chunk_id
stringlengths 5
8
| chunk
stringlengths 1
1k
|
|---|---|
1457_30 | Typically, antivirus software can combat malware in the following ways:
Real-time protection: They can provide real time protection against the installation of malware software on a computer. This type of malware protection works the same way as that of antivirus protection in that the anti-malware software scans all incoming network data for malware and blocks any threats it comes across.
Removal: Anti-malware software programs can be used solely for detection and removal of malware software that has already been installed onto a computer. This type of anti-malware software scans the contents of the Windows registry, operating system files, and installed programs on a computer and will provide a list of any threats found, allowing the user to choose which files to delete or keep, or to compare this list to a list of known malware components, removing files that match. |
1457_31 | Sandboxing: Provide sandboxing of apps considered dangerous (such as web browsers where most vulnerabilities are likely to be installed from). |
1457_32 | Real-time protection
A specific component of anti-malware software, commonly referred to as an on-access or real-time scanner, hooks deep into the operating system's core or kernel and functions in a manner similar to how certain malware itself would attempt to operate, though with the user's informed permission for protecting the system. Any time the operating system accesses a file, the on-access scanner checks if the file infected or not. Typically, when an infected file is found, execution is stopped and the file is quarantined to prevent further damage with the intention to prevent irreversible system damage. Most AVs allow users to override this behaviour. This can have a considerable performance impact on the operating system, though the degree of impact is dependent on how many pages it creates in virtual memory. |
1457_33 | Sandboxing
Because many malware components are installed as a result of browser exploits or user error, using security software (some of which are anti-malware, though many are not) to "sandbox" browsers (essentially isolate the browser from the computer and hence any malware induced change) can also be effective in helping to restrict any damage done.
Website security scans
Website vulnerability scans check the website, detect malware, may note outdated software, and may report known security issues, in order to reduce the risk of the site being compromised.
Network Segregation
Structuring a network as a set of smaller networks, and limiting the flow of traffic between them to that known to be legitimate, can hinder the ability of infectious malware to replicate itself across the wider network. Software Defined Networking provides techniques to implement such controls. |
1457_34 | "Air gap" isolation or "parallel network"
As a last resort, computers can be protected from malware, and the risk of infected computers disseminating trusted information can be greatly reduced by imposing an "air gap" (i.e. completely disconnecting them from all other networks) and applying enhanced controls over the entry and exit of software and data from the outside world. However, malware can still cross the air gap in some situations, not least due to the need to introduce software into the air-gapped network and can damage the availability or integrity of assets thereon. Stuxnet is an example of malware that is introduced to the target environment via a USB drive, causing damage to processes supported on the environment without the need to exfiltrate data.
AirHopper, BitWhisper, GSMem and Fansmitter are four techniques introduced by researchers that can leak data from air-gapped computers using electromagnetic, thermal and acoustic emissions.
See also |
1457_35 | Botnet
Browser hijacking
Comparison of antivirus software
Computer security
Cuckoo's egg (metaphor)
Cyber spying
Domain generation algorithm
Facebook malware
File binder
Identity theft
Industrial espionage
Linux malware
Malvertising
Phishing
Riskware
Security in Web apps
Social engineering (security)
Targeted threat
Technical support scam
Telemetry software
Typosquatting
Web server overload causes
Webattacker
Zombie (computer science)
References
External links
Further Reading: Research Papers and Documents about Malware on IDMARCH (Int. Digital Media Archive)
Advanced Malware Cleaning – a Microsoft video
Security breaches
Computer programming
Cybercrime |
1458_0 | Bank of Ireland Group plc () is a commercial bank operation in Ireland and one of the traditional Big Four Irish banks. Historically the premier banking organisation in Ireland, the Bank occupies a unique position in Irish banking history. At the core of the modern-day group is the old Bank of Ireland, the ancient institution established by Royal Charter in 1783.
History
Bank of Ireland is the oldest bank in continuous operation (apart from closures due to bank strikes in 1950, 1966, 1970, and 1976) in Ireland.
In 1781, the Bank of Ireland Act was passed by the Parliament of Ireland, establishing Bank of Ireland. On 25 June 1783, Bank of Ireland opened for business at Mary's Abbey in a private house previously owned by one Charles Blakeney.
On 6 June 1808, Bank of Ireland moved to 2 College Green. In 1864, Bank of Ireland paid its first interest on deposits. |
1458_1 | In 1926, Bank of Ireland took control of the National Land Bank. In 1948, The Bank of Ireland 1783–1946 by F.G. Hall was published jointly by Hodges Figgis (Dublin) and Blackwell's (Oxford).
In 1958, the Bank took over the Hibernian Bank Limited. In 1965, The National Bank Ltd, a bank founded by Daniel O'Connell in 1835, had branches in Ireland and Britain. The Irish branches were acquired by Bank of Ireland and rebranded temporarily as National Bank of Ireland, before being fully incorporated into Bank of Ireland. The British branches were acquired by Williams & Glyn's Bank. |
1458_2 | In 1980, the first Pass card and machine, also known as ATMs, was opened by Bank of Ireland. In 1983, Bank of Ireland celebrated its Bi-Centenary and a commemorative stamp was issued. The Bank also commissioned the publication of "An Irish Florilegium" that year. In 1995, Bank of Ireland merged First New Hampshire Bank with Royal Bank of Scotland's Citizens Financial Group. Only branches in cities and major towns had ATMs in the 1980s but branches in most medium and small towns installed then in the 1990s.
In 1996, Bank of Ireland bought the Bristol and West building society for UK£600 million (€882 million), which kept its own brand. In 1999, the bank held merger talks with Alliance & Leicester, but they were called off. In 2000, it was announced that Bank of Ireland was acquiring Chase de Vere. |
1458_3 | In 2002, Bank of Ireland acquired Iridian, a US investment manager, which doubled the size of its asset management business. In 2005, Bank of Ireland completed the sale of the Bristol and West branch and Direct Savings (Contact Centre) to Britannia Building Society.
In 2008, Moody's Investors Service changed its rating of Bank of Ireland from stable to negative. Moody's pinpointed concerns over weakening asset quality and the impact of a more challenging economic environment on profitability at Bank of Ireland. A share price collapse followed. In 2009, The Irish government announced a €7 billion rescue package for the bank and Allied Irish Banks plc in February. The biggest bank robbery in the history of the state took place at Bank of Ireland at College Green. Consultants Oliver Wyman validated Bank of Ireland's bad debt levels at €6 billion over three years to March 2011, a bad debt level which was exceeded by almost €1 billion within a matter of months. |
1458_4 | In 2010, The European Commission ordered the disposal of Bank of Ireland Asset Management, New Ireland Assurance, ICS Building Society, its US Foreign Exchange business and the stakes held in the Irish Credit Bureau and in an American Asset Manager followed the receipt of Irish Government State aid. In 2011, the Securities Services Division of the bank was sold to Northern Trust Corporation.
In 2013, Bank of Ireland more than doubled interest rates on mortgages tracking Bank of England rates, (which had remained stable for four years), citing the need to hold more reserves and the 'increased cost of funding mortgages'. Described by Ray Boulger of broker John Charcol as 'having shot the reputation of its mortgages to smithereens', nevertheless the bank continues to offer highly competitive mortgages through the Post Office. |
1458_5 | In 2014, regulation of the bank was transferred to the European Central Bank. Also in 2014, the bank entered into a marketing alliance with EVO Payments International and re-enters the card acquiring market. BOI Payment Acceptance launches in December 2014.
Role as government banker
Bank of Ireland is not, and was never, the Irish central bank. However, as well as being a commercial bank – a deposit-taker and a credit institution – it performed many central bank functions, much like the earlier-established Bank of Scotland and Bank of England. Bank of Ireland operated the Exchequer Account and during the nineteenth century acted as something of a banker of last resort. Even the titles of the chairman of the board of directors (the Governor) and the title of the board itself (the Court of Directors) suggest a central bank status. From the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922 until 31 December 1971, Bank of Ireland was the banker of the Irish Government.
Headquarters |
1458_6 | The headquarters of the bank until the 1970s was the impressive Parliament House on College Green, Dublin. This building was originally designed by Sir Edward Lovett Pearce in 1729 to host the Irish Parliament, and it was the world's first purpose-built bicameral parliament building. |
1458_7 | The bank had planned to commission a building designed by Sir John Soane to be constructed on the site bounded by Westmoreland Street, Fleet Street, College Street and D'Olier Street (now occupied by the Westin Hotel). However, the project was cancelled following the Act of Union in 1800, when the newly defunct Parliament House was bought by Bank of Ireland in 1803. The former Parliament House continues today as a working branch. Today, visitors can still view the impressive Irish House of Lords chamber within the old headquarters building. The Oireachtas, the modern parliament of the Republic of Ireland, is now housed in Leinster House in Dublin. In 2011, the Irish Government set out proposals to acquire the building as a venue for the state to use as a cultural venue. |
1458_8 | In the 1970s the bank moved its headquarters to a modern building, now known as Miesian Plaza, on Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2. As Frank McDonald notes in his book Destruction of Dublin, when these headquarters were built, it caused the world price of copper to rise – such was the usage in the building.
In 2010 the bank moved to its current, smaller headquarters on Mespil Road.
Banking services
Republic of Ireland
The Group provides a broad range of financial services in Ireland to the personal, commercial, industrial and agricultural sectors. These include checking and deposit services, overdrafts, term loans, mortgages, international asset financing, leasing, instalment credit, debt financing, foreign exchange facilities, interest and exchange rate hedging instruments, executor and trustee services. |
1458_9 | International Operations
The bank is headquartered in Dublin, and has operations throughout the Republic of Ireland. It also operates in Northern Ireland, where it prints its own banknotes in Pounds Sterling (see section on banknotes below). In Great Britain, the bank expanded largely through the takeover of the Bristol and West Building Society in 1996. Bank of Ireland also provides financial services for the British Post Office throughout the UK and AA Savings. Operations in the rest of the world are primarily undertaken by Bank of Ireland Corporate Banking who provide services in France, Germany, Spain and the United States.
Banknotes |
1458_10 | Although the Bank of Ireland is not a central bank, it does have sterling note-issuing rights in the United Kingdom. While the Bank has its headquarters in Dublin, it also has operations in Northern Ireland, where it retains the legal right (dating from before the partition of Ireland) to print its own banknotes. These are pound sterling notes and equal in value to Bank of England notes, and should not be confused with banknotes of the former Irish pound. |
1458_11 | The obverse side of Bank of Ireland banknotes features the Bank of Ireland logo, below which is a line of heraldic shields each representing one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Below this is a depiction of a seated Hibernia figure, surrounded by the Latin motto of the Bank, Bona Fides Reipublicae Stabilitas ("Good Faith is the Cornerstone of the State"). The current series of £5, £10 and £20 notes, issued in April 2008, all feature an illustration of the Old Bushmills Distillery on the reverse side. Prior to 2008, all Bank of Ireland notes featured an image of the Queen's University of Belfast on the reverse side.
The principal difference between the denominations is their colour and size:
£5 note, blue
£10 note, pink
£20 note, green
£50 note, blue-green
£100 note, red. |
1458_12 | The Bank of Ireland has never issued its own banknotes in the Republic of Ireland. Section 60 of the Currency Act 1927 removed the right of Irish banks to issue banknotes, however "consolidated banknotes", of a common design issued by all "Shareholder Banks" under the Act, were issued between 1929 and 1953. These notes were not legal tender.
Controversies
Michael Soden
Michael Soden abruptly quit as group chief executive on 29 May 2004 when it was discovered that adult material that contravened company policy was found on his Bank PC. Soden issued a personal statement explaining that the high standards of integrity and behaviour in an environment of accountability, transparency and openness, which he espoused, would cause embarrassment to the Bank. |
1458_13 | DIRT controversy |
1458_14 | A IR£30.5 million tax arrears liability was settled by Bank of Ireland in July 2000. The Bank told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee Inquiry that its liability was in the region of £1.5 million. The settlement figure was 'dictated' by the Revenue Commissioners following an audit by the Commissioners. It was in Bank of Ireland that some of the most celebrated of the "celebrated cases" of non-compliance and bogus non-resident accounts have to date been discovered and disclosed. Thurles, Boyle, Roscrea (1990), Milltown Malbay (1991), Dundalk (1989–90), Killester (1992), Tullamore (1993), Mullingar (1996), Castlecomer, Clonmel, Ballybricken, Ballinasloe, Skibbereen (1988), Dungarvan and, disclosed to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Sub-Committee, Ballaghaderreen (1998) and Ballygar (1999). The Public Accounts Sub-Committee Inquiry concluded that "the most senior executives in the Bank of Ireland did seek to set an ethical tone for the bank and unsuccessfully sought Revenue |
1458_15 | Commissioners assistance to promote an industry-wide Code of Practice. |
1458_16 | Stolen laptops
In April 2008 it was announced that four laptops with data pertaining to 10,000 customers were stolen between June and October 2007. This customer information included names, addresses, bank details, medical and pension details.
The thefts were initially reported to the Garda Síochána, however the Banks senior management did not know about the problem until February 2008 after an internal audit uncovered the theft and the Bank did not advise the Data Protection Commissioner and the Central Bank of Ireland until mid-April 2008. It also came to light that none of the laptops used encryption to protect the sensitive data. The Bank has since released a press release detailing the seven branches affected and its initial response, later in the month the Bank confirmed that 31,500 customer records were affected as well as an increased number of branches.
Record bank robbery |
1458_17 | On 27 February 2009, it was reported that a criminal gang from Dublin had stolen €7 million from the Bank of Ireland's main branch in College Green. The robbery was the biggest in the history of the Republic of Ireland, during which a girlfriend of an employee, her mother and her mother's five-year-old granddaughter were held hostage at gunpoint. Gardaí arrested six men the next day, and recovered €1.8 million. A spokesperson for the bank said: "Bank of Ireland's priority is for the safety and well-being of the staff member and the family involved in this incident and all of the bank's support services have been made available to them."
Wrong information on recapitalisation and bonuses |
1458_18 | The information provided to the Department of Finance in 2009 in advance of a recapitalisation of the bank which cost the taxpayer €3.5 billion "was incomplete and misleading". It also gave wrong information to the Minister for Finance who in turn misled the Dáil on €66 million in bonuses it paid since receiving a State guarantee. External examiners found it used "a restrictive and uncommon interpretation of what constituted a performance bonus". Their report also found that there had been "a catalogue of errors" and that the information supplied by Bank of Ireland to the Department of Finance was "presented in a manner which minimised the level of additional payments made". The Bank paid €2 million by way of compensation to the Exchequer for providing "misleading" information.
Relationship with outsourcing companies |
1458_19 | The Bank has forged strong links with IT outsourcing companies since 2004 or earlier. On 1 November 2010 IBM won the $450M full scope outsource contract to manage BoI Group's Information Technology (IT) infrastructure services (e.g. mainframe, servers, desktops and print services) in a competitive bid against HP (the incumbent outsource provider) and HCL. This follows on from the Bank's natural expiration of its current agreement with HP, which was signed in 2004. |
1458_20 | Following a competitive bid process with a number of parties, IBM was selected for exclusive contract negotiations in July 2011. During the intervening period, an extensive due diligence phase has been undertaken and relevant regulatory approval has been granted. |
1458_21 | IBM will manage the Group's entire IT infrastructure, including desktop systems, servers, mainframes, local area networks and service desk. Since then, BOI has given HCL a €30m Business Process Outsourcing contract and has selected them as strategic local resourcing partner in Ireland. In addition to that, HCL have opened a software factory for Bank of Ireland in India and has started to outsource production support for the retail banking and payments applications in BOI. This exclusive relationship with HCL has been seen as controversial in the context of the substantial Irish taxpayer investment in Bank of Ireland – and the lack of any significant investment by HCL in Ireland. A banking analyst said in July 2011 that BOI's IT system is "very antiquated." |
1458_22 | Closing accounts associated with Palestine
Bank of Ireland closed the accounts of Irish Palestine Solidarity campaign citing that the bank considered Palestine a high risk country. Sinn Féin TD Mary-Lou McDonald called this outrageous and an insult to the Palestinian people.
2008 share price collapse
On 5 March 2009, the shares reached €0.12 during the day, thereby reducing the value of the company by over 99% from its 2007 high. At the 2009 AGM, shareholders criticised the performance of their Auditors, PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
The Central Bank told the Oireachtas Enterprise Committee that shareholders who lost their money in the banking collapse were to blame for their fate and got what was coming to them for not keeping bank chiefs in check, but did admit that the Central Bank had failed to give sufficient warning about reckless lending to property developers.
References
Sources
External links |
1458_23 | Official Republic of Ireland Site
Official UK Site
BOI Payment Acceptance Official Site
Historical banknotes of the Bank of Ireland
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Banks of Ireland
Companies listed on Euronext Dublin
Ireland
Financial services companies based in Dublin (city)
Banks of Northern Ireland
Banks established in 1783
1783 establishments in Ireland
Banks under direct supervision of the European Central Bank
Irish brands |
1459_0 | Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more available tracks of a digital audio workstation (DAW) or tape recorder. The overdub process can be repeated multiple times. This technique is often used with singers, as well as with instruments, or ensembles/orchestras. Overdubbing is typically done for the purpose of adding richness and complexity to the original recording. For example, if there are only one or two artists involved in the recording process, overdubbing can give the effect of sounding like many performers. |
1459_1 | In vocal performances the performer usually listens to an existing recorded performance (usually through headphones in a recording studio) and simultaneously plays a new performance along with it, which is also recorded. The intention is that the final mix will contain a combination of these "dubs".
Another kind of overdubbing is the so called "tracking" (or "laying the basic tracks"), where tracks containing the rhythm section (usually including drums) are recorded first, then following up with overdubs (solo instruments, such as keyboards or guitar, then finally vocals). This method has been the standard technique for recording popular music since the early 1960s. Today, overdubbing can be accomplished even on basic recording equipment, or a typical PC equipped with a sound card, using digital audio workstation software. |
1459_2 | Because the process of overdubbing involves working with pre-recorded material, the performers involved do not have to ever have physically met each other, nor even still be alive. In 1991, decades after her father Nat King Cole had died, Natalie Cole released a "virtual duet" recording of "Unforgettable" where she overdubbed her vocals onto her father's original recording from the 1960s. As there is no limit in timespan with overdubbing, there is likewise no limit in distance, nor in the number of overdubbed layers. Perhaps the most wide-reaching collaborative overdub recording was accomplished by Eric Whitacre in 2013, where he edited together a "Virtual Choir" of 8,409 audio tracks from 5,905 people from 101 countries. |
1459_3 | History
Perhaps the earliest commercial issue of recordings with overdubs was by RCA Victor in the late 1920s, not long after the introduction of electric microphones into the recording studio. Recordings by the late Enrico Caruso still sold well, so RCA took some of his early records made with only piano accompaniment, added a studio orchestra, and reissued the recordings.
A foreshadow of overdubbing can be seen with Sidney Bechet, an American jazz musician who made a pair of famous overdubbed sides in 1941 entitled "The Sheik of Araby" and "Blues of Bechet". The multi-instrumentalist recorded the clarinet, soprano, tenor saxophone, piano and the bass and drum parts for both songs, and then he recorded each track separately on top of one another to create two single tracks. The recordings were then issued as "Sidney Bechet's One Man Band". |
1459_4 | The 1946 Disney animated film Make Mine Music includes overdubbed duo and trio performances by Nelson Eddy as an opera singing whale. The 1950 Disney film Cinderella used multiple tracks for vocals for the song "Sing, Sweet Nightingale".
In 1948, experiments mixing sound effects and musical instruments made by Pierre Schaeffer at the Radio Télédiffusion Française experimental studio in Paris led to Étude aux Tourniquets, the first avant-garde composition using recording as a composition technique, recorded, and mixed directly on acetate records as tape recorders were not yet available. Similar sound collage experiments had been made by Edgard Varèse in the 1920s but Varèse, also a French composer, wrote scores later played live by musicians. As from 1949, Schaeffer composed and recorded on acetates with Pierre Henry (Symphonie pour un homme seul, 1950), who also recorded with Varèse in 1954. Together, they used some of the earliest tape recorders available in the early 1950s. |
1459_5 | The invention of magnetic tape opened up new possibilities for overdubbing, particularly with the development of multitrack recording with sel-sync. One of the first known commercially released overdubbed recordings was "Confess" for Mercury Records by Patti Page in 1948, although this overdubbing was done with acetate. With the popularity of this recording Page recorded "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming" using the same overdubbing technique. The vocals were listed as "Voices by: Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page, Patti Page". |
1459_6 | Les Paul was an early innovator of overdubbing, and began to experiment with it around 1930. He originally created multi-track recordings by using a modified disk lathe to record several generations of sound on a single disk, before later using tape technology, having been given one of the first Ampex 300 series tape recorders as a gift from Bing Crosby. His 1950 #1 hit, "How High The Moon", performed with his then-wife Mary Ford, featured a then-significant amount of overdubbing, along with other studio techniques such as flanging, delay, phasing and varispeed.
Les Paul's advancements in recording were seen in the adoption of his techniques by artists like Buddy Holly. In 1958, Holly released "Words of Love" and "Listen to Me," which were composed with overdubbing for added instrumentation and harmonies. |
1459_7 | Peter Ustinov performed multiple voices on "Mock Mozart", in a recording produced by George Martin. Abbey Road Studios had no multitrack recorders at the time, so a pair of mono machines were used. Martin used the same process later for a Peter Sellers comedy record, this time using stereo machines and panning.
Examples |
1459_8 | Overdubs can be made for a variety of reasons. One of the most obvious is for convenience; for example, if a bass guitarist were temporarily unavailable, the recording can be made and the bass track added later. Similarly, if only one or two guitarists are available, but a song calls for multiple guitar parts, a guitarist can play both lead and rhythm guitar. Overdubbing is also used to solidify a weak singer; doubletracking allows a singer with poor intonation to sound more in tune. (The opposite of this is often used with sampled instruments; detuning the sample slightly can make the sound more lifelike.) The effect is used to give one singer a fuller sound. They would effectively harmonize with their own vocals, like a choir but with just one voice. |
1459_9 | Overdubbing has sometimes been viewed negatively, when it is seen as being used to artificially enhance the musical skills of an artist or group, such as with studio-recorded inserts to live recordings, or backing tracks created by session musicians instead of the credited performers. The early records of the Monkees were made by groups of studio musicians pre-recording songs (often in a different studio, and some before the band was even formed), which were later overdubbed with the Monkees' vocals. While the songs became hits, this practice drew criticism. Michael Nesmith in particular disliked what overdubbing did to the integrity of the band's music. Additionally in working with producer Butch Vig, Kurt Cobain had expressed a disdain for double-track recording. Vig had to reportedly convince Cobain to use the recording technique by saying, "The Beatles did it on everything. John Lennon loved the sound of his voice double-tracked." |
1459_10 | Paulinho da Costa's song "Ritmo Number One" from his 1977 album "Agora" uses a base track with surdo (big bass drum) and percussion, overdubbed with 8 percussion tracks (repique, pandeiro, congas, tamborims, a-go-go, cuica, belltree, reco-reco).
See also
AMPEX
Auto-Tune
Dub (disambiguation)
Dubbing (music)
Dubbing (filmmaking)
Multitrack recording
Punch in/out
Recording studio as an instrument
Music tracker
References
Further reading
Modern Recording Techniques, by David Miles Huber and Robert E. Runstein. October 1, 2009 0240810694
External links
Music production
Musical terminology
cs:Playback |
1460_0 | Chanctonbury Ring is a prehistoric hill fort atop Chanctonbury Hill on the South Downs, on the border of the civil parishes of Washington and Wiston in the English county of West Sussex. A ridgeway, now part of the South Downs Way, runs along the hill. It forms part of an ensemble of associated historical features created over a span of more than 2,000 years, including round barrows dating from the Bronze Age to the Saxon periods and dykes dating from the Iron Age and Roman periods. |
1460_1 | Consisting of a roughly circular low earthen rampart surrounded by a ditch, Chanctonbury Ring is thought to date to the late Bronze Age or early Iron Age. The purpose of the structure is unknown but it could have filled a variety of roles, including a defensive position, a cattle enclosure or even a religious shrine. After a few centuries of usage, it was abandoned for about five hundred years until it was reoccupied during the Roman period. Two Romano-British temples were built in the hill fort's interior, one of which may have been dedicated to a boar cult. |
1460_2 | After its final abandonment around the late fourth century AD, the hill fort remained unoccupied save for grazing cattle until a mid-18th-century landowner planted a ring of beech trees around its perimeter to beautify the site. They became a famous local landmark until largely being destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987. Periodic replanting on a number of occasions to replace old or destroyed trees has afforded archaeologists the opportunity to carry out a series of excavations which have revealed much about the history of the site.
Description |
1460_3 | Chanctonbury Ring is in a commanding position looking across the Sussex Weald to the north, on the edge of a steep natural escarpment to the northwest and northeast. It is at the middle point of a long, narrow and otherwise treeless plateau, approached via ridges to the east and west. A trig point is located about west of the Ring, recorded by the Ordnance Survey as above sea level. Although this was originally recorded as the top of Chanctonbury Hill and thus the Marilyn summit, recent measurements suggest that the area of the Ring is higher, about above sea level. The Ring lies just to the north of an ancient ridgeway which has been in use since prehistoric times and is now part of the South Downs Way. |
1460_4 | The hill fort is roughly circular, enclosing about . The bank around the enclosure is about wide and up to high, with a circumference of about . It is surrounded by a ditch approximately wide and deep. The bank was constructed from chalk rubble, flint and clay excavated from its surrounding ditch. They would originally have been much wider and deeper, and would have had prominent lines of sight to other prehistoric landmarks in the area. The fort is defined by archaeologists as a "slight univallate hill fort", indicating a single-walled earthwork with a low rampart. |
1460_5 | The original entrance to the hill fort was provided by a gap of approximately on the south-eastern side, where the remains of a causeway are visible. Another gap through the rampart is visible on the south-western side but was probably created much later after the hill fort had gone out of use, as no causeway is visible there. The rampart and outer ditch have largely been preserved on the southern side, though slightly damaged by two small quarries dug into it. Erosion and soil creep have reduced the earthworks on the northern side and only traces remain of the ditch in this area. The perimeter and interior of the hill fort are occupied by a planted stand of beech trees.
History
Origins |
1460_6 | Chanctonbury Ring was investigated by archeologists in excavations carried out in 1869, 1909, 1977 and 1988–91. Evidence for human activity in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age has been found, but not settlement or occupation. The finds consisted of tools likely to have been used for exploiting woodland. The construction of a number of barrows on the top of Chanctonbury Hill suggests that the hilltop was seen as an area of special significance, perhaps because of its high visibility. It is conceivable that the domed summit now occupied by Chanctonbury Ring was used as a site for ritual activity on account of its prominent position along the South Downs ridgeway. If so, it is conceivable that the stone tools found on the site, pre-dating the hill fort, may have been intended as ritual depositions. |
1460_7 | The hill fort was initially thought to have been built and initially occupied during the Early Iron Age, around the sixth to the fourth centuries BC. Dating evidence was provided by pottery shards and refuse pits; an animal bone found on the site was dated through radiocarbon dating to around 370 BC. However, later analysis of pottery finds suggests that its origins are significantly older and may date to the late Bronze Age, or around the seventh century BC.
Chanctonbury Ring appears to have been abandoned some time around the mid-fourth century BC, but was possibly in only intermittent usage before then. The reason for its abandonment is unknown but might be linked to the construction of the much larger hill fort at Cissbury Ring a few miles away, which may have taken over some of the functions of the much older Chanctonbury Ring. |
1460_8 | The site's original purpose is unclear. Despite the martial connotations of the term "hill fort", such places were used for a wide variety of purposes, including "stock enclosures, redistribution centres, places of refuge and permanent settlements". Structures were often erected within their perimeter, such as houses, storage pits and probably raised granaries. However, archaeological evidence is lacking for the existence of such structures within Chanctonbury Ring, which would have been in an extremely exposed and windswept spot. One possibility is that it may have been used as a centre for religious activity.
Roman temples |
1460_9 | Around five hundred years after its initial abandonment, Chanctonbury Ring was reused as a religious site from the mid-first century AD. At least two Romano-Celtic temples were built in the interior, probably some time during the second century, while the bank and ditch were reused to form a temenos or "sacred precinct". The remains of the temples survive principally as buried wall footings of mortared flint rubble. They are located only a few centimetres below the ground but are not visible on the surface. Mosaic fragments from Chanctonbury Ring can be found at the Horsham Museum. |
1460_10 | The larger of the two known temples was constructed on a west-east alignment in the centre of the fort, at the highest point on the site. It had a "rectangular central cella or inner chamber" measuring about by . An ambulatory or enclosed covered walkway enclosed it on the west, north and east sides, and was paved with a "rammed chalk floor" around wide. The ambulatory's external wall was covered with red-painted plaster. The building was entered from the east, aligning it with the original entrance to the hill fort. |
1460_11 | A small rectangular structure stood about from the north-east corner of temple. Constructed on a NNE-SSW axis, it measured about by . This has been interpreted as an oven or furnace. A large circular rubbish pit was constructed nearby. It has provided a variety of datable finds, including roof tile fragments, "window glass, oyster shells, pottery sherds and coins", analysis of which has shown that the temple was in use during an approximately 350-year-long period from the mid-first to the late fourth centuries AD. It is not known which deity the temple was dedicated to. |
1460_12 | A second temple was located around southwest of the first. Its remains are much more fragmentary as it appears to have been dismantled after falling out of use. It appears to have had a polygonal shape, measuring about on each side, with a rectangular annexe on the eastern side which had a floor made of tessellated greensand cubes. The temple may have been dedicated to a boar cult, judging from the discovery of numerous bone fragments from the heads and jaws of pigs. A copper alloy plaque of a boar found at nearby Muntham Court Romano-British site may have been associated with the cult. |
1460_13 | It is not known why the Roman temples were built on the site, but there are examples elsewhere of the Romans building on the site of Iron Age temples or shrines. However, it is more difficult to argue for this being the case at Chanctonbury Ring, given the gap of half a millennium between the hill fort's abandonment and reoccupation. In other locations, such as at Hayling Island and Maiden Castle, there was continuity of religious use between Iron Age and Roman times, which was clearly not the case with Chanctonbury. |
1460_14 | The hill fort's rampart may have been refurbished when it was reoccupied, and at least one of the two nearby dykes was probably also constructed during the Roman period. The excavation of 1909 also reportedly found the remains of a "curious pear-shaped structure", but subsequent archaeological investigations have revealed no evidence of it. The site is linked via a Roman terraceway on the north face of Chanctonbury Hill to the Sussex Greensand Way, which runs parallel to the northern escarpment of the Downs.
18th-century copse |
1460_15 | After its abandonment, Chanctonbury Ring appears to have been left unoccupied and unused throughout the late Roman, medieval and early modern periods. The site lies within the estate of the Goring family of Wiston House, who have been prominent local landowners for centuries. The ring of beech trees that gave it its fame was first planted in 1760 by Charles Goring, around and just inside the ramparts. At the age of 16, he decided to beautify the site by planting it with trees, though the interior was left open at the time. He was said to have carried water up the hill each time he visited to water his trees, though some versions of the story say that he had his footmen climb the hill each day with buckets of water. His successors have continued to replant the trees ever since and have ensured that the fort remains a prominent landmark on the crest of the South Downs. |
1460_16 | 20th century
In 1909, the Gorings decided that they would also plant trees in the fort's interior. Large quantities of Romano-British pottery and building rubble were discovered during preparations for planting, prompting the first archaeological excavation of the hill fort. The two temples and a large number of artefacts were discovered. However, the planting has caused damage to the archaeology within the hill fort due to disturbances caused by tree roots.
Further damage was sustained through quarrying and the hill fort's use during World War II as an anti-aircraft gun position, when four gun emplacements were constructed within its perimeter. Damage was also caused by World War II training activities, including the digging of practice slit trenches and rubbish pits on the site. |
1460_17 | Chanctonbury Ring was fenced off for a number of years after 1950 when the then owner surrounded it with barbed wire and erected a large iron water tank for cattle. This prompted controversy for blocking rights of way and harming the view, and was eventually removed.
In 1977, the Goring estate set about replanting areas of the ring to replace trees which were at the end of their natural lifespan. This provided West Sussex County Council with an opportunity to carry out a further archaeological investigation of the site, which was accomplished during July and August of that year. |
1460_18 | The Great Storm of 1987 destroyed over 75% of the trees. It was decided to replant the ring and to take a fresh opportunity to investigate the ring's archaeology. Further archaeological investigations took place between 1987 and 1991 which led to a reassessment of earlier findings and a redating of the hill fort's construction to an earlier period. The replanted trees are only now beginning to restore the ring to its former glory.
Other features in the vicinity
Archaeological sites |
1460_19 | Chanctonbury Ring comprises part of a closely associated group of archaeological sites on Chanctonbury Hill dating from the prehistoric, Roman and medieval periods. They are protected as scheduled monuments. Around to the west is a cross-dyke measuring long with a ditch on its western side. A similar crescent-shaped cross-dyke lies about the same distance to the east. The two dykes slice across the ridge on which the fort lies and are likely to be associated with its defence. While the eastern dyke is undated, the western dyke has been dated to the Roman period and represents an unusually late example of this type of structure.
A number of prehistoric barrows of the saucer and bowl type and hlaews or Saxon barrows are located in the vicinity of the fort, indicating the importance of the hilltop as a place of sacred and ritual activity for at least 2,000 years. A well-preserved example of a bowl barrow, the commonest type of round barrow, is located west of Chanctonbury Ring. |
1460_20 | Three well-preserved saucer barrows and a pair of hlaews are located just to the south-east of Chanctonbury Ring and represent some of the rarest types of barrow, of which only a few dozen examples of each are known nationwide. The saucer barrows are undated but similar examples are known to date to between 1800-1200BC. Such barrows generally contain an inhumation or cremation burial with a few grave goods such as pottery, tools and personal accessories. Hlaews were built during Anglo-Saxon or Viking times for high-ranking individuals and consist of mounds generally built over graves dug into the soil below. The ones at Chanctonbury Ring have not yet been excavated. |
1460_21 | There may be additional poorly preserved barrows in the vicinity of the hill fort. A topographical survey conducted by Mark Tibble has identified fourteen landscape features which may be previously unrecognised round barrows. Some barrows have certainly been lost to erosion or ploughing, as in the case of one about further west which was excavated in the 1950s before being destroyed. It was found to contain the skeletons of an adult female and a child and fragmentary remains of a third individual, as well as a fine example of an early Bronze Age Wessex culture dagger dating to around 1800–1500 BC. The barrows around Chanctonbury Fort usually have a depression in their centre, indicating that they were robbed at some point; medieval pottery found in the destroyed barrow suggests that this took place, at least in that case, in the Middle Ages. Archaeologists have discovered very little in the other barrows, presumably due to grave-robbers.
Dew pond |
1460_22 | Near the trig point is Chanctonbury Dew Pond, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Constructed about 1870, it was restored by the Sussex Society of Downsmen in 1970, and is maintained by them.
Legends
Local legend has it that Chanctonbury Ring was created by the Devil and that he can be summoned by running around the clump of trees seven times anti-clockwise. When he appears he will offer the summoner a bowl of soup in exchange for their soul. Frank R. Williams, writing in the Sussex Notes and Queries in 1944, argues that the story derives from ancient pagan worship which would include a ritual dance ceremony followed by a sacrificial feast. The association with Chanctonbury derives from an earlier pagan site on the land. The story is widely known orally with variations (such as the Devil offering porridge or milk instead of soup) but may be of relatively recent origins, with its first known appearance in print dating to Arthur Beckett's 1909 book The Spirit of the Downs. |
1460_23 | The occultists Aleister Crowley and his associate Victor Neuburg, who lived in Steyning two miles away from Chanctonbury Ring, were reportedly convinced that the site was a "place of power" for its pre-Christian religious significance. It is unclear whether they actually visited it, but Neuberg published poems about the supposed mystic power of the site and imagined gruesome Druidic sacrifices taking place there.
In his 2013 travelogue The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot, Robert Macfarlane gives an account of an unsettling experience sleeping out on Chanctonbury Ring one summer night, during which he is woken by unearthly screaming at 2am.
The Ring is also claimed to increase fertility in women who sleep underneath the trees for one night. |
1460_24 | Access
There are two car parks at the base of the hill: to the north-east on Chanctonbury Ring Road off the A283 Washington Road, and to the west on Washington Bostal just off the A24 road. The hill is located just off the South Downs Way and enjoys extensive views to the north.
In popular culture
The ring features, along with the nearby town of Steyning (Starring in the book, the main protagonist attends a fictional girls' high school there), in the 1925 girls' school story Katharine Goes to School, by Winifred Darch. Chanctonbury serves as an atmospheric meeting place, and there is some mention of the legends surrounding it.
The album Chanctonbury Rings by Justin Hopper, Sharron Kraus and Belbury Poly, released on Ghost Box Records in 2019, contains prose and poetry detailing the geography and legends relating to the rings and its environs. |
1460_25 | The ring and immediate area are the setting for The Sussex Downs Murder (1936) by John Bude and reprinted in the British Library Crime Classics.
References
Marilyns of England
Hill forts in West Sussex
Hills of West Sussex
History of West Sussex
Roman religious sites in England
Archaeological sites in West Sussex
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in West Sussex
Tourist attractions in West Sussex
Horsham District
Scheduled monuments in West Sussex |
1461_0 | The Waterloo campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army was commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy, who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout, who took command at the request of the French Provisional Government. The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Prince Blücher. |
1461_1 | The war between France and the Seventh Coalition came when the other European Great Powers refused to recognise Napoleon as Emperor of the French upon his return from exile on the island of Elba, and declared war on him, rather than France, as they still recognised Louis XVIII as the king of France and considered Napoleon a usurper. Rather than wait for the Coalition to invade France, Napoleon decided to attack his enemies and hope to defeat them in detail before they could launch their combined and coordinated invasion. He chose to launch his first attack against the two Coalition armies cantoned in modern-day Belgium, then part of the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands, but until the year before part of the First French Empire. |
1461_2 | Hostilities started on 15 June when the French drove in the Prussian outposts and crossed the river Sambre at Charleroi placing their forces between the cantonment areas of Wellington's Army (to the west) and Blücher's army to the east. On 16 June the French prevailed with Marshal Ney commanding the left wing of the French army holding Wellington at the Battle of Quatre Bras and Napoleon defeating Blücher at the Battle of Ligny. On 17 June, Napoleon left Grouchy with the right wing of the French army to pursue the Prussians while he took the reserves and command of the left wing of the army to pursue Wellington towards Brussels. |
1461_3 | On the night of 17 June the Anglo-allied army turned and prepared for battle on a gentle escarpment, about south of the village of Waterloo. The next day the Battle of Waterloo proved to be the decisive battle of the campaign. The Anglo-allied army stood fast against repeated French attacks, until with the aid of several Prussian corps that arrived at the east side of the battlefield in the early evening they managed to rout the French Army. Grouchy with the right wing of the army engaged a Prussian rearguard at the simultaneous Battle of Wavre, and although he won a tactical victory his failure to prevent the Prussians marching to Waterloo meant that his actions contributed to the French defeat at Waterloo. The next day (19 June) he left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris. |
1461_4 | After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but returned to Paris to try to secure political support for further action. He failed to do so, and was forced to abdicate on 22 June. Two days later, a Provisional Government took over French politics. Meanwhile, the two Coalition armies hotly pursued the French army to the gates of Paris, during which the French on occasion turned and fought some delaying actions, in which thousands of men were killed.
Initially the remnants of the French left wing and the reserves that were routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult while Grouchy kept command of the right wing. However, on 25 June Soult was relieved of his command by the Provisional Government and was replaced by Grouchy, who in turn was placed under the command of Davout. |
1461_5 | When the French Provisional Government realised that the French army under Marshal Davout was unable to defend Paris, they authorised delegates to accept capitulation terms which led to the Convention of St. Cloud (the surrender of Paris) which ended hostilities between France and the armies of Blücher and Wellington.
The two Coalition armies entered Paris on 7 July. The next day Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne, and a week later on 15 July Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland of . Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died on 5 May 1821.
Under the terms of the peace treaty of November 1815, Coalition forces remained in Northern France as an army of occupation under the command of the Duke of Wellington.
Prelude |
1461_6 | Napoleon returned from his exile on the island of Elba on 1 March 1815, King Louis XVIII fled Paris on 19 March, and Napoleon entered Paris the next day. Meanwhile, far from recognising him as Emperor of the French, the Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia) and their allies, who were assembled at the Congress of Vienna, declared Napoleon an outlaw, and with the signing of this declaration on 13 March 1815, so began the War of the Seventh Coalition. The hopes of peace that Napoleon had entertained were gone – war was now inevitable. |
1461_7 | A further treaty (the Treaty of Alliance against Napoleon) was ratified on 25 March in which each of the Great European Powers agreed to pledge 150,000 men for the coming conflict. Such a number was not possible for Great Britain, as her standing army was smaller than the three of her peers. Besides, her forces were scattered around the globe, with many units still in Canada, where the War of 1812 had recently ceased. With this in mind she made up her numerical deficiencies by paying subsidies to the other Powers and to the other states of Europe that would contribute contingents. |
1461_8 | Some time after the allies began mobilising, it was agreed that the planned invasion of France was to commence on 1 July 1815, much later than both Blücher and Wellington would have liked as both their armies were ready in June, ahead of the Austrians and Russians; the latter were still some distance away. The advantage of this later invasion date was that it allowed all the invading Coalition armies a chance to be ready at the same time. Thus they could deploy their combined numerically superior forces against Napoleon's smaller, thinly spread forces, thus ensuring his defeat and avoiding a possible defeat within the borders of France. Yet this postponed invasion date allowed Napoleon more time to strengthen his forces and defences, which would make defeating him harder and more costly in lives, time and money. |
1461_9 | Napoleon now had to decide whether to fight a defensive or offensive campaign. Defence would entail repeating the 1814 campaign in France but with much larger numbers of troops at his disposal. France's chief cities, Paris and Lyon, would be fortified and two great French armies, the larger before Paris and the smaller before Lyon, would protect them; francs-tireurs would be encouraged, giving the Coalition armies their own taste of guerrilla warfare. |
1461_10 | Napoleon chose to attack, which entailed a pre-emptive strike at his enemies before they were all fully assembled and able to co-operate. By destroying some of the major Coalition armies, Napoleon believed he would then be able to bring the governments of the Seventh Coalition to the peace table to discuss results favourable to himself, namely peace for France with himself remaining in power as its head. If peace were rejected by the allies despite any pre-emptive military success he might have achieved using the offensive military option available to him, then the war would continue and he could turn his attention to defeating the rest of the Coalition armies. |
1461_11 | Napoleon's decision to attack in Belgium was supported by several considerations. First, he had learned that the British and Prussian armies were widely dispersed and might be defeated in detail. The other major coalition armies of Russia and Austria would not be able to reinforce the Prussians and British. This was because the Russian army was still moving across Europe and the Austrian army was still mobilising. Also, the British troops in Belgium were largely second-line troops; most of the veterans of the Peninsular War had been sent to America to fight the War of 1812. In addition, the army of the United Netherlands was reinforcing the British. These Dutch troops were ill-equipped and inexperienced. And, politically, a French victory might trigger a pro-French revolution in French-speaking Belgium.
Deployments
French forces |
1461_12 | During the Hundred Days both the Coalition nations and Napoleon mobilised for war. Upon resumption of the throne, Napoleon found that he was left with little by Louis XVIII. There were 56,000 soldiers of which 46,000 were ready to campaign. By the end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training but not yet ready for deployment. |
1461_13 | Napoleon placed some corps of his armed forces at various strategic locations as armies of observations. Napoleon split his forces into three main armies; first, he placed an army in the south near the alps. This army was to stop Austrian advances in Italy. Second, there was an army on the French/Prussian border where he hoped to defeat any Prussians attacks. Last, the L'Armee du Nord was placed on the border with the United Netherlands to defeat the British, Dutch and Prussian forces if they dared to attack. (see Military mobilisation during the Hundred Days)Lamarque led the small Army of the West into La Vendée to quell a Royalist insurrection in that region. |
1461_14 | By the end of May Napoleon had formed L'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") which, led by himself, would participate in the Waterloo campaign and had deployed the corps of this army as follows:
I Corps (D'Erlon) cantoned between Lille and Valenciennes.
II Corps (Reille) cantoned between Valenciennes and Avesnes.
III Corps (Vandamme) cantoned around Rocroi.
IV Corps (Gérard ) cantoned at Metz.
VI Corps (Lobau) cantoned at Laon.
I, II, III, and IV Reserve Cavalry Corps (Grouchy) cantoned at Guise.
Imperial Guard (Mortier) at Paris. |
1461_15 | Once the campaign was underway Napoleon, on the evening of 15 June, would send Marshal Ney with the left wing of the army (I and II corps) to face Wellington at Quatre Bras. During the morning of 17 June Napoleon detached the right wing (III and IV corps) under Marshal Grouchy to pursue the retreating Prussians (who retreated to Wavre), while he led the reserves (Imperial Guard, VI Corps, and I, II, III, and IV Cavalry Corps) to rejoin Ney's detachment and pursue Wellington to Waterloo.
Coalition forces
In the early days of June 1815, Wellington and Blücher's forces were disposed as follows: |
1461_16 | Wellington's Anglo-allied army of 93,000 with headquarters at Brussels were cantoned:
I Corps (Prince of Orange), 30,200, headquarters Braine-le-Comte, disposed in the area Enghien-Genappe-Mons.
II Corps (Lord Hill), 27,300, headquarters Ath, distributed in the area Ath-Oudenarde-Ghent.
Reserve cavalry (Lord Uxbridge) 9,900, in the valley of the Dendre river, between Geraardsbergen and Ninove.
The reserve (under Wellington himself) 25,500, lay around Brussels.
The frontier in front (to the west) of Leuze to Binche was watched by Dutch light cavalry. |
1461_17 | Blücher's Prussian army of 116,000 men, with headquarters at Namur, was distributed as follows:
I Corps (Graf von Zieten), 30,800, cantoned along the Sambre, headquarters Charleroi, and covering the area Fontaine-l'Évêque-Fleurus-Moustier.
II Corps (Pirch I), 31,000, headquarters at Namur, lay in the area Namur-Hannut-Huy.
III Corps (Thielemann), 23,900, in the bend of the river Meuse, headquarters Ciney, and disposed in the area Dinant-Huy-Ciney.
IV Corps (Bülow), 30,300, with headquarters at Liège and cantoned around it.
The frontier in front of Binche, Charleroi and Dinant was watched by the Prussian outposts.
Thus the Coalition front extended for nearly across what is now Belgium, and the mean depth of their cantonments was . To concentrate the whole army on either flank would take six days, and on the common centre, around Charleroi, three days.
Start of hostilities (15 June) |
1461_18 | Napoleon moved the 128,000 strong Army of the North up to the Belgian frontier in relative secrecy, and crossed the frontier at Thuin near Charleroi on 15 June 1815. The French drove in Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" – at the junction between Wellington's army to his north-west, and Blücher's Prussians to his north-east. Wellington had expected Napoleon to try to envelop the Coalition armies by moving through Mons and to the west of Brussels. Wellington feared that such a move would cut his communications with the ports he relied on for supply. Napoleon encouraged this view with misinformation. Wellington did not hear of the capture of Charleroi until 15:00, because a message from Wellington's intelligence chief, Colquhoun Grant, was delayed by General Dörnberg. Confirmation swiftly followed in another message from the Prince of Orange. Wellington ordered his army to concentrate around the divisional headquarters, but was still unsure whether the |
1461_19 | attack in Charleroi was a feint and the main assault would come through Mons. Wellington only determined Napoleon's intentions with certainty in the evening, and his orders for his army to muster near Nivelles and Quatre Bras were sent out just before midnight. |
1461_20 | The Prussian General Staff seem to have divined the French army's intent rather more accurately.
The Prussians were not taken unawares. General Zieten noted the number of campfires as early as 13 June and Blücher began to concentrate his forces.
Napoleon considered the Prussians the greater threat and so moved against them first with the right wing of the Army of the North and the Reserves. Graf von Zieten's I Corps rearguard action on 15 June held up Napoleon's advance, giving Blücher the opportunity to concentrate his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. Napoleon placed Marshal Ney in command of the French left wing and ordered him to secure the crossroads of Quatre Bras towards which Wellington was hastily gathering his dispersed army. Ney's scouts reached Quatre Bras that evening.
16 June
Quatre Bras |
1461_21 | Ney, advancing on 16 June, found Quatre Bras lightly held by Dutch troops of Wellington's army. Despite outnumbering the Anglo-allies heavily throughout the day, Ney fought a cautious and desultory battle which failed to capture the crossroads. By the middle of the afternoon Wellington had taken personal command of the Anglo-allied forces at Quatre Bras. The position was reinforced steadily throughout the day as Anglo-allied troops converged on the crossroads. The battle ended in a tactical draw. The next day the Allies ceded the field at Quatre Bras to consolidate their forces on more favourable ground to the north along the road to Brussels as a prelude to the Battle of Waterloo.
Ligny |
1461_22 | Napoleon, meanwhile, used the right wing of his army and the reserve to defeat the Prussians, under the command of General Blücher, at the Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack but the flanks held their ground. Several heavy Prussian cavalry charges proved enough to discourage French pursuit. Indeed, they would not pursue the Prussians until the morning of 18 June. D'Erlon's I Corps wandered between both battles contributing to neither Quatre Bras nor to Ligny. Napoleon wrote to Ney warning him that allowing D'Erlon to wander so far away had crippled his attacks on Quatre Bras. However, he made no move to recall D'Erlon when he could easily have done so. The tone of his orders shows that he believed he had things well in hand at Ligny without assistance (as in fact he had).
Interlude (17 June) |
1461_23 | After the fighting at Quatre Bras the two opposing commanders Ney and Wellington initially held their ground while they obtained information about what had happened at the larger Battle of Ligny.
With the defeat of the Prussians Napoleon still had the initiative, for Ney's failure to take the Quatre Bras cross roads had actually placed the Anglo-allied army in a precarious position. Ney, reinforced by D'Erlon's fresh corps, lay in front of Wellington, and Ney could have fastened upon the Anglo-allied army and held it in place during the early morning of 17 June, sufficiently long to allow Napoleon to close round his foe's open left flank and deal him a deathblow. |
1461_24 | But it did not happen because the French were desultory in the aftermath of Ligny. Napoleon wasted the morning of 17 June by taking a late breakfast and going to see the previous day's battlefield before organising a pursuit of the two Coalition armies. He took the reserves and marched with Ney in pursuit of the Duke of Wellington's Anglo-allied army, and he gave instructions to Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians wherever they were going and harry them so that they had no time to reorganise. |
1461_25 | After their defeat at the Battle of Ligny the Prussians successfully disengaged and withdrew to north west to Wavre where they reorganised. Leaving one corps in Wavre as a blocking rearguard, the three other corps advanced westward to attack the right flank of the French army in front of Waterloo. Both Napoleon and Grouchy assumed that the Prussians were retreating towards Namur and Liège, with a view to occupy the line of the river Meuse, and so during 17 June Grouchy sent the bulk of his cavalry ranging in that direction as far as Perwez. In his despatch to Napoleon written at 22:00 he was still thought that most of the Prussian army was retreating north-east, although by then he realised that two Prussian corps were heading north towards Wavre. In a second dispatch written four hours later he informed Napoleon that he now intended to advance either on Corbais or Wavre. The problem for the French was that by the end of 17 June, most of Grouchy's detachment was now behind the |
1461_26 | Prussians, on the far side of the Dyle. This meant that they were incapable of preventing the Prussians moving from Wavre towards Waterloo and too far away themselves to go directly to the aid of Napoleon on 18 June should Wellington turn and fight south of Brussels. |
1461_27 | Upon receiving the news of Blücher's defeat, Wellington organised the retreat of the Anglo-allied army to a place he had identified a year before as the best place in front of Brussels for him to be able to employ his reverse slope tactics when fighting a major battle: Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment close to the village of Waterloo.
Aided by thunderstorms and torrential rain, Wellington's army successfully extricated itself from Quatre Bras and passed through the defile of Genappe. The infantry marched ahead and were screened by a large cavalry rearguard. The French harried Wellington's army, and there was a cavalry action at Genappe. However the French were unable to inflict any substantial casualties before night fell and Wellington's men were ensconced in bivouacs on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean.
Waterloo (18 June) |
1461_28 | It was at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 that the decisive battle of the campaign took place. The start of the battle was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night's rain. By late afternoon the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's forces from the escarpment on which they stood. Once the Prussians arrived, attacking the French right flank in ever increasing numbers, Napoleon's key strategy of keeping the Seventh Coalition armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined coalition general advance. |
1461_29 | On the morning of 18 June 1815 Napoleon sent orders to Marshal Grouchy, commander of the right wing of the Army of the North, to harass the Prussians to stop them reforming. These orders arrived at around 06:00 and his corps began to move out at 08:00; by 12:00 the cannon from the Battle of Waterloo could be heard. Grouchy's corps commanders, especially Gérard, advised that they should "march to the sound of the guns". As this was contrary to Napoleon's orders ("you will be the sword against the Prussians' back driving them through Wavre and join me here") Grouchy decided not to take the advice. It became apparent that neither Napoleon nor Marshal Grouchy understood that the Prussian army was no longer either routed or disorganised. Any thoughts of joining Napoleon were dashed when a second order repeating the same instructions arrived around 16:00.
Wavre (18–19 June) |
1461_30 | Following Napoleon's orders Grouchy attacked the Prussian III Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann near the village of Wavre. Grouchy believed that he was engaging the rearguard of a still-retreating Prussian force. However, only one Corps remained; the other three Prussian Corps (I, II and the still fresh IV) had regrouped after their defeat at Ligny and were marching toward Waterloo.
The next morning the Battle of Wavre ended in a hollow French victory. Grouchy's wing of the Army of the North withdrew in good order and other elements of the French army were able to reassemble around it. However, the army was not strong enough to resist the combined coalition forces, so it retreated toward Paris.
Invasion of France and the occupation of Paris (18 June – 7 July)
First week (18 – 24 June) |
1461_31 | After the combined victory at Waterloo by the Anglo-allies under the command of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussians under the command of Prince Blücher, it was agreed by the two commanders, on the field of Waterloo, that the Prussian army, not having been so much crippled and exhausted by the battle, should undertake the further pursuit, and proceed by Charleroi towards Avesnes and Laon; whilst the Anglo-allied army, after remaining during the night on the field, should advance by Nivelles and Binche towards Péronne.
The 4,000 Prussian cavalry, that kept up an energetic pursuit during the night of 18 June, under the guidance of Marshal Gneisenau, helped to render the victory at Waterloo still more complete and decisive; and effectually deprived the French of every opportunity of recovering on the Belgian side of the frontier and to abandon most of their cannons. |
1461_32 | A defeated army usually covers its retreat by a rear guard, but here there was nothing of the kind. The rearmost of the fugitives having reached the river Sambre, at Charleroi, Marchienne-au-Pont, and Châtelet, by daybreak of 19 June 1815, indulged themselves with the hope that they might then enjoy a short rest from the fatigues which the relentless pursuit by the Prussians had entailed upon them during the night; but their fancied security was quickly disturbed by the appearance of a few Prussian cavalry, judiciously thrown forward towards the Sambre from the Advanced Guard at Gosselies. They resumed their flight, taking the direction of Beaumont and Philippeville. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.