THE FOREST OF Soignes or Sonian Forest (in Dutch: Zoniënwoud, in French: Forêt de Soignes) is a 10,900-acre (44km2) forest that lies immediately to the south of Brussels. This ancient woodland is first mentioned in the Middle Ages. Around 1815 the area of the wood was still nearly 25,000 acres (100 km2), but felling has since diminished its area.
Even before Waterloo the forest had contracted rapidly when Napoleon ordered 22,000 oaks to be cut down to build the Boulogne flotilla intended for the invasion of England. King William I of the Netherlands subsequenly continued to harvest the woods, and the forest was reduced to its current size by about 1830.
Wellington has been severely criticised by many, including Napoleon, for offering battle with a great forest in his immediate rear, which would have made it difficult for his army, if defeated, to retire in an organised retreat. His apologists claim that the high forest canopy prevented much undergrowth from growing, and thus easy movement through the forest would have been possible. Modern photographs of the forest seem to support this argument, but eyewitness reports from the time of the battle indicate that riders who struck off from the main Brussels road and attempted to cut through the forest found it nigh-on impossible to do so because of obstructions, boundary markers and flooded streams.
Date of origin:
Unknown – ancient woodland
Location:
South of Brussels, Belgium
In Wellington’s defence, a survey of maps produced in the thirty years prior to the battle, show that there were at least eight roads or track-ways other than the main chaussée leading through the forest towards Brussels. It would seem that the duke planned on using all of these routes to retire rapidly, comfortable that the pursuing French cavalry could not outflank them by riding through the forest. Proof that Wellington planned to utilise these roads is the fact that he ordered his engineers to fortify the village of Merbe Braine in the rear of his right wing. This village protected the entrance to a number of the roads running through the forest and could have been held by his rearguard for a considerable period as his army passed through in their rear.
Rights to a considerable portion of the forest in the neighbourhood of Waterloo were assigned in 1815 to the Duke of Wellington, whose heirs still retain the title of Prince of Waterloo in the Dutch nobility, the present duke receiving the equivalent of about £86,000 per annum from his Belgian properties. Recent attempts by the Belgian opposition to rescind this agreement have been thwarted.
The forest served for a long period as an exclusive hunting ground for the nobility, but today is open to the general public and is a very popular place to escape the stresses of city life.