The Content Reader

Two hundred years ago, on 18 June 1815, one of the most famous and important battles in modern history took place in a small village outside Brussels called Waterloo. It was to determine the future of Europe. As for a 'Pyrrhic' victory (named after king Pyrrhus of Epirus whose army defeated the Romans at Heraclea in 280 BC and Asculum in 279 BC; his army suffered irreplaceable casualties and is quoted by Plutarch as saying:   one other such victory would utterly undo him) the term Waterloo  became synonymous with something difficult to master. Lord Byron, in a letter to Thomas Moore wrote: "It (Armenian) is ... a Waterloo of an Alphabet." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was the first to use the meaning of someone meeting their Waterloo: "We have not yet met our Waterloo, Watson, but this is our Marengo." (from Return of Sherlock Holmes). Marengo refers to the battle Austrian forces fought against Napoleon in Italy, where he came close to a defeat. After the battle...

18 June 1815 Napoleon was defeated by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, in present day Belgium. Battle of Waterloo 1815 On June 16, 1815, Napoleon defeated the Prussians under Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher at Ligny, and sent 33,000 men, or about one-third of his total force, in pursuit of the retreating Prussians. On June 18, Napoleon led his remaining 72,000 troops against the Duke of Wellington's 68,000-man allied army, which had taken up a strong position 12 miles south of Brussels near the village of Waterloo. In a fatal blunder, Napoleon waited until mid-day to give the command to attack in order to let the ground dry. The delay in fighting gave Blucher's troops, who had eluded their pursuers, time to march to Waterloo and join the battle by the late afternoon.