Sedan

(20), a town of France, in department of Ardennes, on the Maas, 164 m. NE. of Paris; once a strong fortre , but dismantled in 1875, where in 1870 Napoleon III. and 86,000 men under Marshal Macmahon surrendered to the Germans; noted for its cloth manufactories. Previous to the Edict of Nantes was a celebrated centre of Huguenot industry and theological learning.