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Upon the death of the Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold in 1477, King Louis XI of France undertook the conquest of certain possessions of his former adversary. It is in this context that the king occupied the city of Cambrai from 1477 to 1479. From the point of view of the law, this occupation was problematic, as the late Duke of Burgundy was not the sovereign of this city. Cambrai was an imperial and neutral city that Louis XI of France tried to transform into a royal city in order to control the border. The King set up a military garrison there and tried to break the neutrality of the city—at least in appearance—by forcing it to lend him money and by removing the imperial eagles from the city emblems. In spite of the destruction of the Cambrai communal archives, certain sources also make it possible to observe the royal policy on the population. This policy reveals the repression of the urban elite who supported neutrality and the promotion of a true royal party. The occupation of Cambrai shocked contemporaries and the king quickly put an end to it. Neutrality was restored with the creation of a Franco-Burgundian garrison, then under the sole control of the Burgundians. The restoration of neutrality then responded to geostrategic considerations, the objective then being to “freeze” a highly conflictual frontier.