Flanders
Flanders shares its borders with Wallonia in the south, Brussels being an enclave within the Flemish Region. The rest of the border is shared with the Netherlands (Zeelandic Flanders in Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg) in the north and east, and with France (French Flanders in Hauts-de-France) and the North Sea in the west. Voeren is an exclave of Flanders between Wallonia and the Netherlands, while Baarle-Hertog in Flanders forms a complicated series of enclaves and exclaves with Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands. Germany, although bordering Wallonia and close to Voeren in Limburg, does not share a border with Flanders. The German-speaking Community of Belgium, also close to Voeren, does not border Flanders either. (The commune of Plombières, majority French speaking, lies between them.)
Council of Flanders
During the 15th century when the city of Ghent was at odds with the Duke of Burgundy, the council often sat elsewhere – at various times in Kortrijk, Dendermonde, Ypres or Bruges. It was finally re-established to Ghent in 1498. The counts of Flanders had recognised the appellate jurisdiction of the Parlement of Paris for suits arising in those parts of Flanders anciently attached to the kingdom of France (essentially those parts west of the river Scheldt), but in 1521 Charles V decreed that the Great Council of Mechelen had sole appellate jurisdiction for the whole county of Flanders. By the Treaty of Cambrai (1529), Francis I of France renounced all claim to sovereignty or jurisdiction in Flanders.