Waterloo, a British Victory?

Peter Kingdon Booker June 2015 

A talk at the Municipal Libraries of Lagoa on Tuesday 23 June 2015, and Tavira on Friday 26 June 2015

For the bicentenary of this major battle, Peter re-examined the importance of the victory to Britain and to Europe.

Within the abstract for the talk, Peter wrote:

My, my, at Waterloo Napoleon did surrender, oh yeah! Unparalleled as singers, Abba´s ideas on history are a little unconventional, not to say plain wrong. It is certain that Bonaparte lost the battle, and spent the remainder of his life well out of harm´s way on St Helena. Britain´s wartime economy grew enormously as a result of Wellington´s victorious campaign in the peninsula and her reputation grew even further after the victory at Waterloo. But if we examine the details of the Waterloo campaign, we discover that British participation was not as great as we might think; that history has been warped by Wellington´s famous Despatch; and much later, that Wellington was involved in suppressing details which show him in a less than heroic light. So who were the real victors in the Waterloo campaign? Who should bear the laurels for Bonaparte´s downfall? Why has this piece of history been suppressed, and what difference does it make to our view of subsequent European history?

The full textual commentary for the talk can be found using the link:

Waterloo, a British Victory?