Mezières

Mezières, the capital of the French department of Ardennes, on a bend of the Meuse, opposite Charleville (q.v.), 155 miles by rail NE. of Paris. Strongly fortified by Vauban, and protected by a citadel, in 1521 it was successfully defended by the Chevalier Bayard (statue, 1893), with 2000 men, against 40,000 Spaniards under Charles V.; in 1815 held out for two months against the Allies, who besieged it after Waterloo; and in the Franco-German war of 1870-71 capitulated after a frightful bombardment. The principal building is the Flamboyant church, restored in 1884, in which Charles IX. was married in 1570. Pop. 6550.