The
Beau Monde Regency Academe
THE BATTLE THAT RESHAPED EUROPE:
BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE BRITISH VICTORY AT
WATERLOO
Lesson Six:
I.
After Waterloo
A.
A century of peace in Europe?
Many assessments of the settlements after the
Napoleonic Wars praise the re-establishment of stable governments and the prevention
of continent-wide wars until the outbreak of The Great War in 1914. Others
emphasize the return to monarchies and centralized power in large European
powers which were already anti-modern and unprogressive, engendering the rise
of nationalism and actual instability. I believe one could make a case for
either interpretation, depending on upon your point of view.
There were many smaller wars in Europe, lasting
shorter times, but causing great death and damage. Some were wars of
independence (e.g. Greece, 1821-32 breaking from the Ottoman Empire), others involved
unification movements among Italian and German states, which could even include
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.
The 19th Century also saw Europeans fight
wars in Asia and Africa where European powers were intent on trade and
colonization. The British Empire expanded globally.
The Spanish Empire in Latin America, however,
declined; many nations achieved independence in South and Central America. The U.S. fought Indian wars, in addition to
the Civil War 1860-65, and wars over Mexico and Texas, Cuba and the
Philippines. A depressingly long list.
B.
France
After Napoleon left for the final time, Louis XVIII
was back on the throne, succeeded by his brother, Charles X (1757-1836), from
1824 until 1830. The July Revolution
brought Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, into power as the King of France.
Louis-Philippe was part of a “cadet” branch of the Bourbons, a cousin of Louis
XVIII and Charles X. He had been in
exile during the Napoleonic era, traveling extensively including in the
US. He was proclaimed King by the
Chamber of Deputies in August 1830. Two years later in 1832, Louise-Marie, his
daughter, married Leopold I of Belgium (see below).
During the February 1848 revolution in France, part
of the revolutionary movement that swept Europe that year, Louis-Philippe
abdicated and fled to England (where he lived at Claremont House, Surrey, once
the home of his son-in-law Leopold when he was married to the late Princess
Charlotte).
The Second Republic began, and who should they elect
as President but Louis Napoleon, son of Napoleon’s brother Louis and Hortense,
daughter of Napoleon’s first wife Josephine.
(Are you keeping score??). In
1851-52, Louis Napoleon dissolved the elected Republic and declared himself
Napoleon III, thus establishing the Second Empire, which lasted until the
Franco Prussian War in 1870-71. Napoleon III followed repressive policies and
limited freedoms, but it is his reign that gave us most of the beauties of
Paris we enjoy today, a legacy we can appreciate without admiring his other
policies.
When Napoleon III was a captive of Prussia, deputies
in Paris declared a government of national defense, which tried to continue the
war against Prussia, but within a few months, capitulated and ended the war.
The Third French Republic was declared but stiff war reparation payments and
other issues led to the Paris Commune.
The two-months of the Paris Commune in 1871, one of
many uprisings of Paris workers and socialists during the century, was defeated
by the regular army by the end of May 1871. Its short life became an
inspiration to communist leaders such as Lenin and Mao.
The Third French Republic continued until the Fall
of France in 1940 and the establishment of the Vichy government. It was not until the 1880’s that the quarrels
over re-establishment of a monarchy with competing claims of various pretenders
was overcome.
C.
Belgium
Gallica Belgica was
the name of a Roman province in northern Gaul.
The region often called “the low countries” has been the scene of many
wars, involving the French, the Habsburgs, the Austrians, the Spanish, and various
Germanic peoples. Cities in the region
were important trading partners of Britain across the North Sea. During the
Revolutionary Wars, France absorbed parts of the low countries, which were
brought together as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. In 1830, the
southern areas of this kingdom set up an independent Belgium as a
constitutional monarchy. Chosen as first King of Belgium was Leopold I,
formerly Prince of Saxe-Coburg, husband of the late Princess Charlotte of Wales
(1796-1817), daughter of the Prince Regent and his late unlamented wife
Caroline of Brunswick, Princess of Wales (17968-1821). The current Belgian
royal family descends from Leopold and his second wife, Louise of Orleans
(1812-1850).
Leopold was the
uncle of Princess Victoria, daughter of his sister, Princess Victoire. Victoire
married (as her 2nd husband) Edward, Duke of Kent. After Victoria
became Queen of Great Britain in 1837, Leopold advised her mostly from afar,
and promoted the suit of his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, who married
the Queen in 1840 and fathered her nine children.
II.
Britain and the British Empire
A period of economic difficulties followed the
conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars.
Falling agricultural prices caused the government of Lord Liverpool to
enact the 1815 Corn Laws, which helped the large landowners maintain high
prices but hurt the average person and caused rioting in various areas.
Things were not helped by the severe cold in 1816, which
caused poor harvests and grain shortages.
The 1817 death in childbirth of Princess Charlotte,
the only legitimate grandchild of King George III, led to a period of intense
national mourning. The aging brothers of
King George IV scurried to find reasonable wives to replace their many
mistresses, in the hopes of siring an heir to the throne though they already
had a large number of illegitimate offspring.
The Duke of Kent won the hand of Victoire, a widow with two children, a
proven breeder. Their daughter became Queen Victoria in 1837.
The unstoppable progress of steam-driven machinery
and transportation, mining improvements, canal-building, and scientific
achievements pushed Britain forward while often creating dislocation of people,
dreadful conditions in urban slums, child labor, and unrest. The middle class
grew and became more and more prosperous while the working class suffered , not
always in silence.
The government tried to stifle dissent. In 1819, a
reform rally in Manchester was set upon by a cavalry charge, resulting in at
least 15 killed. It was always to be
known, in a sad reference to the great battle, as the Peterloo Massacre. The next year, the Cato Street Conspiracy was
suppressed before causing any damage except to public confidence. The Luddites
and others caused disturbances as they protested the new machines which
replaced cottage industry and displaced workers.
Taxes rose to pay off the war debts and caused more
conflict and distress.
In 1820, George the III finally died after years of
madness. The Prince Regent became George
IV, and prevented his estranged wife from attending his lavish coronation. When news from St. Helena arrived in July, 1821,
George was told “It is my duty to inform your
Majesty that your greatest enemy is dead.” Reputedly the King replied, “Is
She, by God?” Queen Caroline did die
shortly, in August, 1821.
Also in 1821,
Robert Castlereagh became the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, though he
remained the leader of the House of Commons, he was severely criticized for
repressive government actions, particularly after Peterloo. His health suffered and he became paranoid
and delusional, and committed suicide by cutting his throat in August, 1822.
Lord Liverpool left office in 1827,
after fifteen years of providing leadership in stormy, war-torn times; he died
in 1828. He was succeeded by several Prime Ministers who served very short
terms, both times passing over the Duke. George Canning (1770-1827) died after
just over four months in office. Viscount Goderich served for another four
months, resigning in frustration in January 1828.
Although he was
generally known as very conservative, he did shepherd through Parliament a
nearly complete Emancipation for Catholics in 1829. He said he would resign if
the King did not endorse the bill. In March, he fought a duel with the Earl of
Winchilsea over the matter, though no one was hit, and the Earl later
apologized.
Wellington
resigned after his government was defeated in the House of Commons over the
reform bill in 1830. The bill did not pass the House of Lords, but in 1832, a
great Reform Act finally was passed by a Whig majority in the House of Commons and backed by the House of
Lords after years of agitation and rioting on behalf of an extended franchise. Wellington
never approved of it. After the first Parliament
elected by a broader electorate sat, Wellington is quoted as saying, “I never
saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.”
King George IV had
died in 1830 and was succeeded by his brother, the third son of George III, as
King William IV (the second brother, Frederick, Duke of York, had died in 1827).
In 1834, the
Tories came into power again, with a ministry to be headed by Robert Peel. But
since he was in Italy, the Duke of Wellington was interim Prime Minister for
three weeks, then becoming Foreign Minister in the Peel Cabinet.
In 1837, Victoria took the throne and for the rest
of his life, the Duke was a trusted advisor to her and her husband, Prince Albert.
This quick summary of British politics to 1837 how
the stability, even in the face of difficult national issues, of the British
system of government, contrasted with the French experience.
This was also a time if great expansion of the
British Empire, the empire on which the sun never set.
III. The Napoleon Myth
– legendary hero remembered for his original aims, not for his slaughter of
millions
In his concise volume The Napoleonic Wars: A Very Short Introduction published by Oxford
University Press, Mike Rapport quotes Francois-René Chateaubriand’s memoirs
from 1839, expressing his frustration with his contemporaries for ignoring – or
forgetting the destruction and thinking only of the Gloire:
“It is fashionable today to magnify Bonaparte’s
victories: those who suffered by them disappeared; we no longer hear the curses
of the victims and their cries of pain and distress; we no longer see France
exhausted, with only women to till her soil…we no longer see the conscription
notices pasted up at street corners, and
the passer-by gathering in a crowd in front of those huge lists of the dead,
looking in consternation for the names of their children, their brothers, their
friends, their neighbors.”
Napoleon’s memoirs as told to his secretary on St.
Helena, Emmanuel de Las Cases, published shortly after the Emperor’s death in
1821, presented his version of his life story, emphasizing his victories and
his goal to spread the values – Liberté, Égalité,
Fraternité, French for
"Freedom, equality, brotherhood", of the French
Revolution – ignoring the fact he ruled as a tyrant and dictator. And caused the death of millions, from battle
casualties, from the spread of disease, and from displacement and starvation.
There is no shortage of apologists: Byron1
and many Whigs2 in Britain, some of whom changed their minds later; Victor
Hugo3 even has a monument at Waterloo commemorating his stay there
in 1861; plans for a Napoleon Theme Park have been suggested.4
Nevertheless, Napoleon’s reign brought many reforms
and institutions which have endured for centuries. He put a final period to
feudalism, and the ideal of equality of all men (and later, women) prevails in
Western societies and has spread through much of the world. Equality and other
concepts growing out of the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment – toleration,
reason, the scientific process – were essential to the American and French
Revolutions, and to the more evolutionary British philosophy of government.
Napoleon created bodies to put such concepts into
practice in France, such as the Napoleonic code which made all men equal before
the law, a gendarmerie to enforce the law, and promoted religious toleration. At
first, Napoleon was eager to abolish aristocratic privilege, but in the end, he
named himself emperor and ruled autocratically.
However, he did uphold the idea of promotion by individual achievement,
not family or wealth. Some of his generals came from the lowest rungs of
society; others came from old families.
Napoleon scorned the re-reestablishment of the ancien regime in France and elsewhere,
as decided by the Congress of Vienna.
The Hapsburg Empire in Austrian eventually collapsed under its own
weight, but the German-Prussian and Russian situations led to bloody war and
excessive revolution.
Some observers try to link Napoleon with the 20th-21st
Century movement for European integration, but I personally find that a bit of
a stretch. The kind of integration he wanted was domination by France, by HIM,
not a voluntary and gradual union of independent states.
Assessing Napoleon is complex and requires that old
fallback: tolerance of ambiguity as well as some cognitive dissonance. In other
words, don’t forget a dash of skepticism when reading about Napoleon – or any
of the other players in this 200-year-old saga.
NOTES:
2. Whig Samuel Whitbread, MP, son of the famous
brewer, committed suicide by slashing his throat over the defeat of Napoleon;
the Holland House Circle and many essayists such as Hazlitt praised Napoleon almost unreservedly.
3. See Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, “Cosette” Book First: Waterloo.
IV. Waterloo in Literature and Culture:
In addition to the
memoirs, diaries, and letters published about Waterloo and Brussels, the battle
has figured in countless works of fiction and nonfiction. Among the most famous
fictional portrayals is Vanity Fair,
by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63). Subtitled, “A Novel Without a Hero,”
Vanity Fair was first published in 1847, skewering the society of the Regency
era and the reign of George IV.
I know of two relatively recent filmed
versions of the novel. In 2004, it was a feature film starring Reese
Witherspoon as Becky Sharp. A better
version, in my opinion, was produced for the BBC in 1996 with Natasha Little as
Becky. Many other versions for film and
tv are also around.
Speaking of a
Natasha, Leo Tolstoy’s (1828-1910) Russian masterpiece, War and Peace, cannot be surpassed for its sweeping scope and
tortured characters. The unforgettable Pierre, Prince Andrei, and Natasha, to
name the most obvious three. The BBC
will present a six-part miniseries in 2015, with a screenplay written by Andrew
Davies, and starring among others, Lily James as Natasha – she is currently
known for playing Lady Rose on Downton
Abbey and the title character in the upcoming Cinderella.
Many of us might
remember the 1956 Hollywood version starring Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, and
Mel Ferrar. A 7-hour version was produced in 1966-67 by the Soviets, greatly
admired by Roger Ebert and winner of an Oscar for best foreign film. The BBC did a miniseries in 1972. Sergei Prokofiev’s opera has been seen all over the world, including
productions at NYC’s Metropolitan Opera
in 2002 and 2007.
It has been many years since I read Charterhouse of Parma by Stendhal, but it too has dramatic scenes
set at the Battle of Waterloo. Stendhal
fought for Napoleon and was a survivor of the Russian campaign.
A favorite of many
readers is Georgette Heyer’s An Infamous
Army, with descriptions of the Battle of Waterloo so vivid that it was
supposedly recommended reading for students at the British Military Academy
Sandhurst. Heyer also wrote The Spanish
Bride, a fictionalized life of Juana Smith, the Spanish orphan who married British
officer Sir Harry Smith in the Peninsula and became the inspiration for the
naming of the town of Ladysmith in South Africa (as in Ladysmith Black Mambazo,
the famous singing group).
The final book of
the Poldark saga by Winston Graham, The
Twisted Sword, has Waterloo scenes.
In my TBR pile is Susanna Clark’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, a 2004 novel about two magicians in early
19th Century Britain, with a chapter set at the Battle of Waterloo,
where Wellington has some supernatural help. A seven-part mini-series will be
released soon by BBC One and is supposed to run on BBCAmerica in 2015. The
series stars Bertie Carvel as Strange and Eddie Marsan as Norrell.
An excellent
account, though highly fictionalized of course, is Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Waterloo. The TV version is
also available on DVD and on Youtube.
According to
Wikipedia, in To Say Nothing of the Dog, author Connie Willis uses the Battle of Waterloo “as a
reference point to model how reality is believed to adjust to neutralize the
effects of a temporal paradox. There are so many critical turning points in the
battle, it's explained, that a time traveler would have many opportunities to
affect the outcome. Oddly - whether by accident or design - Willis consistently
refers to the battle as taking place on 18 June 1814, precisely one year
earlier than it did.” Hmmm.
Among the uses of
Waterloo in British comedies, look for it in Black Adder. Dr. Who episodes reference the battle as
well.
In the 1970 film, Waterloo, Wellington is played by Christopher
Plummer and Napoleon by Rod Steiger. Though I have never seen it on a wide
screen, it is worth watching even on a small screen. Jack Hawkins plays General Picton, Dan
O’Herlihy is Marshal Ney, Virginia McKenna is the Duchess of Richmond, and
Orson Welles does a fantastic job of portraying Louis XVIII. There is a cast of thousands, including the
Gordon Highlanders and the Soviet Army! Some of the melodrama is a bit
heavy–handed, but most of the battle scenes are quite spectacular, even on a
small screen.
1970 film
trailer 3:30
full film: 2 hours
8 minutes
And finally,
Waterloo figures in pop culture, far beyond the pubs named for the battle and
its hero Wellington.
Just one familiar
example is ABBA’s famous song, the one that really started their career,
anything but a Waterloo for them.
Please share with
us other versions of Waterloo in books, movies, tv and music.
V. READING and
WATCHING
The best place to find new sources of information is
in the bibliographies and notes used by authors. E.G., the select bibliography for the Wellington: Years of the Sword, the
first volume of Elizabeth Longford’s Biography of Wellington published in 1969
(and still the best in my opinion) is nine pages long.
This year brings a plethora of new books on Waterloo
and Wellington. Several more are due in
2015. Here are a few of the newer ones
you might want to read or encourage your library to acquire:
Uglow, Jenny: In These
Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon’s Wars 1793 -1815, 2014
Blurb: We know the thrilling,
terrible stories of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars - but what of those left
behind? The people on a Norfolk farm, in a Yorkshire mill, a Welsh iron
foundry, an Irish village, a London bank, a Scottish mountain? The aristocrats
and paupers, old and young, butchers and bakers and candlestick makers - How
did the long years of war touch their lives?
This book follows the gripping back-and-forth
of the first global war but turns the news upside down, seeing how it reached
the people. Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the
paintings of Turner and Constable, and combining the familiar voices of Austen,
Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron with others lost in the crowd, In These Times
delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved
and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that
would change their country for a century and more.
Knight, Roger, Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization
of Victory, 1793-181, 2014
How government and society mobilized to assist the
army and navy.
Taylor, Alan
The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish
Rebels, and Indian Allies
Taylor looks at the conflict as "in effect
a civil war between related members of a founding nation."
Andrew Roberts
Napoleon: a Life, Viking, 2014
Cornwell, Bernard, Waterloo
2014 The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles
The author of many historical novels and the
Richard Sharpe series writes a nonfiction book about Waterloo. I bought it last summer in England (available
soon in the US) and found it a concise treatment of the subject, if not
ground-breaking in interpretation.
Other Waterloo books of Note:
Adkin, Mark, The Waterloo Companion: The Complete Guide
to History's Most Famous Land Battle 2002
Blurb: There
have been many books about Waterloo, but never one to rival this in scale or
authority. The text, based upon extensive research, describes both the battle
and the campaign that preceded it in detail, drawing upon the first-hand
accounts of participants on all sides in order to give the reader a vivid
feeling for the experiences of those who fought upon this most celebrated of
all battlefields. The many full-color maps, all specially commissioned for the
book, and the numerous diagrams and photographs, the majority in color, as well
as sixteen pages of original paintings, make the book a feast for the eyes and
a collector's dream
Glover, Michael
The Napoleonic Wars: an
illustrated History 1792-1815 ISBN0 88254 473 X New York: Hippocrene Boo0ks 1978
Hamiton-Williams, David Waterloo:
New Perspectives ISBN 1 86019 996 8
London: Brockhampton Press 1999
Haythornthwaite, Philip J., British
Infantry of the Napoleonic Wars ISBN 1 85409 326 6 London :Arms and Amour Press 1996
Howarth, David
Waterloo: A Guide to the
Battlefield, Andover , Hampshire, Pitkin Guides
Rathbone, Julian
Wellington’s War: His Peninsular
Dispatches ISBN 0 7181 3841 4 London: Michael Joseph Ltd. 1984
Roberts, Andrew
Waterloo: The Battle for Modern
Europe ISBN 10-06-076215-2, Harper
Perennial, 2005
Summerville, Christopher Who Was
Who at Waterloo: A Biography of the Battle, ISBN
978-0-582-78405-5, Pearson/Longman 2007
And many more; please share with us if you have a
favorite.
Books
about Napoleon:
Napoleon's
Men
by Alan
Forrest
268pp, Hambledon and London
Napoleon
by Paul
Johnson
192pp, Weidenfeld and Nicholson
Napoleon:
His Wives and Women
by
Christopher Hibbert
400pp, HarperCollins
The
Peninsular War
by Charles
Esdaile 624pp, Allen Lane
Napoleon
and Berlin
by Michael
Leggiere
304pp, Tempus
Napoleonic
Army Handbook, vol 2
by Michael
Oliver and Richard Partridge
365pp, Constable
Again, and many more – please share your favorites.
A
few worth while videos from You Tube
(more can be found on youtube when you have finished
these.)
1.
Battlefield Detectives: Massacre at Waterloo 49 minutes
Shows some experiments with artillery under
conditions similar to the battle day
2. PBS Documentary on Napoleon in Four parts,
approximately 50 minutes each
Episode One to 1796, Victory at the Battle of Lodi
Episode two. Entry into Milan to his crowning as
emperor
Episode three crowning to treaty of Tilsit
Episode four
Spain, Russia, Waterloo, St. Helena
3. The Murder
of Napoleon Bonaparte. about 46 mins;
asserts he was poisoned by arsenic
4. Napoleon’s Fallen
Soldiers 50 mins the men who died in
Vilnius after the Russian campaign
VI.
WATERLOO AT 200
–
a partial list; watch for more on my blog with Kristine Hughes:
We try to keep up with all the news and events from
England and Belgium.
1. the scene at the 195th: See the pictures on my Academe blog
2. Upcoming Events
a. Waterloo200
This site not only tells what will be happening in
the 2015 events, but also provides a great deal of history. In the Media section, under videos, there are
some vivid descriptions of battlefield injuries and even an example of an amputation. Also watch loading and firing the musket
known as Brown Bess and a group volley.
b.
Waterloo at Windsor: 1815-2015
Windsor Castle Saturday, 31 January 2015 to Wednesday,
13 January 2016
c. National Portrait Gallery,
London --Wellington: Triumphs, Politics and Passions, 12 March - 7 June 2015, Porter
Gallery
d. Bonaparte and The British, The British Museum February 5, 2015
This
exhibition will focus on the printed propaganda that either reviled or
glorified Napoleon Bonaparte, on both sides of the English Channel. It explores
how his formidable career coincided with the peak of political satire as an art
form. Exhibition is free and is open until 16 August 2015 Room 90
130
prints and about 30 other objects in 10 sections:
The Young General –
Italy and the invasion threat
Egypt – the Battle of
the Nile; the birth of Egyptology
The Coup of Brumaire;
Marengo; Peace of Paris
“Little Boney” and
Invasion Threat
Emperor; Josephine;
Marie-Louise
Trafalgar and
Austerlitz – Triumph and Disaster
Spain and Russia
Leipzig and the
Collapse of Empire
The Peace of Paris,
Elba and Waterloo
After Waterloo
e.
Duchess of Richmond’s Ball and Napoleonic Assn. AGM
(Reenactors,
Researchers and Wargamers) Jan. 31, 2015,
Bury
St. Edmunds, UK
f. The Wellington Museum in Waterloo, Belgium
g. Events in
Belgium: Note that the maximum of 7,000
reenactors was reached by Nov. 20, 2014
h. Rescuing Hougoumont; read about the famous
chateau.
i. This story tells about American Mark Schneider
who has portrayed Napoleon a number of times in reenactments of battles and for
the 2012 Imperial Jubilee held at Malmaison.
CONCLUSION:
I have enjoyed putting together all
this information – and apologize for the typos here and there. One can never
learn too much about Waterloo and its times … and I don’t think I mentioned
Jane Austen even once!
While I am re-shelving my books, I
might find a nugget of worthwhile info, so watch your e-mail in case I find
more to say in the next week. I welcome
more comments, more paragraphs on your sources, and all the fun things you can
add to this inexhaustible subject.
Have a GREAT December and 2015…Waterloo at 200!
Cheers, Vicky
