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The Battle of Waterloo, fought in 1815 saw the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.

At the end of the 8 hour struggle nearly 50,000 dead and dying men lay on the battlefield.

Whilst celebrated (in Britain) as a British victory, it’s often forgotten that Wellington’s army was an international army containing Dutch, Belgians & germans. In fact the British troops were actually in the minority.

And despite his victory, Wellington was the first to admit that the battle was a near-run thing; the result could have been very different.

Intriguingly, the battle pitted two formidable generals, both born in 1769, against each other - Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington.

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