Alphen, Netherlands. 13
March. On 18 June, 1815 Arthur, Duke of Wellington, with minor support from assorted
Johnny Euros, gave some diminutive Frenchman with ideas decidedly above his
station in life, and whose name escapes me, a dashed sound thrashing at the Battle
of Waterloo, just off the autoweg/autoroute south of Brussels. Belgium, which in 1839 was formed partly as
a consequence of the massive, total and complete British victory over assorted
French wallahs on the field of Waterloo, had wanted to prepare a commemorative
two euro coin to mark the occasion of Britain’s complete and utter confounding
of the French. Sadly, the heirs of the
Frenchman, whose name I forget, have reacted to the idea very badly and, sad to
say, not untypically.
Clearly, some senior
bod in Paris, who apparently suffers from a self-righteous hot baguette up his
backside, and not for the first time, has objected to the idea of the coin and
the Belgians, not for the first time, have surrendered…rapidly. In a letter the French Government, commenting
on Belgium’s submission of a coin design to the Council of the European Union, said
that the proposed coin, “could cause hostile reactions in France”. And?
The aforesaid baguette-afflicted
senior French official went onto suggest that the coin would carry, “a symbol that
is negative for a fraction of the European population”. That must mean the French
‘fraction’…that lost. The rest of us are
having a scream. Moreover, M. Baguette
said, “…the coin would risk engendering hostile reactions in France”. What 200 years on? However, the clincher, and I really wonder if
M. Baguette was at this point suppressing Gallic humour, “The Battle of
Waterloo is an event of particular resonance in the collective conscience, going
beyond a simple military conflict”. You
bet it is, and indeed, was. Britain, and
not for the last time, and with the support of European allies, defeated the
dictatorial imposition of someone else’s idea of how Europe should be organised
and who should organise it. I wonder what Napoleon Juncker thinks about all
this?
Anyone who reads this
blog regularly knows that I have a profound respect for France and the French.
My years working in France not only convinced me of the generosity of spirit of
the French people. but France’s capacity to think big, which I deeply admire. However, the French Establishment can on
occasions turn self-righteous pomposity into a theatre d’absurde and this is one such occasion.
The Battle of Waterloo
was one of those ‘Europe’ forming moments in history. It led to the 1815 Congress of Vienna which
one could argue was the first true attempt to envision the idea of ‘Europe’ as
a voluntary association of states. The
Great Congress rejected the idea that European order could be imposed by any
one state, something which not only led to Napoleon’s demise, but in time that
of the Kaiser, Hitler and Stalin.
Therefore, Belgium is
right to seek to commemorate this great European moment, and wrong to cave into
French pressure. Waterloo was a great moment in the development of contemporary
Europe and France should stop allowing its absurdly romantic view of Napoleon
to block the minting of the coin.
Unfortunately, so absurdly romantic has the French view of Waterloo
become that on the anniversary of the battle one French re-enactor wants to
re-stage the battle and pretend that Napoleon won. He did not - Napoleon lost, Wellington won.
Period!
Sensibly the British
have stayed out of this spat. The last
time Britain and France went head-to-head over Waterloo was when some wag in London
decided the new Eurostar trains should end their journey from Paris at London’s
Waterloo Station. Upon the announcement
a French deputé rose in the Assemblée Nationale to threaten the renaming of the
co-terminus Gare du Nord after a French victory over the British. In what was his finest parliamentary moment
then Prime Minister John Major rose in the House of Commons to announce that helpfully
he had instructed ‘his people’ to find a French victory over the British.
Sadly, they failed and the most they could come up with was the 1745
Battle of Fontenoy, “which was an honourable draw”.
The coup de grace during
the Battle of Waterloo was the moment when Wellington shouted, “Now Maitland! Now’s
your time!” Maitland’s Brigade of Foot
Guards, having outflanked the French Imperial Guard, rose as one to fire volley
after volley into the Guard. The
Imperial Guard broke, Boney lost the battle and the war, and the rest is
history. He was then shuffled off to see
out his days on the windswept island of St Helena at His Majesty’s Pleasure.
Thankfully, France need
not despair. London has decided to produce
a new five pound note to commemorate Waterloo.
As Wellington said to Picton as the Imperial Guard advanced, “Picton,
they’re coming on in the same old style”.
To which Picton replied, “Ay, Wellington. And we will have to meet them
in the same old style”.
Get a life, France!
Julian Lindley-French
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