County of Huy

In the eleventh century, the bishops appointed counts to administer it on their behalf until, in 1066, they granted the town of Huy self-government.

Besides Huy, it contained the villages of Les Arches, Braives, Faulx, Fraiture, Grand-Rosière, Havelange, Jemeppe, Jeneffe, Leignon, Ocquier, Seraing, Tourinne, Vaux-et-Borset and Vyle-et-Tharoul.

[2] In 862, Huy was described as a port on the Meuse when King Lothair II gave the double monastery of Stavelot-Malmedy the right to some of its revenues.

Numerous documents of the tenth and eleventh centuries describe locations as being in the district of Hesbaye in the county of Huy.

[6] At some point during the reign of Otto I (c. 980), the bishop of Liège was granted the regalian rights of collecting the market tolls and minting coin.

His reputation as a count is provided by the chronicler Alpert of Metz, who states that he "investigated righteous legal decisions and spent so much time reading that he was mocked by some foolish people for living the life of a monk."

[8] On 7 July 985, the possessions and jurisdiction of the county of Huy were transferred from the retiring Ansfrid to the diocese of Liège under bishop Notker.

[13] The story that Count Lambert of Leuven challenged Notker's right to the county and fought a war with Liège, in which the bishop ravaged the pagus of Brabant is a late medieval invention from Jean d'Outremeuse's Ly Myreur des Histors, which contains many false stories about the counts of Huy.

[12] On 19 April 1028, a charter of the Emperor Conrad II indicates that Gozelo of Behogne was governing the county, presumably under the suzerainty of the bishop.

[3] The episcopal county of Huy expanded southwards in the eleventh century into the pagus of the Famenne (e.g., Wiesme) and the Ardennes (e.g., Smuid).

The county of Huy continued as an administrative division of the lands of the bishop of Liège until the end of the eleventh century.