Belgium meets its Waterloo

Last weekend, on a windswept plain about ten miles south of Brussels, 3,000 grown men dressed up as soldiers to re-enact the Battle of Waterloo. Performed every five years, on the original battlefield, this noisy extravaganza attracts more than 50,000 visitors, and on Sunday I was one of them. It was an extraordinary experience, more vivid than any movie. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Yet what’s most intriguing about this surreal Belgian spectacle is what it reveals about our muddled idea of Europe — and the people in the biggest muddle are the Belgians themselves.

For British schoolboys of a certain age, Waterloo remains a glorious victory by Britain over France, but after a weekend in Waterloo you soon realise the past (and present) isn’t quite so clear-cut. Wellington’s army included Dutch and German troops, the Prussians saved his bacon, Napoleon’s soldiers were recruited from all over Europe and the Belgians fought on both sides — which may explain why, after all these years, they still seem rather ambivalent about the outcome. Drinking in the local bars with Belgians who’ve come here to watch this epic pageant, you’re not entirely sure whether they’re toasting Wellington’s finest hour, or mourning Napoleon’s demise.

The Battle of Waterloo may have been a British triumph, but for the Belgians it was a mixed blessing. Nearly 200 years later, you still get an inkling they would have been far happier with a nil-nil draw. Napoleon’s reign brought opportunity as well as tyranny. His defeat meant a reversion to the old status quo. As a result of Wellington’s victory, Belgium became part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, under an unpopular Dutch king. The Belgians kicked him out in 1830, without any help from Britain, but the enormous monument that looms over the battlefield, erected in 1823, is still crowned by a Dutch lion — a wonderful irony, since current relations between Dutch- and French-speaking Belgians could scarcely be any worse.