BY GLORIFYING LOUIS AND HIS ARMY CROSSING THE RHINE
(IN 1672)
"In barely 60 days he crossed the Rhine, the Waal, the Meuse and the Ijseel, conquered three provinces, took 40 fortified sites..."
« QUOD DIEBUS VIX SEXAGINTA RHENUM WAHALIM MOSAM ISALAM SUPERAVIT SVBEGIT PROVINCIAS TRES CEPIT URBES MUNITAS QUADRAGINTA » / photo Bill Knight
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| Carolyn Ristau |
The lion was a heraldic symbol of Spain, France's hereditary enemy.
On the arch's other side, the vanquished implore Louis on their knees.
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The deed became part of the French nationalist story:
- Louis XIV dominates the scene from a height, light falls on his costume and on the white horse, while the baton of command that extends his arm emphasizes supremacy.
Le Passage du Rhin par l'armée française le 12 juin 1672 by Adam Frans van der Meulen, undated / zoom
- The image for French children toward 1930:
Le Passage du Rhin by Maurice Leloir, in Le Roy Soleil by Gustave Toudouze, 1931
- The passage of the Rhine is a French movie of 1960 that had nothing to do with that event, but whose title still resonated.
- Voltaire says that there was no exploit:* The French learned that dry weather had brought a crossing and that only 17 soldiers manned the fort on the German side of the river.
*Several soldiers who had strayed from the crossing drowned, and a drunken duke who cried "no quarter for that rabble!" and shot at prisoners praying for mercy was shot himself.
-- Le Siècle de Louis XIV by Voltaire, 1751, ed. 2015, p. 177 (in French)
"So took place the passage of the Rhine...
An action that was brilliant and unique, celebrated then as one of the great events to occupy the memory of men. The air of grandeur that heightened all the king's actions, the happy speed of his conquests, the splendor of the reign, the idolatry of the courtiers, and finally the predilection of the people, especially the Parisians, for exaggeration, combined with the ignorance of war [...], all that made the passage more magnified yet. The general opinion was that the troops had swum across the river, faced with an entrenched army, in spite of an impregnable fortress [...]
-- Voltaire, p.168
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(In 1674 and still more in 1689)
- French schoolbook:
L'incendie du château de Heidelberg by Maurice Leloir / "Le Roy Soleil," 1931
- Destruction by French armies in Germany in 1688 and 1689: Dark red shows total ruin, medium red partial, 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 in the Background by Sebastian Vrancx (toward 1640) / zoom
- In the 18th century, that warfare was supposed to be limited is 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.
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That laying waste was carried out without hate or ideological fervor by relatively disciplined troops shocked more than at other times.
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How remembered: Heidelberg castle
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| Heidelberg Castle by Gerrit Berckheyd, 1670, zoom |
- Anonymous pamphlet, 1693
"The Residence of the Prince-Electors, Lamentably Damaged and Abandoned by the Barbarous French: the Town of Heidelberg"
- German schoolbook, 1858
"The Destruction of Heidelberg by the French in 1689"
- The château was never repaired and its ruins stoked the wish for revenge.
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The power the arch proclaims was real for 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."
-- L'Allée du roi by Françoise Chandeneggor, 1981 (slightly changed)
Then it brought an alliance that almost crushed the kingdom. On his deathbed Louis expressed his regret:
By Maurice Leloir in Le Roy Soleil
"He had the Dauphin approach and said,
'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 did not do.' "
-- Journal of the illness of the king, "Louis XIV and his Court by the Duke of Saint-Simon,"
1994 ed, p. 259 (shortened)
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Long-term ripples:
"The French used to be thought honest, humaine, civil, of a spirit opposed to barbarism; but today neighbors find 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
So...
- During the Franco-Prussian war (of 1870-1871) Prussian troops bombarded Paris with particular violence in the hours before the armistice, and Bismarck emphasized revenge by proclaiming the German Empire in Versailles's Hall of Mirrors, under a painting of victorious Louis XIV (please click and scroll down).
- 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 to Joan of Arc by Emmanuel Frémiet, place des Pyramides |
- Then it led to the deliberately humiliating Treaty of Versailles and occupation of the Rhineland, acts that 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.
- Fear of Soviet domination brought the cycle to an end.
Yet on a tour I guided to the Normandy beaches some French visitors refused to leave the bus to visit German soldiers' tombs, and my 20-year-old German cousins fear being called Nazis if they come to France.
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Imagine the effect of the arc when houses were lower:
When one knows the story,
advancing toward the arc
leads to pondering hubris.
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Next,
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