Bayonne

Bayonne, a fortified French town in the department of Basses-Pyrenees, situated at the confluence of the Adour and Nive, four miles from the Bay of Biscay. From 1152 to 1451 it was in the possession of the English. Besides being noted for its powerful citadel, one of the finest works of Vauban, and cathedral of the twelfth century, it has also a considerable trade. It is said that the massacre of St. Bartholomew was arranged here in an interview between Catherine de Medici and the Duke of Alba, in 1565. Here also Charles IV. abdicated in favour of Napoleon. In 1814 the British and Spanish forces besieged it in vain, and in a sortie from here, April, 1814, no fewer than 800 English soldiers were slain.