About half of Wellington's army at Waterloo, 1815, was made up of Dutch and Belgian troops. After Napoleon's first defeat in 1814 the Allied powers formed a new (and short-lived) 'kingdom of Holland and Belgium' under the house of Orange. The joint army was a mixture of patriots who had rebelled aga[...]

When the French army returned home following defeat in Egypt in 1801, they brought along with them several locally hired units. Among these units were the Mameluke cavalry, whose exotic dress reflected Turkish style. Napoleon eventually established a Mameluke squadron for his personal guard, and the[...]