A Superb Battle of Waterloo Artifact Recovered from the Battle Site, A Soldier's Small Bronze Crucifix,

From our recently arrived original Waterloo battle site collection. Still wearable with ring top complete

This extraordinary Waterloo battle relic was already old when it was lost at Waterloo, probably a family heirloom cross, and then discovered around La Haye Sainte (named either after Jesus Christ's crown of thorns or a bramble hedge round a field nearby). Yet it is in very good condition, clear signs it has been worn, naturally, but very nicely preserved indeed.

It is a walled farmhouse compound at the foot of an escarpment on the Charleroi-Brussels road in Belgium. It has changed very little since it played a crucial part in the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

La Haye Sainte was defended by about 400 King's German Legion troops during the Battle of Waterloo. They were hopelessly outnumbered by attacking French troops but held out until the late afternoon when they retired because their ammunition had run out. If Napoleon Bonaparte's army had captured La Haye Sainte earlier in the day, almost certainly he would have broken through the allied centre and defeated the Duke of Wellington's army.

The capture of La Haye Sainte in the early evening then gave the French the advantage of a defensible position from which to launch a potentially decisive attack on the Allied centre. However, Napoleon was too late—by this time, Blücher and the Prussian army had arrived on the battlefield and the outnumbered French army was defeated.

Every single item from The Lanes Armoury is accompanied by our unique Certificate of Authenticity. Part of our continued dedication to maintain the standards forged by us over the past 100 years of our family’s trading, as Britain’s oldest established, and favourite, armoury and gallery.

22mm long

Code: 25030