Now, it may come across as tiresome and a tad patronising, when yet another
anniversary comes along which is apparently of tremendous importance in some
way or another. Once again, you feel obliged to mask anniversary fatigue with an
expression of utmost humility, engaging yourself in an unofficial competition
with your neighbours over who can appear the most respectful, like siblings in a
battle of evening etiquette. However, Waterloo is special. In less than a day, a
Duke was glorified and the almost ethereal image of an Emperor shattered. The
fruits of a French fiefdom were reaped, the seeds of a German Reich sown.
According to the late Professor Richard Holmes, Waterloo “ended the most
powerful European Empire since the Romans” and made possible almost a
century of peace in Europe, while Professor Jeremy Black summarises the
Napoleonic Wars as “the struggle against the unreason of tyranny” with Waterloo
the keystone to a century of peace and liberal capitalism to Europe. To what
extent one agrees with this analysis is up for debate, but the broad consensus on
Waterloo from both sides of the Channel is that its geopolitical significance
provided relatively long-term stability on the continent. Britain emerged from the
morning mist of the battlefield the next day once again as the dominant power,
This oil painting by William Sadler effectively captures how concentrated and brutal the fighting was in the valley .
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