Waterloo in 100 Objects E-Book

Gareth Glover

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 293

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Beschreibung

Explore the legacy of one of the greatest battles in military history – the Battle of Waterloo – through this finely crafted collection of objects, each telling their own story of the day. Bullet-pierced armour and dramatic battledress bring you closer to the heart of the action, and the tragedy of the death toll is made ever more poignant by the personal mementoes left behind. From the grim reality of the teeth of the dead turned into dentures to the romance of Napoleon's steeds, swash-buckling swords and ballgowns, each object offers new insight into the incredible events that unfolded on 18 June 1815. This is a fascinating journey through 100 objects, from the rare to the memorable, in a unique testimony to the importance of the Battle of Waterloo, 200 years on.

Leseprobe

To my long suffering but ever supportive wife Mary, with love

First published 2015

This paperback edition first published 2025

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© Gareth Glover, 2015, 2025

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

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Contents

Foreword by Andrew Roberts

Introduction

Waterloo in 100 Objects

Acknowledgements

Foreword

IN THE AVALANCHE of books to commemorate the Battle of Waterloo, the distinguished historian Gareth Glover has somehow managed to come up with an idea which differentiates itself from all the rest. By hitting on the brilliant concept of choosing 100 images and objects that bring the period surrounding the battle, as well as the battle itself, so vividly to life, he has made a real contribution to the events surrounding the bicentenary, and is to be congratulated on doing it in a way that is informative, entertaining and scholarly.

It is important even two centuries later that Waterloo is remembered as a crucial punctuation mark in British history, because it signalled not only the final full-stop for Napoleon’s ambitions to have hegemony over Western Europe for his French Empire, but also the start of Britain’s own nineteenth-century greatness, especially once the Congress of Vienna, which also took place in 1815, rewarded it for its long campaigns against Napoleonic France with vital nodal points around the world. Although it is debatable whether Napoleon could have defeated the enormous Russian and Austrian forces marching on France in 1815 even if he had won at Waterloo, it is certain that at the battle the Duke of Wellington punctured forever any hopes Napoleon might have had to resuscitate French greatness.

With far too many schools all too often teaching ever more specialised areas of history today, with seemingly arbitrary periods being highlighted for study, Mr Glover is doing a public service in drawing a new generation’s attention to the Battle of Waterloo in such an arresting and inspiring way.

To choose 100 objects from so wide a spectrum to illustrate what happened at Waterloo is a peculiarly effective way of making the battle come alive, even 200 years later. Gorgeous uniforms – see Colonel Marbot’s of the French 7th Hussars, for instance – cannon, bayonets, the famous ‘Brown Bess’ musket and Baker rifle, maps, mausoleums, relics, medals, curiosities, orders written in Wellington’s handwriting, photographs of key buildings, even the dentures made from teeth pulled out of corpses’ mouths – these are just some of the truly fascinating objects that Mr Glover has identified and documented for us. They all have the power of making this vital moment in history stand out, especially when explained by his succinct yet informative short essays on each.

The result is that the momentous events of those four days in mid-June 1815 are brought to life again, as the objects tell their stories and are fitted into the whole picture. When we see Alexander Gordon’s finely crafted magnifying glass, for example, we are drawn into the tale of Wellington’s brave aide-de-camp who died of his wounds the day after the battle, and hear of the tears the otherwise highly emotionally reserved British commander-in-chief shed for Gordon and his other friends who had perished. A medallion of HMS Bellerophon struck in 1820, to quote another example, allows Glover to tell us of the surrender of Napoleon to Captain Maitland a month after Waterloo.

The nearly 100,000 people of all sides who were killed or wounded during Napoleon’s 100-day adventure to try to recapture his throne in 1815 deserve a lasting memorial, and they are certainly being given one in these extensive bicentenary commemorations organised by the Waterloo 200 Committee, and this fine book is an excellent addition to its work. It is important to our sense of national identity that the more fragile of these fascinating and valuable objects be protected for posterity, so that they can be admired and reflected upon 100 years hence, on the tercentenary of the battle in 2115. This virtual collection, however, is the modern equivalent of Troop Sergeant Major Edward Cotton’s museum in 1909, and Gareth Glover should be congratulated on the excellent work he has done in bringing it together for us.

Andrew Roberts

Introduction

I HAVE BEEN studying Waterloo, the final battle of the Great War, in great detail for some forty years. This opening statement will cause some bewilderment to many who have grown up with the appellation of the Great War firmly applied to the 1914–18 First World War. But to anyone living before 1918, the title of the Great War was applied to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars in which Britain fought France almost continuously for twenty-two years from 1793 to 1815.

The Battle of Waterloo, fought in Belgium on 18 June 1815, exactly 200 years ago, was completely decisive, ending Napoleon’s hopes forever. Nine hours of bitter fighting set the course of Europe and indeed the entire world for a century. However, it must be understood that the battle does not stand alone: it was the culmination of a rapid campaign in Belgium but the allies still had to march to Paris to end Napoleon’s reign again.

Despite such cataclysmic results, few people now know much about this short campaign. I have met many who thought that the battle occurred in London, assuming that the train station stands on the battle site; or they have assumed it was fought in France because they remember that Napoleon was defeated there, possibly basing their knowledge on the famous Abba song of that name. Few will know the generals who opposed him, although arguably Britain’s greatest ever general fought here, and they will almost certainly know nothing of the men of other countries who fought and died there: the Prussians, the Dutch, Belgians, Brunswickers, Nassauers and Poles, and even a couple of Americans.

History as taught in our schools has for many decades hopped straight from the Stuarts to the Industrial and Agrarian Revolutions and then again to the First and Second World Wars. This shameful negation of the entire Georgian period is deliberate: this allows for the avoidance of any reference to the rise of the British Empire, which we are now expected to feel only shame for. But we ignore the lessons of any period of history at our peril and the empire, both good and bad, very much formed this country we now live in, and without an understanding of that, we can understand nothing of our past.

The Battle of Waterloo was both a fascinating and a terrible thing. War is never glorious or pretty and certainly never comes without great pain and loss for all sides engaged. But sometimes war is unavoidable and necessary as the lesser of evils, and it can change the course of history. Such was Waterloo.

The intention of this book is to fascinate and thus to educate about this whirlwind campaign which decided so much in a four-day period. Because of its significance, everybody sought to own a memento from the battlefield or a commemorative piece commissioned in its aftermath. This has meant that a huge mass of this material is still to be seen in museums and private collections across the globe; indeed, many families still lovingly treasure items relating to their forebears who fought in this momentous campaign. From this wealth of objects I have drawn 100 items that help tell the fascinating story in an engaging way: some macabre, others sad, a few may seem too incredible to be true, but they are, and others simply help us understand the trials of life and death for a soldier 200 years ago.

A brief understanding of the reasons why Waterloo occurred is perhaps necessary for those unacquainted with the history. The French Revolution had seen the guillotining of King Louis XVI of France in 1793 and the monarchies of Europe turning on France to avoid the revolutionary spirit spreading and threatening their own thrones. Fortunes see-sawed until one man, Napoleon Bonaparte, took his chance to make his name and captured northern Italy and then Egypt for France. Once he had the army on his side, he duly organised a military takeover, becoming First Consul and within a few years Emperor of France. He transformed the war against the European monarchies, defeating the three great continental military powers, Austria, Prussia and Russia, in succession. At its height the French Empire reached from Oporto to Warsaw. Britain remained his only constant foe; Britain ruled by sea, Napoleon by land. However, in 1812 he overstretched himself and his army of half a million men reached Moscow, but died almost to a man in the snows of a Russian winter. By 1814 France was overwhelmed and Paris fell; Napoleon was forced to abdicate and was exiled to the tiny Mediterranean island of Elba.

However, Napoleon continued to plot from his mini kingdom, and when he judged the time right he sailed with only one thousand men and landed in France on 1 March 1815. As his small force marched on Paris, the Royalist armies sent against him, simply switched allegiance and Napoleon was swept into Paris on a tide of adulation.

The great powers of Europe were still in congress at Vienna, deciding how to produce a balance of power in Europe after the break-up of the French Empire, when Napoleon returned, and they unanimously declared war against him, not France. Realising that he stood no chance against the combined armies of Europe, Napoleon hastily formed his army and launched a surprise attack on Belgium, aiming to destroy the armies of Britain and the Netherlands (Holland and Belgium being one kingdom) under the Duke of Wellington and a Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher, before the Austrians, Russians and Spanish could enter the war. If he could destroy these armies and effectively knock those countries out of the war, he hoped the others might be brought to the peace table.

At Waterloo, over 180,000 men with over 40,000 horses fought on a battlefield no wider than three square miles, and by the end over 50,000 men and 20,000 horses were killed or severely maimed. Wellington, supported by the arrival of the Prussians, destroyed the French army, and Napoleon’s dreams of a renewed French Empire were quashed forever. Napoleon was forced to abdicate once again and was exiled to the South Atlantic island of St Helena, where he died; Britain effectively turned its back on Europe and used its domination of the seas to further expand its empire, whilst Europe looked for a new way forward to try to avoid these seemingly interminable wars. The Age of Congress was born and at every crisis all the heads of Europe would meet to debate and attempt to find a peaceful solution. War was not avoided completely, but local wars were prevented from escalating into pan-European conflict for 100 years, until the Germans refused to attend a congress in 1914.

This is the compelling drama that was Waterloo.

Gareth Glover

100Objects

1

King George III shilling

THIS SILVER SHILLING, minted in 1787, would have been current at the time of Waterloo. A coin such as this might have been used as an incentive for new recruits to the armed services. To take the king’s shilling was to accept service in the navy or army and was a practice that dated back to the Civil War, with the shilling – a not inconsiderable sum for low-paid labourers – being offered as a payment for signing up. Whether you were a volunteer or pressed – coerced – the taking of the king’s (or queen’s) shilling denoted that you were in the forces.

The term is mentioned in a verse from a song of the time, ‘Who’ll be a Soldier?’, which was sung to the tune we now know as ‘Waltzing Matilda’:

The King he has ordered new troops onto the continent,

To strike a last blow at the enemy.

And if you would be a soldier,

All in a scarlet uniform,

Take the King’s shilling for Wellington and me.

Date of production:1787

Location:Private collection

A recruit theoretically was entitled to return the shilling at any point until he was made subject to martial law after being attested by a justice of the peace. Soon after that, a bounty was paid to the new recruit, which varied considerably, but could be up to £23 17s 6d in 1812. At its highest the bounty was equivalent to over half a year’s wages for the average unskilled worker.

The British army had reduced its numbers significantly with the ending of the wars in 1814 as British politicians sought to take the peace dividend and drastically reduce expenditure on the army and the navy. Many of the seasoned troops returned from southern Europe thoroughly tired of war, having fought in the harsh terrain of Portugal and Spain, for most of the previous six years. Their time served, many saw few prospects in remaining in the army, where promotion would now stagnate, and the idea of dying whilst garrisoning some godforsaken mosquito-infected island in the West or East Indies was not an attractive option. Many veterans therefore sought to leave the army on a pension of up to a shilling a day, a pittance which would need to be supplemented by paid work.

Napoleon’s return to the French throne meant that the British government faced huge problems in supplying enough soldiers for the new war. Their embarrassment was saved to some extent by the very timely return of a large number of regiments which had been fighting the Americans in a conflict that was, in reality, a war over the sovereignty of Canada. Peace had been signed in January 1815 and the regiments arriving in English and Irish ports in April and May found themselves ordered directly on to Belgium.

But recruiting had to be ramped up again rapidly: regimental recruiting parties were sent out to ply young able-bodied men with beer and regale them with tales of daring exploits and the riches they could earn in prize money, to entice them to accept the king’s shilling. Many who accepted the offer were rushed through basic training and stood and died or were horribly mutilated at Waterloo only a month or two after they had joined.

A number of regiments had very few experienced men when they arrived in Belgium, indeed the 14th Foot was described as being formed of ‘mere boys’. But these boys stood and died at Waterloo just as bravely as any veteran.

2

The bicorn and coat of Napoleon

THE GREATCOAT AND plain cocked hat were Napoleon’s habitual wear on campaign, almost always worn over the undress coat of the Chasseurs à Cheval of the Imperial Guard. The grey coat was so iconic that it gave rise to one of Napoleon’s nicknames: la redingote grise.

Napoleon Bonaparte dominated Europe for a decade and was feared throughout the continent, but Waterloo was to destroy all his ambitions in a single day. Born in Corsica in 1769, the same year as Wellington, Napoleon became an artillery officer in the French army. When the Revolution began, he made a professional name for himself by helping the revolutionaries seize Toulon, then capturing northern Italy from the Austrians and invading Egypt in an attempt to destroy British India. On his return to France he adeptly turned his fame into political support to become one of a triumvirate of consuls in 1799, which essentially handed him the reins of power.

Date of manufacture:c. 1815

Location:Musée de l’Armée, Paris, France

Napoleon oversaw the rapid expansion of the French army and armed it with the most modern equipment. Napoleon further cemented his position by establishing himself as hereditary Emperor of France in 1804.

France needed to expand to pay for such massive forces, and monarchical Europe rapidly became embroiled in a number of wars as it vainly sought to stem the tide of revolution which Napoleon brought with his armies. But Napoleon’s tactics of rapid marches, concentration of forces and overwhelming artillery and cavalry swept the old European armies, still operating as they had in the times of Frederick the Great, aside with ease

By 1811 the French Empire stretched from Madrid to Warsaw; then Napoleon made the disastrous decision to march on Moscow. Despite capturing the city, he failed to force the Russians to the peace table and was eventually defeated by the Russian winter, losing 90 per cent of his half-million-strong army during the campaign.

Seeing an opportunity, Europe rose against France, and after a valiant effort to stem the tide, Paris was captured and Napoleon was forced to abdicate and exiled to the Mediterranean island of Elba.

Within a year, though, Napoleon recognised the moment was ripe for him, as there was great unrest caused by the policies of King Louis XVIII’s government, and on 1 March 1815 he set foot on the shores of France once again, with a force of around one thousand men. Few in Europe thought that Napoleon had any chance of success, but as he led his small army across France towards Paris, thousands of soldiers of the king’s army switched allegiance and joined his ranks. Soon the momentum was his, and he simply rode back into Paris, the king fleeing into Belgium. This sudden change of fortunes is perfectly encapsulated in the headlines of the French national newspaper Le Moniteur:

10 March:

The Corsican ogre has landed at Cape Juan.

11 March:

The tiger is in Gap. Troops are on their way and will stop him. He will end his miserable adventure as a homeless refugee in the mountains.

12 March:

The monster succeeded in proceeding to Grenoble.

13 March:

The tyrant is now in Lyon. Horror has caught the people.

18 March:

The usurper is some days’ march distant from Paris.

19 March:

Bonaparte approaches in a hurry, but he will not succeed in advancing to Paris.

20 March:

Napoleon will be in Paris tomorrow.

21 March:

Emperor Napoleon is in Fontainebleau.

22 March:

Yesterday evening His Majesty celebrated his arrival in Paris. The jubilation cannot be described.

Napoleon’s soldiers welcomed him back with great enthusiasm as they adored him, but it would be wrong to assume that all of France was so enraptured. Many areas remained loyal to the king, or were simply weary of war, and the constant conscription.

Despite protesting that he had a peaceful intent, Napoleon rapidly ordered a huge expansion of the army, recognising that all of Europe would turn on him, and indeed war was soon announced by all the great continental powers, not against France, but against the emperor himself.

Never being defensively minded and with the threat that a co-ordinated invasion by 150,000 men from each of the great powers of Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Spain would overwhelm France, Napoleon sought to defeat them before they could join up. He was always at his best in co-ordinating the surreptitious concentration of forces, straining every sinew of the national effort to arm and supply his army and launching a surprise attack from an unexpected quarter on his enemies’ forces. This occasion was no exception and his army was enthused to the point of exultation as it crossed the borders to instigate the Waterloo campaign in the early hours of 15 June 1815, rapidly marching to gain control of Charleroi and driving the Prussian advance guard back.

The ensuing campaign did not, as we know, end well for Napoleon, although it certainly started with great promise. In exile on the island of St Helena until his death in 1821, Napoleon and his supporters actively sought to publish critical reports of the actions of his marshals, blaming them for all of the failures of the campaign. Efforts were made to explain away Napoleon’s poor performance, claiming illness and treachery. However, the reality was that the failure was more due to a complacency born of Napoleon’s belief in his superiority over his opponents; modern analysis has shown that Napoleon was guilty of failing to brief his subordinates adequately and of underestimating his opponents.

3 Place Royale

JUST BEFORE MIDNIGHT on 15 June 1815 the bugles, drums and bagpipes of the allied army announced the reveille and the troops of the Allied Reserve Corps, stationed in and around Brussels, poured out into the streets from their billets as they made their way hurriedly to the assembly point of the army in the Place Royale and the adjoining Brussels Park.

Date of construction:

1780

Location:

Brussels, Belgium

The square was originally known as the Balienplein, which was the site of the Palace of Coudenberg and the main market square and place of executions. A serious fire in 1731 had destroyed the palace and it was not until 1780 that the replacement square was finished as an almost exact replica of the Place Royale in Reims. The square would have looked exactly as it does today, apart from the statue in the centre of Godfrey of Bouillon which was only placed there in 1848. The previous statue of Prince Charles of Lorraine had been melted down during the French Revolution and a tree of liberty raised in its place.

Once the men were formed in their battalions in and around the square, provisions for a march were issued and the men sank down onto the cobbles to await their orders; some even tried to catch some sleep as they had no idea when they would next get the chance. Revellers from the Duchess of Richmond’s ball stepped gingerly over the slumbering soldiers as they returned to their homes around the park, or they asked those who were awake for news.

At 3 a.m. orders were issued for the corps to march to Waterloo on the road to Nivelles. They trailed out of the gate to the Charleroi road and were followed by the Brunswick Corps, which had been stationed just outside the city. During the fighting the square became a vehicle depot for supplies moving up to the front and then an open-air hospital as the wounded began to arrive.

The square later gained great notoriety as the site of a large barricade which was erected at the eastern end and armed with a couple of cannon during the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

4 ‘Brown Bess’ musket

ALMOST EVERY BRITISH and King’s German Legion infantryman at Waterloo carried a ‘Brown Bess’ musket; it was the lynchpin of the British army and had been so for nearly a century in various versions or ‘patterns’. This muzzle-loading smooth-bore land pattern musket and all its derivatives were used during the era of the expansion of the British Empire and acquired a symbolic importance at least as significant as its physical one.

The origin of the nickname ‘Brown Bess’ is uncertain. It is believed that this name first appeared towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the short pattern and India pattern versions were in wide use. The name ‘Brown Bess’ was used at the time as a term of poetic endearment, rather than a proper name; it may have been coined because of the colour of the walnut stock or the brown rust proofing applied to the barrel as, prior to this weapon, stocks were generally painted black. ‘Bess’ could have simply been an alliterative name, or possibly from the German Buchse (gun).

Date of manufacture:

c. 1815

Location:

Private collection

During the 1790s, a third pattern of the flintlock musket arrived, the India pattern, which differed from previous designs by being slightly lighter (just under 9lb) and shorter (39in). It had been developed and adopted by the forces of the East India Company in 1795 and was accepted by the Board of Ordnance of the British army two years later. Over 3 million of these were eventually built and this was the version almost universally carried at Waterloo.

The accuracy of the Brown Bess was poor, as with most other muskets. The effective range is often quoted as 175 yards (160m), but the Brown Bess was often fired en masse at 50 yards (46m) to inflict the greatest damage upon the enemy. In fact, it is generally asserted that you would be very unlucky indeed to be struck by an aimed shot at 100 yards. Military tactics of the period stressed mass volleys and bayonet charges instead of individual marksmanship. The large soft lead ball could inflict a great deal of damage when it struck and the great length of the weapon allowed longer reach in bayonet engagements.

As with all similar smooth-bore muskets, it was theoretically possible to improve the accuracy of the weapon by reducing the windage; that is, using musket balls that fitted more tightly into the barrel. However, the black powder used at the time would quickly foul the barrel, making it more and more difficult to reload a tight-fitting round after each shot and increasing the risk of the ball jamming in the barrel during loading. Therefore, as tactics at the time favoured close-range battles and speed over accuracy, smaller and more loosely fitting musket balls were much more commonly used. The rate of fire ranged from 3 to 4 shots per minute with highly trained troops, to two shots per minute for inexperienced recruits.

The fame of the ‘Brown Bess’ was so great that Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Brown Bess’ was dedicated to this famous weapon.

5

Ballgown

ON 15 JUNE, the evening before the army marched from Brussels to face Napoleon at Quatre Bras (see item 7), a ball was held, to which the great majority of the senior officers of the army and the rich of Brussels were invited. The hostess was Charlotte, Duchess of Richmond, who was in the city with her family. The ballgown depicted is of the style of 1815, being almost transparent and off the shoulder with short puffy sleeves.

Elizabeth Longford described it as ‘the most famous ball in history’, but it was a pure accident that this ball occurred just before the fighting, there being a string of balls organised for the season. There had already been balls held: by the Duke of Wellington on 26 May, on 4 June one was hosted by Sir Charles Stuart and on 9 June by Wellington again; the duke had another arranged for the 21st to celebrate his great victory at Vitoria in Spain two years previously.

There is still much contention about where the ball was actually held, but according to Lady Georgiana De Ros, a daughter of the Duchess of Richmond, the ball took place in a large room on the ground floor, connected to the Richmond residence on Rue des Cendres by an anteroom. The house had been rented from a coach builder who had used this annexe to keep his coaches in – perhaps as a showroom, as it already had rose trellis wallpaper on the walls. In a letter to The Times which was published on 25 August 1888, Sir William Fraser reported that he had discovered the likely room used to house the ball. It was not part of the principal property that the Duke of Richmond rented on the Rue des Cendres, but was a coach house that backed onto the property and had an address in the next street, Rue de la Blanchisserie. The room was 120ft long and 54ft wide, and about 13ft high. Unfortunately the room no longer exists.

Date of production:

c. 1815

Location:

McCord Museum, Quebec, Canada

Wellington had received information prior to the ball, at around 6 p.m., that Napoleon had launched an attack, and orders for the army to prepare to march were promulgated. However, Wellington saw no issue with continuing the ball, probably seeing some advantage in having almost all his senior officers present if further orders were required to be communicated.

Captain George Bowles of the Coldstream Guards recalled how a further report, received around 11 p.m., during the ball caused Wellington to ask the Duke of Richmond if he had a good map. Retiring to his study to peruse the map, Wellington is reputed to have declared, ‘Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours’ march on me … I have ordered the army to concentrate at Quatre Bras; but we shall not stop him there, and if so I must fight him there –’ indicating the ridge at Waterloo. However, this story is suspect on many levels, not only because it is clear that the army was not ordered to march to Quatre Bras before 10 a.m. the following morning, but also because Wellington could have had no idea at this time that it would be necessary for him to retire to Waterloo.

The atmosphere in the room apparently changed dramatically when news circulated among the guests that the French had crossed the border and that the army was to march at dawn. Lady Jane Dalrymple-Hamilton, who sat for some time beside Wellington on a sofa, was struck by his preoccupied and anxious expression beneath the assumed gaiety. The idea that the ball continued and that officers completed their obligations to dance with the various young ladies before marching off is almost certainly a Victorian invention. Eyewitnesses talk more of hurried goodbyes, emotional partings and a distraught duchess!

The ball inspired a number of writers and artists in the nineteenth century. It was described in great detail by William Thackeray in Vanity Fair and by Lord Byron in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. The ball also inspired artists, including Millais, who painted The Black Brunswicker in 1860 and Robert Hillingford, who painted The Duchess of Richmond’s Ball.

On 15 June 1965 the British ambassador in Brussels held a ball to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and the Duchess of Richmond’s ball, attended by 540 guests. This commemoration ball has now become an annual event, with the money raised going to support several charities.

Drawing of the room used for the ball, as it appeared in 1888.

6

Large telescope

used by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo

THE DUKE OF Wellington commanded the allied army at Waterloo, facing Napoleon in battle for the first time. This very large telescope was apparently given to Countess Stanhope by the duke himself in October 1836 as one he had used in various battles, including Waterloo. It is intriguing to think that this was almost certainly the telescope he would have used throughout that day to seek out evidence of the arrival of the Prussian army. In a painting by Thomas Heaphy, Wellington appears holding this very telescope.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington (1769–1852), was born into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, and was one of the leading military and political figures of the nineteenth century; he is often referred to simply as ‘the Duke’. Wellesley was commissioned as an ensign in the British army in 1787. He served in Ireland as aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. He purchased his colonelcy in 1796 and then saw limited action in Holland and then made his name by winning some decisive victories in India. However, others rather snootily referred to him as merely a ‘sepoy general’; indeed, Napoleon often used the term against him.

Date of manufacture:

c. 1813

Location:

Chevening House, Kent, UK

Upon his return from the Indian campaign, Wellesley finally succeeded in marrying Kitty Pakenham in Dublin in 1806 – her family had previously rejected the match, deeming him a poor prospect. The marriage would later prove to be unsatisfactory and the two would spend years apart while Wellesley was campaigning, and he was linked constantly with many young ladies of society.

He rose to real prominence as a general during the Peninsular War, where he waged a six-year campaign with limited resources against a much larger French army and eventually led a successful Anglo/Portuguese/Spanish army to push the French out of Spain and invaded southern France. He was promoted to field marshal after his victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon’s exile in 1814, Wellesley served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom, his brother choosing the name for him after the small town of Wellington in Somerset.

Wellington is famous primarily for his defensive style of warfare, which gave him several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He could, however, also perform well in an attack, given the opportunity. Both tactics were fully in evidence at Waterloo: he took up a carefully chosen defensive position, maintaining his army behind the crest of a ridge where they would be largely protected from losses until called forward to counter French moves, and he made an instant decision for an all-out attack at the end of the battle when he perceived the French army to be wobbling following the failure of the attack by the Imperial Guard. During the battle, he seemed to be everywhere. Wherever there was a crisis he was in the thick of it, taking refuge in a square of infantry when danger came too close.

Nicknamed the ‘Peer’ or ‘Beau’ because of his sartorial elegance, or more frequently ‘our Atty’ (short for Arthur) by the common soldiers, he was never loved but was greatly admired. After the battle Wellington was frank in his appreciation of Blücher’s support and admitted that it had been ‘a close run thing’. He did feel affection and responsibility for those who fought with him; later that night he openly cried in the gloom of his room as the list of senior officers who had been killed and wounded was read out to him, and when his faithful horse Copenhagen died in 1836, Wellington buried him at Stratfield Saye and had a headstone erected to commemorate his service (see item 99).

Wellington was feted by all of the allied sovereigns and was made an honorary field marshal or a prince of most countries in Europe in gratitude for his great victory. He commanded the allied army which occupied northern France until 1818 and was instrumental in brokering a deal by which the allies gained financial recompense for the war and King Louis XVIII was relieved of the burden of feeding this army.