Cleve, or Kleve, a walled town of Rhineish Prussia, government of Dusseldorf, capital of a circle, and formerly of the duchy of the same name, 46 miles N.W. of Dusseldorf. It is a neatly-built town in the Dutch style, situated on a declivity in a fertile district near the Dutch frontier, and about two miles from the Rhine, with which it is connected by a canal. The old castle (formerly the residence of the dukes of Clèves, and in which Anne of Clèves, one of the wives of Henry VIII., was born) has a massive tower 180 feet high, built in 1439, and commanding a very extensive view. Clèves has two Roman Catholic and three Protestant churches, a synagogue, high school, and house of correction. Its chief manufactures are linens, cottons, silks, woollens, flannels, tobacco, &c. In the vicinity are a royal park and a zoological garden. Pop. (1849) of town 8401; of circle 49,333. The district of Clèves, situated on both sides of the Rhine, was governed by counts from the ninth century, till in 1417 it was raised to a duchy by the Emperor Sigismund. On the death of Duke William in 1609 without issue, the duchy fell to Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, who had married a niece of the late duke. In 1805 it was ceded by Prussia to France; and in 1806 was made a grand duchy by Napoleon, and bestowed upon Murat. In 1815 it was restored to Prussia.