Papelotte Farm (, ) is located off Chemin des Cosaques, a rural road in the
Municipality of Waterloo around south of
Brussels
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, Belgium. On 18 June 1815, during the pivotal
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
it served as one of the advanced defensible positions of the Anglo-allied army under the command of the
Duke of Wellington. Along with the walled farm compounds of
Hougoumont
Château d'Hougoumont (possibly originally Goumont or Gomont) is a walled manorial compound, situated at the bottom of an escarpment near the Nivelles road in the Braine-l'Alleud municipality, near Waterloo, Belgium. The site served as one o ...
and
La Haye Sainte, it proved to be instrumental to the delay and the disruption of the opposing
Napoleonic army's progress on the battlefield.
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
diverted disproportionately large numbers of troops in order to capture or eliminate these perimeters, while he failed to achieve a decisive break through in one of several attacks on the lines of the Allies.
Papelotte was situated on the center-left flank of Wellington's army. Napoleon would also lose valuable time and resources as he struggled with the Allied strongpoints, whose comparatively rather moderately sized garrisons defended with remarkable efficiency. Papelotte was manned by two ''Orange-Nassau regiments'' of the
King's Dutch Brigade, from the
Duchy of Nassau
The Duchy of Nassau (German language, German: ''Herzogtum Nassau'') was an independent state between 1806 and 1866, located in what became the Germany, German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse. It was a States of the Confederation of th ...
. German troops accounted for 45% of the personnel in the multi-ethnic Anglo-allied army. Around 6.15pm a contingent of the French
Durutte division managed to enter and briefly occupy Papelotte Farm, as its garrison had run out of ammunition and retreated to a defensive line in the rear. However, the French troops could advance no further. They ''were tired, decimated, soaked by the previous night’s rain, covered with mud, demoralised by their previous lack of success and by the Prussian arrival and suspicious of their generals...'' Papelotte provided cover during the approach of
Lieutenant-General von Zieten’s Prussian I Corps onto the Waterloo battlefield around 7.00pm. Around 30 minutes later Papelotte and La Haye Sainte
were in Prussian hands as Durutte's forces had fully retreated without resistance.
Papelotte Farm was damaged and partly burnt down during the battle. From 1857 until far into the 20th century the site was restored, old buildings were replaced and new structures added, including the octagonal tower. Papelotte Farm is the home of the ''Poney club de la Papelotte''.
See also
*
List of Waterloo Battlefield locations
The Waterloo Battlefield is located in the municipalities of Braine-l'Alleud and Lasne and Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo, about south of Brussels, and about from the town of Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo. The ordering of the places in the list is ...
Notes
; Footnotes
References
*
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
{{commons category-inline
Waterloo Battlefield locations
Houses in Belgium
Buildings and structures in Walloon Brabant