page_title: Cádiz Memorial
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Cádiz Memorial / History / Origins
caption_attribution_description: Horse Guards Parade in 1860
context_page_description: The Cádiz Memorial, also known as the "Prince Regent's Bomb", is an early 19th-century French mortar mounted on a brass monster, located in Horse Guards Parade in Westminster, London. It was first "exposed to public view" on 12 August 1816 and has been classified as a Grade II listed building since 1 December 1987. The monument was a feature of many satirical verses and cartoons in the early 19th century, mainly because the word "bomb" – pronounced "bum" – gave it an immediate association with the notoriously profligate Prince Regent's sizeable backside.
context_section_description: The mortar was one of a number of giant siege weapons used by the French army under Marshal Soult during the two-year siege of Cádiz in Spain. Made in Seville in March 1811, it was spiked and abandoned when the French retreated after the Duke of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Salamanca in 1812. It was designed to be capable of throwing shells over what contemporaries described as "the immense distance" of 3 miles (4.8 km) and could actually reach a range of 3.5 miles (5.6 km). Although the mortar and its siblings were intended to serve essentially as terror weapons to compel the inhabitants of Cádiz to surrender, they were, however, ineffective and inaccurate weapons. The shells were said to be aimed "much at random, some of them falling short of the town, others flying completely over into the bay near the lighthouse on the other side, and some few ... falling in the city, but from which very few casualties occurred." According to one Royal Engineer who saw the mortar in action, he watched it fire a shot into the middle of the crowded Plaza de San Antonio in the centre of Cádiz "without injuring a single individual".
  After the siege was lifted, the Spanish Regency presented one of the captured French mortars to Rear Admiral Arthur Kaye Legge. They requested that it might be placed in one of London's Royal Parks to commemorate the victory at Salamanca, the liberation of southern Spain and the exploits of the Duke of Wellington. The Prince Regent agreed and instructed the Earl of Mulgrave to procure a suitable carriage for the mortar and set it up in Horse Guards Parade. The royal carriage department at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, carried out the work, creating an elaborate allegorically sculpted bronze base for the weapon. It was unveiled on the Prince Regent's 54th birthday, situated on the south side of the parade ground behind a square of chevaux de frise. It was subsequently moved to its present position adjacent to the Horse Guards building.
caption: The memorial in its original location in 1860, with chevaux de frise surrounding it
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