Waterloo: A Layman's Guide

By Scott Addington

An antidote to those history books that are too long, too technical, over complicated and difficult to follow.

 

Waterloo: A Layman's Guide is a straightforward, short history of the Battle of Waterloo that is more akin to a chat over a cup of tea than a heavy historical text, making it much more accessible and readable for all of you non-historians out there!

Excellent starting point for those new to the Battle of Waterloo. NMA 1975

The way this book is written takes the complex military strategies involved in the battle and converts it to simple and clear language so the reader can experience almost a 'helicopter view' of the days events. Clive R 

Far more detailed than I'd expected, and also much more interesting than I'd thought it would be. Charlie 

On Sunday 18th June 1815, nearly 200,000 men (the Allies led by the Duke of Wellington and the French led by their Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte) faced off on a tiny parcel of land barely two and a half miles square to fight was has now become known as the Battle of Waterloo. Nowhere, either before or since this battle, have that many men got together on such a tiny piece of earth to have a fight. Not surprisingly the battle was brutal and bloody and casualties were high, but in the end it ushered in a prolonged period of peace and prosperity across Europe that hadn't been seen for a long, long time. The Battle of Waterloo really was the catalyst for the greater good during the nineteenth century (unless you were French, in which case the name Waterloo carried a much more sombre meaning).

Following in the style of the other Layman's Guides' this is a relatively short narrative that is more like a chat over a cup of tea rather than a heavy historical text. I have tried to make the story flow naturally albeit without mountains of detail. The chapters here are purposefully written to be short, sharp and to the point, perfect for dipping in and out of whenever the fancy takes you. Welcome then, to Waterloo: A Layman's Guide.

 

Print length - 98 pages

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Addington
• Release date: Oct 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201290788

Book preview

Waterloo: A Layman’s Guide

Scott Addington

©Scott Addington 2015

All rights reserved

Other books by Scott Addington:

––––––––

WW1: A Layman’s Guide

WW2: A Layman’s Guide

D-Day: A Layman’s Guide

The Third Reich: A Layman’s Guide

1001 Fantastic First World War Facts

1001 Sensational Second World War Facts

Heroes of The Line

The Great War 100: The First World War in Infographics

Five Minute History: First World War Battles

Five Minute History: First World War Weapons

Reach for the Sky: The History of the RAF in 100 Moments

Invasion: D-Day & Operation Overlord in 100 Moments

––––––––

All books are available from online book retailers worldwide

The right of Scott Addington to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Introduction

On Sunday 18th June 1815, nearly 200,000 men faced off on a tiny parcel of land barely two and a half miles square to fight was has now become known as the Battle of Waterloo. Nowhere, either before or since this battle, have that many men got together on such a tiny piece of earth to have a fight. Not surprisingly the battle was brutal and bloody and casualties were high, but in the end it ushered in a prolonged period of peace and prosperity across Europe that hadn’t been seen for a long, long time.

The Battle of Waterloo really was the catalyst for the greater good during the nineteenth century (unless you were French, in which case the name Waterloo carried a much more sombre meaning). 

In the UK the victory was duly celebrated and thousands of roads, buildings and monuments were named after the battle and the British commander who masterminded the victory - the Duke of Wellington - who was one of the most popular people of the time. One of the most famous places named after the battle is London Waterloo train station - used by millions of commuters each week to get in and out of the city. So I thought it would be a good idea on a wet and windy Sunday in March 2015 to ask some of the commuters if they knew the meaning behind the name of the station they were standing in. I asked 200 people (well, it is the bi-centenary) and tried my best to pick out a mixture of individuals - although I did resist the temptation to ask the huge group of Japanese tourists that were congregating outside one of the fast food restaurants on the main concourse. The results, albeit very anecdotal and not really statistically significant, were nonetheless very interesting:

Only 39% of the people asked knew that London Waterloo was indeed named after the Battle of Waterloo.

Given a choice of either Nelson or Wellington, 63% of the people asked thought Nelson was in charge at Waterloo.

Only 36% of the people questioned knew that Britain and the Allies fought Napoleon at Waterloo

Just 21% knew that 2015 was the two hundred year anniversary of the battle

Yet again I come to the conclusion that despite the millions of pages that have been written about this battle and the arguments that have raged between academics about the tiny details of why Napoleon didn’t do this or that... they have forgotten that their main purpose should be to educate and inspire the general public.

That why I have written this Layman’s Guide.

Following in the style of the other Layman’s Guides’ this is a relatively short narrative that is more like a chat over a cup of tea rather than a heavy historical text. I have tried to make the story flow naturally albeit without mountains of detail. The chapters here are purposefully written to be short, sharp and to the point, perfect for dipping in and out of whenever the fancy takes you.

I know that one tiny little book written my me isn’t going to transform the population into Waterloo experts, but I do hope this short book helps a few thousand people understand the general why/where/when/how/who of the battle and inspires them to explore further reading across this incredibly important part of European history.

SMA

May 2015

Contents

Maps

The Battle of Leipzig and the end of an era

The violet returns: Escape from Elba

‘Vive L'Empereur!’

‘Capture Quatre Bras’

The first skirmish: ‘I expect to be attacked at daybreak.’

Muskets, columns, lines and squares: War, Napoleon-style

Quatre Bras

Ligny

‘A battle! Gentlemen! Are you sure you know what a battle is?’

‘Tonight we sleep in Brussels!’

The English are breakfast

Wellington’s battlefield: Defensive strongholds

French flexibility: Napoleon’s initial positions

Let Battle Commence: Napoleon’s first orders

Close the gate! Hougoumont

Artillery: Napoleon’s beautiful daughters

Conquer or die: Assault on La Haye Sainte

Cavalry charge

‘Damn the fellow, he is a mere pounder after all!’

La Haye Sainte: Part Deux

‘Prepare to receive cavalry!’ Squares vs horses

The Prussians arrive

Plancenoit

Near defeat: La Haye Sainte falls

‘La Garde recule!’

Huzza! Wellington’s final advance

The morning after

Aftermath: Politics and isolation

Map of the wider Waterloo battlefield, including Quatre Bras and Ligny

Taken from Wikipedia - this map is in the public domain.

The Battle of Waterloo – 18 June 1815

Taken from Wikipedia - this map is in the public domain.

Russia, Leipzig and the end of an era

Napoleon, as a high-ranking French army officer and, since 1804, the Emperor of France, had been beating up most of Western Europe for the best part of a decade. At its height in 1812, the French empire, including satellite states, stretched from Spain in the west to the Russian frontier in the east. France itself had grown to swallow Belgium, Holland, bits of Germany, most of Italy and various other snippets of land either ruled by Napoleon himself or by someone who directly reported to him. In addition to the tracts of land he ruled himself, France had strong alliances with Austria, Russia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and what was left of Prussia.

Forty-four million Europeans called Napoleon their emperor, whether they liked it or not; he had practically the whole of Europe in his pocket. Only the Balkans, Portugal and Great Britain had so far refused to shake his hand. To many people, this would have been enough land, enough power, enough dominance to keep them happy, but not Napoleon. On 24 June 1812 he marched his Grand Armée into Russia under the dual pretext of convincing Russia to cease trading with Britain, and to nullify the Russian threat to his friends in Poland.

Despite a number of early small victories the Russian army fell back but not before groups of Cossacks razed villages to the ground, burnt crops and destroyed supply routes. This ‘scorched earth’ policy meant the advancing French troops could not use local supplies to keep them going; they had to rely on their own supply system which was already hopelessly