On 18 June 1815 the Duke of Wellington’s army of British and allied soldiers met the French under Napoleon Bonaparte at the ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, some 15km south of Brussels. Wellington’s forces numbered 74,300 men, Napoleon’s about 74,500. By the end of the day, the French had been driven from the field – helped by the arrival of Prussian forces under Field Marshal Blücher – and the Napoleonic era came to an end.
Now, the bicentenary of what became known in Britain as the Battle of Waterloo has been marked by an outburst of commemorations, central to which was an enormous re-enactment that took place at the battlefield on 19 and 20 June 2015.
The logistical details of this event read like an army Quartermaster General’s report: over 6,000 re-enactors came from 47 nations, including participants from as far afield as China, Uzbekistan, and Chile.
Nooks, Corners, and Cloister Cafés