Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition
and began to mobilise armies. Wellington and Blücher's armies were cantoned close to the northeastern border of
France. Napoleon planned to attack them separately in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a
coordinated invasion of France with other members of the coalition. On 16 June, Napoleon successfully attacked
the bulk of the Prussian army at the Battle of Ligny with his main force, causing the Prussians to withdraw
northwards on 17 June, but parallel to Wellington and in good order. Napoleon sent a third of his forces to pursue
the Prussians, which resulted in the separate Battle of Wavre with the Prussian rear-guard on 18–19 June, and
prevented that French force from participating at Waterloo. Also on 16 June, a small portion of the French army
contested the Battle of Quatre Bras with the Anglo-allied army. The Anglo-allied army held their ground on
16 June, but the withdrawal of the Prussians caused Wellington to withdraw north to Waterloo on 17 June.
Upon learning that the Prussian army was able to support him, Wellington decided to offer battle on the
Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment across the Brussels road, near the village of Waterloo. Here he withstood repeated
attacks by the French throughout the afternoon of 18 June, aided by the progressively arriving Prussians who
attacked the French flank and inflicted heavy casualties. In the evening Napoleon assaulted the Anglo-allied line
with his last reserves, the senior infantry battalions of the French Imperial Guard. With the Prussians breaking
through on the French right flank, the Anglo-allied army repulsed the Imperial Guard, and the French army
was routed.
Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. According to Wellington,
the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life". Napoleon abdicated four days later, and
coalition forces entered Paris on 7 July. The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French
and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. This ended the First French Empire and set a
chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace, often referred to as the
Pax Britannica.
The battlefield is located in the Belgian municipalities of Braine-l'Alleud and Lasne, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi)
south of Brussels, and about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the town of Waterloo. The site of the battlefield today is
dominated by the monument of the Lion's Mound, a large artificial hill constructed from earth taken from the
battlefield itself; the topography of the battlefield near the mound has not been preserved. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 
Wellington later said that he had "an infamous army, very weak and ill-equipped, and a very inexperienced Staff".
His troops consisted of 67,000 men: 50,000 infantry, 11,000 cavalry, and 6,000 artillery with 150 guns. Of these,
25,000 were British, with another 6,000 from the King's German Legion (KGL). All of the British Army troops were
regular soldiers, but only 7,000 of them were Peninsular War veterans. In addition, there were 17,000 Dutch and
Belgian troops, 11,000 from Hanover, 6,000 from Brunswick, and 3,000 from Nassau.
Many of the troops in the Coalition armies were inexperienced. The Dutch army had been re-established in 1815,
following the earlier defeat of Napoleon. With the exception of the British and some from Hanover and Brunswick
who had fought with the British army in Spain, many of the professional soldiers in the Coalition armies had spent
some of their time in the French army or in armies allied to the Napoleonic regime. The historian Alessandro
Barbero states that in this heterogeneous army the difference between British and foreign troops did not prove
significant under fire.
Wellington was also acutely short of heavy cavalry, having only seven British and three Dutch regiments. The
Duke of York imposed many of his staff officers on Wellington, including his second-in-command the
Earl of Uxbridge. Uxbridge commanded the cavalry and had carte blanche from Wellington to commit these
forces at his discretion. Wellington stationed a further 17,000 troops at Halle, 8 miles (13 km) away to the west.
They were mostly composed of Dutch troops under the Prince of Orange's younger brother Prince Frederick of the
Netherlands. They were placed as a guard against any possible wide flanking movement by the French forces, and
also to act as a rearguard if Wellington was forced to retreat towards Antwerp and the coast. |
