© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
And Eaton Monins (1795-1861)
CONTENTS
2.
2.
3.
3.
Historical context
The French Revolution
Napoleon’s Reign
The Battle
5. Eaton Monins (OC)
6. The 52nd Regiment of Foot
6. The 52nd Regiment of Foot before the battle
7. The 52nd Regiment of Foot at Waterloo
7. Eaton Monins after Waterloo
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© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1789-1799)
The French Revolution began with the famous storming of the Bastille on the
14 July 1789. France had now become the victim a vicious and long-lasting
political, social and economic revolution. As well as revolt within the nation,
France was also at war with other European powers. Therefore, the French
authorities introduced harsh measures to deal with the multiple threats. This
led to a notoriously bloodthirsty period of the revolution called the Reign of
Terror.
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The Terror saw 16,000 to 40,000 both foreign
The Reign of Terror
and French “enemies of the revolution”
executed by the ruthless opposition of the
French Monarchy, Maximilien Robespierre.
This period ended when the French army
arrested Robespierre and executed 21 of his
supporters. Following this came the
Thermidorian reaction when order needed to
be restored after the Reign of Terror. This
was so called due to the new
“enlightenment” philosophy which required the months to be renamed,
Thermidor being the new name for July, when the Terror ended.
After the reaction, a ruling system arose in the form of a Directory consisting of
five collective members or “directors” which assumed control of France on the
2 November 1795. However, this unpopular new system was met by Royalist
and Jacobin protest. This was silenced by the new appointed General of the
Army, Napoleon Bonaparte, born on the 15 August 1769.
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During the four years that the Directory was in power they were deemed
inefficient, caused many financial problems and were charged with political
corruption. Because of this, Napoleon decided to lead a coup d’état to
overthrow the Directors in 1799. This is widely regarded as the end of the
French Revolution. The Directory was replaced with a French Consulate with
Bonaparte as First Consul.
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NAPOLEON’S REIGN (1804-1814)
Now as Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte
made a plan to conquer Europe for the French and
was very successful, since he won the vast majority
of the 60 battles he fought and was therefore in
control most of it. However, he suffered famous
defeats at Trafalgar at the hands of Admiral Nelson
and at Waterloo at the hands of Wellington. In
1814, in the last year of his reign and having built
most of the French Empire, he lost to the Allies
(comprising of Prussia, Austria Sweden, Russia,
Great-Britain, Spain and Portugal) at the battle of
Leipzig. After this, the Allies offered peace terms to
Napoleon but he left his response too long and was
therefore exiled to the island of Elba. But soon, he
managed to escape the island on a ship called Swiftsure on the 26th February
1815 and within two days he was back at France. When he arrived, he
approached the armies and allegedly said: “Here I am. Kill your Emperor, if you
wish.” With the response of “Vive l’Empereur!” With the soldiers behind him,
he marched to the French Capital and governed there for a period of 100 days.
The Allies now set out to defeat Napoleon once and for all. The stage was now
set for the Battle of Waterloo.
THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on the 18th June 1815 in a muddy field in
Belgium between the British, led by Wellington, and the French, led by
Napoleon Bonaparte. The night before, Wellington slept in a Waterloo inn and
left his soldiers to spend the night outside in the rain. He knew that his success
the next day would rely on the Prussian Reinforcements and General Blucher,
who were coming from Wavre (18 miles east of the battlefield), arriving in
time. However, Napoleon was confident that he would be victorious with his
72,000 to the British 68,000.
On the 18th June, the British General set up a strong defensive position
blocking the road to Brussels behind a ridge and three garrisoned farms. He
had the Papelotte farm on his left, Le Haye Sainte in front and Hougoumont on
the right. He also had high corn fields surrounding him which offered
concealment and good vantage points. He would try and hold out until the
Prussians arrived.
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© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
Napoleon adopted a risky plan: to
delay attacking until the mud had
dried up from the night before. This
was dangerous because it would allow
time for reinforcements to arrive and
help the British, but on the other hand,
the French forces would tire quickly on
such hard terrain. Instead of launching
an all-out attack, he ordered an attack
on Hougoumont farm. This would be
led by Napoleon’s brother in command
of 5,000 troops. The British responded
A map showing the various positions of
the different armies at the beginning of
the Battle of Waterloo.
by firing through holes in the
doors of the farm but the French
got through the gates at 2:30 in
the afternoon. However, they
were soon closed again by British
forces, trapping many French
inside. The trapped French
soldiers were all killed.
By 13:00, Napoleon had sent
18,000 men up the road and
captured the farm of Papelotte
and the ground around La Haye
Sainte. If he had captured the farm he would have been able to defeat the
British, but he spotted movement in some nearby fields and sent his cavalry to
investigate. Now, Wellington committed more reinforcements to La Haye
Sainte even when the Prussians were still far off.
The positions of the armies at the beginning
of the battle
The movements in the fields had actually turned out to be the Prussians
themselves and the French cavalry met them 5 miles east of the Battlefield.
Because of this, Napoleon had to split his
troops to fight in two places. This significantly
weakened his forces. Now, Napoleon decided
to launch a final attack on La Haye Sainte
which resulted in its capture. In response to
this the Allied Army tried a new formation
which consisted of them splitting into small
This shows Napoleon being
defeated in the final hours of the
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battle
© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
squares of men. This allowed them to hold off the French for two hours, but
this formation turned out to be extremely vulnerable to artillery fire.
Wellington soon lost the farm and Napoleon’s army were able to advance.
Now that the British army had been devastated there was a need for Prussian
reinforcements.
The French had advanced to the ridge in front of the British, but they were met
with point Blanc musket fire. This desperate attempt worked and the French
were driven back and soon fled. To secure the victory, the Prussians arrived
and made a final assault. Napoleon Bonaparte had been defeated.
E.MONINS
The Monins Coat of Arms
John Monins of Canterbury,
Eaton’s Father
Eaton Monins (29th January, 1795-16thJune 1861) was the third son of John of
Canterbury. John of Canterbury married Sarah Trice, more than 20 years his
junior. The couple had six sons and two daughters. All but the two last born
sons survived into adulthood, and three sons Richard, William and Eaton,
followed in their father’s footsteps into the army. Eaton Monins was born in
Canterbury, England attended the Old Charterhouse School in London from
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© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
January 1804-December 1808. After leaving
charterhouse, Monins joined the army.
Specifically, Monins joined the 52nd (Oxfordshire)
Regiment of Foot.
THE 52ND REGIMENT OF FOOT
The 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment of Foot was a
light infantry regiment of the British Army
throughout much of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Twenty years after its founding, the regiment saw
The 52nd Regiment of Foot
Badge
active service in the American War of
Independence, from 1774 to 1778. The 52nd
Regiment of Foot was shipped to America from Canada, arriving in Boston, and
fought in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill in 1775. In the Napoleonic
Wars, the 52nd Regiment of Foot split into two battalions, their paths
occasionally overlapping. In 1806–7, the 1st battalion were positioned in Sicily,
where they were training local soldiers. Later, they were positioned in
Sweden. In August 1806, the 2nd battalion accompanied the expedition to
Copenhagen, taking part in the attack on Copenhagen in 1807, led by
General Wellesley. In the battle of Waterloo,
the 52nd Regiment of Foot formed part of the
final charge against Napoleon’s Imperial
Guard.
THE 52ND REGIMENT OF FOOT: BEFORE THE
BATTLE
The 52nd Regiment of Foot
Uniform
In January of 1815, the 1st battalion of the
52nd Regiment of Foot departed from
Portsmouth to Cork, about to leave for
America, where fighting in the War of 1812
continued. However, bad weather meant that
they could not sail, and by the time
conditions had improved, news had arrived of
Napoleon's escape from Elba. Therefore, the
1st battalion of the 52nd Regiment of foot was
sent to Belgium. Napoleon marched quickly
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through France to meet the Allies, who had formed two armies, with the Duke
of Wellington commanding the Anglo-Allies, and Gebhard Leberecht von
Blücher commanding the Prussians. The 52nd Regiment of Foot was assigned to
Lt-Gen Hill's II Corps, as part of the 2nd Division's 3rd Brigade, under General
Adam. In response to Napoleon's movements, on 15th June, Lt-Gen Hill's II
Corps was posted west and southwest of Brussels, with a line of cavalry in
front. Wellington's forward army engaged the French at Quatre Bras on 16th
June, but Wellington later fell back to remain in contact with his Prussian allies,
who had retreated following the Battle of Ligny, and took position near the
village of Waterloo.
THE 52nd REGIMENT OF FOOT AT WATERLOO
The field at Waterloo was 5.5 km wide, with two parallel ridges running west
to east, creating a shallow valley 1.4 km across. The Allies took position on the
northern ridge. As the army prepared for battle in 18 June, the 2nd Division
were initially held in reserve, placed in the centre left, behind Major-General
Cooke's 1st Division. Following the French cavalry's battering of the British
squares over the afternoon, Adam's brigade was brought up to reinforce the
right. In this position the 52nd Regiment of Foot endured an extremely heavy
bombardment. The bombardment was so heavy, that one soldier commented
that some of the older soldiers who had fought for most of the Napoleonic
Wars had never experienced such bombardment. However, there was other
action elsewhere on the battlefield, and as the battle drew to a close,
Napoleon's Middle Guard launched an assault on the British line, to the left of
the 52nd Regiment of Foot, and were met by a number of regiments including
the 1st Foot Guards, who repulsed the 3rd Chasseurs, but had to retreat when
the 4th Chasseurs moved forward to threaten their left. The 52nd Regiment of
Foot, under Sir John Colborne, swerved to the left, lining up parallel to the
French column, and fired volleys against their left flank.
The 1st battalion of the 52nd Regiment of Foot were the largest battalion at
Waterloo, and one of the few British battalions operating at full strength. Of
the 1,130 men and officers present, 168 were wounded, and 38 killed.
E. Monins after Waterloo
After Waterloo, Eaton continued in the army, serving in the 69th regiment of
foot as a major general and the 8th regiment of foot as a colonel. He retired
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© Rupert Peacock and Michael Freeman
from the armed forces in 1848. But, in 1820, while still in active service, he
married Margaret Newsham, 3rd daughter of Thomas Newsham of Liverpool.
He died at his home in Kent on the 16th June 1861.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Mrs Smith of the Charterhouse archives for providing lots of
important and useful information on our particular OC. Also, thank you to
David Hughes, the CEO of the Waterloo 200 charity who came to speak to us
midway through the project. Finally, we must acknowledge Mr McCombes for
always being on hand to answer any queries.
Bibliography:
www.wikipedia.org
www.bbc.co.uk/history
www.eastkenthistory.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/iwonder
www.history.co.uk
www.ancestrylibrary.co.uk
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