King Louis XIV and the cruelties of the Nine Years' War

[Rumpel]

The Nine Years' War (1688–1697) was a conflict provoked by the French king. Louis XIV was pushing his expansive Reunion politics. In the process, French troops ravaged the Electoral Palatinate and neighboring areas.

https://www.schloss-heidelberg.de/en/interesting-amusing/collections/the-nine-years-war

Wars are always terrible, but that war was especially cruel.

 

[Rumpel]

With the cry: "Brûlez le Patinat!" – "Burn the Palatinate!" Louis XIV's soldiers razed towns, castles and palaces to the ground.

https://www.schloss-heidelberg.de/en/interesting-amusing/collections/the-nine-years-war

a cruel policy

 

[Rumpel]

Maybe a long time ago - but not forgotten in Europe.

 

[Rumpel]

Who knew about this topic before?

 

[TheParser]

Who knew about this topic before?

1. I did not.

2. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

3. Of course, we all have a little knowledge of the cruelty of the French Revolution: murdering the king and queen, for example.

4. Although this is 2023, this bloodthirsty attitude still exists in human beings. Look at what some extreme enemies of President Trump want to do to him!!!

 

[Rumpel]

1. I did not.

2. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

3. Of course, we all have a little knowledge of the cruelty of the French Revolution: murdering the king and queen, for example.

4. Although this is 2023, this bloodthirsty attitude still exists in human beings. Look at what some extreme enemies of President Trump want to do to him!!!

1. I think not many know about that time.

2. you are welcome - I think that time is also worth talking about.

3. yes - there were lots of cruel actions. - It is reported, that the whole of Europe and even his own generals were opposed to the cruelty of the so-called "Sun King" then.

4. unfortunately our time is not free of cruelty - far from it.

 

[Rumpel]

Btw:

I live in that area that had to suffer awfully in those times.

Just because a French king wanted some "glory" - by destroying lots and lots of defenceless towns and villages

 

[Rumpel]

The Wars of Louis XIV (AP European History)​

 

[Rumpel]

The Destruction of Heidelberg Castle​

 

[Rumpel]

The Destruction of Heidelberg Castle was completely un-necessary.​

 

[Juin]

Who knew about this topic before?

History turns out to have been much kinder to Mr "l'état? mais c'est moi". He went off into history as the Sun King, to boot.

 

[Rumpel]

History turns out to have been much kinder to Mr "l'état? mais c'est moi". He went off into history as the Sun King, to boot.

So it is - but he also was a cruel monster and brought a lot of misery - come to think of it.

 

[Rumpel]

History nearly only sees the sunny side of that king.

 

[Loulit01]

The Princess Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, also known as Liselotte von der Pfalz, was married to Louis' brother Phillippe, Duke d' Orleans. When Liselotte's brother, Charles II, died, Louis claimed the Palatinate in the Name of Liselotte, against her wishes and her marriage contract.

 

[Rumpel]

When Liselotte's brother, Charles II died, Louis claimed the Palatinate in the Name of Liselotte, against her wishes and her marriage contract.

Exactly!

Completely unfair.

And so he made war against defenceless towns and villages and the people there - with a cruelty that was shocking even in those days.

 

[Juin]

So it is - but he also was a cruel monster and brought a lot of misery - come to think of it.

He was a cruel monster, indeed! It's almost a cruel irony that his legacy is enshrined in art, beauty, Versailles Palace. When in fact he was closer to Atilla the Hun.

This reminds me to keep in mind that history is all smoke and mirrors. The innocent are tarnished, and the villain burnished. The villain just has to win and his sycophants will do the rest.

 

[Rumpel]

He was a cruel monster, indeed! It's almost a cruel irony that his legacy is enshrined in art, beauty, Versailles Palace. When in fact he was closer to Atilla the Hun.

This reminds me to keep in mind that history is all smoke and mirrors. The innocent are tarnished, and the villain burnished. The villain just has to win and his sycophants will do the rest.

A agree completely.

It is a sad story

 

[Juin]

History nearly only sees the sunny side of that king.

History is very much a craft. The victorious villain gets to pay artists to burnish his image.

 

[Rumpel]

Princess Palatine Elisabeth Charlotte and the Palatine War of Succession​

She lived unhappily in the court at Versailles, and vented her frustrations in thousands of letters. These letters have given us an extremenly vivid picture of life at the court of the “Sun King”.

For her, the greatest misfortune was to experience a war being fought in her name against her homeland, from within the land of the aggressor.

On 16th October 1688, French troops moved in to Heidelberg. When leaving the city on 2nd March 1689, French soldiers burned Heidelberg Castle, a place where she had spent a part of her childhood.

Just weeks after her family’s castle was burned, she wrote to Electress Sophie of Hannover:

Versailles, 20th March 1689

…If they were however to kill me, so I should not stop grieving and weeping that I was the cause of my country’s downfall and seeing all of my father the elector’s work and trouble undone with one blow as with poor Mannheim. Indeed, I hold such revulsion for all that has been destroyed that each night, as soon as I go to sleep, I see Heidelberg or Mannheim and see all the devastation, then I wake up and cannot return to sleep for two whole hours; then I think of how it all was in my time, and think of how it is now – indeed in what condition I too am in, and cannot prevent myself from crying and crying. What is also painful to me: the king has allowed everything to go to rack and ruin until I begged him to spare Heidelberg and Mannheim, and furthermore one is resentful that I should be upset about it…

Speyer Liselotte EN

 

[Rumpel]

History is very much a craft. The victorious villain gets to pay artists to burnish his image.

The winner takes it all .....

 

[Loulit01]

The winner takes it all .....

History is very much a craft. The victorious villain gets to pay artists to burnish his image.

He was a cruel monster, indeed! It's almost a cruel irony that his legacy is enshrined in art, beauty, Versailles Palace. When in fact he was closer to Atilla the Hun.

This reminds me to keep in mind that history is all smoke and mirrors. The innocent are tarnished, and the villain burnished. The villain just has to win and his sycophants will do the rest.

Yet we were able to learn the truth easily.

 

[Rumpel]

Looking back:

The unfortunate refugees from Rhineland Pfalz, or “the Palatinate,” in the early 18th century flooded out of Germany in droves.


The Palatinate had lost 457,000 out of 500,000 people during the Thirty Years’ War as Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch and Swedish soldiers burned hundreds of cities and villages throughout German realms. Alsace and Lorraine, two of the richest countries of Germany, were stolen by France. The country was a wasteland of human misery. Then, King Louis XIV of France bade his generals to destroy what little remained and they devastated the whole Rhineland.


The Rhenish Palatinate flourished in the 15th and 16th centuries, and its capital Heidelberg was a center of the German Renaissance and Reformation. The French, under Louis XIV, invaded the land and laid waste the countryside, destroying nearly all the castles and villages along the Rhine.

The atrocities carried out by French troops in the war of aggression launched by Louis XIV against the Palatinate roused hatred for the “Sun King” throughout Europe. Along with political and religious reasons for the French invasion, King Louis XIV was angry about the large number of German toll castles along the Rhine River that enriched the Palatinate coffers and cost France money. The beautiful, ancient castles on the Rhine were sacked, pillaged and utterly demolished, including the gorgeous castle of Heidelberg. The mortar bombardment of Koblenz in 1688 is analogous to modern bomber attacks, and the French used scorched earth tactics to devastate the Palatinate. Also in 1689, the cities of Mainz, Wörms, Mannheim and Speyer were set on fire and burned. In 1693, the French besieged Heidelberg for the second time, blowing up all fortifications and burning the town. Villages and farmhouses were burned and people driven from their homes in the dead of winter. Fruit trees were cut down and vineyards destroyed. For generations, German Rhinelanders were terrified of their aggressive neighbor.

King Louis XIV and the cruelties of the Nine Years' War

The Nine Years' War (1688–1697) was a conflict provoked by the French king. Louis XIV was pushing his expansive Reunion politics. In the process, French troops ravaged the Electoral Palatinate and neighboring areas...

debatepolitics.com

Can you imagine that misery!?

"Villages and farmhouses were burned and people driven from their homes in the dead of winter. Fruit trees were cut down and vineyards destroyed."

 

[Juin]

The winner takes it all .....

The French artists won the war of the histories. Theirs is light, enlightenment, rights of man, carefully painted over horrors and crimes like the burning of the Palatinate. It's often forgotten that for centuries it was the French, and not the divided Germanies, that were the more powerful, aggressive and abusive power. But somehow from the pens of historians it is the militaristic Prussian that occupies the villain spot.

 

[Rumpel]

The French artists won the war of the histories. Theirs is light, enlightenment, rights of man, carefully painted over horrors and crimes like the burning of the Palatinate. It's often forgotten that for centuries it was the French, and not the divided Germanies, that were the more powerful, aggressive and abusive power. But somehow from the pens of historians it is the militaristic Prussian that occupies the villain spot.

You speak words of truth and wisdom!

It's often forgotten that for centuries it was the French, and not the divided Germanies, that were the more powerful, aggressive and abusive power. But somehow from the pens of historians it is the militaristic Prussian that occupies the villain spot.

 

[Rumpel]

Many Palatines then fled to Britain and America:

Towards the end of the 17th century and into the 18th, the Palatinate was repeatedly invaded by France, during the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. At that time the region had not yet fully recovered from the Thirty Years' War. Scorched earth policies and continuous military requisitions caused widespread devastation and famine. The winter of 1708/09 was notably cold, resulting in further hardships

Palatines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org