d II. (of Isenburg); and it was partly to
overawe the turbulent townsmen that successive archbishops built and
strengthened the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein (q.v.) that dominates the
city. As a member of the league of the Rhenish cities which took its
rise in the 13th century, Coblenz attained to great prosperity; and it
continued to advance till the disasters of the Thirty Years' War
occasioned a rapid decline. After Philip Christopher, elector of Trier,
had surrendered Ehrenbreitstein to the French the town received an
imperial garrison (1632), which was soon, however, expelled by the
Swedes. They in their turn handed the city over to the French, but the
imperial forces succeeded in retaking it by storm (1636). In 1688 it
was besieged by the French under Marshal de Boufflers, but they only
succeeded in bombarding the Altstadt into ruins, destroying among other
buildings the old merchants' hall (_Kaufhaus_), which was restored in
its present form in 1725. In 1786 the elector of Trier, Clement
Wenceslaus of Saxony, took up his residence in the town, and gave great
assistance in its extension and improvement; a few years later it
became, through the invitation of his minister, Ferdinand, Freiherr von
Duminique, one of the principal rendezvous of the French _emigres_. This
drew down upon the archbishop-elector the wrath of the French
republicans; in 1794 Coblenz was taken by the Revolutionary army under
Marceau (who fell during the siege), and, after the peace of Luneville,
it was made the chief town of the Rhine and Mosel department (1798). In
1814 it was occupied by the Russians, by the congress of Vienna it was
assigned to Prussia, and in 1822 it was made the seat of government of
the Rhine province.

See Daniel, _Deutschland_ (Leipzig, 1895); W. A. Gunther, _Geschichte
der Stadt Koblenz_ (Cobl., 1815); and Bar, _Urkunden und Akten zur
Geschichte der Verfassung und Verwaltung der Stadt Koblenz bis zum
Jahre 1500_ (Bonn, 1898).

COBOURG, the capital of Northumberland county, Ontario, Canada, on Lake
Ontario and the Grand Trunk railway; 70 m. E.N.E. of Toronto. Pop.
(1901) 4239. It has a large, safe harbour, and steamboat communication
with St Lawrence and Lake Ontario ports. It contains car-works,
foundries, and carpet and woollen factories, and is a summer resort,
especially for Americans. Victoria University, formerly situated here,
was removed to Toronto in 1890.

[Illustration: Head of Cobra.]