4.3.5. THE ARC AT THE SAINT-DENIS GATE LAUNCHES A NATIONALIST STORY

IT GLORIFIES LOUIS XIV 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 » / Bill Knight

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.

The two extremities of Versailles's Hall of Mirrors honor his early victories. Crossing the Rhine was most famous.

Zoom

The War Room honors Louis's victories.  

The Peace Room recalls the benefits of peace his victories have brought.

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Propaganda:

• Louis XIV dominates the scene from a height. Light falls on his costume and on the white horse. 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.

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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.*

"An action that was brilliant and unique, celebrated then as one of the great exploits 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

*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

"So came about

 the passing of the Rhine..."

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Next,

 4.3.6.

 Long-term effects of "the passing of the Rhine"