{"id":53,"date":"2015-06-18T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/?p=53"},"modified":"2015-11-11T16:00:50","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T16:00:50","slug":"waterloo-showed-wellington-to-be-merely-competent44-not-exceptional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/expertcomment\/waterloo-showed-wellington-to-be-merely-competent44-not-exceptional\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterloo showed Wellington to be merely competent not exceptional"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 18 1815, British and French armies clashed for a final time in a muddy field in Belgium. The defeat of Napoleon, by the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo, would bring to an end over a decade of conflict between the warring countries and make the victor a legendary military hero.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

However, with the vantage point of 200 years, Dr Keith McLay, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, and an early modern military historian, believes that Wellington\u2019s victory, if considered within the context of the Hundred Days campaign, shows him to be merely a competent general, and not exceptional as history has characterised him.<\/p>\n

Dr McLay explained: \u201cThe popular consensus – largely based upon the success at Waterloo and the final defeat of Napoleon – lauds Wellington’s generalship as determined, strategic and tactically astute and, most importantly,\u00a0the saviour of ‘Europe’ from the scourge of Napoleon (given that he had escaped from exile and conducted prior to Waterloo a broadly successful ‘Hundred Days’ campaign). However, this is a blunt assessment of the battle and the broader military history context. To really understand and asses the strategy and tactics used by Wellington, we must reinterpret Waterloo within the context of the Hundred Days campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cNapoleon Bonaparte\u2019s escape from exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba in March 1815 initiated the Hundred Days campaign which would culminate on 18 June at the battle of Waterloo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn that Brussels battlefield 200 years ago, Napoleon, considered by many historians as the finest general of his generation if not of the age, was defeated by the British commander, \u2018Iron Duke\u2019, Arthur Wellesley, 1st<\/span><\/sup> Duke of Wellington and Waterloo entered the annals of British martial successes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe historical reality was, however, more conventional. Wellington\u2019s victory was narrow \u2013 in his own words, \u2018the nearest run thing\u2019 \u2013 and it occurred at the end of a campaign during which Napoleon had made the military weather, successfully pursuing a strategy to prevent the combination of Wellington\u2019s Anglo-Dutch-German force with the army commanded by the Prussian General, Marshal Gerbhard von Bl\u00fccher.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo days prior to Waterloo, Napoleon defeated Bl\u00fccher at Ligny, while Wellington was able to extract his men successfully from Quatre Bras and fall back to Waterloo only because the French cavalry commander, Marshal Ney, hesitated on deployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess was only assured for Wellington when\u00a0Bl\u00fccher made good on his promise to re-join the battle, with his army entering from the east of the battlefield on to Napoleon\u2019s right flank. Wellington’s strategic (the wider Hundred Days\u00a0campaign) and tactical (the conduct\u00a0of the battle of Waterloo) command was\u00a0competent, not brilliantly\u00a0conceived\u00a0as historical writers have us believe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Keith McLay will be speaking at the Kent and Canterbury Club on June 18, to commemorate the 200 anniversary of the battle of Waterloo.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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