Gravelines

Gravelines, a fortified town in the French department of Nord, is situated in a marshy locality at the mouth of the Aa, 13 miles by rail ENE. of Calais. A desolate-looking place now, with grass-grown streets, it has an historic past, as the scene of Egmont's victory over the French (1558), and the place off which the English dispersed the Armada (1588). It was taken by the French in 1644, retaken by the Austrians after a ten weeks' siege in 1652, and finally recaptured in 1658 by Louis XIV., who had it fortified by Vauban. Pop. (1872) 4391; (1891) 4125.