 les bourgeois de calais is one of the most famous sculptures by auguste rodin, completed in 1889. it serves as a monument to an occurrence in 1347 during the hundred years' war, when calais, an important french port on the english channel, was under siege by the english for over a year. calais commissioned rodin to create the sculpture in 1884. ==history== england's edward iii, after a victory in the battle of crÃ©cy, laid siege to calais, while philip vi of france 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. edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. edward demanded that 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, eustache de saint pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers joined with him.froissart, jean, chronicles of england france, spain, and the adjoining countries, (1805 translation by thomas jhones), book i, ch. 145 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 that rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life. although the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of england's queen, philippa of hainault, who persuaded her husband to exercise mercy by claiming that their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child. ==composition== the city of calais had attempted to erect a statue of eustache de saint pierre, eldest of the burghers, since 1845. two prior artists were prevented from executing the sculpture: the first,
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