Napoleon's adjutant, Chief Surveying Engineer Simon Bernard, had come to deliver the letter. After delivering it, he headed for Vilvoorde in the northern outskirts of Brussels, where the railway from Mechelen actually had its station.
Vilvoorde had been an important strategic location since the twelfth century. The Duke of Brabant and the Duke of Grimbergen had fought over it for a long time, and the Count of Flanders had once held his wedding to Margarita, the daughter of the Duke of Brabant, there.
This was during the Hundred Years' War. Margarita, the duke's daughter, had originally been betrothed to Edward III's son, but the engagement was called off because of the Brabant succession war. The duke had only three daughters: Joanna, Margarita, and Maria. When Joanna inherited the ducal title, Margarita's husband, the Count of Flanders, raised an army and occupied the Duchy of Brabant and its capital, Bruel. It was also at this time that Vilvoorde built walls and blockhouses around the city, claiming sovereignty over Brabant and Mechelen in the name of his wife.
Since its founding, Vilvoorde had been a military fortress and also served as a state prison. Yet it stood on the Seine, at the junction of the Brussels-Scheldt Canal, making it a city of crafts and commerce as well. As the cloth industry and trade flourished, river transport on the Seine through Vilvoorde became increasingly important, turning it into a major inland port. Later, Charles V ordered the digging of a canal linking the Scheldt River and Brussels, and not long after it opened, several docks were built in central Brussels.
As early as the fourteenth century, Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, had planned to canalize the Seine, but Brussels was not permitted to dig a new canal until Mary of Burgundy ruled.