# data[].attributes.body
A. Duke of wellington led final confrontation. British and Prussian armies. Crushing defeat for Napoleon. It was the end of the Napoleonic wars

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Battle of Waterloo

Part of the Waterloo campaign

The Battle of Waterloo, by William Sadler II

Belligerents

France

Commanders and leaders

Napoleon I
Michel Ney

Duke of Wellington
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

Strength

Total: 72,000-73,000

50,700 infantry

14,390 cavalry

8,050 artillery and engineers

252 guns

Total: 118,000-120,000
Wellington's army: 68,000[3][4]

United Kingdom: 31,000 (25,000 British and 6,000 King's German Legion)

Netherlands: 17,000

Hanover: 11,000

Brunswick: 6,000

Nassau: 3,000

156 guns

Blücher's army:

Casualties and losses

Total: 33,000

25,000 killed or wounded

8,000 captured

2 imperial eagle standards captured

Total: 21,700
Wellington's army: 15,096

6,540 British

4,157 Netherlands

2,007 Hanoverians

1,589 German Legion

Blücher's army: 6,604

1,144 killed

4,155 wounded

1,305 missing

Both sides: 7,000 horses killed

The ( Battle of Waterloo ( Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋaːtərloː] listen )) was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition. One of these was a British-led coalition consisting of units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington (referred to by many authors as the Anglo-allied army or Wellington's army). The other was composed of three corps of the Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal von Blücher (the fourth corps of this army fought at the Battle of Wavre on the same day). The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle was contemporaneously known as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean (France) or La Belle Alliance ("the Beautiful Alliance" - Prussia).[10]

Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, many states that had previously opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition, while hurriedly mobilising their armies. Wellington's 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. Meanwhile, a small portion of the French army contested the Battle of Quatre Bras and prevented the Anglo-allied army from reinforcing the Prussians at Ligny as planned. The Anglo-allied army held their ground at Quatre Bras on 16 June, but the withdrawal of the Prussians from Ligny caused Wellington to withdraw north to Waterloo on 17 June. 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.

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, almost lost the battle, but aided by the progressively arriving 50,000 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 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.

The resurgent Napoleon's strategy was to isolate the Anglo-allied and Prussian armies and annihilate each one separately.

Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher commanded the Prussian Army, one of the Coalition armies that defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig

On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw. Four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon. Critically outnumbered, Napoleon knew that once his attempts at dissuading one or more members of the Seventh Coalition from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the coalition mobilised.

The initial dispositions of Wellington, the British commander, were intended to counter the threat of Napoleon enveloping the Coalition armies by moving through Mons to the south-west of Brussels. This would have pushed Wellington closer to the Prussian forces, led by Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, but might have cut Wellington's communications with his base at Ostend. In order to delay Wellington's deployment, Napoleon spread false intelligence which suggested that Wellington's supply chain from the channel ports would be cut.

By June, Napoleon had raised a total army strength of about 300,000 men. The force at his disposal at Waterloo was less than one third that size, but the rank and file were mostly loyal and experienced soldiers. Napoleon divided his army into a left wing commanded by Marshal Ney, a right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy and a reserve under his command (although all three elements remained close enough to support one another). Crossing the frontier near Charleroi before dawn on 15 June, the French rapidly overran Coalition outposts, securing Napoleon's "central position" between Wellington's and Blücher's armies. He hoped this would prevent them from combining, and he would be able to destroy first the Prussians' army, then Wellington's.

Only very late on the night of 15 June was Wellington certain that the Charleroi attack was the main French thrust. In the early hours of 16 June, at the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels, he received a dispatch from the Prince of Orange and was shocked by the speed of Napoleon's advance. He hastily ordered his army to concentrate on Quatre Bras, where the Prince of Orange, with the brigade of Prince Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar, was holding a tenuous position against the soldiers of Ney's left wing.

Meanwhile, on 16 June, Napoleon attacked and defeated Blücher's Prussians at the Battle of Ligny using part of the reserve and the right wing of his army. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French assaults, but the flanks held their ground. The Prussian retreat from Ligny went uninterrupted and seemingly unnoticed by the French. The bulk of their rearguard units held their positions until about midnight, and some elements did not move out until the following morning, ignored by the French.

With the Prussian retreat from Ligny, Wellington's position at Quatre Bras was untenable. The next day he withdrew northwards, to a defensive position that he had reconnoitred the previous year-the low ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean, south of the village of Waterloo and the Sonian Forest.

Napoleon, with the reserves, made a late start on 17 June and joined Ney at Quatre Bras at 13:00 to attack Wellington's army but found the position empty. The French pursued Wellington's retreating army to Waterloo; however, due to bad weather, mud and the head start that Napoleon's tardy advance had allowed Wellington, there was no substantial engagement, apart from a cavalry action at Genappe.

Three armies participated in the battle: Napoleon's Armée du Nord, a multinational army under Wellington, and a Prussian army under General Blücher.

The French army of around 69,000 consisted of 48,000 infantry, 14,000 cavalry, and 7,000 artillery with 250 guns. Napoleon had used conscription to fill the ranks of the French army throughout his rule, but he did not conscript men for the 1815 campaign. His troops were mainly veterans with considerable experience and a fierce devotion to their Emperor. The cavalry in particular was both numerous and formidable, and included fourteen regiments of armoured heavy cavalry, and seven of highly versatile lancers who were armed with lances, sabres and firearms.

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, 24,000 were British, with another 6,000 from the King's German Legion (KGL). All of the British Army troops were regular soldiers and the majority of them had served in the Peninsula. Of the 23 British regiments in action, only 4 (the 14th, 33rd, 69th, and 73rd Foot) had not served in the Peninsula, and a similar level of experience was to be found in the British cavalry and artillery. 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.

The Prussian army was in the throes of reorganisation. In 1815, the former Reserve regiments, Legions, and Freikorps volunteer formations from the wars of 1813-1814 were in the process of being absorbed into the line, along with many (militia) regiments. The Landwehr were mostly untrained and unequipped when they arrived in Belgium. The Prussian cavalry were in a similar state. Its artillery was also reorganising and did not give its best performance-guns and equipment continued to arrive during and after the battle.

After Ligny, the Prussian army, although defeated, was able to realign its supply train, reorganise itself, and intervene decisively on the Waterloo battlefield within 48 hours. Two-and-a-half Prussian army corps, or 48,000 men, were engaged at Waterloo; two brigades under Bülow, commander of IV Corps, attacked Lobau at 16:30, while Zieten's I Corps and parts of Pirch I's II Corps engaged at about 18:00.

Using the reverse slope, as he had many times previously, Wellington concealed his strength from the French, with the exception of his skirmishers and artillery. The length of front of the battlefield was also relatively short at 2.5 miles (4 km). This allowed Wellington to draw up his forces in depth, which he did in the centre and on the right, all the way towards the village of Braine-l'Alleud, in the expectation that the Prussians would reinforce his left during the day.

Both Hougoumont and Papelotte were fortified and garrisoned, and thus anchored Wellington's flanks securely. Papelotte also commanded the road to Wavre that the Prussians would use to send reinforcements to Wellington's position. On the western side of the main road, and in front of the rest of Wellington's line, was the farmhouse and orchard of La Haye Sainte, which was garrisoned with 400 light infantry of the King's German Legion. On the opposite side of the road was a disused sand quarry, where the 95th Rifles were posted as sharpshooters.

The French army formed on the slopes of another ridge to the south. Napoleon could not see Wellington's positions, so he drew his forces up symmetrically about the Brussels road. On the right was I Corps under d'Erlon with 16,000 infantry and 1,500 cavalry, plus a cavalry reserve of 4,700. On the left was II Corps under Reille with 13,000 infantry, and 1,300 cavalry, and a cavalry reserve of 4,600. In the centre about the road south of the inn La Belle Alliance were a reserve including Lobau's VI Corps with 6,000 men, the 13,000 infantry of the Imperial Guard, and a cavalry reserve of 2,000.

In the right rear of the French position was the substantial village of Plancenoit, and at the extreme right, the Bois de Paris wood. Napoleon initially commanded the battle from Rossomme farm, where he could see the entire battlefield, but moved to a position near La Belle Alliance early in the afternoon. Command on the battlefield (which was largely hidden from his view) was delegated to Ney.

Morning of the battle, initial disposition of opposing forces (Atlas to Alison's history of Europe)

Napoleon breakfasted off silver plate at Le Caillou, the house where he had spent the night. When Soult suggested that Grouchy should be recalled to join the main force, Napoleon said, "Just because you have all been beaten by Wellington, you think he's a good general. I tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad troops, and this affair is nothing more than eating breakfast".

Napoleon's seemingly dismissive remark may have been strategic, given his maxim "in war, morale is everything". He had acted similarly in the past, and on the morning of the battle of Waterloo may have been responding to the pessimism and objections of his chief of staff and senior generals.

Later on, being told by his brother, Jerome, of some gossip overheard by a waiter between British officers at lunch at the 'King of Spain' inn in Genappe that the Prussians were to march over from Wavre, Napoleon declared that the Prussians would need at least two days to recover and would be dealt with by Grouchy. Surprisingly, Jerome's overheard gossip aside, the French commanders present at the pre-battle conference at Le Caillou had no information about the alarming proximity of the Prussians and did not suspect that Blücher's men would start erupting onto the field of battle in great numbers just five hours later.

Napoleon had delayed the start of the battle owing to the sodden ground, which would have made manoeuvring cavalry and artillery difficult. In addition, many of his forces had bivouacked well to the south of La Belle Alliance. At 10:00, in response to a dispatch he had received from Grouchy six hours earlier, he sent a reply telling Grouchy to "head for Wavre [to Grouchy's north] in order to draw near to us [to the west of Grouchy]" and then "push before him" the Prussians to arrive at Waterloo "as soon as possible".

At 11:00, Napoleon drafted his general order: Reille's Corps on the left and d'Erlon's Corps to the right were to attack the village of Mont-Saint-Jean and keep abreast of one another. This order assumed Wellington's battle-line was in the village, rather than at the more forward position on the ridge. To enable this, Jerome's division would make an initial attack on Hougoumont, which Napoleon expected would draw in Wellington's reserves, since its loss would threaten his communications with the sea. A grande batterie of the reserve artillery of I, II, and VI Corps was to then bombard the centre of Wellington's position from about 13:00. D'Erlon's corps would then attack Wellington's left, break through, and roll up his line from east to west. In his memoirs, Napoleon wrote that his intention was to separate Wellington's army from the Prussians and drive it back towards the sea.

The gate on the north side assaulted by the 1st Légère who were led by Sous-lieutenant Legros

Historian Andrew Roberts notes that "It is a curious fact about the Battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began". Wellington recorded in his dispatches that at "about ten o'clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont". Other sources state that the attack began around 11:30. The house and its immediate environs were defended by four light companies of Guards, and the wood and park by Hanoverian and the 1/2nd Nassau.

The initial attack by Bauduin's brigade emptied the wood and park, but was driven back by heavy British artillery fire, and cost Bauduin his life. As the British guns were distracted by a duel with French artillery, a second attack by Soye's brigade and what had been Bauduin's succeeded in reaching the north gate of the house. Sous-Lieutenant Legros, a French officer, broke the gate open with an axe, and some French troops managed to enter the courtyard. The Coldstream Guards and the Scots Guards arrived to support the defence. There was a fierce melee, and the British managed to close the gate on the French troops streaming in. The Frenchmen trapped in the courtyard were all killed. Only a young drummer boy was spared.[citation needed ]

Fighting continued around Hougoumont all afternoon. Its surroundings were heavily invested by French light infantry, and coordinated attacks were made against the troops behind Hougoumont. Wellington's army defended the house and the hollow way running north from it. In the afternoon, Napoleon personally ordered the house to be shelled to set it on fire, resulting in the destruction of all but the chapel. Du Plat's brigade of the King's German Legion was brought forward to defend the hollow way, which they had to do without senior officers. Eventually they were relieved by the 71st Highlanders, a British infantry regiment. Adam's brigade was further reinforced by Hugh Halkett's 3rd Hanoverian Brigade, and successfully repulsed further infantry and cavalry attacks sent by Reille. Hougoumont held out until the end of the battle.

I had occupied that post with a detachment from General Byng's brigade of Guards, which was in position in its rear; and it was some time under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel MacDonald, and afterwards of Colonel Home; and I am happy to add that it was maintained, throughout the day, with the utmost gallantry by these brave troops, notwithstanding the repeated efforts of large bodies of the enemy to obtain possession of it.

When I reached Lloyd's abandoned guns, I stood near them for about a minute to contemplate the scene: it was grand beyond description. Hougoumont and its wood sent up a broad flame through the dark masses of smoke that overhung the field; beneath this cloud the French were indistinctly visible. Here a waving mass of long red feathers could be seen; there, gleams as from a sheet of steel showed that the cuirassiers were moving; 400 cannon were belching forth fire and death on every side; the roaring and shouting were indistinguishably commixed-together they gave me an idea of a labouring volcano. Bodies of infantry and cavalry were pouring down on us, and it was time to leave contemplation, so I moved towards our columns, which were standing up in square.

Detailed map of the crisis of the battle (Atlas to Alison's history of Europe)

The 80 guns of Napoleon's grande batterie drew up in the centre. These opened fire at 11:50, according to Lord Hill (commander of the Anglo-allied II Corps), while other sources put the time between noon and 13:30. The grande batterie was too far back to aim accurately, and the only other troops they could see were skirmishers of the regiments of Kempt and Pack, and Perponcher's 2nd Dutch division (the others were employing Wellington's characteristic "reverse slope defence").

The bombardment caused a large number of casualties. Although some projectiles buried themselves in the soft soil, most found their marks on the reverse slope of the ridge. The bombardment forced the cavalry of the Union Brigade (in third line) to move to its left, to reduce their casualty rate.

A little after 13:00, I Corps' attack began in large columns. Bernard Cornwell writes "[column] suggests an elongated formation with its narrow end aimed like a spear at the enemy line, while in truth it was much more like a brick advancing sideways and d'Erlon's assault was made up of four such bricks, each one a division of French infantry". Each division, with one exception, was drawn up in huge masses, consisting of the eight or nine battalions of which they were formed, deployed, and placed in a column one behind the other, with only five paces interval between the battalions.

The one exception was the 1st Division (Commanded by Quiot, the leader of the 1st Brigade). Its two brigades were formed in a similar manner, but side by side instead of behind one another. This was done because, being on the left of the four divisions, it was ordered to send one (Quiot's brigade) against the south and west of La Haye Sainte, while the other ( Bourgeois') was to attack the eastern side of the same post.

The divisions were to advance in echelon from the left at a distance of 400 paces apart-the 2nd Division ( Donzelot's) on the right of Bourgeois' brigade, the 3rd Division ( Marcognet's) next, and the 4th Division ( Durutte's) on the right. They were led by Ney to the assault, each column having a front of about a hundred and sixty to two hundred files.

La Haye Sainte - one of Wellington's advanced defensible positions. As the battle progressed it became clear that its defence and control was of greatest tactical importance.

At about 13:30, d'Erlon started to advance his three other divisions, some 14,000 men over a front of about 1,000 metres (1,100 yards), against Wellington's left wing. At the point they aimed for they faced 6,000 men: the first line consisted of the 1st brigade (" Van Bylandt's brigade") of the 2nd Netherlands division, flanked by the British brigades of Kempt and Pack on either side. The second line consisted of British and Hanoverian troops under Sir Thomas Picton, who were lying down in dead ground behind the ridge. All had suffered badly at Quatre Bras. In addition, the Bylandt brigade had been ordered to deploy its skirmishers in the hollow road and on the forward slope. The rest of the brigade was lying down just behind the road.

At the moment these skirmishers were rejoining their parent battalions, the brigade was ordered to its feet and started to return fire. On the left of the brigade, where the 7th Dutch Militia stood, a "few files were shot down and an opening in the line thus occurred". The battalion had no reserves and was unable to close the gap. D'Erlon's troops pushed through this gap in the line and the remaining battalions in the Bylandt brigade (8th Dutch Militia and Belgian 7th Line Battalion) were forced to retreat to the square of the 5th Dutch Militia, which was in reserve between Picton's troops, about 100 paces to the rear. There they regrouped under the command of Colonel Van Zuylen van Nijevelt. A moment later the Prince of Orange ordered a counterattack, which actually occurred around 10 minutes later. Bylandt was wounded and retired off the field, passing command of the brigade to Lt. Kol. De Jongh.

The Battle of Waterloo by Clément-Auguste Andrieux

D'Erlon's men ascended the slope and advanced on the sunken road, Chemin d'Ohain, that ran from behind La Haye Sainte and continued east. It was lined on both sides by thick hedges, with Bylandt's brigade just across the road while the British brigades had been lying down some 100 yards back from the road, Pack's to Bylandt's left and Kempt's to Bylandt's right. Kempt's 1,900 men were engaged by Bourgeois' brigade of 1,900 men of Quiot's division. In the centre, Donzelot's division had pushed back Bylandt's brigade.

On the right of the French advance was Marcognet's division led by Grenier's brigade consisting of the 45e Régiment de Ligne and followed by the 25e Régiment de Ligne, somewhat less than 2,000 men, and behind them, Nogue's brigade of the 21e and 45e regiments. Opposing them on the other side of the road was Pack's 9th Brigade consisting of the 44th Foot and three Scottish regiments: the Royal Scots, the 42nd Black Watch, and the 92nd Gordons, totalling something over 2,000 men. A very even fight between British and French infantry was about to occur.

The French advance drove in the British skirmishers and reached the sunken road. As they did so, Pack's men stood up, formed into a four deep line formation for fear of the French cavalry, advanced, and opened fire. However, a firefight had been anticipated and the French infantry had accordingly advanced in more linear formation. Now, fully deployed into line, they returned fire and successfully pressed the British troops; although the attack faltered at the centre, the line in front of d'Erlon's right started to crumble. Picton was killed shortly after ordering the counter-attack and the British and Hanoverian troops also began to give way under the pressure of numbers.

Pack's regiments, all four ranks deep, advanced to attack the French in the road but faltered and began to fire on the French instead of charging. The 42nd Black Watch halted at the hedge and the resulting fire-fight drove back the British 92nd Foot while the leading French 45e Ligne burst through the hedge cheering. Along the sunken road, the French were forcing the Anglo-allies back, the British line was dispersing, and at two o'clock in the afternoon Napoleon was winning the Battle of Waterloo.

Scotland Forever!, the charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo painted by Elizabeth Thompson

At this crucial juncture, Uxbridge ordered his two brigades of British heavy cavalry-formed unseen behind the ridge-to charge in support of the hard-pressed infantry. The 1st Brigade, known as the Household Brigade, commanded by Major-General Lord Edward Somerset, consisted of guards regiments: the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues), and the 1st (King's) Dragoon Guards. The 2nd Brigade, also known as the Union Brigade, commanded by Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, was so called as it consisted of an English (the 1st or The Royals), a Scottish ( 2nd Scots Greys), and an Irish ( 6th or Inniskilling) regiment of heavy dragoons.

More than 20 years of warfare had eroded the numbers of suitable cavalry mounts available on the European continent; this resulted in the British heavy cavalry entering the 1815 campaign with the finest horses of any contemporary cavalry arm. British cavalry troopers also received excellent mounted swordsmanship training. They were, however, inferior to the French in manoeuvring in large formations, were cavalier in attitude, and, unlike the infantry, some units had scant experience of warfare.

The two brigades had a combined field strength of about 2,000 (2,651 official strength); they charged with the 47-year-old Uxbridge leading them and a very inadequate number of squadrons held in reserve. There is evidence that Uxbridge gave an order, the morning of the battle, to all cavalry brigade commanders to commit their commands on their own initiative, as direct orders from himself might not always be forthcoming, and to "support movements to their front". It appears that Uxbridge expected the brigades of Sir John Ormsby Vandeleur, Hussey Vivian, and the Dutch cavalry to provide support to the British heavies. Uxbridge later regretted leading the charge in person, saying "I committed a great mistake", when he should have been organising an adequate reserve to move forward in support.

Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys capturing the eagle of the 45e Ligne in The Fight For The Standard by Richard Ansdell

Sir Walter Scott, in Paul's Letters to his Kinsfolk, described the following scene:

Sir John Elley, who led the charge of the heavy brigade, was [...] at one time surrounded by several of the cuirassiers; but, being a tall and uncommonly powerful man, completely master of his sword and horse, he cut his way out, leaving several of his assailants on the ground, marked with wounds, indicating the unusual strength of the arm which inflicted them. Indeed, had not the ghastly evidence remained on the field, many of the blows dealt upon this occasion would have seemed borrowed from the annals of knight-errantry [...]

To their left, the Union Brigade suddenly swept through the infantry lines, giving rise to the legend that some of the 92nd Gordon Highland Regiment clung onto their stirrups and accompanied them into the charge. From the centre leftwards, the Royal Dragoons destroyed Bourgeois' brigade, capturing the eagle of the 105e Ligne. The Inniskillings routed the other brigade of Quoit's division, and the Scots Greys came upon the lead French regiment, 45e Ligne, as it was still reforming after having crossed the sunken road and broken through the hedge row in pursuit of the British infantry. The Greys captured the eagle of the 45e Ligne and overwhelmed Grenier's brigade. These would be the only two French eagles captured by the British during the battle. On Wellington's extreme left, Durutte's division had time to form squares and fend off groups of Greys.

As Ponsonby tried to rally his men against the French cuirassers, he was attacked by Jaquinot's lancers and captured. A nearby party of Scots Greys saw the capture and attempted to rescue their brigade commander. The French lancer who had captured Ponsonby killed him and then used his lance to kill three of the Scots Greys who had attempted the rescue.

By the time Ponsonby died, the momentum had entirely returned in favour of the French. Milhaud's and Jaquinot's cavalrymen drove the Union Brigade from the valley. The result was very heavy losses for the British cavalry. A countercharge, by British light dragoons under Major-General Vandeleur and Dutch-Belgian light dragoons and hussars under Major-General Ghigny on the left wing, and Dutch-Belgian carabiniers under Major-General Trip in the centre, repelled the French cavalry.

The Union Brigade lost heavily in both officers and men killed (including its commander, William Ponsonby, and Colonel Hamilton of the Scots Greys) and wounded. The 2nd Life Guards and the King's Dragoon Guards of the Household Brigade also lost heavily (with Colonel Fuller, commander of the King's DG, killed). However, the 1st Life Guards, on the extreme right of the charge, and the Blues, who formed a reserve, had kept their cohesion and consequently suffered significantly fewer casualties. On the rolls the official, or paper strength, for both Brigades is given as 2,651 while Barbero and others estimate the actual strength at around 2,000 and the official recorded losses for the two heavy cavalry brigades during the battle was 1,205 troopers and 1,303 horses.

Jan Willem Pieneman's The Battle of Waterloo (1824). Duke of Wellington, centre, flanked on his left by Lord Uxbridge in hussar uniform. On the image's far left, Cpl. Styles of the Royal Dragoons flourishes the eagle of the 105e Ligne. The wounded Prince of Orange is carried from the field in the foreground.

Some historians, such as Chandler, Weller, Uffindell, and Corum, assert that the British heavy cavalry were destroyed as a viable force following their first, epic charge. Barbero states that the Scots Greys were practically wiped out and that the other two regiments of the Union Brigade suffered comparable losses. Other historians, such as Clark-Kennedy and Wood, citing British eyewitness accounts, describe the continuing role of the heavy cavalry after their charge. The heavy brigades, far from being ineffective, continued to provide valuable services. They countercharged French cavalry numerous times (both brigades), halted a combined cavalry and infantry attack (Household Brigade only), were used to bolster the morale of those units in their vicinity at times of crisis, and filled gaps in the Anglo-allied line caused by high casualties in infantry formations (both brigades).

This service was rendered at a very high cost, as close combat with French cavalry, carbine fire, infantry musketry, and-more deadly than all of these-artillery fire steadily eroded the number of effectives in the two brigades. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon the whole Union Brigade could field only three squadrons, though these countercharged French cavalry, losing half their number in the process. At the end of the fighting, the two brigades, by this time combined, could muster one squadron.

Marshal Ney leading the French cavalry charge, from Louis Dumoulin's Panorama of the Battle of Waterloo

A little before 16:00, Ney noted an apparent exodus from Wellington's centre. He mistook the movement of casualties to the rear for the beginnings of a retreat, and sought to exploit it. Following the defeat of d'Erlon's Corps, Ney had few infantry reserves left, as most of the infantry had been committed either to the futile Hougoumont attack or to the defence of the French right. Ney therefore tried to break Wellington's centre with cavalry alone. Initially, Milhaud's reserve cavalry corps of cuirassiers and Lefebvre-Desnoëttes' light cavalry division of the Imperial Guard, some 4,800 sabres, were committed. When these were repulsed, Kellermann's heavy cavalry corps and Guyot's heavy cavalry of the Guard were added to the massed assault, a total of around 9,000 cavalry in 67 squadrons. When Napoleon saw the charge he said it was an hour too soon.

French Cuirassiers, by Louis Dumoulin

Wellington's infantry responded by forming squares (hollow box-formations four ranks deep). Squares were much smaller than usually depicted in paintings of the battle-a 500-man battalion square would have been no more than 60 feet (18 m) in length on a side. Infantry squares that stood their ground were deadly to cavalry, as cavalry could not engage with soldiers behind a hedge of bayonets, but were themselves vulnerable to fire from the squares. Horses would not charge a square, nor could they be outflanked, but they were vulnerable to artillery or infantry. Wellington ordered his artillery crews to take shelter within the squares as the cavalry approached, and to return to their guns and resume fire as they retreated.

Witnesses in the British infantry recorded as many as 12 assaults, though this probably includes successive waves of the same general attack; the number of general assaults was undoubtedly far fewer. Kellermann, recognising the futility of the attacks, tried to reserve the elite carabinier brigade from joining in, but eventually Ney spotted them and insisted on their involvement.

A British eyewitness of the first French cavalry attack, an officer in the Foot Guards, recorded his impressions very lucidly and somewhat poetically:

About four p.m., the enemy's artillery in front of us ceased firing all of a sudden, and we saw large masses of cavalry advance: not a man present who survived could have forgotten in after life the awful grandeur of that charge. You discovered at a distance what appeared to be an overwhelming, long moving line, which, ever advancing, glittered like a stormy wave of the sea when it catches the sunlight. On they came until they got near enough, whilst the very earth seemed to vibrate beneath the thundering tramp of the mounted host. One might suppose that nothing could have resisted the shock of this terrible moving mass. They were the famous cuirassiers, almost all old soldiers, who had distinguished themselves on most of the battlefields of Europe. In an almost incredibly short period they were within twenty yards of us, shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" The word of command, "Prepare to receive cavalry", had been given, every man in the front ranks knelt, and a wall bristling with steel, held together by steady hands, presented itself to the infuriated cuirassiers.

If infantry being attacked held firm in their square defensive formations, and were not panicked, cavalry on their own could do very little damage to them. The French cavalry attacks were repeatedly repelled by the steadfast infantry squares, the harrying fire of British artillery as the French cavalry recoiled down the slopes to regroup, and the decisive countercharges of Wellington's light cavalry regiments, the Dutch heavy cavalry brigade, and the remaining effectives of the Household Cavalry.

At least one artillery officer disobeyed Wellington's order to seek shelter in the adjacent squares during the charges. Captain Mercer, who commanded 'G' Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, thought the Brunswick troops on either side of him so shaky that he kept his battery of six nine-pounders in action against the cavalry throughout, to great effect.

I thus allowed them to advance unmolested until the head of the column might have been about fifty or sixty yards from us, and then gave the word, "Fire!" The effect was terrible. Nearly the whole leading rank fell at once; and the round shot, penetrating the column carried confusion throughout its extent ... the discharge of every gun was followed by a fall of men and horses like that of grass before the mower's scythe.

Their casualties cannot easily be estimated. Senior French cavalry officers, in particular the generals, experienced heavy losses. Four divisional commanders were wounded, nine brigadiers wounded, and one killed-testament to their courage and their habit of leading from the front. Illustratively, Houssaye reports that the Grenadiers à Cheval numbered 796 of all ranks on 15 June, but just 462 on 19 June, while the Empress Dragoons lost 416 of 816 over the same period. Overall, Guyot's Guard heavy cavalry division lost 47% of its strength.

2nd Guard Lancers with the Grenadiers à Cheval in support[z]

Uxbridge recorded that he tried to lead the Dutch Carabiniers, under Major-General Trip, to renew the attack and that they refused to follow him. Other members of the British cavalry staff also commented on this occurrence. However, there is no support for this incident in Dutch or Belgian sources, and Wellington wrote in his Dispatch to Secretary for War Bathurst on 19 June 1815 that General Trip had "conducted himself much to my satisfaction". Uxbridge then ordered a charge by three squadrons of the 3rd Hussars of the King's German Legion. They broke through the French cavalry, but became hemmed in, were cut off and suffered severe losses. Meanwhile, Bachelu's and Tissot's men and their cavalry supports were being hard hit by fire from artillery and from Adam's infantry brigade, and they eventually fell back.

The storming of La Haye Sainte by Knötel

At approximately the same time as Ney's combined-arms assault on the centre-right of Wellington's line, rallied elements of D'Erlon's I Corps, spearheaded by the 13th Légère, renewed the attack on La Haye Sainte and this time were successful, partly because the King's German Legion's ammunition ran out. However, the Germans had held the centre of the battlefield for almost the entire day, and this had stalled the French advance.

With La Haye Sainte captured, Ney then moved skirmishers and horse artillery up towards Wellington's centre. French artillery began to pulverise the infantry squares at short range with canister. The 30th and 73rd Regiments suffered such heavy losses that they had to combine to form a viable square.

The possession of La Haye Sainte by the French was a very dangerous incident. It uncovered the very centre of the Anglo-allied army, and established the enemy within 60 yards of that centre. The French lost no time in taking advantage of this, by pushing forward infantry supported by guns, which enabled them to maintain a most destructive fire upon Alten's left and Kempt's right ...

-  Captain James Shaw, 43rd Foot, Chief of Staff 3rd Division.

Along with this artillery fire a multitude of French tirailleurs occupied the dominant positions behind La Haye Sainte and poured an effective fire into the squares. The situation for the Anglo-allies was now so dire that the 33rd Regiment's colours and all of Halkett's brigade's colours were sent to the rear for safety, described by historian Alessandro Barbero as, "... a measure that was without precedent".

A Dutch-Belgian cavalry regiment ordered to charge retreated from the field instead, fired on by their own infantry. Merlen's Light Cavalry Brigade charged the French artillery taking position near La Haye Sainte but were shot to pieces and the brigade fell apart. The Netherlands Cavalry Division, Wellington's last cavalry reserve behind the centre having lost half their strength was now useless and the French cavalry, despite its losses, were masters of the field, compelling the Anglo-allied infantry to remain in square. More and more French artillery was brought forward.

A French battery advanced to within 300 yards of the 1/1st Nassau square causing heavy casualties. When the Nassauers attempted to attack the battery they were ridden down by a squadron of cuirassiers. Yet another battery deployed on the flank of Mercer's battery and shot up its horses and limbers and pushed Mercer back. Mercer later recalled,

The rapidity and precision of this fire was quite appalling. Every shot almost took effect, and I certainly expected we should all be annihilated. ... The saddle-bags, in many instances were torn from horses' backs ... One shell I saw explode under the two finest wheel-horses in the troop down they dropped

French tirailleurs occupied the dominant positions, especially one on a knoll overlooking the square of the 27th. Unable to break square to drive off the French infantry because of the presence of French cavalry and artillery, the 27th had to remain in that formation and endure the fire of the tirailleurs. That fire nearly annihilated the 27th Foot, the Inniskillings, who lost two thirds of their strength within that three or four hours.

During this time many of Wellington's generals and aides were killed or wounded including FitzRoy Somerset, Canning, de Lancey, Alten and Cooke. The situation was now critical and Wellington, trapped in an infantry square and ignorant of events beyond it, was desperate for the arrival of help from the Prussians. He later wrote,

The time they occupied in approaching seemed interminable. Both they and my watch seemed to have stuck fast.

The Prussian attack on Plancenoit painted by Adolph Northen

The Prussian IV Corps (Bülow's) was the first to arrive in strength. Bülow's objective was Plancenoit, which the Prussians intended to use as a springboard into the rear of the French positions. Blücher intended to secure his right upon the Châteaux Frichermont using the Bois de Paris road. Blücher and Wellington had been exchanging communications since 10:00 and had agreed to this advance on Frichermont if Wellington's centre was under attack. General Bülow noted that the way to Plancenoit lay open and that the time was 16:30.

At about this time, the Prussian 15th Brigade ( Losthin's) was sent to link up with the Nassauers of Wellington's left flank in the Frichermont- La Haie area, with the brigade's horse artillery battery and additional brigade artillery deployed to its left in support. Napoleon sent Lobau's corps to stop the rest of Bülow's IV Corps proceeding to Plancenoit. The 15th Brigade threw Lobau's troops out of Frichermont with a determined bayonet charge, then proceeded up the Frichermont heights, battering French Chasseurs with 12-pounder artillery fire, and pushed on to Plancenoit. This sent Lobau's corps into retreat to the Plancenoit area, driving Lobau past the rear of the Armee Du Nord's right flank and directly threatening its only line of retreat. Hiller's 16th Brigade also pushed forward with six battalions against Plancenoit.

Zieten's flank march

Durutte had taken the positions of La Haie and Papelotte in a series of attacks, but now retreated behind Smohain without opposing the Prussian 24th Regiment (Laurens') as it retook both. The 24th advanced against the new French position, was repulsed, and returned to the attack supported by Silesian Schützen (riflemen) and the F/1st Landwehr. The French initially fell back before the renewed assault, but now began seriously to contest ground, attempting to regain Smohain and hold on to the ridgeline and the last few houses of Papelotte.

The Prussian 24th Regiment linked up with a Highlander battalion on its far right and along with the 13th Landwehr Regiment and cavalry support threw the French out of these positions. Further attacks by the 13th Landwehr and the 15th Brigade drove the French from Frichermont. Durutte's division, finding itself about to be charged by massed squadrons of Zieten's I Corps cavalry reserve, retreated from the battlefield. The rest of d'Erlon's I Corps also broke and fled in panic, while to the west the French Middle Guard were assaulting Wellington's centre. The Prussian I Corps then advanced towards the Brussels road, the only line of retreat available to the French.

Grenadier of the Old Guard in Le Grenadier by Édouard Detaille

Napoleon himself oversaw the initial deployment of the Middle and Old Guard. The Middle Guard formed in battalion squares, each about 550 men strong, with the 1st/3rd Grenadiers, led by Generals Friant and Poret de Morvan, on the right along the road, to their left and rear was General Harlet leading the square of the 4th Grenadiers, then the 1st/3rd Chasseurs under General Michel, next the 2nd/3rd Chasseurs and finally the large single square of two battalions of 800 soldiers of the 4th Chasseurs led by General Henrion. Two batteries of Imperial Guard Horse Artillery accompanied them with sections of two guns between the squares. Each square was led by a general and Marshal Ney, mounted on his 5th horse of the day, led the advance. Behind them, in reserve, were the three battalions of the Old Guard, right to left 1st/2nd Grenadiers, 2nd/2nd Chasseurs and 1st/2nd Chasseurs. Napoleon left Ney to conduct the assault; however, Ney led the Middle Guard on an oblique towards the Anglo-allied centre right instead of attacking straight up the centre. Napoleon sent Ney's senior ADC Colonel Crabbé to order Ney to adjust, but Crabbé was unable to get there in time.[citation needed ]

I saw the Garde Impériale advancing while the English troops were leaving the plateau en masse and moving in the direction of Waterloo; the battle seemed lost...

The Dutch divisional commander Chassé, on his own initiative, decided at this critical moment to advance with his relatively fresh Dutch division. Chassé first ordered his artillery forward; led by a battery of Dutch horse-artillery commanded by Captain Krahmer de Bichin the battery opened a destructive fire into the 1st/3rd Grenadiers' flank. This still did not stop the Guard's advance, so Chassé, who was affectionately called "Generaal Bajonet" by his soldiers, ordered his first brigade, commanded by Colonel Hendrik Detmers, to charge the outnumbered French with the bayonet. As the Guard wavered Chassé galloped among his men and found Captain De Haan with a few soldiers of the 19th Militia, whom he ordered into a flank attack. According to Chassé:

[De Haan] jumped over the hedge, reformed the line of about fifty men and the murderous fire he inflicted caused death and confusion among the enemy's lines. He took advantage of their confusion and advanced with the bayonet against them. I had the unspeakable joy to witness 300 Cuirassiers run away from 50 Dutchmen.

The French grenadiers then faltered and broke. The 4th Grenadiers, seeing their comrades retreat and having suffered heavy casualties themselves, now wheeled right about and retired.

To the left of the 4th Grenadiers were the two squares of the 1st/ and 2nd/3rd Chasseurs who angled further to the west and had suffered more from artillery fire than the grenadiers. But as their advance mounted the ridge they found it apparently abandoned and covered with dead. Suddenly 1,500 British Foot Guards under Maitland who had been lying down to protect themselves from the French artillery rose and devastated them with point-blank volleys. The chasseurs deployed to answer the fire, but some 300 fell from the first volley, including Colonel Mallet and General Michel, and both battalion commanders. A bayonet charge by the Foot Guards then broke the leaderless squares, which fell back onto the following column. The 4th Chasseurs battalion, 800 strong, now came up onto the exposed battalions of British Foot Guards, who lost all cohesion and dashed back up the slope as a disorganized crowd with the chasseurs in pursuit. At the crest the chasseurs came upon the battery that had caused severe casualties on the 1st and 2nd/3rd Chasseurs. They opened fire and swept away the gunners. The left flank of their square now came under fire from a heavy formation of British skirmishers, which the chasseurs drove back. But the skirmishers were replaced by the 52nd Light Infantry ( 2nd Division), led by John Colborne, which wheeled in line onto the chasseurs' flank and poured a devastating fire into them. The chasseurs returned a very sharp fire which killed or wounded some 150 men of the 52nd. The 52nd then charged, and under this onslaught, the chasseurs broke.

The last of the Guard retreated headlong. A ripple of panic passed through the French lines as the astounding news spread: " La Garde recule. Sauve qui peut!" ("The Guard is retreating. Every man for himself!") Wellington now stood up in Copenhagen's stirrups and waved his hat in the air to signal a general advance. His army rushed forward from the lines and threw themselves upon the retreating French.

The surviving Imperial Guard rallied on their three reserve battalions (some sources say four) just south of La Haye Sainte for a last stand. A charge from Adam's Brigade and the Hanoverian Landwehr Osnabrück Battalion, plus Vivian's and Vandeleur's relatively fresh cavalry brigades to their right, threw them into confusion. Those left in semi-cohesive units retreated towards La Belle Alliance. It was during this retreat that some of the Guards were invited to surrender, eliciting the famous, if apocryphal, retort "La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!" ("The Guard dies, it does not surrender!").

Prussian capture of Plancenoit

At about the same time, the Prussian 5th, 14th, and 16th Brigades were starting to push through Plancenoit, in the third assault of the day. The church was by now on fire, while its graveyard-the French centre of resistance-had corpses strewn about "as if by a whirlwind". Five Guard battalions were deployed in support of the Young Guard, virtually all of which was now committed to the defence, along with remnants of Lobau's corps. The key to the Plancenoit position proved to be the Chantelet woods to the south. Pirch's II Corps had arrived with two brigades and reinforced the attack of IV Corps, advancing through the woods.

The 25th Regiment's musketeer battalions threw the 1/2e Grenadiers (Old Guard) out of the Chantelet woods, outflanking Plancenoit and forcing a retreat. The Old Guard retreated in good order until they met the mass of troops retreating in panic, and became part of that rout. The Prussian IV Corps advanced beyond Plancenoit to find masses of French retreating in disorder from British pursuit. The Prussians were unable to fire for fear of hitting Wellington's units. This was the fifth and final time that Plancenoit changed hands.

French forces not retreating with the Guard were surrounded in their positions and eliminated, neither side asking for nor offering quarter. The French Young Guard Division reported 96 per cent casualties, and two-thirds of Lobau's Corps ceased to exist.

Carabinier-à-Cheval cuirass holed by a cannonball at Waterloo, belonging to Antoine Fauveau (Musée de l'Armée)

Despite their great courage and stamina, the French Guards fighting in the village began to show signs of wavering. The church was already on fire with columns of red flame coming out of the windows, aisles and doors. In the village itself-still the scene of bitter house-to-house fighting-everything was burning, adding to the confusion. However, once Major von Witzleben's manoeuvre was accomplished and the French Guards saw their flank and rear threatened, they began to withdraw. The Guard Chasseurs under General Pelet formed the rearguard. The remnants of the Guard left in a great rush, leaving large masses of artillery, equipment and ammunition wagons in the wake of their retreat. The evacuation of Plancenoit led to the loss of the position that was to be used to cover the withdrawal of the French Army to Charleroi. The Guard fell back from Plancenoit in the direction of Maison du Roi and Caillou. Unlike other parts of the battlefield, there were no cries of "Sauve qui peut!" here. Instead, the cry "Sauvons nos aigles!" ("Let's save our eagles!") could be heard.

Lord Hill invites the last remnants of the French Imperial Guard to surrender, painted by Robert Alexander Hillingford

The French right, left, and centre had all now failed. The last cohesive French force consisted of two battalions of the Old Guard stationed around La Belle Alliance; they had been so placed to act as a final reserve and to protect Napoleon in the event of a French retreat. He hoped to rally the French army behind them, but as retreat turned into rout, they too were forced to withdraw, one on either side of La Belle Alliance, in square as protection against Coalition cavalry. Until persuaded that the battle was lost and he should leave, Napoleon commanded the square to the left of the inn. Adam's Brigade charged and forced back this square, while the Prussians engaged the other.

As dusk fell, both squares withdrew in relatively good order, but the French artillery and everything else fell into the hands of the Prussian and Anglo-allied armies. The retreating Guards were surrounded by thousands of fleeing, broken French troops. Coalition cavalry harried the fugitives until about 23:00, with Gneisenau pursuing them as far as Genappe before ordering a halt. There, Napoleon's abandoned carriage was captured, still containing an annotated copy of Machiavelli's , and diamonds left behind in the rush to escape. These diamonds became part of King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia's crown jewels; one Major Keller of the F/15th received the Pour le Mérite with oak leaves for the feat. By this time 78 guns and 2,000 prisoners had also been taken, including more generals.

There remained to us still four squares of the Old Guard to protect the retreat. These brave grenadiers, the choice of the army, forced successively to retire, yielded ground foot by foot, till, overwhelmed by numbers, they were almost entirely annihilated. From that moment, a retrograde movement was declared, and the army formed nothing but a confused mass. There was not, however, a total rout, nor the cry of sauve qui peut, as has been calumniously stated in the bulletin.

In the middle of the position occupied by the French army, and exactly upon the height, is a farm [], called La Belle Alliance. The march of all the Prussian columns was directed towards this farm, which was visible from every side. It was there that Napoleon was during the battle; it was thence that he gave his orders, that he flattered himself with the hopes of victory; and it was there that his ruin was decided. There, too, it was that, by happy chance, Field Marshal Blücher and Lord Wellington met in the dark, and mutually saluted each other as victors.

Other sources agree that the meeting of the commanders took place near La Belle Alliance, with this occurring at around 21:00.

At 10:30 on 19 June, General Grouchy, still following his orders, defeated General Thielemann at Wavre and withdrew in good order-though at the cost of 33,000 French troops that never reached the Waterloo battlefield. Wellington sent his official dispatch describing the battle to England on 19 June 1815; it arrived in London on 21 June 1815 and was published as a London Gazette Extraordinary on 22 June. Wellington, Blücher and other Coalition forces advanced upon Paris.

After his troops fell back, Napoleon fled to Paris following his defeat, arriving at 5:30 am on 21 June. Napoleon wrote to his brother and regent in Paris, Joseph, believing that he could still raise an army to fight back the Anglo-Prussian forces while fleeing from the Waterloo battlefield. Napoleon believed he could rally French supporters to his cause and call upon conscripts to hold off invading forces until General Grouchy's army could reinforce him in Paris. However, following defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon's support from the French public and his own army waned, including by General Ney, who believed that Paris would fall if Napoleon remained in power. Napoleon's brother Lucien and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout advised him to continue fighting, dissolve the Chamber of Deputies from Louis XVIII's constitutional government, and for Napoleon to rule France as a military dictator, which Napoleon had been under the guise of Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814. To circumvent Napoleon overthrowing the Chamber of Deputies and a possible French Civil War, the Chamber of Deputies voted to become permanent on 21 June after persuasion from Lafayette. On 22 June, Napoleon wished to abdicate in favour of his son, Napoleon II, after realizing that he lacked military, public, and governmental support for his claim to continue to rule France. Napoleon's proposal for the instatement of his son was swiftly rejected by the legislature.[page needed ]

Napoleon announced his second abdication on 24 June 1815. In the final skirmish of the Napoleonic Wars, Marshal Davout, Napoleon's minister of war, was defeated by Blücher at Issy on 3 July 1815. Allegedly, Napoleon tried to escape to North America, but the Royal Navy was blockading French ports to forestall such a move. He finally surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon on 15 July. There was a campaign against French fortresses that still held out; Longwy capitulated on 13 September 1815, the last to do so. Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France and Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, where he died in 1821. The Treaty of Paris was signed on 20 November 1815.

Royal Highness, - Exposed to the factions which divide my country, and to the enmity of the great Powers of Europe, I have terminated my political career; and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon the hospitality ( m'asseoir sur le foyer) of the British people. I claim from your Royal Highness the protections of the laws, and throw myself upon the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my enemies.

-  Napoleon. (letter of surrender to the Prince Regent; translation).

Sir David Wilkie, The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch, 1822

Maitland's 1st Foot Guards, who had defeated the Chasseurs of the Imperial Guard, were thought to have defeated the Grenadiers, although they had only faced Chasseurs of the newly raised Middle Guard. They were nevertheless awarded the title of Grenadier Guards in recognition of their feat and adopted bearskins in the style of the Grenadiers. Britain's Household Cavalry likewise adopted the cuirass in 1821 in recognition of their success against their armoured French counterparts. The effectiveness of the lance was noted by all participants and this weapon subsequently became more widespread throughout Europe; the British converted their first light cavalry regiment to lancers in 1816, their uniforms, of Polish origin, were based on those of the Imperial Guard lancers.[page needed ]

Waterloo proved a decisive battle in more than one sense. Each generation in Europe up to the outbreak of the First World War looked back at Waterloo as the turning point that dictated the course of subsequent world history, seeing it in retrospect as the event that ushered in the Concert of Europe, an era characterised by relative peace, material prosperity and technological progress. The battle definitively ended the series of wars that had convulsed Europe-and involved other regions of the world-since the French Revolution of the early 1790s. It also ended the First French Empire and the political and military career of Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest commanders and statesmen in history.

There followed almost four decades of international peace in Europe. No further major international conflict occurred until the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Changes to the configuration of European states, as refashioned in the aftermath of Waterloo, included the formation of the Holy Alliance of reactionary governments intent on repressing revolutionary and democratic ideas, and the reshaping of the former Holy Roman Empire into a German Confederation increasingly marked by the political dominance of Prussia.

Views on the reasons for Napoleon's defeat

In my opinion, four principal causes led to this disaster: The first, and most influential, was the arrival, skilfully combined, of Blücher, and the false movement that favoured this arrival; the second, was the admirable firmness of the British infantry, joined to the sang-froid and aplomb of its chiefs; the third, was the horrible weather, that had softened the ground, and rendered the offensive movements so toilsome, and retarded till one o'clock the attack that should have been made in the morning; the fourth, was the inconceivable formation of the first corps, in masses very much too deep for the first grand attack.

The Prussian soldier, historian, and theorist Carl von Clausewitz, who as a young colonel had served as chief-of-staff to Thielmann's Prussian III Corps during the Waterloo campaign, expressed the following opinion:

Wellington wrote in his dispatch to London:

I should not do justice to my own feelings, or to Marshal Blücher and the Prussian army, if I did not attribute the successful result of this arduous day to the cordial and timely assistance I received from them. The operation of General Bülow upon the enemy's flank was a most decisive one; and, even if I had not found myself in a situation to make the attack which produced the final result, it would have forced the enemy to retire if his attacks should have failed, and would have prevented him from taking advantage of them if they should unfortunately have succeeded".

In his famous study of the Campaign of 1815, the Prussian Clausewitz does not agree with Wellington on this assessment. Indeed, he claims that if Bonaparte had attacked in the morning, the battle would probably have been decided by the time the Prussians arrived, and an attack by Blücher, while not impossible or useless, would have been much less certain of success.

The immense Butte du Lion ("Lion's Mound") on the battlefield of Waterloo

Some portions of the terrain on the battlefield have been altered from their 1815 appearance. Tourism began the day after the battle, with Captain Mercer noting that on 19 June "a carriage drove on the ground from Brussels, the inmates of which, alighting, proceeded to examine the field". In 1820, the Netherlands' King William I ordered the construction of a monument. The Lion's Mound, a giant artificial hill, was constructed here using 300,000 cubic metres (390,000 cu yd) of earth taken from the ridge at the centre of the British line, effectively removing the southern bank of Wellington's sunken road.

Every one is aware that the variously inclined undulations of the plains, where the engagement between Napoleon and Wellington took place, are no longer what they were on 18 June 1815. By taking from this mournful field the wherewithal to make a monument to it, its real relief has been taken away, and history, disconcerted, no longer finds her bearings there. It has been disfigured for the sake of glorifying it. Wellington, when he beheld Waterloo once more, two years later, exclaimed, "They have altered my field of battle!" Where the great pyramid of earth, surmounted by the lion, rises to-day, there was a hillock which descended in an easy slope towards the Nivelles road, but which was almost an escarpment on the side of the highway to Genappe. The elevation of this escarpment can still be measured by the height of the two knolls of the two great sepulchres which enclose the road from Genappe to Brussels: one, the English tomb, is on the left; the other, the German tomb, is on the right. There is no French tomb. The whole of that plain is a sepulchre for France.

The alleged remark by Wellington about the alteration of the battlefield as described by Hugo was never documented, however.

Other terrain features and notable landmarks on the field have remained virtually unchanged since the battle. These include the rolling farmland to the east of the Brussels-Charleroi Road as well as the buildings at Hougoumont, La Haye Sainte, and La Belle Alliance.

Apart from the Lion Mound, there are several more conventional but noteworthy monuments throughout the battlefield. A cluster of monuments at the Brussels-Charleroi and Braine L'Alleud-Ohain crossroads marks the mass graves of British, Dutch, Hanoverian and King's German Legion troops. A monument to the French dead, entitled L'Aigle blessé ("The Wounded Eagle"), marks the location where it is believed one of the Imperial Guard units formed a square during the closing moments of the battle.

A monument to the Prussian dead is located in the village of Plancenoit on the site where one of their artillery batteries took position. The Duhesme mausoleum is one among the few graves of the fallen. It is located at the side of Saint Martin's Church in Ways, a hamlet in the municipality of Genappe. Seventeen fallen officers are buried in the crypt of the British Monument in the Brussels Cemetery in Evere.

After the battle, the bodies of the tens of thousands who died were hastily buried in mass graves across the battlefield - a process that took at least ten days, according to accounts by those who visited the battlefield just after the battle. Remarkably, there is no record of any such mass grave being discovered in the 20th and 21st centuries; only two complete human skeletons have been found. The remains of a soldier thought to be 23-year-old Friederich Brandt were discovered in 2012. He was a slightly hunchbacked infantryman, 1.60 metres (5 ft 3 in) tall, and was hit in the chest by a French bullet. His coins, rifle and position on the battlefield identified him as an Hanoverian fighting in the King's German Legion. In 2022 a second skeleton was found in a ditch near a former field hospital by the Waterloo Uncovered charity. In December 2022, the historians Dr. Bernard Wilkin (Belgium) and Robin Schäfer (Germany), assisted by Belgian archaeologist Dominique Bosquet, discovered and recovered the largest assembly of remains of Waterloo battlefield casualties found in recent times. In the aftermath of the historian's research into the fate of the Waterloo battlefield (see below), several local individuals had come forward who were in the possession of human remains recovered on it. Forensic examination has shown that these remains belonged to at least four soldiers, some of whom are likely to be Prussian. Another set of human remains, initially discovered on the central battlefield by illegal metal detecting and consisting of the remains of six British soldiers, was also recovered by the team. Objects found with the casualties on the central battlefield point to the fact that at least one of them served in the First Foot Guards.

So far, a reason given for the absence of human remains in any quantity was that European battlefields of the time were often scoured for bones to make bone meal, which was much in demand as a fertilizer before the discovery of superphosphates in the 1840s. This theory however is questionable, as actual evidence for it is lacking. In 2022 however, historians Dr. Bernard Wilkin and Robin Schäfer, supported by the British archaeologist Professor Tony Pollard, have concluded that in the aftermath of the conflict, local farmers dug up the corpses of horses and men and sold them to the Waterloo sugar factory. There, the ground-down bones were fired in kilns to make bone-char, which was then used to filter sugar syrup as part of the production process.

As part of the bicentennial celebration of the battle, in 2015 Belgium minted a two- euro coin depicting the Lion monument over a map of the field of battle. France officially protested against this issue of coins, while the Belgian government noted that the French mint sells souvenir medals at Waterloo. After 180,000 coins were minted but not released, the issue was melted. Instead, Belgium issued an identical commemorative coin in the non-standard value of euros. Legally valid only within the issuing country (but unlikely to circulate) it was minted in brass, packaged, and sold by the Belgian mint for 6 euros. A ten-euro coin, showing Wellington, Blücher, their troops and the silhouette of Napoleon, was also available in silver for 42 euros.

1. Captain ^ Cavalié Mercer RHA, thought the Brunswickers "...perfect children. None of the privates, perhaps were over eighteen years of age" (Mercer 1891, p. 218).

2. De Bas reprints colonel Van Zuylen's 'History of the 2nd division'. Van Zuylen van Nijevelt was the chief of staff of the 2nd division and located right behind the Bylandt brigade during the whole day (^ Bas & Wommersom 1909, pp. 134-136(vol.2)). He wrote a 32 page report, right after the battle. This report forms the basis of most of the other literature mentioned here: see Bas & Wommersom 1909, pp. 289-352(vol.3). Google Books; Boulger has an English translation of the report (Boulger 1901).

3. ^ Pawly 2001, pp. 37-43; The following letters are used: the accounts of General Kempt, Calvert of the 32nd infantry, Cruikshank of the 79th, Winchester & Hope of the 92nd, Evans (Ponsonby Cavalry brigade) and Clark Kennedy of the Royal Dragoons (Glover 2004, p. [page needed ]). These are the only letters that actually state some details about the Dutch and Belgian troops.

4. The Royal Horse Guards (2 squadrons) were in reserve for the Household Brigade (9 or 10 squadrons strong) but the Union Brigade (9 squadrons) had no reserve (^ Letter 5, Siborne 1891, pp. 7-10; Letter 16 Glover 2004). The total may have been 18 squadrons as there is an uncertainty in the sources as to whether the King's Dragoon Guards fielded three or four squadrons. Uxbridge implies 4 squadrons (Letter 5 Siborne 1891, pp. 7-10), however, Capt. Naylor of the King's implies 3 when he states he commanded the centre squadron of the regiment (Letter 21, Siborne 1891, pp. 46-47).

5. An episode famously used later by ^ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables. The sunken lane acted as a trap, funnelling the flight of the French cavalry to their own right and away from the British cavalry. Some of the cuirassiers then found themselves hemmed in by the steep sides of the sunken lane, with a confused mass of their own infantry in front of them, the 95th Rifles firing at them from the north side of the lane, and Somerset's heavy cavalry still pressing them from behind. The novelty of fighting armoured foes impressed the British cavalrymen, as was recorded by the commander of the Household Brigade.

6. Losses are ultimately from the official returns taken the day after the battle: Household Brigade, initial strength 1,319, killed - 95, wounded - 248, missing - 250, totals - 593, horses lost - 672.^
Union Brigade, initial strength 1,332, killed - 264, wounded - 310, missing - 38, totals - 612, horses lost - 631 (Smith 1998, p. 544).

7. This view appears to have arisen from a comment by Captain Clark-Kennedy of the 1st Dragoons 'Royals', in a letter in ^ H. T. Siborne's book, he makes an estimate of around 900 men actually in line within the Union Brigade before its first charge (Siborne 1891, Letter 35, p. 69). Clark-Kennedy does not, however, explain how his estimate was arrived at. The shortfall of 432 men (the equivalent of a whole regiment) from the paper strength of the brigade is large. However, another officer of the brigade, John Mills of the 2nd Dragoons, says that the effective strength of the brigade did not "exceed 1,200" (Glover 2007, p. 59).

8. ^ William Siborne was in possession of a number of eyewitness accounts from generals, such as Uxbridge, down to cavalry cornets and infantry ensigns. This makes his history particularly useful (though only from the British and KGL perspective); some of these eyewitness letters were later published by his son, a British Major General (H. T. Siborne). Parts of William Siborne's account were, and are, highly controversial. The very negative light shed by Siborne on the conduct of the Dutch-Belgian troops during the battle, which it should be said was a reasonably accurate reflection of the opinions of his British informants, prompted a semi-official rebuttal by Dutch historian Captain Willem Jan Knoop in his "Beschouwingen over Siborne's Geschiedenis van den oorlog van 1815 in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden" en wederlegging van de in dat werk voorkomende beschuldigingen tegen het Nederlandsche leger. Breda 1846; 2nd printing 1847. Knoop based his rebuttal on the official Dutch after-battle reports, drawn up within days of the battle, not on twenty-year-old recollections of veterans, as Siborne did. Siborne rejected the rebuttal.

9. This qualification may have been self-serving on Mercer's part. Wellington himself sought refuge in the "shaky" Brunswick squares at the time and observed what he interpreted as acts of cowardice by British artillerymen, who "... ran off the field entirely, taking with them limbers, ammunition, and everything ..." as he wrote in a letter of 21 December 1815 to the Master-General of the Ordnance, Lord Mulgrave. The incident even justified the denial of pensions to members of the Artillery Corps in his view. So, where Mercer claimed heroism, Wellington saw the opposite. See for the full text of Wellington's letter, and an attempted rebuttal ^ Duncan, F. (1879), "Appendix A", History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, pp. 444-464 - The letter was originally published in WSD, vol. XIV (1858 ed.), pp. 618-620

10. A number of different mounts could have been ridden by Napoleon at Waterloo: Ali, Crebère, Désirée, Jaffa, Marie and Tauris (^ Summerville 2007, p. 315) Lozier states it was Désirée (Lozier 2010).

11. On the contrary, many contradicted this British account vehemently. See e.g.^ Eenens 1879, pp. 131-198. Google Books; Knoop, W.J. (1847) [1846], "Beschouwingen over Siborne's Geschiedenis van den oorlog van 1815 in Frankrijk en de Nederlanden", en wederlegging van de in dat werk voorkomende beschuldigingen tegen het Nederlandsche leger (2nd ed.), Breda; Craan, W.B. (1817), An historical account of the battle of Waterloo, translated by Gore, A., pp. 30-31 - written in 1816 on the basis of eyewitness accounts does not mention the incident).

12. Two chasseur battalions of the 4th Chasseurs were merged into one on the day of the battle, so while five Imperial Guard formations went forward, they may have comprised six battalions (^ Barbero 2005,[page needed ]). Similarly, Lewis, 2013, pp. 188-190.[full citation needed ]

13. "'The Guard dies, but it does not surrender!' is another of these fictitious historical sayings. General Cambronne, to whom it is attributed, never uttered. Victor Hugo, in Les Misérables, has restored the true text. It is composed of a single word [^ Merde!]".(Masson 1869)

14. The reply is commonly attributed to General ^ Pierre Cambronne, originating from an attribution by the journalist Balison de Rougemont in Journal General published on 24 June 1815,(Shapiro 2006, p. 128) although Cambronne claimed he replied "Merde!" (Boller 1989, p. 12) However, according to letters in in June 1932, Cambronne was already a prisoner of Colonel Hugh Halkett, so the retort, if ever given, or in whatever form it took, may have come from General Michel instead.White 2011, and Parry 1900, p. 70

15. Napoleon's last escapade was important politically because it "compelled all the powers at Vienna to bury their remaining differences in order to achieve a peace which would enshrine the principles of the balance of power".(^ Kennedy 1987, p. 37) "No international disturbance comparable in magnitude...has ever been followed by such a protracted period of peace". (Palmer 1956, p. 420) Recovering, after Waterloo, from six decades of abnormal obstacles to transatlantic commerce (from the Seven Years' War onwards), increasingly industrialized Europe and North America, by 1914, accounted for over 90% of global coal, iron and steel production and 76% of international trade.(Paxton 1985, p. 2)

Bas, F de; Wommersom, J. De T'Serclaes de (1909), La campagne de 1815 aux Pays-Bas d'après les rapports officiels néerlandais, vol. I: Quatre-Bras. II: Waterloo. III: Annexes and notes. IV: supplement: maps and plans, Brussels: Librairie Albert de Wit

Bassford, C.; Moran, D.; Pedlow, G. W. (2015) [2010]. On Waterloo: Clausewitz, Wellington, and the Campaign of 1815 (online scan ed.). Clausewitz.com. ISBN 978-1-4537-0150-8.

Boller, Paul F. Jr.; George Jr., John (1989), They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions, New York: Oxford University Press, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NCOEYJ0q-DUC 12], ISBN 978-0-19-505541-2

Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905).

Cornwell, Bernard (2015), "Those terrible grey horses, how they fight", Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles, Lulu Press, Inc, p. ~128, ISBN 978-1-312-92522-9

Comte d'Erlon, Jean-Baptiste Drouet (1815), Drouet's account of Waterloo to the French Parliament, Napoleon Bonaparte Internet Guide, archived from the original on 8 October 2007

(Project Gutenberg)

Frye, W.E. (2004) [1908], After Waterloo: Reminiscences of European Travel 1815-1819, Project Gutenberg

Homann, Arne; Wilkin, Bernard; Schäfer, Robin. "Die Toten von Waterloo: Aus dem Massengrab in die Zuckerfabrik?". Archäologie in Deutschland. 2023 (3 (Juni-Juli)): 44-45.

Hugo, Victor (1862), "Chapter VII: Napoleon in a Good Humor", Les Misérables, The Literature Network, archived from the original on 12 October 2007

Mantle, Robert (December 2000), Prussian Reserve Infantry 1813-1815: Part II: Organisation, Napoleonic Association.[better source needed ]

Mercer, A.C. (1891), "No 89:Royal Artillery", in Siborne, Herbert Taylor (ed.), Waterloo letters: a selection from original and hitherto unpublished letters bearing on the operations of the 16th, 17th, and 18th June, 1815, by officers who served in the campaign, London: Cassell & Company, p. 218

Masson, David; et al. (1869), "Historical Forgeries and Kosciuszko's "Finis Poloniae"", Macmillan's Magazine, Macmillan and Company, vol. 19, p. 164

Nofi, Albert A. (1998) [1993], The Waterloo campaign, June 1815, Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, ISBN 978-0-938289-29-6

Oman, Charles; Hall, John A. (1902), A History of the Peninsular War, Clarendon Press, p. 119

Parry, D.H. (1900), "Waterloo", Battle of the nineteenth century, vol. 1, London: Cassell and Company, archived from the original on 16 December 2008

Shapiro, Fred R., ed. (2006), The Yale Book of Quotations (illustrated ed.), Yale University Press, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=w5-GR-qtgXsC&pg=PA128 128], ISBN 978-0-300-10798-2

Steele, Charles (2014), Zabecki, David T. (ed.), Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History, ABC-CLIO, p. 178

White, John (14 December 2011), Burnham, Robert (ed.), Cambronne's Words, Letters to The Times (June 1932), the Napoleon Series, archived from the original on 25 August 2007

Wood, Evelyn (1895), Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign, London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company

Bijl, Marco, 8th Dutch Militia a history of the 8th Dutch Militia battalion and the Bylandt Brigade, of which it was a part, in the 1815 campaign (using original sources from the Dutch and Belgian national archives)

de Wit, Pierre. The campaign of 1815: a study. Study of the campaign of 1815, based on sources from all participating armies.

The Cowards at Waterloo based on Dellevoet, A. (2001), Cowards at Waterloo?: A Re-Examination of Bijlandt's Dutch-Belgian Brigade in the Campaign of 1815, Stackpole books

Buttery, David. Waterloo Battlefield Guide (Pen and Sword, 2018).

Clausewitz, Carl von; Wellesley, Arthur (2010), Christopher Bassford; Daniel Moran; Gregory Pedlow (eds.), On Waterloo: Clausewitz, Wellington, and the Campaign of 1815, Clausewitz.com, ISBN 978-1-4537-0150-8 This on-line text contains Clausewitz's 58-chapter study of the Campaign of 1815 and Wellington's lengthy 1842 essay written in response to Clausewitz, as well as supporting documents and essays by the editors.

Esdaile, Charles J. Walking Waterloo: A Guide (2019) excerpt

; A study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme online

Balen, Malcolm. A Model Victory: Waterloo and the Battle for History (Harper Perennial, 2006).

Bridoux, Jeff. "'Next to a battle lost, the greatest misery is a battle gained': the Battle of Waterloo-myth and reality". Intelligence and National Security 36.5 (2021): 754-770.

Esdaile. Charles J. "Napoleon at Waterloo: The events of 18 June 1815 analyzed via historical simulation". JAMS: Journal of Advanced Military Studies 12#2 (2021) pp. 11-44

Evans, Mark, et al. "Waterloo Uncovered: From discoveries in conflict archaeology to military veteran collaboration and recovery on one of the world's most famous battlefields", in Historic Landscapes and Mental Well-Being (2019): 253-265. online

Francois, Pieter. "'The Best Way to See Waterloo is with your Eyes Shut' British 'Histourism,' Authenticity and Commercialism in the Mid-Nineteenth Century". Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 22#1 (2013): 25-41.

Heffernan, Julian Jimenez. "Lying Epitaphs: 'Vanity Fair', Waterloo, and the Cult of the Dead". Victorian Literature and Culture 40#1 (2012): 25-45.

Heinzen, Jasper (2014), "A Negotiated Truce: The Battle of Waterloo in European Memory since the Second World War", History & Memory, 26 (1): 39-74, doi:10.2979/histmemo.26.1.39, S2CID 159698207, archived from the original on 6 May 2014

Kennaway, James. "Military surgery as national romance: the memory of British heroic fortitude at Waterloo". War & Society 39.2 (2020): 77-92. online

Keirstead, Christopher and Marysa Demoor, eds. "Special Issue: Waterloo and Its Afterlife in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical and Newspaper Press". Victorian Periodicals Review 48#4 (2015).

Mongin, Philippe. "A game-theoretic analysis of the Waterloo campaign and some comments on the analytic narrative project". Cliometrica 12.3 (2018): 451-480. online

Reynolds, Luke Alexander Lewis. "Who Owned Waterloo? Wellington's Veterans and the Battle for Relevance" (PhD. Diss. City University of New York, 2019) online.

Rigney, Ann. "Reframing Waterloo: Memory, mediation, experience", in The Varieties of Historical Experience (Routledge, 2019) pp. 121-139.

Seaton, A.V. "War and Thanatourism: Waterloo 1815-1914". Annals of Tourism Research 26#1 (1999): 130-158.

Scott, Walter. Scott on Waterloo edited by Paul O'Keeffe. (Vintage Books, 2015).

Shaw, Philip. Waterloo and the Romantic Imagination (Palgrave, 2002).

Turner, Harry. Courage, Blood & Luck: Poems of Waterloo (Pen and Sword Military, 2013).

French, Prussian and Anglo-allied uniforms during the Battle of Waterloo : Mont-Saint-Jean (FR)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Battle of Waterloo Part of the Waterloo campaign The Battle of Waterloo , by William Sadler II Belligerents France Commanders and leaders Napoleon I Michel Ney Duke of Wellington Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher Strength Total: 72,000-73,000 50,700 infantry 14,390 cavalry 8,050 artillery and engineers 252 guns Total: 118,000-120,000 Wellington's army:

# data[].attributes.body
A.  Lord Castlereagh of great Britain. Czar Alexander I of Russian. and prience klemens von metternich of sustria
charles- maurice de talleyrand of france.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
2014 marks both end points of the 'long 19th century', the period of relative peace that began arguably with the Congress of Vienna in September 1814 and lasted until the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914.

Emperor Napoleon was defeated in May 1814 and Cossacks marched along the Champs-Elysées into Paris. The victorious Great Powers (Russia, Great Britain, Austria and Prussia) invited the other states of Europe to send plenipotentiaries to Vienna for a peace conference. At the end of the summer, emperors, kings, princes, ministers and representatives converged on the Austrian capital, crowding the walled city. The first priority of the Congress of Vienna was to deal with territorial issues: a new configuration of German states, the reorganisation of central Europe, the borders of central Italy and territorial transfers in Scandinavia. Though the allies came close to blows over the partition of Poland, by February 1815 they had averted a new war thanks to a series of adroit compromises. There had been other pressing matters to settle: the rights of German Jews, the abolition of the slave trade and navigation on European rivers, not to mention the restoration of the Bourbon royal family in France, Spain and Naples, the constitution of Switzerland, issues of diplomatic precedence and, last but not least, the foundation of a new German confederation to replace the defunct Holy Roman Empire.

In March 1815, in the midst of all these feverish negotiations, the unthinkable happened: Napoleon escaped from his place of exile on Elba and re-occupied the throne of France, starting the adventure known as the Hundred Days. The allies banded together once again and defeated him decisively at Waterloo on June 18th, 1815, nine days after having signed the Final Act of the Congress of Vienna. To prevent France from ever again becoming a threat to Europe, they briefly entertained the idea of dismembering it, just as they had Poland a few decades earlier. In the end, however, the French got away with a foreign military occupation and heavy war reparations. Napoleon was shipped to St Helena, a forlorn British possession in the South Atlantic, where he stayed out of mischief until his death.

Settling the consequences of the war was difficult enough, but the Great Powers had a broader agenda: creating a new political system in Europe. The previous one had been established a century earlier, in 1713, at the Peace of Utrecht. Based on the principle of the balance of power, it required two opposing military alliances (initially led respectively by France and Austria). By contrast, the victors over Napoleon aimed for a 'System of Peace': there was to be only one political bloc of powers in Europe. This led to the creation of a cycle of regular multilateral conferences in various European cities, the so-called Congress System, which functioned at least from 1815 to 1822. It was the first attempt in history to build a peaceful Continental order based on the active co-operation of major states.

From Utrecht to Vienna

Why did the participants at Vienna want to reform the Utrecht system? Why had active cooperation become so necessary in 1814 and not before? The explanation is rather obvious: the previous equilibrium was broken. During the 18th century the military strengths had been evenly divided between the two major alliances, but Napoleon had tipped the scales. With a powerful army, he had managed to crush all his opponents except Britain and Russia, creating a continental empire. Defeating him had required a massive joint effort from the other powers. The turning point was the battle of Leipzig in October 1813, in which more than half a million soldiers took part.

Worse still, the Napoleonic wars had shattered borders and broken political institutions in several parts of the Continent, especially in Germany. In order to heal its wounds, Europe needed peace. Hence the first priority was to preserve it from two of its chronic problems: hegemonic adventures (so there would never again be a Napoleonic empire) and internecine wars (so there would be no reasons to fight each other).

Interestingly, the Congress System was the combination of distinct antidotes proposed by the Great Powers. The British Cabinet and its diplomats, led by Viscount Castlereagh, still believed in its earlier formula, 'the balance of power'. Traditionally, British strategy had been anti-hegemonic and forward-looking. At Vienna, just as at Utrecht a century before, Britain considered it essential to contain France against a possible military resurgence. Indeed, in 1815, Britain supported a similar scenario of buffer states around France as it had done in 1713, comprised, north to south, of the Dutch kingdom, Switzerland and Savoy. The British went a little further this time: they wanted a new European order that was sympathetic to their own interests, which were mostly about sea trade. If that could be obtained by parley, rather than by military competition, so much the better - and within those limits, Britain would be willing to maintain frequent diplomatic relations with the other European powers. Indeed, its envoys actively participated in the Congress System in the years to follow.

As for Austria, Prince Klemens von Metternich also relied on a form of 'balance of power', though his application was more down-to-earth. In 1813, when the victorious Russian army marched into Germany and liberated Berlin, joining a coalition against France had become a life or death proposition for Austria. It thus joined in the battle of Leipzig and the following campaigns. After Napoleon was defeated Austria had a further thorny issue to solve: how to manage its powerful and burdensome Russian ally? It had no option other than to go along with Russia and to enter into a 'balance of negotiation', playing off the allies of the same bloc against each other.

Surprisingly, the Russian view on peace in Europe proved by far the most elaborate. Three months after the final act of the Congress, Tsar Alexander proposed a treaty to his partners, the Holy Alliance. This short and unusual document, with Christian overtones, was signed in Paris on September 1815 by the monarchs of Austria, Prussia and Russia. There is a polarised interpretation, especially in France, that the 'Holy Alliance' (in a broad sense) had only been a regression, both social and political. Castlereagh joked that it was a 'piece of sublime mysticism and nonsense', even though he recommended Britain to undersign it. Correctly interpreting this document is key to understanding the European order after 1815.

While there was undoubtedly a mystical air to the zeitgeist, we should not stop at the religious resonances of the treaty of the Holy Alliance, because it also contained some realpolitik. The three signatory monarchs (the tsar of Russia, the emperor of Austria and the king of Prussia) were putting their respective Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant faiths on an equal footing. This was nothing short of a backstage revolution, since they relieved de facto the pope from his political role of arbiter of the Continent, which he had held since the Middle Ages. It is thus ironic that the 'religious' treaty of the Holy Alliance liberated European politics from ecclesiastical influence, making it a founding act of the secular era of 'international relations'.

There was, furthermore, a second twist to the idea of 'Christian' Europe. Since the sultan of the Ottoman Empire was a Muslim, the tsar could conveniently have it both ways: either he could consider the sultan as a legitimate monarch and be his friend; or else think of him as a non-Christian and become his enemy. As a matter of course, Russia still had territorial ambitions south, in the direction of Constantinople. In this ambiguity lies the prelude to the Eastern Question, the struggle between the Great Powers over the fate of the Ottoman Empire (the 'sick man of Europe'), as well as the control of the straits connecting the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Much to his credit, Tsar Alexander did not profit from that ambiguity, but his brother and successor Nicholas soon started a new Russo-Turkish war (1828-29).

Astonishingly, the Holy Alliance was also imbued with an idea inspired by the Enlightenment: that of perpetual peace. A French abbot, Saint-Pierre, had published a book in 1713 (the same year as the Peace of Utrecht), where he criticised the balance of power as being merely an armed truce. By contrast, he proposed that European states should co-exist, while retaining their freedom, within a federation, complete with a court and a common army. The Holy Alliance certainly came short of that purpose, since it was merely a declaration of intentions. It was nevertheless a multilateral compact, not for making peace in Europe, but for maintaining peace among sovereign European states. Eventually, most of them, with the exception of Britain and the Holy See, signed the Holy Alliance.

Appointed by Providence

Alexander had been a man of fairly liberal disposition, as far as Russia was concerned. He had appointed a Polish patriot, Adam Czartoryski, as his chef de cabinet from 1804 to 1806, had upheld the parliamentary system of Finland, granted a constitution to Poland in 1815 and later supported a constitutional monarchy in France. However, the Holy Alliance and the Congress System that followed degenerated into what is termed the 'Reaction', as the formerly threatened European aristocracies concentrated power and wealth back into their own hands.

The cause can again be found in the Holy Alliance, since it stated that the three contracting monarchs were appointed by Providence; in other words, that they had divine legitimacy. It thus reaffirmed the traditional top-down view of society, where power stemmed from God to the people and not from the people to their sovereign. In practice, the monarchs refused to answer the increasing demands for political representation by the cultured elites. This proved ill advised, since the latter started voicing critical opinions in the press and parliaments. Failing to be heard, protesters took to the streets, as in student riots in Germany in 1817. The first 'reaction' on the part of the Great Powers was to silence parliaments and censor the press. Italy also ignited with popular uprisings and further troubles in Spain spilled over to Mexico and South America.

To make things worse, the monarchs soon started borrowing each other's armies to put down rebellions. Since the term 'peace' had also, at the time, a connotation of 'law and order', it was justifiable under the Holy Alliance. 'Peace' became synonymous with repression of popular discontent. In 1830 Czartoryski, who found himself on the wrong side of a Polish rebellion against Russia, lamented that even though perpetual peace had become the conception of the most powerful monarchs of the Continent (he referred in particular to Tsar Alexander), diplomacy had corrupted it and turned it into venom. The Congress System rapidly became a directorial system: a syndicate of monarchs who supported each other against internal political competitors, especially their parliaments.

Outward success, internal failure

How effective was this 'system of peace'? This is part of the age-old debate between 'pacifists' and 'securitarians', the former believing that peace leads to security, the latter considering that security should be the sine qua non for peace ('if you want peace, prepare for war').

The political doctrine applied by Tsar Alexander in the post-Napoleonic era was definitely pacifist. In that case, however, pacifism was not meekness. In 1815 the tsar had not only won the Great Patriotic War against Napoleon in Russia. His army, by far the most powerful in Europe, had marched into the heart of Europe to liberate both Prussia and Austria. Having little left to prove, he could afford to champion peace, including being seen to do so in the eyes of his own subjects. In this respect, he rather applied the principle that 'peace is for the strong and war is for the weak'. In terms of international relations, the doctrine of the Great Powers was a resounding success, but in terms of internal policy, it was an unmitigated failure.

The Congress System formally ended in 1823, when the Great Powers stopped meeting regularly. Yet the one-bloc system went on for three decades. It survived the wave of European-wide revolutions of 1848, when the monarchs of Austria, Prussia and Russia duly assisted each other to crush the insurgents. The entente between the great powers finally broke down only five years later. In 1853 Russia decided to go for the jugular of the Ottoman Empire and threatened Constantinople. Britain and France countered by sending an expeditionary force, starting the Crimean War. The root of the crisis could, again, be found in a flaw of the Congress System (and again in the Holy Alliance): the omission of the Ottoman Empire from the European peace. The Concert of Europe endured until 1914, but the dream of perpetual peace in Europe died at the siege of Sevastopol (1854-55), during the Crimean War.

Stella Ghervas is a visiting scholar at Harvard University's Center for European Studies. She is currently completing a book entitled Conquering Peace: From the Enlightenment to the European Union for Harvard University Press.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
2014 marks both end points of the 'long 19th century', the period of relative peace that began arguably with the Congress of Vienna in September 1814 and lasted until the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914. Emperor Napoleon was defeated in May 1814 and Cossacks marched along the Champs-Elysées into Paris.

# data[].attributes.body
A. Napoleon and army of 600,000 troops, marched across Russian border. the new recruits had no loyalty

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
After taking power in 1799, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte won a string of military victories that gave him control over most of Europe. He annexed present-day Belgium and Holland, along with large chunks of present-day Italy, Croatia and Germany, and he set up dependencies in Switzerland, Poland and various German states. Spain was largely under his hegemony despite continuing guerilla warfare there, and Austria, Prussia and Russia had been browbeaten into becoming allies. Only Great Britain remained completely outside of his grasp.

In 1806 Napoleon decided to punish the British with an embargo that became known as the Continental System. But by the end of 1810, Czar Alexander I had stopped complying due to its deleterious effect on Russian trade and the value of the ruble. Alexander also imposed a heavy tax on French luxury products like lace and rebuffed Napoleon's attempt to marry one of his sisters. Exacerbating tensions was the 1807 formation of the Duchy of Warsaw. Though Napoleon created that state from Prussian, not Russian, lands, Alexander worried that it would incite a hostile Polish nationalism, according to D.M.G. Sutherland, a history professor at the University of Maryland who has authored two books on the Napoleonic era. "Down to the present day, the love affair between the French and Polish is pretty permanent," Sutherland said.

Napoleon, who considered Russia a natural ally since it had no territorial conflicts with France, soon moved to teach Alexander a lesson. In 1812 the French emperor raised a massive army of troops from all over Europe, the first of which entered Russia on June 24. "It was the most diverse European army since the Crusades," Sutherland said. Estimates vary, but experts believe that at least 450,000 Grande Armée soldiers and perhaps as many as 650,000 ended up crossing the Niemen River to fight approximately 200,000 soldiers on the Russian side. By comparison, George Washington' s army during the American Revolution rarely numbered more than 10,000 or 15,000 men, explained Sheperd Paine, president of the Napoleonic Historical Society.

Napoleon's goal was to win a quick victory that forced Alexander to the negotiating table. The Russians pulled back, however, and let the Grande Armée capture the city of Vilna on June 27 with barely a fight. In an ominous sign of things to come, an electrical storm pouring down freezing rain, hail and sleet killed a number of troops and horses that very night. To make matters worse, Grande Armée soldiers were already deserting in search of food and plunder. Nonetheless, Napoleon remained confident. "I have come once and for all to finish off these barbarians of the North," he purportedly declared to his top military advisors. "The sword is now drawn. They must be pushed back into their ice, so that for the next 25 years they no longer come to busy themselves with the affairs of civilized Europe."

In late July, the Russians similarly abandoned Vitebsk, setting fire to military stores and a bridge on their way out. Then, in mid-August, they retreated from Smolensk and torched that city. Many peasants, meanwhile, burned their crops to prevent them from falling into French hands. "Certainly, the scorched earth tactics were incredibly important in denying the French army sustenance," said David A. Bell, a history professor at Princeton University and author of " The First Total War: Napoleon's Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It. " The summer heat had likewise become oppressive, and Grande Armée soldiers were coming down with insect-borne diseases such as typhus and water-related diseases like dysentery.

Thousands of men died while fighting at Smolensk and elsewhere. But the Russians did not truly make a stand until the September 7 Battle of Borodino, which took place just 75 miles from Moscow. That day, the French and Russians pounded each other with artillery and launched a number of charges and countercharges. Roughly three canon booms and seven musket shots rang out each second. The losses on both sides were enormous, with total casualties of at least 70,000. Rather than continue with a second day of fighting, the Russians withdrew and left the road to Moscow open.

On September 14, the Grande Armée entered the ancient capital of Moscow, only to see it too become engulfed in flames. Most residents had already escaped the city, leaving behind vast quantities of hard liquor but little food. French troops drank and pillaged while Napoleon waited for Alexander to sue for peace. No offer ever came. With snow flurries having already fallen, Napoleon led his army out of Moscow on October 19, realizing that it could not survive the winter there.

By this time, Napoleon was down to some 100,000 troops, the rest having died, deserted or been wounded, captured or left along the supply line. Originally he planned a southerly retreat, but his troops were forced back to the road they took in after a replenished Russian army engaged them at Maloyaroslavets. All forage along that route had already been consumed, and when the army arrived at Smolensk it found that stragglers had eaten the food left there. Horses were dying in droves, and the Grande Armée's flanks and rear guard faced constant attacks. To top it off, an unusually early winter set in, complete with high winds, sub-zero temperatures and lots of snow. On particularly bad nights, thousands of men and horses succumbed to exposure. Stories abound of soldiers splitting open dead animals and crawling inside for warmth, or stacking dead bodies in windows for insulation. "Things got bad very quickly," Paine said. "It was a constant attrition."

In late November, the Grande Armée narrowly escaped complete annihilation when it crossed the frigid Berezina River, but it had to leave behind thousands of wounded. "From then on, it was almost every man for himself," Paine said. On December 5, Napoleon left the army under the command of Joachim Murat and sped toward Paris amid rumors of a coup attempt. Nine days later, what little remained of the Grande Armée's rear guard stumbled back across the Niemen River.

Emboldened by the defeat, Austria, Prussia and Sweden re-joined Russia and Great Britain in the fight against Napoleon. Although the French emperor was able to raise another massive army, this time it was short on both cavalry and experience. Napoleon won some initial victories against his enemies, but he suffered a crushing defeat in October 1813 at the Battle of Leipzig. By the following March, Paris had been captured and Napoleon was forced into exile on the island of Elba. In 1815 Napoleon made one more attempt to take power but was overcome at the Battle of Waterloo. "Charles XII tried it, Napoleon tried it, Hitler tried it," Bell said. "It never seems to work out invading Russia."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Napoleon's Invasion of Russia Was the Beginning of the End

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
After taking power in 1799, French leader Napoleon Bonaparte won a string of military victories that gave him control over most of Europe. He annexed present-day Belgium and Holland, along with large chunks of present-day Italy, Croatia and Germany, and he set up dependencies in Switzerland, Poland and various German states.

# data[].attributes.body
A. He wanted to rule Europe and the Americans. French expedition to Saint Domingue failed. Napoleon sold Louisiana territory and turned his focus to Europe.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Napoleon and Europe exhibition - Musée de l'Armée - Administering the Empire Administering Europe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Du mercredi 27 mars au dimanche 14 juillet 2013, le musée de l'Armée présente l'exposition Napoléon et l'Europe

# data[].attributes.body
A. Directory weak and ineffective, fear of royalists and of European opposition. November 1799 Coup detat, France to be led by consulate. Napoleon voted first consul, in effect of dictator. Napoleon promised order and stability, pledging to uphold key reforms. The French gave up some freedoms for peace and prosperity.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
French Revolution, a timeline made with Timetoast's free interactive timeline making software.

# data[].attributes.headline
Execution of the King and Queen/ Beginning of the Reign of Terror

# data[].attributes.subject
Execution of the King and Queen/ Beginning of the Reign of Terror

# data[].attributes.body
A. Most common sentence was death by guillotine, condemned paraded through pairs in open carts. Mobs watched at scaffold; executions took less than one minute. No one was spared, peasants and laborers affected, Danton and Robespierre. 40,000 executed in 10 months.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Reign of Terror (French Revolution 1793-1794)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A continuation of my French Revolution lecture series. This segment focuses on the Reign of Terror (1793-1794).

# data[].attributes.body
A. In 1791, the Legislative assembly was formed. Citizens gained broad voting rights, but rights were no universal. Constitution restricted power of king and ended distinctions of birth. King and Queen feared they would be harmed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
French Revolution, a timeline made with Timetoast's free interactive timeline making software.

# data[].attributes.headline
Writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Men

# data[].attributes.subject
Writing of the Declaration of the Rights of Men

# data[].attributes.body
A. Feudal dues were eliminated. Declaration laid out "liberty, equality, fraternity". They were inspired by the English Bill of Rights, American Declaration of Independence, and the writings of Enlightenment philosophers. The men were born equal and remain equal under the law. These rights did not extend to women.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In July 1789 the National Constituent Assembly began to deliberate about how to guarantee and protect individual rights in the new nation. One solution was to enact a document that explicitly protected these rights. Rights-based documents were a feature of British law and the recently adopted United States Constitution. The Assembly formed a committee to draft a bill of rights and, on August 26th 1789, passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen. This declaration became a cornerstone document of the French Revolution - and according to some historians, its greatest legacy. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen served as a preamble to all three revolutionary constitutions and a cornerstone document for political clubs and movements. It also set goals and standards for subsequent national governments - standards that were ignored and trampled during the radical phase of the revolution.

The main sponsor of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. A veteran of the American Revolution and a student of the philosophes, Lafayette embraced Enlightenment doctrines of constitutionalism, popular sovereignty and natural rights. On July 11th, three days before the attack on the Bastille, Lafayette delivered an address to the Assembly, expressing the need for a constitutional document that guaranteed the rights of individuals. He went as far as tabling his own draft declaration of rights, prepared in consultation with Thomas Jefferson. A prominent writer and political leader, Jefferson authored some of the American Revolution's most significant documents, including the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the United States Declaration of Independence (both 1776).

For all of Lafayette's enthusiasm, there was considerable division in the Assembly over the need for a declaration of rights. Most conservative and Monarchien (constitutional monarchist) deputies rejected the idea. They accepted the royal government needed reform and limitations on its power - but they considered a bill of rights an unnecessary step. The Assembly's more radical deputies thought otherwise. The new government, they argued, must have explicit constitutional limitations on its power, particularly where this power could infringe on individual liberties. Other deputies had structural, procedural and legal concerns. What form should a declaration of rights take? Should it be part of the constitution? Should it exist as separate legislation? Should it be a broad philosophical statement or a legally binding set of points?

The debate continued through July and into the first days of August. On August 4th the deputies reached a consensus about drafting a declaration of rights. Responsibility for this was given to the Assembly's constitutional committee. This committee contained around 40 deputies, including Honore Mirabeau, Emmanuel Sieyès, Charles Talleyrand and Isaac Le Chapelier. For six days the committee thrashed out a declaration of rights. They studied similar documents from Britain and America and received numerous submissions and drafts from interested locals. The committee eventually emerged with a draft declaration of rights, containing a preamble and 24 articles. On August 26th they whittled this back to 17 articles. The committee then voted to suspend deliberations and accept the draft as it stood, intending to review it after the finalisation of a constitution. Thus was born the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (in French, Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen).

The Declaration was a crystallisation of Enlightenment ideals. According to historian Lynn Hunt, it was "stunning in its sweep and simplicity". It encapsulated the natural and civil rights espoused by writers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jefferson, and entrenched them in French law. It was a short document, containing only a preamble and 17 brief articles. These articles provided protection for numerous individual rights: liberty, property, freedom of speech and the press, freedom of religion and equal treatment before the law. The Declaration guaranteed property rights and asserted that taxation should be paid by all, in proportion to their means. It also asserted the concept of popular sovereignty: the idea that law and government existed to serve the public will, not to suppress it. All of this was articulated in language that was clear, brief and unambiguous. The Declaration was also universal in its tone. Its rights and ideas applied to all people, not just the citizens of France.

The Declaration was endorsed by the National Constituent Assembly and delivered to Louis XVI for endorsement. As Eric Hobsbawm puts it, the king "resisted with his usual stupidity" and refused to sign. He refused his assent until October 5th, when he signed the Declaration to placate angry crowds at Versailles. Passed into law, the Declaration became a cornerstone of the revolution. The National Constitution Assembly adopted the Declaration as a preamble to the Constitution of 1791. An amended version of the Declaration formed the basis of the Constitution of Year I, drafted by the Montagnard. It also served as a beacon for revolutionary groups, both moderate and radical. The political clubs and cercles considered the document sacrosanct. The formal name of the Cordeliers club was the Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen ('Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and Citizen'); a copy of the Declaration was pinned to the club's wall beneath a pair of crossed daggers. The Jacobin rulebook required members to show loyalty to the Declaration and uphold its values at all times.

"The August Decrees and Declaration of the Rights of Man represented the end of the absolutist, seigneurial and corporate structure of eighteenth-century France. They were also a proclamation of the principles of a new golden age. The Declaration, in particular, was an extraordinary document... Universal in its language and in its optimism, the Declaration was ambiguous on whether the propertyless, slaves and women would have political as well as legal equality, and silent on how the means to exercise one's talents could be secured by those without education or property."
Peter McPhee, historian

While the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was held up as sacred and inviolable, there was debate and disagreement about who these rights applied to. Like the great documents of the American Revolution, the Declaration said nothing about the rights of women, nor did it extend any rights to the slaves and indentured servants in the colonies. This rankled with the most radical democrats. In October 1789 Robespierre used the Declaration to suggest that Jews - a marginalised group excluded from voting and political office, even during the revolution - were entitled to equality and civil rights. Despite these gaps and shortcomings, the Declaration remains one of history's foremost expressions of human rights. It served as a death warrant for absolutist monarchy, an articulation of Enlightenment values and a model for future societies seeking freedom and self-government.

1. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was, as its name suggests, an articulation of individual rights. It was drafted in mid 1789, passed on August 26th and signed by the king in October.

2. The idea for a declaration of rights came from the Marquis de Lafayette, who provided his own draft, prepared in collaboration with American philosopher Thomas Jefferson.

3. The final Declaration was drafted by a committee of the National Constituent Assembly. It contained a preamble and 17 individual articles, guaranteeing and protecting specific rights.

4. The Declaration became a cornerstone document of the revolution. It served as a preamble to national constitutions and an inspiration to various political clubs and societies.

5. Like documents from the American Revolution, the Declaration did not specifically guarantee the rights of women, slaves or racial minorities, a fact highlighted by some political radicals.

© Alpha History 2018. Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.
This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation:
J. Llewellyn and S. Thompson, "The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen", Alpha History, accessed [today's date], http://alphahistory.com/frenchrevolution/declaration-rights-of-man-and-citizen/.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In July 1789 the National Constituent Assembly began to deliberate about how to guarantee and protect individual rights in the new nation. One solution was to enact a document that explicitly protected these rights. Rights-based documents were a feature of British law and the recently adopted United States Constitution.

# data[].attributes.body
A. The king brought in the troops. The people in Paris armed themselves with weapons. They searched for weapons, a mob stormed the Bastille. The king punished the third estate with foreign soldiers. Rumors of massacres, and peasants destroyed records and burned nobles' houses

# data[].attributes.body
A. They had long-standing resentments against the monarchy, inequalities in society. It was existing social and political structure. It was called the Old Order, or ancient regime.

B. They had desire for reforms. The voting process had a problem. The third Estate proclaimed themselves national assembly, it was the tennis court oath.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Estates-General, in France of the pre- Revolution monarchy, the representative assembly of the three "estates," or orders of the realm: the clergy (First Estate) and nobility (Second Estate)-which were privileged minorities-and the Third Estate, which represented the majority of the people.

The origins of the Estates-General are to be found in traditions of counsel and aid and the development of corporate representation in the 13th century. The first national assembly of representatives of the three estates met at Notre-Dame in Paris on April 10, 1302, to discuss the conflict between Philip IV (the Fair) and Pope Boniface VIII. The assembly stood firmly by the king, and the meeting was followed by a nationwide survey of public opinion. In 1308 the three estates were assembled in Tours to consider the suppression of the Templars, and they were convened repeatedly over subsequent years, notably after Louis X's death in 1316, when the royal succession and fiscal matters dominated the agenda. In 1320 the estates gathered at Pontoise and Poitiers, on both occasions refusing to grant Philip V a subsidy to bolster the royal coffers.

The Hundred Years' War brought representative institutions to the fore on both sides of the English Channel, but by that time it had become clear that the estates were too unwieldy (and too unyielding) to become an organ of consent for the French monarchy. In 1355 the Estates-General was convened in Paris by John II to raise funds to continue the war against England. That phase of the war concluded when France suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Poitiers (September 19, 1356), and John was captured by the English. Tasked with raising the funds to pay the king's ransom, the Estates-General seized the opportunity to propose reforms, but those efforts were rebuffed by the dauphin, Charles (later Charles V). Étienne Marcel, a prominent Paris merchant, launched an ill-fated bid to compel Charles to submit to the Estates-General. Marcel's machinations culminated in the Jacquerie, a peasant uprising that was brutally suppressed in 1358. Marcel was assassinated in July of that year. Absolutism was in the ascent as the crown resumed complete control. The little power that remained with the estates was wielded at the local level, as provincial assemblies were easier to attend and manage as well as better at adhering to regional custom. Louis XI convened the Estates-General only once, at Tours in 1468. After his death, the Estates-General met at Tours in 1484. This was an important assembly, comprising more than 250 people and including for the first time representatives of rural areas. It achieved little, however, and the crown failed to keep its promise to assemble the estates again in 1486. Louis XII summoned the Estates-General just once during his 17-year reign.

By the end of the 15th century the Estates-General could be said to have acquired its main characteristics, but it was not, nor would it ever become, an institution. Because the kings had already levied a permanent direct tax throughout France (the taille), they were able to get along without the Estates-General in normal times after 1500. Francis I, who reigned from 1515 to 1547, never summoned the Estates-General, which thereafter met only in times of crisis, such as during the Wars of Religion in the late 16th century. The Estates-General of 1614, held during the minority of Louis XIII, revealed one of the body's major weaknesses-the inability of the three orders to agree because of conflicting interests. The Third Estate refused to consent to the abolition of the sale of offices unless the nobles surrendered some of their privileges, and the meeting ended without action. Moreover, the Third Estate had been undermined by its members' tendency to enter the nobility through the magistracy or through official functions (noblesse de robe).

The next and last meeting of the Estates-General was at the beginning of the French Revolution (1789), in the face of a financial crisis, widespread agitation, and the weakening power of the king. The deputies of the Third Estate, fearing that they would be overruled by the two privileged orders in any attempt at reform, led in the formation of the revolutionary National Assembly (June 17), signaling the end of representation based on the traditional social classes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Estates-General | Definition, Significance, Meaning, Meeting, & History

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Estates-General, in France of the pre-Revolution monarchy, the representative assembly of the three 'estates,' or orders of the realm. It consisted of the First Estate (clergy), the Second Estate (nobility), and the Third Estate, which represented the overwhelming majority of the people.