SEDAN, a town of northern France, in the department of Ardennes, on the right bank of the Meuse, 12 m. E.S.E. of Mezieres by rail. Pop. (1931) 17,283. Sedan was in the 14th century a dependency of the abbey of Mouzon, the possession of which was disputed by the bishops of Liege and Reims. United to the crown of France by Charles V., it was ceded by Charles VI. to Guillaume de Braquemont, whose son sold it to his brother in-law Evrard de la Marck, whose family for two centuries continued masters of the place, and Henri Robert adopted the title "prince of Sedan." In the 16th century Protestant refugees laid the basis of its industrial prosperity, and it became the seat of a Protestant seminary. Robert I. de la Marck (c11 was lord of Sedan when he acquired Bouillon. His grandson, Robert III., seigneur of Fleurange and Sedan (d. 1537), was marshal of France. Robert IV. de la Marck (d. 1556), also mar shal of France, erected Sedan on his own authority into an inde pendent principality. By the marriage of his granddaughter Char lotte with Henry I. de la Tour d'Auvergne, the duchy of Bouillon and the principality of Sedan passed to the house of Turenne. When the new duke attempted to maintain his independence, Henry IV. captured Sedan in three days; and the second duke Frederic Maurice de la Tour d'Auvergne, was obliged to sur render his principality. Sedan thus became part of the royal domain in 1642. On Sept. 1, 187o the fortress was the centre of the most disastrous conflict of the Franco-German War (see below). On the left bank stands the suburb of Torcy. There are remains of a castle of the 15th century. Sedan has a municipal school of weaving. The chief industries are the manufacture of woollen goods and of (X.) Battle of Sedan (Sept. I, 1870).—During the course of Aug. 31 (see FRANCO-GERMAN WAR) the retreating French army (I., V., VII., and XII. corps) under Marshal MacMahon assembled in and around Sedan, watched throughout the day by the German cavalry but not severely pushed by them. Sedan is a small old fashioned fortress, lying in a depression between two ridges which converge in the plateau of Illy about 21 m. N.E. of the town. The only part which its defences played, or might have played, in the ensuing battle lay in the strategic possibilities contained in the fine and roomy bridge-head of Torcy, covering an elbow bend of the Meuse whence the whole French army might have been hurled into the gap between the German III. and Meuse armies, had
there been a Napoleon to conceive and to execute this plan. But MacMahon seems to have been too despondent to contemplate anything further than a battle for the honour of the army, and though communications with Mezieres, where Vinoy's corps (XIII.) was gathering, lay open throughout the day, he neither sent orders nor made arrangements for the disposition of his forces to meet the coming danger.
The troops received food and ammunition, the disorders con sequent on the successive days' fighting in retreat were remedied, and the men themselves got what they needed most of all, an almost unbroken day's rest. Locally their position was strong, particularly to the east, where the stream flowing through the Fond du Givonne, though fordable, presented a serious tactical obstacle. But as a whole it was far too cramped for the numbers crowded into it it could be completely overlooked from the heights of Frenois, where the king of Prussia's headquarters took their stand, and whence in the afternoon the German artillery fire began to cross over the town itself. At nightfall on the 31st the leading German infantry were approaching. The Army of the Meuse was on the right bank of the river, with the II. Bavarians moving towards Bazeilles to reinforce it, while the III. Army was heading for Donchery to cut off the French from Mezieres, and only a weak cavalry screen closed the gap between them.
During the night of August 31 the Bavarians threw a pontoon bridge across the Meuse below Remilly, and soon after daybreak, in a fog which lay thickly over the whole country, they began their advance towards Bazeilles, held by Vassoigne's division. The firing called all troops within reach of the sound to arms, and before 5 A.M. the Meuse Army was marching to the battle-field, the Guards on the northern road via Villers-Arnay, the Saxons and IVth corps to the south along the river.