stokkem.

Like other areas which eventually came under the power of the Prince Bishop of Liège, Loon never formally became part of the unified lordship of the "Low Countries" which united almost all of the Benelux in the late Middle Ages, and continued to unite almost all of today's Belgium under the ancien regime. Loon and other Liège lordships only joined their neighbours when they all became part of France during the French Revolution. After the Battle of Waterloo, they remained connected in the new United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1839, the old territory of Loon became the approximate basis of a new province, Limburg, within the new Kingdom of Belgium.

This map shows the medieval County of Loon in red, with modern provincial (grey) and national borders (black). The light red zones were under Loon and another lord jointly.
  1. ^ Count Gerard of Loon declared himself to hold Loon of the Bishop, in an Imperial Diet. See Vaes pp.32-3.
  2. ^ See for example Vaes p.119. The Dutch speaking cities were specifically called the cités thioises, where "thioise" is an old word related to English "Dutch".