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.
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