Why was the Battle Called Waterloo?

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    This was a good question.  The battle took place some miles South of Waterloo , and “Belle Allance” and “Mont St Jean” are other names which have been used.   This was the name that Wellington gave to the battle.  Wellington claimed he named his battles after the place he spent the night before the battle.  However, I think he also may have thought that Waterloo was an easier name for English speakers to pronounce and remember.

    Blucher, and other Germans preferred  “La Belle Alliance”, the inn where Blucher and Wellington met at the end of the battle.  There was a “Bellallanceplatz” in Berlin, but it has been renamed to something else.

    At least one French message sent in the battle itself by Soult to Grouchy may have referred to Napoleon’s HQ as being located on the “Field of Waterloo”, though they also referred to Mont St Jean.    In 1853 Victor Hugo legitimised the use of Waterloo as the “Morne Plein” in his poem “Atonement”  There is a recitation of parts of this at the start of this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Inb3OlU4iq4

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