county · France and the Low Countries

County of Artois

1237 CE – 1659 CE · capital Arras

A northern French county of cloth towns and tapestries, created as a royal appanage and later held by Burgundy and Spain before returning to France.

Origins

Artois came to the French crown in 1191 through Isabella of Hainaut's dowry. In 1237 Louis IX created it as a county for his brother Robert I, who was killed at Mansourah in 1250 on crusade. Robert's descendants ruled it from Arras.

Rule and society

Arras was a major cloth and banking town, and its tapestries became so famous that 'arras' meant a wall hanging in English and Italian. Count Robert II was killed at Courtrai in 1302, and his daughter Mahaut defended her inheritance against her nephew Robert III. In 1384 Artois passed with Flanders to Philip the Bold, joining the Burgundian State.

Decline and legacy

After 1477 Artois stayed with the Habsburgs in the Habsburg Netherlands and Spanish Netherlands. Louis XIII took Arras in 1640, and the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659 gave most of the county to the Kingdom of France.

Connections (5)

More states of France and the Low Countries →

Cite this page
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). County of Artois. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-artois
MLA
“County of Artois.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-artois. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “County of Artois.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-artois.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘County of Artois’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/county-of-artois (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻