Leffinge, sometimes Leffingen in English, is a historic village in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

, now part of the municipality of

Middelkerke Middelkerke () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of West Flanders, on the North Sea, west of Ostend. The municipality comprises the villages of Leffinge, Lombardsijde, Mannekensvere, Middelkerke proper, Schore, Sint-Pieters-K ...

, province of

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

History

In 1137 the castellan of

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...

confirmed the gift of the church in Leffinge to the

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

. The medieval church was damaged in 1488, repaired around 1500, and demolished in 1857. The current neo-Gothic church was built 1877-1879 and restored in 1983. A preliminary action of the

Battle of Nieuwpoort The Battle of Nieuwpoort (also known as the Battle of the Dunes) was fought on 2 July 1600 during the Eighty Years War and the Anglo-Spanish war in the dunes near Nieuwpoort. A Dutch army met a Spanish force head-on which, although their left f ...

(1600) was fought in Leffinge, in which Scottish mercenaries in Dutch service particularly distinguished themselves.H.W. Lumsden, "The Scots at Leffingen, 1600", ''Scottish Historical Review'' 7 (1905), pp. 268-274.

References

{{coord, 51, 11, N, 2, 53, E, display=title, region:BE_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Populated places in West Flanders Sub-municipalities of Middelkerke