A ‘large family’ in ‘circumstances of interest and excitement’: British Troops and the Occupation of France, 1815–1818

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, British troops participated in not one, but two multinational occupations of France. However, although they were central to the military, social, and political history of Great Britain in this period, these occupations have attracted little scholarly attention. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this article examines the experiences of British troops who participated in the occupations of 1814 and 1815–1818. While these experiences were mixed and varied with class and regional origin, in general they reinforced both traditional regimental and emerging national identity, while also enabling British troops to reconcile with – and even learn politically from – their former enemies. Following these occupations, the troops who had participated often found themselves on opposite sides of the political conflicts in Britain and its empire. For those who remained in the military, many of them found keeping the peace in France to be an easier assignment than policing radical unrest in Great Britain and its empire, which relied on similar tactics.