The County of Huy (Latin comitatus Hoiensis) was a division of Lotharingia during the early Middle Ages, centred on the town of Huy and its citadel overlooking the Meuse. The county probably originated in the late ninth century as a division of the County of Hesbaye. It was a new creation, not corresponding to the any ancient division. In 985, it was granted to the diocese of Liège, which marks the point when the bishop became a prince of the Holy Roman Empire. 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. Extent The county lay on either side of the Meuse, but more to the north than the south. It also extended into two ancient pagi (districts): the Hesbaye and the Condroz. 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. It also contained the forest of bois d'Arche below Haltinne. In the north it extended up to the villages of Jodoigne and Waremme; in the south as far as Modave. It had borders with the counties of Avernas, Brugeron, a reduced Hesbaye, Moha and Namur. It was probably originally a division of the old pagus of Hesbaye, but whose lords expanded their jurisdiction, encroaching on neighbouring pagi. A manuscript of the abbey of Orval attributes its foundation to Charlemagne, but this is a legend. There is some correspondence between lands mentioned in the will of Duke Eberhard of Friuli in 866 and the later county of Huy, "the implication being that [the county] had once been governed by Eberhard". Lay county Prior to 862, Huy was only ever described as a vicus, larger than a village but smaller than a city. It had a market by 743, when King Childeric III exempted some monks from the market toll (toloneum). 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. During the reign of Ethelred II (978–1016), its traders were present in London. The port was upgraded to a castrum with the construction of a fortress by 890. It is unclear when exactly it was constituted the seat of a county, but it most likely occurred after 870, when there is evidence