Last modified: 2007-10-20 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Antoing]](../images/b/be-whtag.gif)
Municipal flag of Antoing - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 22 May 2005
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The municipality of Antoing (7,533 inhabitants on 1 January 2007, 3,113 ha) is located on
the river Scheldt (in French, Escaut), 10 km south-west of Tournai, close to the border with France. The municipality of Antoing is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Antoing, Bruyelle, Calonne, Fontenoy, Maubray and Péronnes.
Antoing is the capital of the pays blanc (White Country),
where limestone has been extracted since the Roman times. Limestone is
used in lime kilns and cement works, which belch out a white dust all
around. The pays blanc is opposed to the pays noir (Black Country), the coal mining basin. The main cement works was located in Vaulx, near the railway
Tournai-Antoing.
Antoing is also the Walloon capital of pumpkin, which is
celebrated, along with the other Cucurbitaceae, in the fête des
courges every year in September. The heaviest pumpkin and the most distant from Belgium pumpkin are awarded during the festival.
Antoing is listed in the Polyptich of the abbey of Lobbes (868) as
Antonium, that is Antonius' estate. The estate and the town are
located near the Antoing hole (trou d'Antoing), a place where the
Scheldt has a one-m fall requiring the unloading of the boats and,
accordingly, the paiement of a toll. The fortress of Antoing was set up
in the Xth century by the Count of Flanders after he seized the right
bank of the Scheldt. The garrison captains progressively self-styled
lords of Antoing.
The first known lord of Antoing is Armoricus (XIth century). Among his
early followers are Zefer (Sohier, Soyer), whose brother Gilbert
(Ailbert) took part to the First Crusade and died in 1122. Zefer was
succeeded by Goscelin (Hugues) I, Walter (Gautier), Hugues II, and
Alard II.
The succession of Alard II is not very clear. It seems that his young
brother Goscelin (Hugues) despoiled Alard's children and proclaimed
himself lord of Antoing. He took the party of Hainaut and became a
powerful lord, avoué of the chapter of Antoing and the abbey of
Saint-Amand, despoiler of the abbey of Liessies, avoué of the
Saint-Martin church in Tournai, owner of the toll on the Scheldt,
Bailiff (1235) and then Mayor (1241) of Antoing.
Alard III d'Antoing, lord of Briffœil, listed on the Gelre Armorial,
was the son of Hugues III, himself Alard II's son. Hugues VI d'Antoing
was killed during the Battle of the Golden Spurs in Groeninghe on 11
July 1302. His daughter Isabeau d'Antoing had three husbands, the last
one (1327) being Jean, Viscount of Melun de Tancarville, Lord of Blandy
and Grand Chamberlain of France. They had no children and the castle of
Antoing was transferred to the family of Melun. In the XVIth century,
Hippolyte-Anne de Melun married Philippe de Ligne d'Arenberg, Duke of
Aarschot and Croÿ.
The present-day castle of Antoing dates from the
XIIIth (outer walls) and XVth centuries (fortified gate, barbican and
donjon) and was redesigned in Neo-Gothic style by the French architect
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879).
The battle of Fontenoy took place on 11 May 1745, during the War of
Austrian Succession (1740-1748). This war opposed on land Prussia,
France, Bavaria, Saxe and Spain to Austria, and at sea and in the
colonies France and Prussia to England and Austria. The origin of the
war was the succession of Emperor Charles VI of Hapsburg (1711-1740) in
1740, promised to his daughter Maria Theresa (1717-1780) by the
"pragmatic sanction" of 1713. Austria ceded Silesia to Prussia in 1742
and defeated Bavaria in 1745. The same year, Maria Theresa's husband,
François of Lorraine (1708-1765), was elected Emperor and Maria Theresa
took the title of Empress. France carried on war into the Austrian Low
Countries and conquered them after the victory of Fontenoy. However,
France had to withdraw from all the conquerred territories after the
treaty of Aachen (1748), which recognized the "pragmatic sanction" and
the incorporation of Silesia to Prussia. Marie Teresa later fought in
the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) againt Frederic II of Prussia but
could not reincorporate Silesia to Austria.
In 1744, the French troops invaded Flanders and conquerred Menen, Ieper, Knokke and Veurne. In May 1745, King Louis XV decided to besiege
Tournai, whose fortress controlled the valley of Scheldt and was defended by a
big Dutch garrison. An army made of Dutch, English, Hanovrian and
Austrian regiments was formed at the end of April in Brussels to help
the besieged. This army was commanded by William Augustus, Duke of
Cumberland (1721-1765), the Austrian Marshal Königsegg and Prince of
Waldeck. On 9 May, they met the French army and seized easily the
village of Vezon and the hamlets of Bourgeon and Vezonchaux on 10 May.
They were prepared to defeat easily the rest of the French troops.
However, the French commander was Maurice, Count of Saxe (1696-1750),
aka Marshal of Saxe, the natural son of Elector of Saxe and King of
Poland Augustus II and Countess Aurora von Königsmarck; Saxe is
considered as the best strategist of that time. As soon as he saw the
enemy, Saxe ordered the withdrawal of most of his troops into the zone
Antoing-Fontenoy-Gaurain; on the evening of the 10 May, the French
positions were closed by three redoubts set up between Antoing and
Fonteny, and Saxe waited for the enemy to rush.
The battle of Fontenoy started on 11 May at 5 AM and ended around 2 PM.
Waldeck's Dutch troops emerged from the haze and were caught two times
by the French artillery positioned in Antoing, Fontenoy and in the mill
of Bruyelle; demoralized, they gave up the fight. Cumberland's
Anglo-Hanovrian batallions attempted to break through the French lines
in the north of Antoing around 11 AM. Count of Anterroches said to the
English his famous sentence: Messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les
premiers ; tirez vous-même, often shortened as Tirez les premiers,
Messieurs les Anglais (Shoot first, English Gentlemen). The English
shot and broke through the line to the plain of Fontenoy, where Saxe
was prepared to welcome them. Cumberland's soldiers formed the famous
"Fontenoy column", a rectangle protected on three edges. They resisted
to the assaults of the French and Irish battalions and of the cavalry
until the attack by the French reserves commanded by Lowendal. Lacking
the Dutch support, Cumberland had to withdraw.
The losses were very heavy: 5,000 were killed and 9,000 injured; 2,000
horses were killed, injured or escaped. The Irish brigade, made of the
regiments of Clare, Dillon, Bulkeley, Roth, Berwick and Lally,
significantly contributed to the French victory. The regiment of Dillon
was commanded in Fontenoy by Colonel Jacques Dillon, Knight of the
Order of Malta, who was killed during the battle.
The French army captured only one colour, the flag of the 2nd Regiment
of English Guards, captured by Sergent Wheelock, from the regiment of
Bulkeley. The Irish had 657 dead or injured. The cavalry regiment of
Fitz-James lost half of its squadrons. An Irish cross was erected in
the center of Fontenoy in 1907 to commemorate the battle.
In 1907-1908, another famous French strategist studied elementary
mathematics at the Sacré-Coeur College in Antoing; his name was Charles de Gaulle. In May 1908, aged 18, he published an article on the Jesuits (La Congrégation) in the review Hors de France published by the
College of Antoing.
The hermitage Notre-Dame-aux-Bois took part to most significants events
of the history of Antoing. A chapel named Notre-Dame-des-Hauts-Arbres
(Our Lady of the High Trees) was built in 1435 in a clearing already
settled by pilgrims coming back from Jerusalem. A men's convent was
built in the clearing, as listed in the municipal account of Tournai
dated 1513; the convent was plundered in 1566 by the Iconoclasts, but was
still settled in 1705. Afterwards, life was so difficult that the last
monks left Antoing; in 1745, the hermitage was settled by a gamekeeper
hired by the Prince of Ligne. During the battle of Fontenoy, it was
used as a field hospital; Louis XV and the Dauphin stayed not far from
there. Later, the hermitage was used as a shrine and then a farm. At
the end of the XIXth century, the Prince of Ligne took stones from the
chapel to rebuild the main entrance of his castle in Antoing.
Notre-Dame-aux-Bois was an important place of pilgrimage, with a
miraculous source (still there) and a statuette of the Blessed Virgin
made of oak wood in the XVIth century. There were several conflicts
between Antoing and the neighbouring village of Ramecroix for the
rights on the chapel and the statuette, which disappeared in 1914.
Accordingly, Canon Doye, priest in Antoing from 1882 to 1889, nicknamed
the chapel Notre-Dame-du-Diable (Our Lady of the Devil).
Sources:
Ivan Sache, 17 May 2007
The municipal flag of Antoing is made of six wavy diagonal stripes,
alternatively red and white.
According to Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on
28 May 1990 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on
18 December 1991, with the following official description:
Bandé ondé de six pièces rouges et blanches, or,
Six laizes diagonales descendantes ondées alternativement rouges et blanches.
The stripes symbolize the six former municipalities merged into
Antoing, the waves symbolize the river Scheldt. The colours come from
the arms of the former lords of Antoing, used as the municipal arms of
Antoing since 12 December 1953, De gueules au lion d'argent (Gules a lion argent).
The Gelre Armorial shows for Antoing:
- "Gules a lion argent", for Hugues d'Antoing (Die Heer van Antoenge,
#1728, folio 3r)
- "Gules a lion argent crowned or", for Boury (Antoing) (Die Here v.
Bury, #406, folio 49r)
- "Quarterly; 1 and 4, azure nine bezants a chief of the same (Melun) a
merlette sable in canton; 2 and 3, gules a lion argent (Antoing)", for
Hugues de Melun, lord of Antoing (H. Hue de Melluun, #456, folio 51r)
- "Quarterly; 1 and 4, azure nine bezants a chief of the same (Melun); 2
and 3 gules a lion argent (Antoing)", for Hugues de Melun, lord of
Antoing (H. Hue de Melluun, #456, folio 51r) and for Hugues de Melun,
lord of Antoing Die He. v. Antoengen, #1014, folio 83r)
- "Gules a lion argent (Antoing) a label azure", for Alard III d'Antoing,
Lord de Briffœil (Die He. v. Briffœl, #1060, folio 84v)
- "Gules a lion argent", for Henri, Lord of Antoing (H. Henric v.
Antoenge, #1072, folio 85r).
Arnaud Leroy, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 17 May 2007
Péronnes Yacht Club (PYC), based on the artificial lake Grand Large de Péronnes, was founded in 1999. The club is not only active in sailing but member of a tennis league as well.
The burgee of PYC, as shown on a photography, is horizontally divided blue-yellow, bearing the club logotype in the hoist and, probably, the words PERONNES and YACHT CLUB on the respective fields, in counterchanged colours.
Jan Mertens, 1 March 2007
Tournai Yacht Club (TYC) was founded in 1962 to enjoy the Grand Large de Péronnes. Given its geographic position, half of its members hail from nearby France.
The burgee of TYC is red with blue triangles placed near the hoist, a white tower in the fly and the white letters TYC placed vertically near the hoist, the V in the red triangle. The tower represents Tournai, as well as the colours of the burgee, comes from the municipal cota of arms.
Source: TYC website
Jan Mertens, 13 February 2007