Never underestimate the eagerness of the English to remind the French of their biggest battlefield loss to the English (or vice-versa). In this case, The Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) remains the permanent reminder of England's military dominance. That battle also marked the end of the Emperor Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815).
The brass lion sculpture, shown here, was made in England in 1915—a commemorative item at the time of the battle's centenary.
Waterloo, in 1815, was part of the Kingdom of Netherlands. (Today it is part of Belgium.) Two allied armies—one led by England's Duke of Wellington, the other led by Prussia's Field Marshal Blücher—confronted the French under Napoleon Bonaparte. Interestingly, Napoleon had only just returned to power, after ten months of forced exile on the island of Elba, off the West Coast of Italy (he escaped). When he went-down at Waterloo, Napoleon had just completed 100 days of his return from exile. Four days after the loss at Waterloo, he would abdicate again—and now would be exiled to St. Helena, a remote British island out in the middle of the South Atlantic, more than 1200 miles off the West Coast of Africa (and 2500 miles from Brazil). There would be little chance of Napoleon coming back. He died there in 1821.
The King of Netherlands, William I, ordered a monument to be built on the spot where his son, Prince William of Orange, had been injured in the battle. A 141 foot high mound was constructed, atop which stands a cast iron lion (atop a stone-block plinth) sculpted by Jean-Louis Van Geel (1787-1852). The lion was cast in nine pieces in Liege (75 miles away) and shipped to the site by barge and horse cart. The lion was hoisted into place on 28 October 1826. (Note: had Napoleon won the battle, he intended to build a white stone pyramid—like the ones he had previously seen when he invaded Egypt.
One last interesting (and macabre) fact: although tens of thousands of soldiers and horses died on the battlefield (and were buried hastily in ten days' time), only a couple of bodies have ever been found at Waterloo. It is speculated that local farmers, in need of fertilizer, dug-up the bones of men and horses to grind them into bone meal. (Modern superphosphate fertilizers were not developed until 1840.)
This little brass "Lion of Waterloo," made in 1815, can be seen by clicking on the photo above. A smaller one can be seen by clicking HERE.
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