THE Duke of Wellington and Napoleon were both personally in command throughout the battle — which ended 20 bloody years of the Napoleonic wars — fought through a long day and into the night on a rain-sodden plain between two low ridges, on June 18, 1815, but the great adversaries never met face to face.

Now, their possessions will come together in the Shared Destinies exhibition at Waterloo, which is among hundreds of exhibitions and events planned this year across Britain, in Belgium, and — perhaps more ruefully — in France to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo.

Wellington’s frock coat and plumed hat will be crossing the Channel, as loans from the museum to the Musee Wellington in Waterloo, the small Belgian town which gave its name to the battle.

The bicentenary events, including a service at St Paul’s in June, will all be covered in the Waterloo 200 website which launches on Wednesday. Schools across the country are being invited to research objects associated with the battle, and trace the history of local people who fought.

The Eagle of the 105th, captured from the French in the thick of the battle of Waterloo, was brought to London 200 years ago in triumph, brandished out the window of the coach which carried it from the battlefield, across the channel by ferry, and at full tilt on to the capital to bring the astonishing news.

The Prince Regent was dragged out of a grand ball — to the fury of his hostess — to see the eagle and to hear the news: the battle had been as the outnumbered and outgunned Wellington observed, “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”.

The eagle, which will star in several exhibitions, is now in the collection of the National Army Museum in London, where director Janice Murray, director of museum, thinks the commemoration and the education programme are timely. Given the fame of the battle, she was startled to discover how little most people knew about it.

“When we did some research we found many people just thought Waterloo was the name of a railway station,” she said, “and yet Wellington and Waterloo are literally written across the face of the country in names of places, streets and pubs.”

Shared Destinies event is one among many exhibits planned across Europe to mark the Battle of Waterloo’s bicentenary

Since her museum is closed until 2016 for a major rebuild, it has launched an ambitious loans programme, sending scores of artefacts out to regional and regimental museums, including an exhibition at the Surgeon’s Hall museum in Edinburgh which will reflect the brutality of an exceptionally bloody battle.

One of the most famous casualties was Henry William Paget, second Earl of Uxbridge and Marquess of Anglesey, who was close to Wellington when a canon ball hit, and coolly remarked “By God sir, I’ve lost my leg!” to which Wellington responded “By God, sir, so you have.” The Surgeons Hall exhibition will bring together the saw and bloodied glove used to amputate the shattered remains, and the stirrups from the Army Museum which Paget had modified so he could screw his false leg into place.

TO commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, museums will display watercolours of the battlefield of Waterloo.

The regimental eagles were almost brand new in 1815, issued to replace those melted down when Napoleon was first driven into exile. The capture of the Eagle of the 105th became infamous when both an officer and a corporal in the 1st Dragoons claimed to have killed the French standard bearer. Captain Clark insisted it was he who spotted the eagle being taken to safety to the back of the French division, killed the officer carrying it, and ordered Corporal Stiles to pick it up: Stiles claimed the glory was all his — and when he repeated the story in civilian life, was sued for libel by Clark.

This year the eagle is going first to Edinburgh, and then to the Victoria Gallery and Museum in Liverpool, where it will join some of the most gruesome souvenirs of the battle, the “Waterloo teeth” plucked from the jaws of the fallen and sold to dentists. The museum will also display a set of Wellington’s own false teeth — carved from ivory, not taken from the dead.

The British Museum will display watercolours of the battlefield of Waterloo, including three long panoramas, made within days of the battle, which are coming from a private collection and will be on display for the first time.

The exhibition, Bonaparte and the British, will also have works by both French and British artists glorifying or villifying Napoleon, including vicious lampoons by James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, who were among the most famous satirical artists of their day, but also heroic images of Napoleon avidly acquired by fascinated British collectors.

English Heritage will mark the anniversary at Wellington Arch, and nearby, in the grandeur of Apsley House, Wellington’s famous Number I London townhouse address, which became a treasure chest stuffed with works of art, and gifts of gold, silver and porcelain sent by the grateful crowned heads of Europe, feeling much more secure on their thrones after Wellington’s victory. It was in the splendour of Apsley House that one visitor was shocked to find the ageing Iron Duke weeping over the memory of the bodies of the dead and injured piled on the battlefield.

One of the most poignant exhibitions will at Walmer Castle in Kent, one of his homes as Warden of the Cinque Ports, where a pair of his wellingtons — not rubber, but stout plain leather booths — will be on display, along with the armchair in which he died on Sept 14, 1852 — more than 30 years after his great enemy, Napoleon, who died just six years after the battle, in exile on St Helena, the most remote place Britain could find to ensure his eagles never rose in battle again.

By arrangement with the Guardian

Published in Dawn January 27th, 2015

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