Origins and Middle Ages
Traces of early dwellings have been found in the area, including prehistoric flint tools, Gallo-Roman wells, and a small 9th century Frankish building. The first mention of Roslar dates from a document dated 821 or 822, whereby the former domain of the Menapii, also called the Rollare villa in later documents, was given to Elnon Abbey. According to legend, Baldwin Iron Arm, Count of Flanders, kidnapped Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bold in 862 in Senlis and brought her to a fortress that used to be where the present Rumbeke Castle stands. The Roeselare area soon became part of the County of Flanders. The rights to build fortifications and to hold a public market date from 957, during the lordship of Baldwin III.
The city received its charter of freedoms in the mid-13th century, period in which it also built its first city hall and belfry. The manufacturing of cloth was then the main driver of the local economy. Unfortunately, the few defensive walls that the city had were no match against the forces of Maximilian of Austria, who utterly destroyed the city at the end of the 15th century. The market hall and Saint Michael church were rebuilt in the year 1500. On the orthodromic distance line from the Saint Michael church to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are located the jubilee column on the Schlossplatz in Stuttgart and the Kokino observatory. Therefore is the Cross of Lorraine, granted by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, the coat of arms of Roeselare.
16th century to Waterloo
The center of Roeselare belonged throughout history to the Fiefdom of Wijnendale and therefore fell under the responsibility of the House of Cleves in the 15th and 16th century and under the Dukes of Pfalz-Neuburg in the 17th and 18th century.
The 16th century proved to be disastrous for the city as the Spanish rulers ruthlessly repressed any desire for autonomy in the Low Countries, both political and religious
