Which inn gave Prussia its contemporary name for the Battle of Waterloo?
Answer
La Belle Alliance
The inn that gave Prussia its contemporary name for the Battle of Waterloo was La Belle Alliance.
The inn stood near the centre of Napoleon’s position, south of the Allied ridge. After the fighting ended on 18 June 1815, Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and Wellington met near it at about 9 p.m. Blücher proposed using La Belle Alliance as the battle’s name, reflecting the coalition that had defeated Napoleon.
The name did not become universal. Wellington favoured “Waterloo”, after the village where he had spent the previous night and from which his victory dispatch was sent. French accounts commonly called the engagement the Battle of Mont-Saint-Jean, after the nearby hamlet. Thus the same battle acquired different names in Prussian, British and French usage.
La Belle Alliance itself was a tavern among several buildings near the battlefield. In Berlin, the name was commemorated in 1815 when a square was renamed Belle-Alliance-Platz.