Leyden

(le'dn,) a city of Holland, p. S. Holland, on the Rhine, 22 m. S.W. of Amsterdam. Its university, founded by William Prince of Orange in 1575, was for a long period esteemed one of the leading seminaries of learning in Europe. It is celebrated for the long siege it sustained in 1574 against the Spaniards, during which 6,000 inhabitants died of famine and pestilence. Pop. 39,959. [s. 541]