HAINAUT, a province of Belgium, based on the ancient county of Hainaut. There are about i io,000 men and women employed in the coal and iron mines, and about io,000 in iron and steel works. The chief towns are Mons, the capital, Char leroi, Tournai, Soignies and Thuin. The rivers are the Scheldt and Sambre, and canals include one from Mons to Conde (join ing the French Scheldt), one through Pommeroeul and one through Ath to Flanders, one (enlarged) from Charleroi to Brussels. There are 34 cantons and 344 communes. Area 930,405 acres or 1,453 sq.mls. Pop. (1930), 1,270,231 or 866 per square mile.
Under the successors of Clovis, Hainaut formed part, first of the kingdom of Metz, and then of that of Lotharingia. It afterwards became part of the duchy of Lorraine. The first to bear the title of count of Hainaut was Reginar "Long-Neck" (c. 875), who made himself master of the duchy of Lorraine and died in 916. His eldest son inherited Lower Lorraine, the younger, Reginar II., the countship of Hainaut, which remained in the male line of his descendants, all named Reginar, until the death of Reginar V. in 1036. His heiress, Richildis, married en secondes noces Baldwin VI. of Flanders, and, by him, became the ancestress of the Baldwin (VI. of Hainaut) who in 1204 was raised by the Crusaders to the empire of Constantinople. The emperor Bald win's elder daughter Jeanne brought the countship of Hainaut to her husbands Ferdinand of Portugal (d. 1233) and Thomas of Savoy (d. 1259). On her death in 1244, however, it passed to her sister Margaret, on whose death in 1279 it was inherited by her grandson, John of Avesnes, count of Holland (d. 1304). The countship of Hainaut remained united with that of Holland during the 14th and 15th centuries. It was under the counts Wil liam I. "the Good" 0304-37), whose daughter Philippa married Edward III. of England, and William II. 0337-45) that the communes of Hainaut attained great political importance. Mar garet, who succeeded her brother William II. in 1345, by her marriage with the emperor Louis IV. brought Hainaut with the rest of her dominions to the house of Wittelsbach. Finally, early in the 15th century, the countess Jacqueline was dispossessed by Philip the Good of Burgundy, and Hainaut henceforward shared the fate of the rest of the Netherlands.