Laon

A town of France, in the department of the Aisne, 75 miles northeast from Paris. It was besieged by the barbarians in 407; taken and sacked by Gelimer in 682; unsucce fully besieged by the Normans in 882; taken by Eudes, count of Paris, in 892, by Charles the Simple in 895, and by Robert of France, who held it till 923. It was taken by the Duke of Burgundy in 1411; by the royal troops in 1414; surrendered in 1419 by Philip the Good to the English, who were dispo e ed in 1429. It was unsucce fully besieged by the Calvinists in 1567, and was taken by Henry IV. in 1594. On March 10, 1814, an indecisive battle was fought here between the French troops under Napoleon, and the Pru ians under Blücher.