Just after the Surgeon had taken off the Marquis of Anglesey's leg, Sir Hussey Vivian came into the cottage where the operation was performed. "Ah, Vivian!" said the wounded noble, "I want you to do me a favour. Some of my friends here seem to think I might have kept that leg on. Just go and cast your eye upon it, and tell me what you think." "I went, accordingly", said Sir Hussey, "and, taking up the lacerated limb, carefully examined it, and so far as I could tell, it was completely spoiled for work. A rusty grape-shot had gone through and shattered the bones all to pieces. I therefore returned to the Marquis and told him he could set his mind quite at rest, as his leg, in my opinion, was better off than on."[1]
A further anecdote reports him saying "Who would not lose a leg for such a victory?"[8] The saw used to amputate his leg is held by the National Army Museum.[9]
Uxbridge was offered an annual pension of £1,200 in compensation for the loss of his leg, which he refused.[2] Five days after the battle the Prince Regent created him Marquess of Anglesey and appointed him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
Paris asked if he might bury the leg in his garden, later turning the place into a kind of shrine, as for a relic. Visitors were first taken to see the bloody chair upon which Uxbridge had sat during the amputation, before being escorted into the garden, where the leg had its own 'tombstone', inscribed as follows:[10]
Here lies the Leg of the illustrious and valiant Earl Uxbridge, Lieutenant-General of His Britannic Majesty, Commander in Chief of the English, Belgian and Dutch cavalry, wounded on the 18 June 1815 at the memorable battle of Waterloo, who, by his heroism, assisted in the triumph of the cause of mankind, gloriously decided by the resounding victory of the said day.
Some were impressed; others less so. According to an article headed "Marquis of Anglesey's Leg" in Notes and Queries, 1862,[11] a wag wrote on the tombstone –
Here lies the Marquis of Anglesey's limb; The Devil will have the remainder of him.
George Canning recorded his own impressions in verse.[12] Some of these lines are also recorded in Notes and Queries, which says they "went the round of the papers at the time":[11]
Here rests, and let no saucy knave Presume to sneer and laugh, To learn that mouldering in the grave Is laid a British calf.
For he who writes these lines is sure That those who read the whole Will find such laugh were premature, For here, too, lies a sole.
And here five little ones repose, Twin-born with other five; Unheeded by their brother toes, Who now are all alive.
A leg and foot to speak more plain Lie here, of one commanding; Who, though his wits he might retain, Lost half his understanding.
And when the guns, with thunder fraught, Pour'd bullets thick as hail, Could only in this way be taught To give his foe leg-bail.
And now in England, just as gay - As in the battle brave - Goes to the rout, review, or play, With one foot in the grave.
Fortune in vain here showed her spite, For he will still be found, Should England's sons engage in fight, Resolved to stand his ground.
But fortune's pardon I must beg, She meant not to disarm; And when she lopped the hero's leg By no means sought his harm,
And but indulged a harmless whim, Since he could walk with one, She saw two legs were lost on him Who never meant to run.
The leg attracted an amazing range of tourists from European society of the very top drawer, from the King of Prussia to the Prince of Orange. It was a nice earner for Monsieur Paris and his descendants, all the way down to 1878, when it was the occasion for a minor diplomatic incident. Uxbridge's son visited, to find the bones not buried, but on open display. On investigation by the Belgian ambassador in London, it was discovered that they had been exposed in a storm which uprooted the willow tree beside which they were buried. The ambassador demanded repatriation of the relics to England but the Paris family refused, instead offering to sell the bones to the Uxbridge family, who were enraged. At this point the Belgian Minister of Justice intervened, ordering the bones to be reburied. However, the bones were not reburied; they were kept hidden. In 1934, after the last Monsieur Paris died in Brussels, his widow found them in his study, along with documentation proving their provenance. Horrified by the thought of another scandal, she incinerated them in her central heating furnace.
Aftermath
"Imaginary Meeting of Sir Arthur Wellesley (1769–1852), Duke of Wellington and Sir Henry William Paget" by Constantinus Fidelio Coene, c. 1820
Uxbridge's close family lost several limbs in the service of the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars: his brother, Major-General Sir Edward Paget, lost his right arm in the crossing of the Douro during the Second Battle of Porto in 1809, and his daughter lost a hand tending her husband on a battlefield in Spain.[13]
The Belgian artist Constantinus Fidelio Coene (1780–1841) painted Imaginary Meeting of Sir Arthur Wellesley (1769–1852), Duke of Wellington and Sir Henry William Paget (1768–1854), 1st Marquess of Anglesey, after the Amputation of His Leg, which shows the Marquess with his bandaged stump. This oil painting of c.1820, measuring 83 x 140.5cm, was given by the 7th Duke of Wellington to his godson the future 8th Marquess of Anglesey, who donated it to the National Trust in 1992; it is displayed in Plas Newydd.[19][20][21]
In 1961, the 7th Marquess of Anglesey published a biography of his great-great-grandfather, entitled One-Leg: the life and letters of Henry William Paget, first Marquess of Anglesey.[22]
1 2 Leaves from a Soldier's Notebook, in Colborn's United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal for 1847, Part II (London, H. Hurst, 1847) p. 543
↑ Material on which this article is based can be found in the BBC History Magazine, vol. 3, no. 6, June 2002.
↑ Contemporaneous sources: (For example: Edward Baines, History of the Wars of the French Revolution, from the Breaking Out of the War, in 1792, to the Restoration of a General Peace in 1815: Comprehending the Civil History of Great Britain and France, During that Period, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818. p. 468 & George Jones, John Booth, The Battle of Waterloo: With Those of Ligny and Quatre Bras, Described by Eye-witnesses and by the Series of Official Accounts Published by Authority. ..., Published by L. Booth, 1852. p. 403) say right leg; some more recent sources say the left.
↑ Reagan, Geoffrey. Military Anecdotes (1992) p. 34 Guinness Publishing ISBN0-85112-519-0
↑ Edward Baines, History of the Wars of the French Revolution, from the Breaking Out of the War, in 1792, to the Restoration of a General Peace in 1815: Comprehending the Civil History of Great Britain and France, During that Period, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818. p. 468
↑ Ci est enterré la Jambe de l'illustre et vaillant comte Uxbridge, Lieutenant-Général de S. M. Brittanique, Commandant en chef de la cavalerie anglaise, belge, et hollondaise, blessé le 18 juin 1815, à la mémorable bataille de Waterloo, qui, par son héroïsme, a concouru au triomphe de la cause du genre humaine, glorieusement décidéé par l'éclatante victoire du dit jour. (Notes and Queries, 3rd S. II, September 27, 1862, p. 249)
↑ Anglesey, the Marquess of, One Leg, The Life and Letters of Henry William Paget, First Marquess of Anglesey, KG 1768–1854, Jonathan Cape (1961) reprinted Pen and Sword Books (1996), . ill. facing p. 128. ISBN0-85052-518-7
↑ "No. 18447". The London Gazette. 29 February 1828. p.409.Heathcote, Tony (1999). The British Field Marshals, 1736–1997: A Biographical Dictionary. Barnsley: Leo Cooper. p.236. ISBN0-85052-696-5.
↑ Paget, Henry, 7th Marquess of Anglesey (1961). One-Leg: the life and letters of Henry William Paget, first Marquess of Anglesey, K. G., 1768–1854. London: Jonathan Cape.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link), republished in 1996 by Leo Cooper, ( ISBN0850525187)
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