WOMEN AND WATERLOO

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As Katherine Astbury has pointed out in her recent article for The Conversation, despite Waterloo being a predominantly male affair, women also had their part to play. As many as 4,000 women (reportedly) accompanied the British army, and sometimes whole families would travel together. Many would provide food and sustenance on the battlefield, others, dressed as men, even fought. And just as importantly, many women’s accounts of the events have been invaluable to historians. We’ve put together a reading selection, including some first-hand contemporary accounts to enable a better understanding of the roles women played both in the battle of Waterloo and in the writing of the battle.

WOMEN AND WATERLOO

General articles

Katherine Astbury “Witnesses, wives, politicians, soldiers: the women of Waterloo”

A Woman at Waterloo. Andrew Roberts introduces the remarkable memoir of Magdalene De Lancey, wife of Wellington’s chief of staff, who accompanied her husband on a campaign that climaxed in triumph and tragedy.

Napoleonic Wars: Women at Waterloo

Regency Women of Character: Women at Waterloo

Abstracts of a Battle: Waterloo Ladies

The Welsh women who fought Napoleon

 

First-hand accounts by women

BOOK:
Ladies of Waterloo (the writings of CHARLOTTE A. EATON, MAGDALENE DE LANCEY, and JUANA SMITH)

A week in Waterloo, 1815 by Lady de Lancey (read on line)

The diaries and letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d’Arblay) (read on line)
(for her accounts of Waterloo, start reading from page 301, “NARRATIVE OF MADAME D’ARBLAY’S FLIGHT FROM PARIS TO BRUSSELS”)


Publication Title :
Revue du Souvenir Napoléonien
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