Maubeuge

Maubeuge stands on both banks of the Sambre in Hainaut. It grew around a double monastery for men and women founded in the seventh century by Saint Aldegonde, whose relics were kept in the town. The settlement later belonged to the Spanish Netherlands and changed hands in the wars of the frontier.

The Treaty of Nijmegen ceded Maubeuge to France in 1678. Louis XIV had it extensively fortified under Vauban as part of a double line of strongholds protecting the northern border of his kingdom. In 1793 Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg besieged the town, but the French army's victory at the nearby Battle of Wattignies brought relief. Maubeuge resisted another siege in 1814 before surrendering after determined resistance during the Hundred Days in 1815.