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Quévy (Municipality, Province of Hainaut, Belgium)

Municipal flag of Quévy - Image by Ivan Sache, 17 November 2001

Presentation of Quévy and its villages
Municipal flag of Quévy

See also:

Presentation of Quévy and its villages

The municipality of Quévy (7,758 inhabitants on 1 January 2007; 6,516 ha) is located half distance (10 km) between Mons and Maubeuge(France), on the border with France. The municipality of Quévy is made since 1976 of the former municipalities of Quévy-le-Grand (582 inh.), Quévy-le-Petit (878 inh.), Asquillies (462 inh.), Aulnois (1,142 inh.), Blaregnies (850 inh.), Bougnies (360 inh.), Genly (1,026 inh.), Givry (1,514 inh.), Goegnies-Chaussée (270 inh.) and Havay (706 inh.).

Quévy-le-Petit and Quévy-le-Grand are located only 1.5 km apart from each other. A Bull signed by Pope Alexander III in 1181 mentions chevi magnum et parvum ("The Greater and Lesser Quévy). The Chart signed the same year by Count of Hainaut Baudouin mentions Kivi, written Kevi in a later Chart (1195). However, Quévy-le-Grand was only a dependency of Quévy-le-Petit, which was originally known, simply, as Quévy.
The village of Quévy was the seat of a Peerage of Hainaut, owned in 1473 by Ghislain of Ville. At the end of the XVth century, Baron Charles I of Lalaing (1425-1525) purchased the Peerage of Quévy. In 1670, the Peerage was transfered to Enghien for the house of Arenberg.
The railway station of Quévy was once famous for being the only commutable station in Belgium: the catenaries automatically commuted between 3000 V- DC (Belgium) and 25 kV/50 Hz - AC (France).

Blaregnies was in the Middle Ages a big domain that belonged for decades to the lords of Roisin. Alard of Roisin (d. 1049) was lord of Blaregnies; Baudri of Roisin and Blaregnies was mentioned in 1222, while his son, Alard of Roisin, was granted the domain of Blaregnies before 1283 and died in December 1308. By marriage, the domain was later transferred to Gui de Barbançon and, even later, to the family of Melun.

Goegnies-Chaussée is located on the border with France, the French municipality on the other side of the border being called Gognies-Chaussée. On 23 March 1820, the Treaty of the Limits, signed in Kortrijk, split the village between France and the Netherlands (later Belgium). This odd status has been kept up to now. For instance, the funding of the parish church is jointly provided by villagers from France (2/3) and from Belgium (1/3).
On 3 September 1944, the US Air Force raided a convoy of German vehicles, in an event known as the Battle of Go(e)gnies-Chaussée.

Source: Municipal website

Ivan Sache, 30 September 2007

Municipal flag of Quévy

The municipal flag of Quévy is red with ten white lozenges placed 3 + 3 + 3 + 1.
Armoiries communales en Belgique. Communes wallonnes, bruxelloises et germanophones, the flag was adopted by the Municipal Council on 23 December 1996 and confirmed by the Executive of the French Community on 28 March 1997, as Rouge chargé dans son axe transversal, de dix losanges blancs aboutés et rangés 3,3,3 et 1.
The flag is a banner of the municipal arms, with the upper and lower lozenges touching the edges of the flag.

The municipal arms of Quévy are shown by Servais as the former arms of Quévy-le-Petit. The Heraldus website says that the oldest known municipal seal, dated 1534, showed ten lozenges placed 3 + 3 + 3 + 1, evidently the arms of Lalaing.
The Hainaut Armorial, available on the Heraldus website, shows the arms of Lalaing as the municipal arms of the former municipalities of Hantes-Wihéries (Royal Decree, 21 December 1931) and Quévy-le-Petit (Royal Decree, 24 May 1912).

The Gelre Armorial shows "Gules ten lozenges argent placed 3,3,3 and 1" for Nicolas II, lord of Lalaing (Die He. v. Lalayn, #1047, folio 84r) and "Quarterly 1 and 4 gules ten lozenges argent placed 3, 3, 3 and 1 (Lalaing), 2 and 3 or a chief bendy argent and gules (Quiévrain)" for Simon of Lalaing, lord of Quiévrain (H. ... Lalain, #1032, folio 83v).
The Lalaing Armorial shows "Gules ten lozenges argent placed 3,3,3 and 1" for Lalaing (Lalaing, #170, folio 80v).
The Lalaing had their castle in Ecaussinnes-Lalaing from 1386 to 1476, following the marriage of Jeanne d'Ecaussines with Simon de Lalaing, Grand Bailiff of Hainaut and Seneschal of Ostrevent, in 1357, and from 1529 to 1624. Lallaing (modern spelling) is today a village located near Douai, in the north of France.

Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 30 September 2007