Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Attribution ·259 of 348
"The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton."
They never said that.
What people say
"The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton."
What was actually said
"No verified Wellington source." Anonymous — Attributed — first print in Charles de Montalembert, De l'Avenir politique de l'Angleterre (1856); Wellington had died in 1852
Why it stuck
Wellington was not even at Eton during his schooling. He attended briefly as a child and hated it. The quote appears four years after his death, in a book about English national character — it is almost certainly Montalembert's invention.
The actual Eton playing fields did not exist in Wellington's school days. The quote is physically impossible as well as textually unsourced.
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