Today, June 18, in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte went to his Waterloo.
Literally!
And I don’t mean a waterslide theme park!
The Battle of Waterloo took place today in Waterloo, Belgium, where the ornery French dictator (is there any other kind?) was defeated by a valiant alliance of non-French persons, bringing his reign of obnoxiousness and tyranny to an end forever.
No word on whether the victors celebrated their victory by victoriously eating Freedom Fries afterward.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BATTLE.
HEREZA PICTURE OF THE WATERLOO MEMORIAL.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
Today, June 18, in 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte went to his Waterloo.
Gloria in excelsis Deo!
hey Jimmy, he looks a little like you! there’s something in the expression…
Napoleonic Nitpick: Prior to being crowned Emperor of the French, Napoleon may have once been “dictator” of the French (he was actually First Consul for life, but never mind), but he was never a French dictator. Napoleon wasn’t French; he was Corsican. Now, Corsica was (and remains) a part of metropolitan France in a political sense, but ethnically Corsicans (including Nappy) aren’t Gallic.
As I said — a minor nitpick. Keep up the good work!
A little bit of useless information:
One of my ancestors – great, great etc. grandfather was captain of one of the ships in Nelson’s fleet – but I don’t think he was at Waterloo. He served with distinction at the Battle of Cap St.Vincent. He was given the name Vincent (to add to his surname Piper – hence they are now Vincent-Piper – don’t you just love the hyphenated names – yeah, right!) by the then monarch, and that has become a family name and is passed on through the generations. My second name is Vincent from that family tradition.
The victors weren’t all ecstatic in the aftermath of Waterloo. Wellington himself called it a “damn close-run thing, as close a thing as ever I saw in my life”, and continued, “I hope to God I have fought my last battle.” There were terrible casualties on both sides, and fighting took place in confined spaces like the farmhouse at La Haye Sainte, where bodies (bothe sides) were piled almost knee-deep. So, even though Napoleon was stopped, it wasn’t an easy romp for the Allies either. Interesting note: Wellington never returned to Waterloo, even though he lived to a ripe old age (82). Guess it would have brought back too many sad memories.