Meanwhile : The burghers of Calais

The author is a former emeritus professor of history at Konkuk University. Before the undersea tunnel opened in 1994, crossing the English Channel by ferry was a memorable experience in itself. When departing from the French port city of Calais, tour guides with even a modest knowledge of history would often stop in front of the city hall to point out the famous sculpture "The Burghers of Calais" (1895). In 1347, during the Hundred Years' War, French forces resisted an English siege in Calais for nearly a year before surrendering. The victorious English king, Edward III, reportedly demanded that six leaders of the city present themselves for execution and hand over the keys to the city gates as a condition of surrender. According to the well-known account, the city's leaders hesitated until a nobleman named Eustache de Saint Pierre volunteered to go first. Five others then joined him. Though the king initially intended to execute them, the men were ultimately spared after the intervention of the English queen, Philippa of Hainault. France later transformed this humiliating episode into a national myth. The city of Calais commissioned the renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin to depict the moment when the six men were led away to their presumed deaths. Rodin spent a decade completing the work before it was installed in front of the city hall in 1895. Looking at the sculpture, it is difficult to read the emotions on the figures' faces with certainty. Saint Pierre, the first to step forward, lowers his head in apparent resignation. A younger man gazes outward with anger in his eyes. Another clutches his head in fear, while one looks skyward in visible grief. The expressions of the remaining two are more ambiguous, almost unreadable. The men wear only rough sackcloth garments, a biblical symbol of surrender and penitence, recalling the book of "2 Samuel" in the Old Testament. Ropes hang around their bodies as signs of self-imposed guilt, while the figure at the front carries the keys to the city gates. Historians agree that a surrender ceremony did take place, but whether events unfolded in such tragic fashion remains uncertain. Some have described the story as a "constructed myth." Yet Rodin's sculpture has long transcended France itself, coming to symbolize the sacrificial obligations of those in positions of privilege and power. At times, it becomes difficult to distinguish where history ends and myth begins. This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.