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Palaces & Buildings

Napoleon comes to Windsor Castle

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo and defeat of Napoleon will be commemorated in 2015.

The new exhibit will run through 2015, Waterloo at Windsor: 1815 – 2015. It will bring together a themed trail through the State Apartments containing an exhibition of drawings, prints, and archival material that investigates the battle and its consequences.

One of the highlights on display will be the striking red cloak of Napoleon seized as his carriage fled after the end of the battle. The cloak constructed of red felt, lined with yellow silk brocade and appliquéd with Napoleon’s Imperial Eagle in a silver thread was later given to George IV by Field Marshal Blücher.

Cloak belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte taken from the Emperor's fleeing baggage train and presented to George, Prince Regent by Field-Marshal Blucher, 1797-1805.

Cloak belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte taken from the Emperor’s fleeing baggage train and presented to George, Prince Regent by Field-Marshal Blucher, 1797-1805.

Included with the cloak are numerous items from Napoleon’s baggage train including his silver-gilt porringer.

A must see during the exhibition is The Table des Grands Capitaines (Table of the Great Commanders, 1806–12) on display in the King’s Drawing Room. The table was commissioned by Napoleon in a celebration of his reign. It contains a profile of Alexander the Great as well as many other great military leaders and philosophers.

The table was manufactured by the Sèvres factory, but ironically it never left the factory. After the defeat of Napoleon, it was given to George IV by the reinstated French king, Louis XVIII, as a sign of thanks for the Allied victory.

The Table des Grands Capitaines was one of George VI’s most prized treasures, and one may notice it in the painting in the Waterloo Chamber by Sir Thomas Lawrence and The King’s State portrait.

Not to be missed are letters written by the Duke of Wellington to the future monarch George IV and the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Visitors will be able to view the letters in which one proclaims victory, the other defeat.

Dated 13 July 1815, Napoleon’s letter of surrender was written to the Prince Regent 25 days after the allied victory at Waterloo and signed by the Emperor. Addressed to ‘Your Royal Highness’, the letter appeals for the ‘hospitality of the British people’ and notes the Prince as the ‘most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies’ for protection. Requesting sanctuary, Napoleon equates himself to Themistocles, a Greek statesman who threw himself on the mercy of the Persian ruler Artaxerxes and was consequently received with honour.

The Prince declared upon receipt of the letter, ‘Upon my word, a very proper letter: much more so, I must say, than any I ever received from Louis XVIII’. In spite of this, Napoleon’s appeal for safety was rebuffed, and the Emperor was driven into exile on the island of St Helena, where he stayed until his death in May 1821.

The letter of surrender will be displayed together with other personal effects of the Napoleon. Included in the display is a lock of the Emperor’s hair and a star of a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Légion d’Honneur, worn by Napoleon.

A letter sent by the Duke of Wellington to the Prince Regent after the battle, will for the first time be on display. Fighting together with 72-year-old Field-Marshal Blücher of Prussia, The Duke led the Allied armies to victory. Dispatched 14 days after the battle, the letter was a reply to the Prince’s ‘most gracious letter of the 22d June’. The Duke writes, ‘Your Royal Highness will again have saved the World’, perpetuating the Prince Regent’s own belief in his essential role in the military and political triumph over Napoleon, despite having never seen active service.

The display also contains a letter sent to the Prince by his mother, Queen Charlotte (wife of George III), voicing the concern of Napoleon and relief following the end of the war. Praising her son ‘upon the Glorious Success this Nation has obtained over the Tyrant of the whole World’, the Queen’s letter expresses grief the loss of young officers and the ‘Valiant Men’ who had fought in the war.

‘It is very exciting to be able to display both these letters as part of the Waterloo at Windsor exhibition. These vivid and relevant documents provide a fascinating insight into the minds of the Duke and the Emperor almost directly after the Battle of Waterloo,” Exhibition curator, Kate Heard of Royal Collection Trust stated.

Upon the allied victory that followed after the 25 years of battles between the Allied forces of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia and France under Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, George IV created the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor to celebrate the Allied victory.

The Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle .

The Waterloo Chamber, Windsor Castle .

The rather extensive space contained the portraits of those influential to the victory.

The Waterloo Chamber was incomplete when George IV died. William IV saw to the room’s completion and chose to fashion it more as a remembrance of the battle. An additional nine portraits were added to the Waterloo Chamber by William IV and during Queen Victoria’s reign, which saw a total of 38 portraits on display.

Tickets for Waterloo at Windsor: 1815-2015 which runs from Saturday, 31 January 2015 to Wednesday, 13 January 2016 are available online via The Royal Collection Trust.

Photos courtesy of: Royal Collection Trust / copyright Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2014

Featured Photo Credit: Benjamin Magaña via photopin cc