The 19th-century theory that the Sambre was the location of
Julius Caesar's battle against a
Belgic confederation (57 BC), was discarded a long time ago, but is still repeated. Three important battles were fought in
Fleurus, a suburb of Charleroi on the north bank of the Sambre: the
Thirty Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1622), the
Nine Years' War Battle of Fleurus (1690), and the crucial 26 June 1794
Battle of Fleurus (1794), the most significant battle of the
Flanders Campaign in the
Low Countries during the
French Revolutionary Wars. The last was fought on both banks of the river, culminating a campaign that had involved multiple crossings and re-crossings of the river. Heavy fighting occurred along the river during
World War I, especially at the siege of Namur in 1914 (
Battle of Charleroi) and in the last month of the war
Battle of the Sambre (1918). ==References==