Thursday 26 June 2008

Siege of Tournai Van der Meulen


Here's a lovely image of Louis XIV visiting the siege lines at Tournai 21st June 1667 (artist Van der Meulen) in the War of Devolution between Holland and France. Shows the multicoloured and varied look of the French army at that time. The reclining Swiss pikeman in red in the foreground is replaced in other editions of this picture by a bale of hay - presumably his posture wasn't right for a visit from the King. I sympathise with this fellow as I am the sort of person who gets regularly airbrushed out of history because of slouching... These early wars of Louis XIV are unusual in that they have the English fighting alongside the French.

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