Waterloo, Belgium---European royals and diplomats gathered in Belgium on Thursday to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, a turning point for the continent which still touches a nerve and stirs national passions.
"Waterloo, the folly and the grandeur. The horror and the genius. The tragedy and then the hope," Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said in an opening address under leaden skies.
The stress was on modern-day reconciliation and the sacrifice of some 47,000 dead or wounded soldiers on the fields around the small drab town just south of Brussels, the target of Napoleon's ill-fated drive north in June 1815.
France and Germany however only sent their ambassadors to a ceremony that attracted kings and dukes, reflecting the fact that history still runs deep in a corner of the continent scarred by centuries of war.
Just as two centuries ago when the French emperor faced off against allied forces, it rained overnight and the skies were overcast again for the ceremonies, carried live on Belgian television.
Michel called for reconciliation through the "European project" and its promise of peace despite modern-day challenges of conflict on its borders in Ukraine and economic worries.
"The enemies of yesterday are the allies of today," said Michel.
"This reality, it is the European project."
- France ambivalent -
The battle was a pivotal moment in European history, when around 93,000 French troops led by Napoleon faced off against 125,000 British, German and Belgian-Dutch forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshal Bluecher.
Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean, where he died in 1821. The victors redrew the map of Europe and the continent enjoyed almost a century of relative peace until the carnage of World War I tore it apart again.
Thursday's solemn ceremonies in Belgium began at 11:00 am (0900 GMT), the moment the first musket balls flew.
In Britain, the focus was on a service at St Paul's Cathedral attended by the heir to the throne Prince Charles and his wife Camilla.
On Wednesday, Charles had unveiled a memorial at the Hougoumont Farmhouse, where allied forces fought off repeated French attacks as Napoleon desperately sought to break their lines.
Just nearby stands the Waterloo monument, a massive mound topped by a defiant lion looking south which was completed in 1826 when Belgium was part of Holland and is said to be a warning to France never to come this way again.
AFP
