I must confess that my image of the Prince has been tainted by watching Paul Bettany’s portrayal of him in Sharpe’s Waterloo. So, although Goya insists he should be known as Slender Billy, he will always be Silly Billy to me.
In reality the Prince was a reasonably experienced officer by the time of Waterloo having served on the Dukes staff in the peninsular. His performance at Quatre Bras was solid but he was later criticised by British writers who naturally enough wanted to big-up the part played by Wellington and his generals.
8 comments:
Excellent! - Splendid figure - seems a nice enough boy?
Ooooooh, he's really nice and really shiny - luv him to bits. I do agree that the Prince of Orange is harshly treated in most accounts of Waterloo and it's really about time someone wrote a book about him to give the full story -or perhaps there is one already - anyone?
Tony, yes ooh er missus!
Thanks Rob, he has turned out quite well.
It is the natural reaction of a Johnny Foreigner in charge of British troops as opposed to a Brit in charge of Johnny Foreigners.
Still no excuse to dig up half the bloody battlefield for a monument to him getting a scratch on match day however (mumble, mumble, Bloody Frogs, mumble, mumble, Brexit).
Looks good though!
Alten was the real culprit, by all accounts. A lot of running away in that division. The officers interviewed by Siborne were very tight-lipped about it though!
A splendid addition, Ian.
Best regards
WM
Matt - having climbed to the top of the Lion Mound I agree there was no excuse to dig up the battlefield but I'm not sure we can blame the Prince for that as I believe it was his dad's idea!
Thanks WM let's see how he performs in our game!
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