{"id":27496,"date":"2023-07-21T20:42:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-22T03:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27496"},"modified":"2023-07-21T20:42:43","modified_gmt":"2023-07-22T03:42:43","slug":"the-burghers-of-calais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/21\/the-burghers-of-calais\/","title":{"rendered":"THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:The_Burghers_of_Calais_MET_DP221863.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/4\/4c\/The_Burghers_of_Calais_MET_DP221863.jpg\/220px-The_Burghers_of_Calais_MET_DP221863.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"499\" height=\"381\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>The Burghers<\/em>&nbsp;at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art\">Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>, New York<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>The Burghers of Calais<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;(<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/French_language\">French<\/a>:&nbsp;<em><strong>Les Bourgeois de Calais<\/strong><\/em>) is a sculpture by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Auguste_Rodin\">Auguste Rodin<\/a>&nbsp;in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hundred_Years%27_War\">Hundred Years\u2019 War<\/a>, when&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Calais\">Calais<\/a>, a French port on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/English_Channel\">English Channel<\/a>, surrendered to the English after an eleven-month siege. The city commissioned Rodin to create the sculpture in 1884 and the work was completed in 1889.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-auto-1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-NMWA-2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">History<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1346, England\u2019s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edward_III_of_England\">Edward III<\/a>, after a victory in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Battle_of_Cr%C3%A9cy\">Battle of Cr\u00e9cy<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Siege_of_Calais_(1346%E2%80%931347)\">laid siege to Calais<\/a>, while&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philip_VI_of_France\">Philip VI of France<\/a>&nbsp;ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege, and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The contemporary chronicler&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Jean_Froissart\">Jean Froissart<\/a>&nbsp;(c. 1337 \u2013 c. 1405) tells a story of what happened next: Edward offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded they walk out wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eustache_de_Saint_Pierre\">Eustache de Saint Pierre<\/a>, volunteered first, and five other&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Burgher_(title)\">burghers<\/a>&nbsp;joined with him.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-Froissart-4\">[4]<\/a><\/sup>&nbsp;Saint Pierre led this envoy of volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death which Rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-5\">[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Froissart\u2019s story, the burghers expected to be executed, but their lives were spared by the intervention of England\u2019s queen,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Philippa_of_Hainault\">Philippa of Hainault<\/a>, who persuaded her husband to exercise mercy by claiming their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child.<sup><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais#cite_note-Froissart-4\">[4]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More at:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burghers_of_Calais<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Burghers of Calais&nbsp;(French:&nbsp;Les Bourgeois de Calais) is a sculpture by&nbsp;Auguste Rodin&nbsp;in twelve original castings and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the&nbsp;Hundred Years\u2019 War, when&nbsp;Calais, a French port on the&nbsp;English Channel, surrendered to the English after an eleven-month siege. The city commissioned Rodin&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/07\/21\/the-burghers-of-calais\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[832],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27497,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27496\/revisions\/27497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}