Hesdin was a fief of the counts of Artois, vassals of the Counts of Flanders until 1180. When Philip, count of Flanders gave Artois as dowry to his niece Isabella of Hainault when she married Philip Augustus of France in 1180, Hesdin and the other seigneuries passed to France. Though subsequently the territory passed to the Dukes of Burgundy, Hesdin remained one of a handful of French strongholds, until in 1553 Emperor Charles V ordered the utter destruction of the old fortified town on a rise of ground and built the present town the following year, some 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the original site, on the banks of the Canche. The unfortified village of Vieil-Hesdin was later built on the original site.

In 1639 the French laid siege to Hesdin and under Louis XIII, it was recaptured for France. Thus, though Hesdin has an ancient name and 16th century structures, there is nothing left of the medieval town.

The most recent and resourceful book on the history of Hesdin is Promenades dans Hesdin by Regis Deparis (2004) (French)

In 2014 Hesdin elected a 22-year-old law student, Stéphane Sieczkowski-Samier, as Mayor. Sieczkowski-Samier became the youngest mayor in France and is nicknamed "Petit Sarko" (little Sarkozy) in the French press as a reference to the previous French President Nicolas Sarkozy who is from the same political party.

Hesdin is dominated by the central square, the Place d'Armes overlooked by the 16th-17th-century town hall.

The contemporary Church of Notre Dame was begun in 1565 and completed in 1685.

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