Two hundred years ago Thursday, German, Dutch, Flemish, Walloon, Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English troops defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and ended France's bid for European conquest.
No, the Duke of Wellington did not do it on his own. While popular history credits him with a glorious British triumph, Waterloo was actually coalition warfare at its finest — a lesson often lost in today's Britain as it struggles with questions of national pride and its place in Europe.
"The perception of the man on the Clapham omnibus is that it was very much a British victory," said Charles Esdaile, a military historian at the University of Liverpool. "It's a historical distortion: Britain could not defeat Napoleon without the aid of continental partners."
Selective memories about the multinational army that ended the Napoleonic era on June 18, 1815, are of a piece with the UK's splendidly isolated approach to the overriding British question of this era: whether to stay part of the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, a few kilometres north of Waterloo.
Britain has seesawed over where it belongs since the end of World War II, at first aloof from what became the EU, joining later on, then voting to stay in, while shunning the euro currency and the bloc's passport-free travel zone. It is now heading to another stay-or-go referendum by 2017.
As Britain's factions mobilise for that vote, past military glories are shaping present opinions. One branch of the UK Independence Party, which made a name for itself by calling for Britain to exit the EU and reduce immigration levels, is holding a Waterloo-themed recruiting dinner with the option of Beef or Salmon Wellington as the main course.
Then again, 47% of the British public can't identify who led the British army at Waterloo, with some tipping Dumbledore of Harry Potter fame, according to a survey in April by the UK National Army Museum. The ignorance goes further: a third drew a blank at who won and 14% guessed the French.
For those who know Britain was on the winning side, pop culture blots out the continental allies in bicentennial coverage. "Ultimately, it was the genius of one man, Wellington, that secured a glorious victory which will resound through the ages" is how the tabloid Daily Mail imagined it would have covered the breaking news.
British Broadcasting Corp programmers put on their own blinkers in advertising a TV drama in which the lead character's "remarkable magic helps England win the Battle of Waterloo".
The historical truth is soldiers born in what was then Britain made up only 36% of the allied force that dispatched Napoleon, according to The Longest Afternoon: The 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo, by Brendan Simms, a Cambridge University historian.
Far from hailing from the playing fields of Eton, the 400 stalwarts of Mr Simms's title were German riflemen who — analogous to today's refugees — found their way across the English Channel after their homelands were conquered by Napoleon starting in 1803.
As the 2nd Light Battalion of the King's German Legion, this German-speaking unit — incorporated into the regular British army — resisted the central French thrust at Waterloo, defending a fortified farmhouse known as La Haie Sainte.
Another set of Germans — the Prussian army, commanded by Gebhard von Blucher — then descended from the east to join Wellington's force in finishing off the French.
Mr Simms muses the King's German Legion might provide inspiration for a future European army.
Official Britain is supremely conscious of the allied role, with Prince Charles attending a multinational ceremony on Wednesday at another strongpoint, the Hougoumont farm on the allies' right flank, held by the British.
After 1815, coalitions became the norm for British armies, from Crimea in the 1850s, to the two world wars and on to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The question of how to commemorate Waterloo even landed on the floor of the House of Commons.
Keith Simpson, a Conservative and author of books on military history, said two-thirds of Wellington's army was not British and observed: "We should give credit to what, ultimately, was the first Nato army." ©Bloomberg