black plaque · England

Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve

The Crown Inn. Admiral Villeneuve. Villeneuve was the French Commander-in-Chief defeated by Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October 1805. Over 4,000 French Officers and Seamen were taken prisoner and sent to England. Villeneuve and 200 of his Officers were billeted in Bishop's Waltham, on parole. Most were quartered in houses around the town but the Admiral was accommodated here at the Crown Inn. Villeneuve was allowed to attend Nelson's funeral in London and then, in early 1806, he was repatriated to France in exchange for four British Navy Captains. He died at Rennes in April 1806 from multiple stab wounds to the chest. The verdict was suicide but many believed Napoleon had him murdered for his disastrous defeat at Trafalgar.

Inscription drawn from imported open data, awaiting original TributeLegacy editorial.

Source: Open Plaques. Geographic data via OpenStreetMap.

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Open Plaques, dedicated to the public domain (CC0). See openplaques.org.
Wikidata, available under the CC0 1.0 Universal dedication.
Historic England, National Heritage List for England, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0. War memorial records are drawn from open community datasets (OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, NHLE) — never from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which is excluded.

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