Prince of Waterloo

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The title Prince of Waterloo is retained by the Dukes of Wellington.

This victory title, naming the battlefield, was given to the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, by King William I of the Netherlands of the then just (by the Vienna Congress) united Low Countries in recognition of his defeating the French Emperor Napoleon I at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

In addition to the title, the Dutch king also granted 2,600 acres (10.5 km²) of land to the duke. To this day the Dukes of Wellington retain the title Prince of Waterloo, and enjoy around £100,000-a-year from the longstanding tenants who occupy the land.

Due to the establishment of the kingdom of Belgium in 1831, the title, being Dutch, and the land being located in Belgium, became separated.

The land held by the Prince of Waterloo has recently come under pressure from Belgian citizens. In 1817 the Belgian government struck a deal to pay the duke £1,600 a year in return for the proceeds of sales of timber the duke wanted to clear from the forested land. Until 1988 successive dukes enjoyed this annual payment, but the present duke, Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington agreed to forgo the payment in exchange for outright ownership of 60 acres (240,000 m²) of the 2,600 acres (10.5 km²) he has rights to. But some Belgian taxpayers who say the deal does not reflect the value of the land - which they say is part of Belgium's national territory use the debate to draw attention to the wider issues of the original agreement, contending Belgium was effectively coerced into accepting the terms of the original agreement because it could not afford to upset Britain.

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