A Belgian farmer almost sparked a new Napoleonic war after moving an ancient boundary stone. Photo / Mathias P Redin, UNsplash
A Belgian farmer almost sparked a new Napoleonic war after moving an ancient boundary stone. Photo / Mathias P Redin, UNsplash
A Belgian farmer has embroiled two countries in a dispute over international borders, after accidentally annexing part of France.
Parties in Paris and Brussels were baffled after it appeared that Belgium had grown, and France shrunk.
The incident was first reported by a local historian on a morning walk through the forest near Erquelinnes, when he noticed the boundary stone amongst the trees.
The Belgian border had moved 2.30 metres into France.
A farmer in neighbouring Belgium, annoyed by the old stone, had moved it from the path of his tractor and back into France.
The Belgian border has been unchanged since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, a low point for relations between the two countries. The boundary stone itself dates back to 1819, where it had stood undisturbed for two centuries. Until this week.
Fortunately the dispute was met with laughter, rather than a new Napoleonic war.
"I was happy, my town was bigger," the Belgian mayor Lavaux said with a grin.
"We should be able to avoid a new border war," his French counterpart, mayor Aurélie Welonek of Bousignies-sur-Roc, quoted by La Voix du Nord.
As for the farmer, he is unlikely to face any repercussions.
Local authorities have contacted him to return the stone. However any case regarding the border would end up at the Franco-Belgian border commission, which the BBC reports has been dormant since 1930.
While the moving of the headstone-like marker may have not have resulted in any serious repercussions, it comes at a time when France and Belgium are re-examining the legacy of the last French Emperor.
The spectre of Emperor Napoleon
On the 200th anniversary of his death in exile on the island of St Helena, the legacy of the short military man has only grown.
Apart from the Belgian border, his other lasting contributions include tinned food and the metric system.
'We take responsibility for it all': French President visited the tomb of Emperor Napoleon. Photo / Petit Tesson, via AP
Yet most recent French presidents have avoided praising Bonaparte like the plague. In 2005, the French President, PM and then interior-minister Nicolas Sarkozy all snubbed the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's coronation.
More recently, the deputy mayor of Montauban Philippe Bécade has come under fire for suggesting that actions of the French tyrant who plunged Europe into 15 years of war and reinstated slavery, be judged with "context".
"If you take just one element, it's very easy to condemn anyone," Bécade told the BBC. "Today we're in a dictatorship of the politically correct, and I'm among those who want to fight it."
Today President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at Napoleon's Tomb, at Les Invalides in Paris.
In a speech on the legacy of Napoleon the French President told the nation that Napoleon's support for slavery and other foibles was "a fault, a betrayal of the spirit of the Enlightenment". Macron said that the little Corporal was lasting because he was a complicated figure, "both the soul of the world and the devil of Europe."
"We love Napoleon because his life gives us a taste of what is possible if we accept the invitation to take risks.
