The Burgesses of Calais, 1347 by Henry Holiday.

The Burgesses of Calais, 1347 by Henry Holiday.

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The Siege of Calais from Wikipedia.

From John Ruskin:

480. THE BURGESSES OF CALAIS. (H. Holiday.)

A well-conceived and interesting scene: the face of the knight successful; that of the wife is a little beyond the painter's strength. It is a fair representation of the class of pictures now produced in numbers by the advancing school, which, with considerable merit, have the general demerit of making us feel in an instant that they would never have been painted had not others shown how; and the greater demerit of slightly blunting the enjoyment of the work of original men. Nevertheless, in every school these engrafted pictures must exist; and it is a cause for sincere congratulation when the habit, which is becoming derivatively universal, is to read human nature and history with sympathy for nobleness and desire for truth.

From Frossart's Chronicles.

Then the king sayde . . . let syxe of the chiefe burgesses of the towne come out bareheaded, barefooted, barelegged, and in their abides, with halters about their necks, with the kayes of the towne and castell in their handes, and let them syxe yelde themselfe purely to my will, and the residue I will take to mercye.

Per the Barbibcan

Edward III began laying siege to Calais on 3 September 1346, with a force of 30,000 men and the town finally surrendered, after many privations, on 3 August 1347. Edward planned to kill the deputation of townsmen who came out to hand over the keys, but they were spared through the intercession of his wife, Queen Phillippa. Once Calais was taken, its citizens were expelled and an English colony established there.