 Ename was founded around 990 by Godfrey I, Count of Verdun, on the river Scheldt, the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the County of Flanders.Godfrey and his wife Mathilda of Saxony built a keep surrounded by a walled castrum, which protected the trade settlement.Their son Herman of Verdun, count of Brabant, founded the church of Saint Laurentius shortly before the year 1000.