Nantes

(anc. Condivicnum , afterwards Namnetes , or Nannetes ). An important commercial town of France, capital of the department of Loire-Inférieure, on the right bank of the Loire, about 30 miles from its mouth, 208 miles southwest of Paris. The history of Nantes reaches back to the time of the Romans, in whose hands it seems to have remained until the beginning of the 5th century, when they were driven from the town. In 445 it valiantly withstood a siege of sixty days by the Huns. It was captured by the Normans in 853 and 859, and held in po e ion by them for nearly a century, after which the town suffered many sieges,—in 1343 by the English; in 1380 by the Earl of Bucking ham, when it was relieved by Oliver of Cli on; and again in 1491 by Charles VIII. It suffered much from the Vendéan civil war of 1793. In June of that year the Vendéan army, 50,000 strong, under Cathelineau, laid siege to the city, then defended by Gens. Bey er and Canclaux, but were repulsed with great lo ,—their general being among the slain. Here took place the wholesale drowning (termed Noyades ) of the royalists in the Loire, by command of the brutal Carrier, one of the leaders of the republicans, November, 1793. It was from Nantes that Prince Charles Edward embarked for Scotland in 1745.