In BC , it became the scene of violent but quick conflict between the troops of Quintus Opimius and the Oxybii. In the 10th century, the town was known as Canua. Canua was probably the site of a small Ligurian port, and later a Roman outpost on Le Suquet hill, suggested by Roman tombs discovered here.
Le Suquet housed an 11th-century tower, which overlooked the swamps where the city now stands. An attack by the Saracens in , who remained until the end of the 10th century, devastated the country around Canua.
One took a century to build. Around , Cannes detached from the monks who had controlled the city for hundreds of years and became independent.
They had many different purposes: in the middle of the 19th century, one served as a hospital for soldiers wounded in the Crimean War. Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux bought land at the Croix des Gardes "about the year , when it was little more than a fishing village on a picturesque coast" and constructed the villa Eleonore-Louise; Brougham's work to improve living conditions attracted the English aristocracy, who also built winter residences.
The 19th century saw the modernization of Cannes, spearheaded by Marie de Lametz and her son Prince Charles III to follow the successes of nearby Nice and the successful gambling industry in Bad Homburg.
