This week, ardent history fans are gathered in Belgium to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

While I blogged about Napoleon’s escape from Elba and the path to Waterloo this past March, today I want to point you to some resources for further reading. The official bicentenary site, Waterloo 2015 tracks the events leading up to the battle.

The Duchess of Richmond’s Ball, June 15, 1815

Author Kathryn Kane has a marvelous post about the June 15th ball held by the Duchess of Richmond in Brussels.

Courtesy Gregory Fremont Barnes

And today marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Quatre Bras between Anglo-Dutch forces and Napoleon’s French army. The battle slowed the advance of Napoleon’s troops for the final confrontation on June 18th.

The Battle of Waterloo, by Sadler

For a breakdown of the timeline of the battle, see the Waterloo 2015 site here, and for a dramatized version of all the week’s events, you can’t go wrong with Georgette Heyer’s An Infamous Army.

Best-selling author and “master of martial fiction”, Bernard Cornwell, author of the Richard Sharpe series, has a nonfiction book out about the battle, and Unseen Waterloo–The Conflict Revisited documents an exhibit at Somerset House, an effort by photographer Sam Faulkner to “reimagine” the soldiers who fought through photos of historical reenactors. Also, all this week the Smithsonian channel is featuring a documentary, “Napoleon’s Waterloo“.

Here are some other blog articles you might enjoy:

Best-selling novelist Eileen Dreyer is attending Waterloo 2015 and blogging about it here.

The Telegraph has a video animation of the battle.

Here’s a piece on the Waterloo Chair, made from the elm tree Wellington stood near during the battle.

Waterloo was a messy, terrible battle, riddled with mistakes on both sides. Napoleon’s decisive defeat turned the allied commander, the Duke of Wellington into a legend and changed the course of history.

As I mentioned in March, both heroes of my Regency stories are Waterloo veterans, and that is not an uncommon trope in Regency romance. Do you have a favorite Regency hero who fought at Waterloo? Please share–I’m always looking for good Regency books to read!

Images: Wikimedia