LOUIS XIV'S ARMY DELIBERATELY DEVASTATES PART OF GERMANY TO CREATE AN IMPASSABLE DESERT
(IN 1674 AND STILL MORE IN 1689)
For the French, the burning of the Heidelberg chateau is at most a memory, not a tragedy.
The Burning of the Heidelberg chateau by Maurice Leloir in "Le Roy Soleil," a history book for children by Gustave Toudouze, 1931.
Destruction by French armies in Germany in 1688 and 1689: Dark red shows total ruin, medium red partial destruction, light red isolated damages:
- Proof of deliberateness: certain populations were given a week's notice to leave, and helped with wagons and supplies. Some became the ancestors of the Pennsylvania Dutch in the United States (article in French, note 11).
- Pillaging had always been a way to pay troops, and devastation reduced the adversaries' resources. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) religious fanaticism had made things worse, but it was not a thought-out practice.
Infantry Combat with a Burning Village by Sebastian Vrancx (toward 1640) / zoom
- In the 18th century warfare was supposed to be limited, as shown by the famous line, "Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers" ("English gentlemen, shoot first"), though the English would be helpless as they recharged their muskets.
Destruction carried out without hate or ideological fervor by relatively disciplined troops shocked.
"The French used to be thought honest, humaine, civil, of a spirit opposed to barbarism; but today neighbors think a French person and a cannibal are about the same."
-- Attributed to Pierre Jurieu, a Calvinist pastor: for a full account in French, please click
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Heidelberg castle is remembered in Germany as a symbol of French ravages: victors forget, victims don't.
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| Heidelberg Castle by Gerrit Berckheyd, 1670, zoom |
As it was
"The Residence of the Prince-Electors, Lamentably Damaged and Abandoned by the Barbarous French: the Town of Heidelberg"
Anonymous pamphlet, 1693
"The Destruction of Heidelberg by the French in 1689"
German schoolbook, 1858
Heidelberg ruins, eternal reminder.
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Ripples:
- During the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871) Prussian troops bombarded Paris with particular violence in the hours before the armistice. Then Bismarck emphasized revenge by proclaiming the German Empire in Versailles's Hall of Mirrors, under a painting of victorious Louis XIV.
- German annexation of Alsace and part of Lorraine was said to prevent another French invasion.
- The French wish to retake the "lost provinces" contributed to World War I.
| Monument à Jeanne d'Arc by Emmanuel Frémiet, place des Pyramides (across street from Louvre) |
- That led to deliberately humiliating Germany through the Treaty of Versailles, then occupying the Rhineland. Both acts encouraged Hitler's rise to power.
- Germans were terrified of the French army re-entering the country in 1944, fearing a repetition of the 17th-century horrors.
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The power the arch proclaimed lasted for about 15 years: "The great king of Christendom asserted his law as far as Sweden and Brandenburg. He ruled over the universe, less by force than by admiration. I loved him timidly."
--The King's Way (in French), respected historical novel by Françoise Chandeneggor, 1981 (quote slightly adapted)
Then it brought an alliance that almost crushed the kingdom. "On his deathbed Louis had the Dauphin approach and said...
Maurice Leloir in Le Roy Soleil
'My child, you will be a great king; do not imitate me in the taste I had for war; try on the contrary, to have peace with your neighbors and to relieve your subjects, which unfortunately I was not able to do.' "
-- Journal of the illness of the king, "Louis XIV and his Court by the Duc de Saint-Simon,"
1994 ed, p.259 (shortened)
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Imagine the effect of the arc when houses were lower:
Advancing toward it
leads to pondering hubris,
if one knows a story
that now is rarely told.
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Next,
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