Read on Twitter
THREAD: Copenhagen was an Aristocrat. His dam, Lady Catherine (the warhorse of brigade commander Thomas Grosvenor) was sired by the 1792 Epsom Derby winner and his sire was a Thoroughbred racehorse called Meteor - the son of the famous racehorse Eclipse. It is of no doubt that 1/
Copenhagen was truly a horse of good stock. Despite his family history however, Copenhagen wasn’t up to much on the race track. Though he possessed tremendous endurance and strength, he simply wasn’t the fastest and aged 4 Lord Grosvenor made the decision to end the colt’s 2/
racing career, selling him to Sir Charles Stewart, the adjutant-general of the army in Spain and Portugal for £300. In 1813 Sir Charles sold his stables and two of the horses were purchased by the Duke of Wellington, one of whom was our boy Copenhagen 3/
By this point Cope was rising five which was the preferred age for a new cavalry horse. His pedigree made him a desirable war horse, with the stamina and endurance of his Arabian blood & his exposure to the noise and crowds from his time in the racing world making him a steady 4/
and calm mount on the battlefield. Wellington became fond of Copenhagen, though he needed a firm hand and developed a reputation as a bad tempered and eccentric lad (Copenhagen, not Wellington). Though unflinching around gun fire, he would kick out at stable hands and had a 5/
bizarre habit of eating whilst lying down. Copenhagen proved himself to be a tremendous war horse. He was calm and confident by nature, allowing the Duke to observe and direct many battles from his saddle and the pair became inseparable. 6/
On June 16th 1815, Copenhagen took Wellington on his hazardous 6 mile journey to the headquarters of Blücher at Wavre where he was afforded a brief rest before returning to the cross-roads at Quatre Bras. As the situation deteriorated, Wellington galloped Copenhagen to the 7/
battlefield. He took Wellington back and forth and to and fro, and when the Brunswickers and the Netherlanders broke under fierce assault from the French Chasseurs, Wellington galloped Copenhagen in a desperate dash with Lord Somerset to the safety of the square of the 92nd 8/
Gordon Highlanders where he reportedly shouted ‘Ninety-Second, lie down!’ as he jumped across the heads and lowered bayonets of his own troops. On the morning of the 18th, Wellington mounted Copenhagen and rode to the south of Waterloo to inspect the ridges where his forces 9/
were taking up position. I won’t go into the details of the battle but will simply say that this remarkable horse carried Wellington for nearly 18 hours. Years later the Duke told a friend: ‘On reaching HQ, and thinking how bravely my old horse had carried me all day, 10/
I could not help going up to his head to tell him. But hang me if, when I was giving him a slap of approbation on his hind-quarters, he did not fling out one of his hind legs ‘.. despite his attempt to land a hoof on the Duke’s head, Copenhagen remained with Wellington 11/
and returned to London a national equine hero. On 12th Feb 1836, Copenhagen died, he was 28. The Duke was away at the time but returned as soon as he heard. He was buried in the Ice House Paddock at Strathfield Saye with full military honours, including a salute fired 12/
over his grave. In 1852 the second Duke of Wellington placed a marble tombstone over the grave which read:
He lies COPENHAGEN,
The charger ridden by the Duke of Wellington,
The entire day at the Battle of Waterloo.
Born 1808, Died 1836.
God's humbler instrument, 13/
He lies COPENHAGEN,
The charger ridden by the Duke of Wellington,
The entire day at the Battle of Waterloo.
Born 1808, Died 1836.
God's humbler instrument, 13/
