THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR DAY ONE, CONTINUED: THE TOWER OF LONDON

Heading for the entrance

The remainder of the former menageries: sculptured lions

Our Guide, a Beef Eater aka Yeoman Warder
He explained to us the significance of the wonderful display of hand-made ceramic poppies.  One was cast for each person killed from Great Britain and the Commonwealth, almost 800,000, to be placed around the Tower of London by the anniversary of the conclusion of World War I on November 18, 1818.  It was, he pointed out to us in September 2014, one hundred years since the beginning of the Great War, or, as he slyly added, “For you Americans, 97 years!”
Each poppy is hand-made

The final spray of poppies, to be preserved,
by popular demand
For more information about the art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red,  click here. 

Kristine and I soon abandoned the tour and struck out to find the Wellington Exhibition
as advertised on large posters around London. Example below.
As you can imagine we  were eager to see this exhibition at the Tower.

We started out assured by a guard we would find it if we just kept going…
We didn’t even stop to see whose bed this was.
We squeezed through cramped corridors and around one narrow curving staircase after another. and often peeked through windows and arrow slits.
Farther and farther…
Ar least we got a good view of the nooks and crannies of the Tower ramparts

“On 15 June 1845, the Duke of Wellington, hero of the Battle of Waterloo and Constable of the Tower, laid the foundation stone of these barracks, named after his greatest victory. Built to house up to 1,000 soldiers, the barracks were designed by the Royal Engineers, The soldier outside is part of the garrison tradition, still active and guarding the Tower today.
Today, the Waterloo Barracks contain a smaller barracks, offices and the Jewel House. The building also overlooks the military Parade Ground. The ceremonial public duty of the soldiers stationed here is to guard the Crown Jewels and the Queen’s House on behalf of the monarch. They can come from any branch of the armed forces of Britain and the Commonwealth.”
The text panel above was repeated in ten additional languages 

Hot on the Trail: we’re almost there. 

 \

Sucess. But this is all there was, a set of images including the equivalent of a power-point show. We found The Wellington Exhibition at the Tower completely underwhelming.

The White Tower

the line for the Crown Jewels

Tower Bridge

Where the poppies were just beginning to be placed

The White Tower

A distant view of the White Tower

The Traitor’s Gate

The wall along the Thames

The poppies from the west

Seeing the poppies was the highlight of the visit to the Tower. And we did negotiate the entire circumference of the place, up and down, in and out, ad nauseum, with a disappointing result. Actually, in retrospect it was pretty amusing to think of the long trek when we could have simply walked through the lawns and found the Wellington Barracks instead of going the long way around. And since Kristine is an expert on Wellington, and I am not so bad myself (says Victoria immodestly), what did we think we would learn?  I guess we were hoping for a tidbit of new materials. To no avail!

On the plus side, we got some exercise, some good shots of the Tower, and a very memorable view of those incredible poppies.

Next, we re-crossed London to Horse Guards in Whitehall for the Afternoon Ceremonies.

Horse Guards
The Horse Guards building, which served as the British Army’s headquarters for many years, was designed by William Kent (1685-1748) and built by John Vardy between 1750 and 1753.  It is a masterpiece of the Palladian style. The Duke of Wellington occupied offices here for a large part of his life.

Two mounted guards from the Household Cavalry are in place every day and a great attraction for the tourists along Whitehall.  Each afternoon, the Daily Inspection takes place at 4 pm.

Following the Inspection, we toured the Household Cavalry Museum, which opens onto the Parade Ground behind the building. Their Website is here.

By this time, we were ready for a return to the hotel for a rest before our special dinner at The Grenadier, which we will describe next week.

WATERLOO'S AFTERMATH, PART THREE: RESTORING A GOVERNMENT TO FRANCE

RESTORING KING LOUIS XVIII AND THE  GOVERNMENT OF OCCUPATION

The Duke of Wellington by George Dawe


After completing the despatches and sending them off on June 19th,  the Duke of Wellington returned to Brussels to see some of the wounded and report to the King of the Netherlands. British troops crossed into France June 21, as did the Prussians. 

Lord Castlereagh


To make up for Wellington’s losses, Castlereagh promised reinforcements as more troops returned from North America.  But resistance was light on the part of the French.

On June 22, Wellington’s troops attacked Perronne, which soon surrendered; the French troops were sent home and replaced with a Dutch garrison.

General Sir Charles Colville
Sir Charles Colville commanded the far right of Wellington’s troops at Halle during the Battle of Waterloo, so far to the west of the main action that his troops did not take part in the fighting. Wellington thus sent his troops to storm Cambrai on July 24, the only French fortress that did not surrender immediately. Sir Charles and his troops suffered only a few dozen casualties in taking the town.  Cambrai became Wellington’s headquarters for the occupation of France.

Farther west, the Prussians advanced toward Paris, reportedly plundering as they went, in retribution for former defeats at French hands.

Various engagements were fought with troops under French Generals Grouchy and D’Erlon, as the Prussians and Anglo-Allies approached Paris and commissioners of the Provisional French government sought a cessation of hostilities.

Louis XVIII


Blücher and the Prussians agreed with Wellington: Napoleon’s abdication made no difference; the only way in which the French could end the fighting was to restore the government of King Louis XVIII, the legitimate ruler, the king Napoleon had driven out.

Joseph Fouché, Minister of Police

Two men who changed sides repeatedly — from the time of the French Revolution through the Napoleonic Wars, the restoration, the Hundred Days, and now, choosing to work for another restoration of the Bourbon monarchy – spoke for the French at this crucial moment.  Whether either Talleyrand or Joseph Fouché had any bedrock principles (other than self-preservation) has long been debated.  But at this point, they were both clever enough to have played the game successfully.

Fouché (1763-1820)  early in the Revolution was an eager Jacobin who voted for the execution of Louis XVI. He later became a powerful advocate for centralized power as Minister of Police. Napoleon appointed him head of Internal Security, but alternatively distrusted, then re-appointed him. Fouché had dangerous networks of secret informants and spies.
      When Napoleon first abdicated and went to Elba, Fouché served the restoration government but maintained contact with Napoleon. During the Hundred Days, he again served Napoleon as head of security. Upon Napoleon’s second fall, Fouché acted for the provisional government in negotiation with the Allies for the second restoration. However, once the monarchists were in power again in 1815, he was sent off to Saxony as an ambassador, where his networks were no longer useful.

Talleyrand


Talleyrand managed to make himself necessary to almost every faction that temporarily had power in France for the last twenty years. Though his influence declined during the second restoration, he remained in Paris, freely giving his opinions on policy,  After the July Revolution of 1830, King Louis-Philippe made him French Ambassador to Great Britain for the years 1830-34.

Wellington and Blücher ordered the French army to evacuate Paris and withdraw below the Loire River. Paris resistance collapsed July 5 and King Louis XVIII was again on the throne of France.

Pont d’Iena


Wellington kept Blücher from blowing up a Pont d’Iena, a bridge over the Seine (now near the Eiffel Tower), built to commemorate Napoleon’s victory over the Prussians in 1806.  Reportedly Wellington – the ultimate practical man —  said, “A bridge is a bridge.”



Duc de Richelieu by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1817, © The Royal Collection


After elections were held in France in August 1815, Armand Emmanuel,  Duke of Richelieu  (1766-1822), gained power as Prime Minister of France, succeeding Talleyrand.  Richelieu officially signed the peace treaties on behalf of his nation in November 1815. He was instrumental in negotiating the end of the occupation of France in 1818.

“Mopping up” took place elsewhere in France and abroad.  British troops retook Martinique and Guadaloupe in the Caribbean.  Even more important were the British actions in the Mediterranean, where the naval ports of Marseilles and Toulon were subdued in July 1815. The last hold-out, on the Luxembourg frontier, surrendered on September 13.


The Treaty of Paris of 1815 was finally signed on November 20, 1815.  The territorial terms were similar to those of the first treaty, signed after Napoleon’s first abdication, but included more sever reparations payments. Signatories were France, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia. Additional agreements covered claims by individuals, the neutrality of Switzerland, and most importantly, banning the slave trade: “abolition of a Commerce so odious, and so strongly condemned by the laws of religion and nature.”

 Marshall Ney (1769-1815) by Charles Meynier

Execution of Marshall Ney by firing squad;
painting by Jean-Leon Gerome, 1868


In November, Marshal Ney was tried for treason:  deserting Louis XVIII for Napoleon during the Hundred Days. Despite his heroism in leading the French troops at Waterloo, having several horses shot out from under him, Ney was executed by firing squad, declining a blindfold a
nd declaring his patriotism as the squad took aim — the Bravest of the Brave to the end.

In late 1818, the Four Allies met at Aix-la-Chapelle to discuss the withdrawal of the Army of Occupation of France. Agreement was reached and the foreign troops left French soil by the end of November, 1818. A number of other issues were discussed as well, regarding various problems in Europe. The conference set a new standard for the conduct of international affairs.

Congress Memorial in Aix-la-Chapelle (aka Aachen)

 French history in the 19th and 20 centuries saw many changes of government.  Louis XVIII died in 1824, succeeded by his brother, Charles X (1757-1836), from 1824 until 1830. Charles X had been long known as Comte d’Artois, youngest brother of Louis XVI. He spent a large part of his life in exile from France, and lived in Mayfair on South Audley Street from 1805-1814. After he was deposed in 1830, he again spent part of his exile in Britain before dying in Austria in 1836.

Charles X by Pierre-Narcisse Guerin
After only six years on the throne, the July Revolution brought Louis-Philippe, Duke of Orleans, into power as the King of France. Louis-Philippe was part of a “cadet” branch of the Bourbons, a cousin of Louis XVIII and Charles X.  He had been in exile during the Napoleonic era, traveling extensively including in the US.  He was proclaimed King by the Chamber of Deputies in August 1830. Two years later in 1832, Louise-Marie, his daughter, married Leopold I of Belgium 

King Louis-Philippe (1773-1859)
by Francis Xavier Winterhalter
During the February 1848 revolution in France, part of the revolutionary movement that swept Europe that year, Louis-Philippe abdicated and fled to England (where he lived at Claremont House, Surrey, once the home of his son-in-law King Leopold o Belgium when he was married to the late Princess Charlotte).

Claremont House, Surrey
Om France, the Second Republic began, and who should they elect as President but Louis Napoleon, son of Napoleon’s brother Louis and Hortense, daughter of Napoleon’s first wife Josephine.  (Are you keeping score??).  In 1852, Louis Napoleon dissolved the elected Republic and declared himself Napoleon III, thus establishing the Second Empire, which lasted until the Franco Prussian War in 1870-71. Napoleon III followed repressive policies and limited freedoms, but it is his reign that gave us most of the beauties of Paris we enjoy today, a legacy we can appreciate without admiring his other policies. 

Napoleon III by Alexandre Cabanel


When Napoleon III was a captive of Prussia, deputies in Paris declared a government of national defense, which tried to continue the war against Prussia, but within a few months, capitulated and ended the war. The Third French Republic was declared but stiff war reparation payments and other issues led to the Paris Commune.


The two-months of the Paris Commune in 1871, one of many uprisings of Paris workers and socialists during the century, was defeated by the regular army by the end of May 1871. Its short life became an inspiration to communist leaders such as Lenin and Mao. It was not until the 1880’s that the quarrels over re-establishment of a monarchy with competing claims of various pretenders was overcome

The Third French Republic continued until the Fall of France in 1940 and the establishment of the Vichy government. We leave Postwar France to the contemporary historians.

Roses blooming in Josephine’s gardens
Malmaison, 2014

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON TOUR: WE INVADE WELLINGTON ARCH

Across the crazy traffic circle in front of Apsley House, the Wellington Arch stands in isolated magnificence.  With some exceptions we will note further along.

To read what Victoria wrote about the history of the Wellington Arch last year, click here.

Looking through the arch toward Buckingham Palace
Our Guide Clive points out the Wellington statue nearby.
The doors bear the royal crest.
Decimus Burton, architect of the arch and the Hyde Park Screen across the street, also 
designed the iron doors, cast by Joseph Bramah & Sons of Pimlico. They are painted to resemble a bronze patina.

For information on the exhibitions at the Arch, go their website, click here.

We elevated to the top of the arch for the daily parade of guards and were excited at the view.  Took many  many pictures!

Through the screen and into the park beside Apsley House.

The Quadriga by Adrian Jones, finished 1912, replaced the monumental statue atop the Arch. The equestrian statue of the Duke had provoked considerable controversy, even ridicule, before it was dismantled and moved to its present location in Aldershot.
The monumental equestrian statue (8.5 metres high, aka 28 feet) overwhelmed the arch.
Completed in 1846, the statue was cast from 40 tons of bronze, mostly from melted down French cannons, at a cost of  £30,000. Though everyone was unhappy, it was raised on the arch, where it stood until the necessity for moving the location of the arch itself in the late 1880’s.
Gigantic size!
In its present position atop a hill in Aldershot, Hampshire, near the Military Museum, the statue has found a suitable home. The responsible artist was Matthew Coates Wyatt (1777-1862). It was restored in recent years.
Today on the grounds of the Arch.

Wellington Statue near the Arch, by Joseph Boehm, 1888


Apsley House from atop the Arch

Close up of the capital of the Corinthian Columns

Apsley House from the traffic circle

The Wellington Arch, illuminated during the celebration
 of the Battle of Waterloo Centenary, 2015

After a fond farewell to the Wellington Arch and its nearby statue of the Duke of Wellington, our tour group proceeded to the bus and our drive across London to the Tower.

THE AUDIENCE – A REVIEW

Recently, my daughter, Brooke, decided to surprise herself with tickets to see Billy Joel for her birthday. She bought two tickets to the concert and sent me a text message –

Brooke: Just got two tix to see Billy Joel for my birthday. No one I’d rather spend my birthday with than you so you’re coming. Already bought. You can’t say no.

Me: OK. Where?

Brooke: MSG

Me: Huh?

Brooke: Madison Square Garden.

Me: In NYC?!

And so we planned a long weekend in Manhattan. It occured to me to look online to see what was playing in the theatres during our stay. And look what I found –

It took me a New York minute to click on the “buy” button. And then I sent Brooke a text –

Me: I just got us two tix to see Helen Mirren in The Audience.

Brooke: Who?

Me: Helen Mirren. British actress. You’ll know her when we see her. She’s playing the Queen.

Brooke: K

K? That’s what you say to two tickets to see The Audience? K? 

So, Thursday night we went to see Billy Joel at the Garden. He was fabulous. Here’s a clip of Piano Man from the show we attended on May 28.

And on Friday night we had dinner at Patsy’s iconic Italian restaurant and then headed to the theatre to see Dame Helen (Yay!)

The Schoenfeld Theatre is intimate in size, so when we found our seats, I was delighted to find that we were just six rows back from the stage. I could write my own review of the play, which, unsurprisingly, was fabulous, but there are others who have written better and so I give you the excellent piece written for the Huffington Post:

Take a revered, honored and accomplished actress (Dame Helen Mirren) and put her in a new play which reprises a character that won her a Best Actress Oscar in 2006 (as Elizabeth in “The Queen”). And not a mere ripoff. Put it in the hands of Peter Morgan, who wrote “The Queen,” and whose theatrical bonafides include the astonishingly good Frost/Nixon; and director Stephen Daldry, of the stunning 1992 revival of An Inspector Calls and the international musical hit Billy Elliott. There are enough fans of Mirren, and H.R.H., and Anglophile television, to attract S.R.O. audiences in the West End and on Broadway for as long as the star wishes to wear the crown.

“Snapshots from The Queen,” you might call it; in this case, it is more like a scrapbook. “The Queen” was set in one year of Elizabeth’s reign, 1997, when she was dealing with the death of Princess Diana; Morgan’s The Audience centers on sixty years-worth of Elizabeth’s weekly audiences with her Prime Ministers (eight of whom are represented, starting with Winston Churchill and ending with the current David Cameron). And there’s the rub. While most theatergoers are likely to be thrilled byThe Audience–or more precisely, by Mirren’s performance in The Audience–the concept dictates that we will be seeing pages from a scrapbook, without the dramatic heft that would make it a fine and/or important play.


Yes, there is great life for The Audience with Helen Mirren; but the script itself seems to be merely an element of the evening devised to support the star performance, in the same manner as Bob Crowley’s sets and costumes and Ivana Primorac’s hair and make-up. Consider The Audience without the participation of Helen Mirren; while other stars are likely to try it–Kristin Scott Thomas is scheduled to do the play at London’s Apollo next month–the appeal, here, is watching the star of “The Queen” playing The Queen live and in person. Compare this to Frost/Nixon; while original stars Sheen and Langella were unforgettable in the roles, the play is more than strong enough to work with any number of actors.
The format is simple enough. The Equerry–a combination butler/narrator–sets the scene; Geoffrey Beevers, one of the four actors imported with Mirren from London, has a droll and authoritative, raised-eyebrow manner which keeps the evening moving. One is slightly surprised that he doesn’t start the affair with one of those “the action starts in 1936, before the age of cell phones, so please do toggle yours off” speeches. We then see Elizabeth with one of her more familiar prime ministers, John Major (a somewhat restrained and not-quite-comfortable Dylan Baker). Major exits; Equerry makes a little speech; a team of ladies-in-waiting help Mirren through an impressive, onstage costume change that trims forty-three years; and we see the silhouette of her first prime minister, Winston Churchill. Daldry gives Dakin Matthews a grand reveal, almost as if the silhouette of Alfred Hitchcock sprang to life. (This was presumably effective in not-so-merry olde England, but at the press preview attended it was clear that a major portion of the patrons had no idea who this Mr. Churchill was.)


That’s the framework. Between ministers, Mirren has costume and wig changes; some onstage, some off, and some rather remarkable–but there’s something faulty when one of the major highlights of an entertainment are the costume changes. (The most memorable element of the recent musical Cinderella, alas, was a costume change–which kept people talking but was indicative of the lackluster show itself.) Morgan also gives us a running character he calls “Young Elizabeth”–played at the performance attended by Sadie Sink, who alternates in the role with Elizabeth Teeter–who talks to one servant or other (and eventually her elder self) about how she would rather be able to go outside and play like all the other girls and boys.


The “imaginary conversations from history” nature of things is interrupted by the appearance of Harold Wilson, the Labour minister who served from 1964-70 and 1974-76. Wilson has an awkward, bull-in-the-china-shop scene in the first act, and a highly amusing scene with the queen in Scotland, in which he describes the Queen’s Balmoral C
astle as a “Rheinland Schloss.” (He continually kids the Regent about her family’s Germanic heritage.) The play ends with a third Wilson encounter, this one moving and emotionally affecting.


I can’t say whether the Wilson scenes are better than the rest of the play because of the actor, Richard McCabe; or whether Mr. McCabe, who won the Olivier Award for this performance (as did Mirren), sparks the play alive because of the writing. In any event, Wilson is the only Minister up there created as more than a revue sketch. In fact, Elizabeth and Wilson–as drawn by Morgan–could populate their own play, and it might well be as compelling as Frost/Nixon.


Mr. McCabe is a treat to watch. So, to a lesser extent, is Michael Elwyn as Anthony Eden. His participation is restricted to one, short scene; but it offers high stakes writing, centering on the Suez crisis of 1956, which tarnished the United Kingdom’s place in the postwar world and caused Eden’s resignation in disgrace. The Suez scene, following Balmoral and followed by the Margaret Thatcher sequence, makes the second act far more involving than the first. This despite the fact that Judith Ivey, who storms on like a Texan Thatcher, seems somewhat out of place (although this might be a question of the writing).
So look to The Audience for an audience with Helen Mirren, dressed and coiffed as Elizabeth II. An audience with Helen Mirren makes a fine night’s entertainment, but not–in this case–a compelling dramatic event.

You can watch a clip of Dame Helen’s acceptance speech from the 2015 Tony Awards when she was voted Best Leading Actress. She also won the Olivier Award for this role in 2013.
After the show, when Brooke and I were leaving the theater, we saw that barricades had already been erected either side of the stage door and a car was parked, ready and waiting, at the curb. Brooke offered to stand with me if I had my heart set on seeing Dame Helen, but I declined. I decided that it was best to recall her as she was on the stage, rather than when being hounded by autograph seekers.
So we turned away and began to walk down the block on our way to the Rum House for some much anticipated cocktails. Note: I had my very first Pimm’s Cup. Yumm. 
However, we’d only gone a few steps towards the next door theatre when we found that the actors who’d appeared in that play were already on their way out. I stood on tip toes and craned my neck in order see the actor who was causing such a stir.
Brooke: Can you see who it it?
Me: Yes.
Brooke: Well, w
ho is it?
Me: Bill Nighy!
Brooke: Who?
Me: A British actor. He’s been in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Pirates of the Caribean. You’d know him if you could see him, he looks exactly like himself! Too bad you’re too short to see. We’ll Google him when we get to the Rum House. 
Bill Nighy is starring in Skylight with Carey Mulligan
New York was wonderful, as it turned out, and it was great to have four whole days alone with Brooke. Still, I didn’t see myself returning any time soon – until I read that Colin Firth is set to play Henry Higgins in the Broadway revival of My Fair Lady.