Editing Mouscron (section)

==History==

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Mouscron - Saint-Barthélemy - Oste de la Barre.jpg|thumb|left|Funerary Monument to Oste de la Barre, Lord of Mouscron (c. 1380–1446) and his second wife, Cécile de Mourkercke (c. 1400–1462) in St. Bartholomew's Church]]
A few archaeological discoveries were made in this area proving the existence of settlements during [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times.  The name Dottignies &ndash; a village that is now part of Mouscron &ndash; appeared for the first time in the 9th century, while that of Mouscron only appeared in 1060.  In 1066, [[Baldwin V, Count of Flanders]] ceded the local buildings and territories to the estate of the Church of Saint-Pierre in [[Lille]].  In 1149, the right to collect tithes in the Mouscron area was ceded in part to the Abbey of Saint Martin in [[Tournai]], in part to the Chapter of the [[Tournai Cathedral]].  The rights to the neighbouring villages of Herseaux and Luingne &ndash; now also part of Mouscron &ndash; were also given to the Tournai Cathedral in 1178.  In the 14th century, the Seigneury of Mouscron was eventually sold to a lord of Tournai, and in 1430, the Castle of the Counts (''Château des Comtes'') became the lord's manor, which can still be seen today.  The future [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor]] stopped there for dinner on May 27, 1516.

===16th to 18th centuries===
In 1575, in the middle of the [[French Wars of Religion|Wars of Religion]], the castle was strengthened.  It was nevertheless besieged and taken by the [[Geuzen]], locally known as the ''Hurlus'' in 1579, before being taken back three months later.  In 1627, [[Philip IV of Spain]] promoted the seigneury to the rank of county.  The [[Franco-Dutch War]] under [[Louis XIV]] devastated this mostly agricultural region.  Mouscron and the surrounding area became [[France|French]] after the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668)]].  Part of it rejoined the [[Southern Netherlands]] after the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678), which drew the frontier right through its territory.  It was finally completely ceded to the [[Southern Netherlands]] under the terms of the [[Treaty of Utrecht]] in 1713.  The textile industry started in Mouscron in the 1760s thanks to the imposition by [[Lille]] of a ban on the fabrication of ''molletons'', a mixture of [[flax]] and [[wool]], in [[Roubaix]] and [[Tourcoing]].  With the [[Battle of Fleurus (1794)]], Mouscron went back to [[France]].

===19th and 20th centuries===
At the beginning of the 19th century, the textile industry flourished and added [[cotton]] as one of its prime materials.  On March 29, 1848, the Belgian army intervened near Mouscron against [[Belgian Legion#French Revolution of 1848|a troop of French republican sympathizers]] who were ready to invade Belgium, in what was known as the [[Risquons-Tout incident]].  By the end of the century, several cotton mills and carpet plants were built, leading the village to expand into a much larger urban area, especially after the close of [[World War I]].

During [[World War II]], from May 22 to 27, 1940, artillery fire brought British and German soldiers into conflict in the Risquons-Tout district. 15 British soldiers, 10 German soldiers and 5 civilians were killed in the incident.

In 1963, Mouscron was transferred from the province of [[West Flanders]], to the province of [[Hainaut (province)|Hainaut]], to reflect the predominantly [[francophone]] population (94% in 1846 and 74% in 1947).  Mouscron was officially recognized as a city in 1986.