CLEVES (Ger. Cleve or Kleve)  , a town of Germany in the kingdom of Prussia, formerly the capital of the duchy of its own name, 46 m . N.W. of Dusseldorf, 12 M . E. of Nijmwegen, on the main Cologne-Amsterdam railway . Pop . (1900) 14,678 . The town is neatly built in the Dutch style, lying on three small hills in a fertile district near the frontier of Holland, about 2 M. from the Rhine, with which it is connected by a canal (the Spoykanal) . The old castle of Schwanenburg (formerly the residence of thedukes of Cleves), has a massive tower (Schwanenturm) 180 ft. high . With it is associated the legend of the " Knights of the Swan," immortalized in Wagner's Lohengrin . The building has been restored in modern times to serve as a court of justice and a prison . The collegiate church (Stiftskirche) dates from about 1340, and contains a number of :fine ducal monuments . Another church is the Annexkirche, formerly a convent of the Minorites; this dates from the middle of the 15th century . The chief manufactures are boots and shoes, tobacco and machinery; there is also some trade in cattle .

To the

south and west of the city a large district is laid out as a park, where there is a statue to the memory of John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), who governed Cleves from 165o to 1679, and in the western part there are mineral wells with a pump room and bathing establishment . Owing to the beautiful woods which surround it and its medicinal waters Cleves has become a favourite summer resort . The town was the seat of the counts of Cleves as early as the rrth century, but it did not receive municipal rights until 1242 . The duchy of Cleves, which lay on both banks of the Rhine and had an area of about 85o sq. m., belonged before the year r000 to a certain Rutger, whose family became extinct in 1368 . It then passed to the counts of La Marck and was made a duchy in 1417, being united with the neighbouring duchies of Julich and Berg in 1521 . The Reformation was introduced here in 1533, but it was not accepted by all the inhabitants . The death without direct heirs of Duke John William in 1609 led to serious complications in which almost all the states of Europe were concerned; however, by the treaty of Xanten in 1614, Cleves passed to the elector of Brandenburg, being afterwards incorporated with the electorate by the great elector, Frederick William . The French held Cleves from 1757 to 1762 and in 1795 the part of the duchy on the left bank of the Rhine was ceded to France; the remaining portion suffered a similar fate in 1805 . After the conclusion of peace in 1815 it was restored to Prussia, except some small portions which were given to the kingdom of Holland . See Char, Geschichte des Herzogtums Kleve (Cleves, 1845) ; Velsen, Die Stadt Kleve (Cleves, 1846) ; R . Scholten, Die Stadt Kleve (Cleves, 1899-1881) . For ANNE OF CLEVES see that article .