This work by Rodin, the only sculpture exhibited during the lifetime of the artist, was unveiled in June 1895 on the site of the town's old fortifications. These six full-size bronze effigies, haughty, tense, full of life and emotion, with their muscles and veins swollen, are the culmination of ten years of study and research by the sculptor. The work expresses the heroic nobility of these men, forced into humiliation before the King of England.