Romance Flanders

Coat of arms of the Counts of Flanders

Romance Flanders or Gallicant Flanders is the part of the county of Flanders where people speak Romance languages, like varieties of Picard. It currently straddles the border of France and Belgium.

Name

In early modern English, it was also called Welch Flanders or Gallike Flanders. The original French name is Flandre Gallicane or Flandre Gallicante, derived from the Latin term : Gallo Flandria or Flandria Gallica.

The term Walloon Flanders has also been used to designate the region although strictly this would be a political rather than a linguistic designation as the local Romance dialect is Picard and not Walloon even though part of Romance Flanders lies within the Belgian political region of Wallonia.

Territory

Map of Romance Flanders (1645)

Map of Romance Flanders in the "De Vyerighe Colom" Atlas (1696)

In France :

• • The Lilloise Flanders (in French Flandre Lilloise, in Dutch Rijsels-Vlaanderen). Historically this area made up the semi-autonomous region of the County of Flanders known as Lilloise Flanders. Other name includes Gallicant Flanders;
  • The northern part of the Scarpe plain with the Pévèle and the bailiwick of Douai (Douaisis);

In Belgium :

• • The historical Tournaisis (in Dutch Doornikse);
  • The regions of Mouscron and Comines, part of the old castelleny of Kortrijk;