The pagus or gau of Hasbania was a large early medieval territory in what is now eastern Belgium. It is now approximated by the modern French- and Dutch-speaking region called Hesbaye in French, or Haspengouw in Dutch — both being terms derived from the medieval one. Unlike many smaller pagi of the period, Hasbania apparently never corresponded to a single county. It already contained several in the 9th century. It is therefore described as a "" (large gau), like the Pagus of Brabant, by modern German historians such as Ulrich Nonn.
The Hesbaye region was a core agricultural territory for the early Franks who settled in the Roman Civitas Tungrorum, which was one of the main parts of early Frankish Austrasia, and later Lotharingia. The region was also culturally important, a central part of what is referred to in art history as the Mosan region. It contained a substantial Romanized population and the seat of a large bishopric, that played a role in converting northern Franks to Christianity, and in the secular administration of the area. The bishop's seat moved from the Roman capital at Tongeren to a new base at Liège, both of which were located in Hasbania.
Geographically, this region centres around a fertile plateau, which has been an agricultural region since the Neolithic. This higher ground forms a watershed between the Meuse and Scheldt drainage basins. In modern times "Hesbaye" and "Haspengouw" are geographical terms which are used for example in tourism and agriculture, and do not have the geo-political importance that they had in the early Middle Ages.
Location
Early medieval records mentioning identifiable places in the pagus of Hasbania included both Maastricht and Liège on the Meuse river, which formed the apparent boundary to the south and east. Many of the earliest records were from near the Gete river system, and stretched in places as far north as the Demer river, for example in the area of Diest.
In the southwest, medieval records show that the pagus stretched to the area near the Abbey of Gembloux, in the modern Belgian Province of Namur. , just east of Gembloux, was named in different medieval records as being either in the Darnau pagus, which was a part of the Pagus Lomacensis, or in Hasbania.Grand-Leez in Hasbania: Nonn p. 134, footnote 708: "Lecem" [...] "quoque in pago Hasbanito habitum" (Diplomata Belgica document 3913). For Grand-Leez in the Lommegau see for example Roland, p. 47 (Diplomata Belgica document 3789.
Some scholars such as Léon Vanderkindere, and following him also Jean Baerten, and more recently Karl Verhelst, believe that from the earliest times Louvain (Leuven) was an integral part of Hasbania, and that the pagus stretched northwest of the line between Louvain and Diest, to the point where the Demer and Dyle join. However, the history of this less agricultural area is unclear before the 11th century, and the first mentions of a County of Louvain are under Count Lambert I in 1003.
Name In the earliest records, the Germanic element "gau" was not included as part of the name, and the typical Latin spelling is Hasbania. Occasionally the name is in an adjectival form indicating "(of the) Hasbanien(s)" (Hasbaniensis). Later come forms with the "gau" element such as Haspengewe in 966 and Haspengouue in 982, similar to the modern Dutch word for the area, "Haspengouw".Nonn p. 134.
Maurits Gysseling suggested the first part of the name, Has-, could technically have come from the word Chatti, an ancient German tribe whose name apparently changed into the later Hesse following known pronunciation changes which happened in Germany, but this is considered unlikely to be the real origin. The second element could be related to the word for the medieval concept of "ban", meaning a type of authority or lordship, and is similar to endings of other Frankish regions known from this period. Another common proposal is that the name was originally an older name of a locality within the region, such as the one where the villages of Overhespen and Neerhespen are.Nonn p. 133.
Verhelst (p. 245 n.45) proposed that the small number cases of medieval Latin which include the Germanic "gau" ending are uncoincidentally in or near the old deaconry of Tongeren, which he proposed to be the historical core of the Hesbaye. Therefore, he proposed, the terms Hasbania and Haspengouw can not be assumed to have identical meanings in all records, even though in modern Dutch the form with "gouw" is now the only one, while in modern French the form without is the only one.
According to some proposals, the name may once have applied to a much smaller area, for example, the area near Overhespen and Neerhespen, both now in Linter. Toorians has proposed that such place-names might derive from villas owned by Roman era land owners with the Gaulish name Casibennos.
Importance and origin In the 4th century the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate permitted the Salian Franks to settle just north of the Hesbaye area in Texandria. He met them in Tongeren, the Roman capital of the Civitas Tungrorum, which is today a part of the Dutch-speaking part of the Hesbaye (or Haspengouw). During the following centuries, the southern more-Romanized population sent missionaries north to convert the Franks to Christianity.
The Franks, for their part, contributed heavily to the Roman military, and according to Gregory of Tours, they established small kingdoms in each of the old Roman civitates. The Hesbaye became a particularly important region for the Frankish aristocracy and clergy, straddling the northernmost stretch of the medieval Germanic-Romance language border in Europe. Nobility associated with the area had numerous relations with the major dynasties of the medieval Franks. Eugen Ewig proposed that Hasbania together with the neighbouring Meuse () river valley, formed one of the old Austrasian provinces ruled by a dux or military leader, along with the Champagne, the Moselle, Alsace and Ribuaria. He proposed that it was possibly named Masuaria, and was based on the core (Kernraum) of the large Roman civitas of Tongeren.
Clerical boundaries
In the Middle Ages, the bishopric of Liège continued to exist, as the church of the old Roman civitas Tungrorum.
Around 800, the Bishop of Liège addressed himself to his faithful parishioners, naming only the people of the Condroz, Lomme (later the core of County of Namur), Hasbania, and the Ardennes, with no mention of the Meuse valley or Texandria further north.Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, 13, column 1084 This record has been taken as showing that the northern part of the old Roman civitas now under the spiritual leadership of Liège no longer had clear parochial boundaries, and missionary work to extend the Christian diocese was on-going at this time.J. Dhondt (1952) 'Proloog van de Brabantse geschiedenis. Een inleiding tot de politieke geschiedenis van Noord-Brabant in de 9de en 10de eeuw', in Bijdragen tot de studie van het Brabants Heem, III, p.14.
The later medieval Catholic archdeaconries of the Hesbaye region, established by the Bishop of Liège, are difficult to match to political or geographical concepts, though attempts have been made to gain insight this way, for example by Baerten and Verhelst. Clerically, much of geographical Hesbaye was divided between neighbouring jurisdictions, while the archdeaconry named Hasbania stretched far eastwards over the Meuse, as far as Aachen in modern Germany.
Earliest records The earliest mention Nonn gives is in the medieval biography of Bavo of Ghent (622–659) which says that Bavo came from the "ducatus" of the Hasbaniensis, indicating that it was an early Frankish form of dukedom.Also see Ewig.
In 680 in a record by the Merovingian King Theuderic III granting lands to the Abbey of St Vaast in Arras, known from a later confirmation of 875–877, places mentioned are described as being in the pagi of Hasbania and Ribuaria. The best identified ones are near Sint-Truiden: Halmaal, Muizen, and Emmeren in Hoepertingen.Nonn p. 134 n.698; Pacquay 1903 p. 262; Daris p. 36.
Hesbaye, or at least the country of the Hesbanien people, is next mentioned in a charter of 741/2 which exists in several versions, wherein a "count or duke of Hasbania" (comes vel dux Hasbanie) named Robert, son of Lambert, granted lands near Diest to Sint-Truiden Abbey.Despy (1961) gives a critical review of this document and its versions. This was reported in the much later third continuation of the chronicle of the Abbey (p. 371), in its report of the charter, it specifically says that in the charter concerning the lands, this Robert called himself a count, but also that he was mentioned in the biography (Vita) of Bishop Eucherius of Orléans. In surviving versions of that Vita, when Charles Martel exiled Eucherius to Cologne this was under the custody of a Duke Robert of Hasbania (Hasbanio Chrodoberto duce).Vita Eucherii episcopi Aurelianensis MGM Script. rer. mer. VII, 1920 pp. 50–51
A remarkable point about Count or Duke Robert of Hesbaye is that the lands given to the Abbey were described as being "in pago Hasbaniensi et Masuarinsi"— literally the land of Hasbanians and Masuarians. Masuaria is probably the Masao or Maasgau—the pagus or gau of the Meuse () valley districts nearest to these lands. Ewig and Nonn compare the word to a 714 document concerning Susteren Abbey north of Maastricht (in pago Mosariorum).
This has been seen by for example Gorissen, Ewig, and Nonn (p. 93), as indicating that Robert had jurisdiction over an area larger than Hasbania, including at least part of the neighbouring Meuse valley.
Based almost entirely on his name, this Count or Duke Robert is speculated by genealogists such as Christian Settipani to be a direct ancestor of the Robertians and the royal House of Capet. And Robert may well have been related to Ermengarde, the wife of Louis I the Pious, because her great-uncle Bishop Chrodegang was named in The Gesta Episcoporum Mettensis as being from Hasbania and of very noble Frankish descent ("ex pago Hasbaniensi" and "Francorum ex genere primæ nobilitatis progenitus"). Chrodegang's parents are known to have been named Sigramnus and Landrada, although their background can only be speculated upon.
9th century In the 9th century, there appear to have been several leaders in the Hesbaye. Count Ekkebard was reported to be one of the leaders of the pagus of Hesbaye in 834 who tried to negotiate the release of Emperor Louis the Pious.Vita Hludowici Imperatoris 50, MGH SS II, p.637. (Possibly the same person as Count Etkard who was killed, and had two sons captured, at the siege of Toulouse against Pepin II, King of Aquitaine.Annales Bertiniani II 844, p.31.)
In the mid 9th century, an important figure in this region was a count named Gilbert (or Giselbert), who may be an ancestor of the so-called Regnarids who would dominate the region in the next century. Two territorial holdings are described in documents: he was count in Darnau, which later became a part of the County of Namur, and also (by Nithard) "comes Mansuariorum", "Count of the Mansuari".HGH SS rer. Germ. : Nithardi Historiarum p.31 Historians associate this term with the "pago Hasbaniensi et Masuarinsi" of Count Robert near Diest in 741, and with both the Hesbaye and Meuse () valley to its east. The addition of the "n" in most of the copies is, however, surprising. Gorissen relates it the Merovingian "" which was in the Ardennes, but which he understood to be a road named after its destination near Maastricht.