Lord Uxbridge's leg

Lord Uxbridge's leg was shattered, probably by a piece of case shot, at the Battle of Waterloo and removed by a surgeon.

[3] Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, later the 1st Marquess of Anglesey, commanded 13,000 Allied cavalry and 44 guns of the horse artillery at the Battle of Waterloo, on 18 June 1815.

At about 2:30 pm, at a critical stage in the battle, he led a charge of the 2,000 heavy cavalry of the Household Brigade and the Union Brigade to throw back the columns of D'Erlon's French I Corps, who were threatening to push back Picton's severely outnumbered 5th Division, with some 15,000 French infantry advancing on 3,000 British and Dutch-Belgian troops.

Uxbridge spent the rest of the battle leading a series of charges by British light cavalry formations, and had eight or nine horses shot from under him.

"[2][5] A more reliable version of this exchange may come from the diary of J. W. Croker, a friend of Wellington, written on 8 December 1818, in which he recounts a conversation with Horace Seymour, the man who carried the wounded Uxbridge from the battlefield.

"[6] After being wounded, Lord Uxbridge was taken to his headquarters in the village of Waterloo, a house owned by M. Hyacinthe Joseph-Marie Paris, Maison Tremblant, who was still in his residence at 214, Chaussée de Bruxelles.

[2] Five days after the battle the Prince Regent created him Marquess of Anglesey and appointed him a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Visitors were first taken to see the bloody chair upon which Uxbridge had sat during the amputation, before being escorted into the garden, where the leg had its own 'tombstone', inscribed as follows:[10] Here lies the Leg of the illustrious and valiant Earl Uxbridge, Lieutenant-General of His Britannic Majesty, Commander in Chief of the English, Belgian and Dutch cavalry, wounded on the 18 June 1815 at the memorable battle of Waterloo, who, by his heroism, assisted in the triumph of the cause of mankind, gloriously decided by the resounding victory of the said day.Some were impressed; others less so.

[12] Some of these lines are also recorded in Notes and Queries, which says they "went the round of the papers at the time":[11] Here rests, and let no saucy knave Presume to sneer and laugh, To learn that mouldering in the grave Is laid a British calf.

Fortune in vain here showed her spite, For he will still be found, Should England's sons engage in fight, Resolved to stand his ground.

The leg attracted an amazing range of tourists from European society of the very top drawer, from the King of Prussia to the Prince of Orange.

This oil painting of c.1820, measuring 83 x 140.5 cm, was given by the 7th Duke of Wellington to his godson the future 8th Marquess of Anglesey, who donated it to the National Trust in 1992; it is displayed in Plas Newydd.