The Famous 1815 Brussels Ballroom - Facts vs. the Glorified Legend
Two Victorian romanticized painted versions of the 1815 Brussels Ballroom location.
'The Duchess of Richmond's Ball' by Robert Alexander Hillingford, 1870s
The Last Dance at the Brussels Ball on June 15th
The famous Duchess of Richmond's Ball in Brussels went ahead as planned for the night of June 15th. The Duke of Wellington felt inclined to keep the spirits high among the locals and his staff in spite of having earlier received troubling news of French military incursions across the Belgian border that morning. He was unsure of the extent and logistics involved in the French activity and hesitated in any prompt response as he felt that had no clear idea of the unfolding bigger picture. Nerves among the fragile minded local populace would be unsettled if any hint of worry emanated from the Iron Duke. Furthermore, Wellington probably did not want to stir into action any fifth-columnist Bonapartists who no doubt lurked secretively in the capital.
There were still Belgians who had been pro-French occupation during the years of the Imperial Empire's occupation in Belgium. Certainly not just a few were sympathizers with Napoleon's return to France which was fresh on the heels of the Congress of Vienna placing Belgium in the new Kingdom of Netherlands control. Some were getting caught; however, they and cross-border provocateurs as well as bold, far-flung French scouts during the past month were not severely dealt with in any way - some simply being sent back to France.
So the great ball went ahead to the delight of Belgium's elite and the most prominent well-to-do Anglo-allied army's generals and officers. among the privileged officers were many from the British Guards Division. They sported their best military fashioned ballroom costumes as they mingled, flirted and danced with the equally finely attired female guests.
Wellington arrived very late at the ball - and soon after receiving more confirmation of the French invasion's threat, he then reacted swiftly and gave immediate orders to all his staff present to begin assembling their troops.
(more on this story in the members area)
'Scene of the Waterloo Ball', a realistic portrayal of the actual 'ballroom' illustrated for an article about the famous event in the 'Illustrated American' - 1891-92 volume, pp 350-351
Interesting Excerpt from WIKIWAND and WIKIPEDIA website entitled;
'Duchess of Richmond's Ball'
"Sir William Fraser examined the site and concluded that the room proposed as the ballroom by Lady de Ros was too small a space for the number of people who attended the ball. A short time after his visit, he wrote a letter to The Times which was published on 25 August 1888. He reported that he had likely discovered the room and that it was not part of the principal property that the Duke of Richmond had rented on the Rue des Cendres, but was a coach house that backed onto the property and had an address in the next street, the Rue de la Blanchisserie. The room had dimensions of 120 feet (37 m) long, 54 feet (16 m) broad, and about 13 feet (4.0 m) high (the low ceiling was a case where reality impinged on one meaning of Lord Byron's artistic allusion to "that high hall")."
Research by lawyer P. Duvivier and published by Fleischman and Aerts in their 1956 book Bruxelles pendant la bataille de Waterloo put forward an alternative theory. It proposes that, unknown to Fraser, the coach house used as a ballroom had been demolished by the time of his investigations and that the building he assumed was the ballroom was not built until after 1815.
'Before Waterloo' by Henry Nelson O'Neil, 1868
Waterloo Campaign Nostalgia
This article is similar to the content in the membership area - where the off-the-track related topics are made interesting.
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