VESOUL, a town of eastern France, capital of the depart ment of Haute-SaOne, 236 m. E.S.E. of Paris on the Eastern railway to Belfort. Pop. (1931) 10,076. Vesoul is of ancient origin, but in existing records is first mentioned in the 9th century. Orig inally a fief of the church of Besancon, it passed to the house of Burgundy, becoming, in the 13th century, capital of the baili wick of Amont. The castle was destroyed in the 17th century. The town suffered much during the wars of religion and the Thirty Years' War. Vesoul belonged temporarily to France after the death of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy; was returned to the empire when Charles VIII., king of France, broke off his
marriage with the daughter of Maximilian, king of the Romans; and again became part of France under Louis XIV. after the peace of Nijmwegen in 1678. Vesoul stands between the river Durgeon and the isolated vine-clad hill of La Motte (1,263 f t.), crowned by a votive chapel which in 1855 replaced the old fortifi cation. The 13th and 15th century walls of the town still exist on its northern side.