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116-537: The Hohenlohe Regiment was established on September 6, 1815. Upon its formation, it was known as Légion royale étrangère and was composed of the consolidated elements of eight foreign regiments that had been raised during the Hundred Days , but which had been disbanded following the abdication of Napoleon I. While foreigners in French service had historically been grouped into specific national units (Swiss, German, Irish etc.)

232-839: A French victory might trigger a pro-French revolution in French-speaking Belgium. During the Hundred Days both the Coalition nations and Napoleon mobilised for war. Upon resumption of the throne, Napoleon found that he was left with little by Louis XVIII. There were 56,000 soldiers of which 46,000 were ready to campaign. By the end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training but not yet ready for deployment. Napoleon placed some corps of his armed forces at various strategic locations as armies of observations. Napoleon split his forces into three main armies; first, he placed an army in

348-585: A Polish puppet state , the Duchy of Warsaw , as a buffer against further invasion from Europe. The renewed Prussian state demanded all of the Kingdom of Saxony . Austria wanted to allow neither of these things, while it expected to regain control of northern Italy. Castlereagh , of the United Kingdom, supported France (represented by Talleyrand ) and Austria and was at variance with his own Parliament. This almost caused

464-491: A Prussian brigade of hussars under the command of Colonel von Sohr (who was severely wounded and taken prisoner during the skirmish), before retreating. In the second skirmish, on 3 July, General Dominique Vandamme (under Davout's command) was decisively defeated by General von Zieten (under Blücher's command) at the Battle of Issy , forcing the French to retreat into Paris. With this defeat, all hope of holding Paris faded and

580-483: A blocking rearguard, the three other corps advanced westward to attack the right flank of the French army in front of Waterloo. Both Napoleon and Grouchy assumed that the Prussians were retreating towards Namur and Liège , with a view to occupy the line of the river Meuse , and so during 17 June Grouchy sent the bulk of his cavalry ranging in that direction as far as Perwez . In his despatch to Napoleon written at 22:00 he

696-550: A captured enemy town (rather than one liberated for their ally King Louis XVIII), and on entering the town, the greatest excesses were committed by the Prussian soldiery, which instead of being restrained was encouraged by their officers. On his arrival at Malplaquet—the scene of one of the Duke of Marlborough 's victories—Wellington issued the Malplaquet proclamation to the French people on

812-513: A defensive or offensive campaign. Defence would entail repeating the 1814 campaign in France , but with much larger numbers of troops at his disposal. France's chief cities (Paris and Lyon) would be fortified and two great French armies, the larger before Paris and the smaller before Lyon, would protect them; francs-tireurs would be encouraged, giving the Coalition armies their own taste of guerrilla warfare. Napoleon chose to attack, which entailed

928-460: A defensive or offensive campaign. Defence would entail repeating the 1814 campaign in France but with much larger numbers of troops at his disposal. France's chief cities, Paris and Lyon, would be fortified and two great French armies, the larger before Paris and the smaller before Lyon, would protect them; francs-tireurs would be encouraged, giving the Coalition armies their own taste of guerrilla warfare. Napoleon chose to attack, which entailed

1044-624: A duel. Only the intervention of the Austrian crown stopped it. A breach among the four Great Powers was avoided when members of Britain's Parliament sent word to the Russian ambassador that Castlereagh had exceeded his authority, and Britain would not support an independent Poland. The affair left Prussia deeply suspicious of any British involvement. While the Allies were distracted, Napoleon solved his problem in characteristic fashion. On 26 February 1815, when

1160-559: A feeling of perplexity caused by his changed circumstances. At Lyon , on 13 March 1815, Napoleon issued an edict dissolving the existing chambers and ordering the convocation of a national mass meeting, or Champ de Mai , for the purpose of modifying the constitution of the Napoleonic empire . He reportedly told Benjamin Constant , "I am growing old. The repose of a constitutional king may suit me. It will more surely suit my son". That work

1276-597: A hollow French victory. Grouchy's wing of the Army of the North withdrew in good order and other elements of the French army were able to reassemble around it. However, the army was not strong enough to resist the combined coalition forces, so it retreated toward Paris. After the combined victory at Waterloo by the Anglo-allies under the command of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussians under

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1392-428: A horse for long periods of time difficult and painful. This condition had disastrous results at Waterloo; during the battle, his inability to sit on his horse for other than very short periods of time interfered with his ability to survey his troops in combat and thus exercise command. Others reported no marked change in him. Mollien , who knew the emperor well, attributed the lassitude which now and then came over him to

1508-534: A pre-emptive strike at his enemies before they were all fully assembled and able to co-operate. By destroying some of the major Coalition armies, Napoleon believed he would then be able to bring the governments of the Seventh Coalition to the peace table to discuss results favourable to himself, namely peace for France with himself remaining in power as its head. If peace were rejected by the allies despite any pre-emptive military success he might have achieved using

1624-485: A pre-emptive strike at his enemies before they were all fully assembled and able to co-operate. By destroying some of the major Coalition armies, Napoleon believed he would then be able to bring the governments of the Seventh Coalition to the peace table to discuss terms favourable to himself: namely, peace for France, with himself remaining in power as its head. If peace were rejected by the Coalition powers, despite any pre-emptive military success he might have achieved using

1740-562: A pursuit of the two Coalition armies. He took the reserves and marched with Ney in pursuit of the Duke of Wellington 's Anglo-allied army, and he gave instructions to Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians wherever they were going and harry them so that they had no time to reorganise. After their defeat at the Battle of Ligny the Prussians successfully disengaged and withdrew to north west to Wavre where they reorganised. Leaving one corps in Wavre as

1856-460: A small army of 6,000 men. On 15 March Joachim Murat , King of Naples , declared war on Austria in an attempt to save his throne, starting the Neapolitan War . Four days later, after proceeding through the countryside promising constitutional reform and direct elections to an assembly, to the acclaim of gathered crowds, Napoleon entered the capital, from where Louis XVIII had recently fled. (Ney

1972-680: A war to break out, when the Tsar pointed out to Castlereagh that Russia had 450,000 men near Poland and Saxony and he was welcome to try to remove them. Indeed, Alexander stated "I shall be the King of Poland and the King of Prussia will be the King of Saxony". Castlereagh approached King Frederick William III of Prussia to offer him British and Austrian support for Prussia's annexation of Saxony in return for Prussia's support of an independent Poland. The Prussian king repeated this offer in public, offending Alexander so deeply that he challenged Metternich of Austria to

2088-754: The Maison du Roi — with the bulk of the Regiment of Swiss Guards garrisoned just outside Paris for the purpose of maintaining royal authority in the city. Swiss regiments continued to perform this role under the restored Bourbon kings . With the Swiss troops occupying such a high-profile role enforcing the authority of the Bourbon kings, the Hohenlohe Regiment largely escaped the notice of the Provisional Government during

2204-589: The Route Napoléon . Firing no shot in his defence, his troop numbers swelled until they became an army. On 5 March, the nominally royalist 5th Infantry Regiment at Grenoble went over to Napoleon en masse . The next day they were joined by the 7th Infantry Regiment under its colonel, Charles de la Bédoyère , who would be executed for treason by the Bourbons after the campaign ended. An anecdote illustrates Napoleon's charisma: when royalist troops were deployed to stop

2320-654: The Bourbon princes treated veterans of the Grande Armée and the returning royalist nobility treated the people at large. Equally threatening was the general situation in Europe, which had been stressed and exhausted during the previous decades of near constant warfare. The conflicting demands of major powers were for a time so exorbitant as to bring the Powers at the Congress of Vienna to

2436-519: The French Republic . Rather than leading to France's defeat, the wars allowed the revolutionary regime to expand beyond its borders and create client republics . The success of the French forces made a hero out of their best commander, Napoleon Bonaparte . In 1799, Napoleon staged a successful coup d'état and became First Consul of the new French Consulate . Five years later, he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I. The rise of Napoleon troubled

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2552-520: The July Revolution . While their counterparts in the Swiss regiments were disbanded by order of the government on August 14, 1830, the Hohenlohe Regiment, stationed in the port city of Marseille far from the Paris events of July 1830, escaped this immediate fate. This relative isolation did not last for long, as the newly established July Monarchy intended to honor the constitutional prohibition forbidding

2668-487: The Sambre at Charleroi and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position"—at the junction between the cantonment areas of Wellington's army (to the west) and Blücher's army to the east. On 16 June, the French prevailed, with Marshal Ney commanding the left wing of the French army holding Wellington at the Battle of Quatre Bras and Napoleon defeating Blücher at the Battle of Ligny . On 17 June, Napoleon left Grouchy with

2784-625: The Vendée moved later and caused more difficulty for the Imperialists. Evidence as to Napoleon's health is somewhat conflicting: Carnot , Pasquier , Lavalette , Thiébault and others thought him prematurely aged and enfeebled. At Elba Sir Neil Campbell had noted that he had become inactive and corpulent . Also at Elba he had begun to suffer intermittently from retention of urine , but to no serious extent. For much of his public life, Napoleon had been troubled by hemorrhoids , which made sitting on

2900-659: The War of the Seventh Coalition ( French : Guerre de la Septième Coalition ), marked the period between Napoleon 's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on   20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days). This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo Campaign and the Neapolitan War as well as several other minor campaigns . The phrase les Cent Jours (the hundred days)

3016-573: The War of the Seventh Coalition . The hopes of peace that Napoleon had entertained were gone – war was now inevitable. A further treaty (the Treaty of Alliance against Napoleon ) was ratified on 25 March in which each of the Great European Powers agreed to pledge 150,000 men for the coming conflict. Such a number was not possible for Great Britain, as her standing army was smaller than the three of her peers. Besides, her forces were scattered around

3132-452: The 128,000 strong Army of the North up to the Belgian frontier in relative secrecy, and crossed the frontier at Thuin near Charleroi on 15 June 1815. The French drove in Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" – at the junction between Wellington's army to his north-west, and Blücher's Prussians to his north-east. Wellington had expected Napoleon to try to envelop

3248-457: The Anglo-allied army and held it in place during the early morning of 17 June, sufficiently long to allow Napoleon to close round his foe's open left flank and deal him a deathblow. But it did not happen because the French were desultory in the aftermath of Ligny. Napoleon wasted the morning of 17 June by taking a late breakfast and going to see the previous day's battlefield before organising

3364-502: The Anglo-allied army took possession of Montmartre . On 6 July, the Anglo-allied troops occupied the Barriers of Paris , on the right of the Seine, while the Prussians occupied those upon the left bank. On 7 July, the two Coalition armies, with von Zieten's Prussian I Corps as the vanguard, entered Paris. The Chamber of Peers , having received from the Provisional Government a notification of

3480-414: The Anglo-allies heavily throughout the day, Ney fought a cautious and desultory battle which failed to capture the crossroads. By the middle of the afternoon Wellington had taken personal command of the Anglo-allied forces at Quatre Bras. The position was reinforced steadily throughout the day as Anglo-allied troops converged on the crossroads. The battle ended in a tactical draw. The next day the Allies ceded

3596-452: The Army of the North). He tarried for four hours expediting orders to generals Rapp , Lecourbe , and Lamarque, to advance with their respective corps by forced marches to Paris (for their corps locations see the military mobilisation during the Hundred Days ): and also to the commandants of fortresses , to defend themselves to the last extremity. He desired Marshal Soult to collect together all

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3712-568: The Armée des Pyrénées. In 1829, the namesake of the regiment, Colonel Hohenlohe, died. Other than during the French intervention in Spain, the Hohenlohe Regiment's service was largely uneventful as they were primarily used as a garrison force in various provincial towns around France. This was in marked contrast to the service of the other notable foreign regiments of the era: detachments of Swiss Guards had traditionally been stationed at Versailles as part of

3828-684: The Austrians and Russians; the latter were still some distance away. The advantage of this later invasion date was that it allowed all the invading Coalition armies a chance to be ready at the same time. Thus they could deploy their combined numerically superior forces against Napoleon's smaller, thinly spread forces, thus ensuring his defeat and avoiding a possible defeat within the borders of France. Yet this postponed invasion date allowed Napoleon more time to strengthen his forces and defences, which would make defeating him harder and more costly in lives, time and money. Napoleon now had to decide whether to fight

3944-509: The British and French guard ships were absent, his tiny fleet, consisting of the brig Inconstant , four small transports, and two feluccas , slipped away from Portoferraio with some 1,000 men and landed at Golfe-Juan , between Cannes and Antibes , on 1 March 1815. Except in royalist Provence , he was warmly received. He avoided much of Provence by taking a route through the Alps, marked today as

4060-458: The Coalition armies by moving through Mons and to the west of Brussels. Wellington feared that such a move would cut his communications with the ports he relied on for supply. Napoleon encouraged this view with misinformation. Wellington did not hear of the capture of Charleroi until 15:00, because a message from Wellington's intelligence chief, Colquhoun Grant , was delayed by General Dörnberg. Confirmation swiftly followed in another message from

4176-662: The Emperor, as president of the Chamber of Representatives. In his last communication to them, Napoleon warned them not to imitate the Greeks of the late Byzantine Empire , who engaged in subtle discussions while the ram was battering at their gates. During the Hundred Days the Coalition nations as well as Napoleon mobilised for war. Upon re-assumption of the throne, Napoleon found that Louis XVIII had left him with few resources. There were 56,000 soldiers, of which 46,000 were ready to campaign. By

4292-546: The Executive Commission was formed, under the nominal authority of Napoleon II. Initially, the remnants of the French Army of the North (the left wing and the reserves) that was routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult, while Grouchy kept command of the right wing that had fought at Wavre. However, on 25 June, Soult was relieved of his command by the Provisional Government and was replaced by Grouchy, who in turn

4408-671: The French Provisional Government authorised delegates to accept capitulation terms, which led to the Convention of St. Cloud (the surrender of Paris) and the end of hostilities between France and the armies of Blücher and Wellington. On 4 July, under the terms of the Convention of St. Cloud, the French army, commanded by Marshal Davout, left Paris and proceeded to cross the river Loire . The Anglo-allied troops occupied Saint-Denis , Saint Ouen , Clichy and Neuilly . On 5 July,

4524-459: The French army had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte , but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo . Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy , who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout , who took command at the request of the French Provisional Government. The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Field Marshall Graf von Blücher . The war between France and

4640-452: The French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's forces from the rise on which they stood. Once the Prussians arrived, attacking the French right flank in ever increasing numbers, Napoleon's key strategy of keeping the Seventh Coalition armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined coalition general advance. On the morning of 18 June 1815 Napoleon sent orders to Marshal Grouchy, commander of

4756-460: The French army to the gates of Paris, during which time the French, on occasion, turned and fought some delaying actions, in which thousands of men were killed. On arriving at Paris, three days after Waterloo, Napoleon still clung to the hope of concerted national resistance, but the temper of the chambers and of the public generally forbade any such attempt. Napoleon and his brother Lucien Bonaparte were almost alone in believing that, by dissolving

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4872-500: The French army's intent rather more accurately. The Prussians were not taken unawares. General Zieten noted the number of campfires as early as 13 June and Blücher began to concentrate his forces. Napoleon considered the Prussians the greater threat and so moved against them first with the right wing of the Army of the North and the Reserves. Graf von Zieten's I Corps rearguard action on 15 June held up Napoleon's advance, giving Blücher

4988-491: The French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo . Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy , who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout , who took command at the request of the French Provisional Government . The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Prince Blücher . Hostilities started on 15 June when the French drove in the Prussian outposts and crossed

5104-512: The French in the Battle of Leipzig . Following its victory at Leipzig, the Coalition vowed to press on to Paris and depose Napoleon. In the last week of February 1814, Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher advanced on Paris. After multiple attacks, manoeuvring, and reinforcements on both sides, Blücher won the Battle of Laon in early March 1814; this victory prevented the coalition army from being pushed north out of France. The Battle of Reims went to Napoleon, but this victory

5220-400: The French on occasion turned and fought some delaying actions, in which thousands of men were killed. Initially the remnants of the French left wing and the reserves that were routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult while Grouchy kept command of the right wing. However, on 25 June Soult was relieved of his command by the Provisional Government and was replaced by Grouchy, who in turn

5336-547: The Prince of Orange. Wellington ordered his army to concentrate around the divisional headquarters, but was still unsure whether the attack in Charleroi was a feint and the main assault would come through Mons. Wellington only determined Napoleon's intentions with certainty in the evening, and his orders for his army to muster near Nivelles and Quatre Bras were sent out just before midnight. The Prussian General Staff seem to have divined

5452-473: The Prussian III Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann near the village of Wavre. Grouchy believed that he was engaging the rearguard of a still-retreating Prussian force. However, only one Corps remained; the other three Prussian Corps (I, II and the still fresh IV) had regrouped after their defeat at Ligny and were marching toward Waterloo. The next morning the Battle of Wavre ended in

5568-434: The Prussians advanced to Avesnes, which surrendered to them on 21 June. The French at first seemed determined to defend the place to the last extremity, and made considerable resistance; but a magazine having blown up, by which 400 men were killed, the rest of the garrison, which consisted chiefly of national-guards, and amounting to 439 men, surrendered at discretion . On capture of the town the Prussian soldiers treated it as

5684-620: The Prussians and British. This was because the Russian army was still moving across Europe and the Austrian army was still mobilising. Also, the British troops in Belgium were largely second-line troops; most of the veterans of the Peninsular War had been sent to America to fight the War of 1812. In addition, the army of the United Netherlands was reinforcing the British. These Dutch troops were ill-equipped and inexperienced. And, politically,

5800-425: The Prussians marching to Waterloo meant that his actions contributed to the French defeat at Waterloo. The next day (19 June), Grouchy left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris. After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but return to Paris to try to secure political support for further action. This he failed to do. The two Coalition armies hotly pursued

5916-469: The Prussians until the morning of 18 June. D'Erlon's I Corps wandered between both battles contributing to neither Quatre Bras nor to Ligny. Napoleon wrote to Ney warning him that allowing D'Erlon to wander so far away had crippled his attacks on Quatre Bras. However, he made no move to recall D'Erlon when he could easily have done so. The tone of his orders shows that he believed he had things well in hand at Ligny without assistance (as in fact he had). After

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6032-412: The Prussians' back driving them through Wavre and join me here") Grouchy decided not to take the advice. It became apparent that neither Napoleon nor Marshal Grouchy understood that the Prussian army was no longer either routed or disorganised. Any thoughts of joining Napoleon were dashed when a second order repeating the same instructions arrived around 16:00. Following Napoleon's orders Grouchy attacked

6148-549: The Seventh Coalition came when the other European Great Powers refused to recognise Napoleon as Emperor of the French upon his return from exile on the island of Elba , and declared war on him, rather than France, as they still recognised Louis XVIII as the king of France and considered Napoleon a usurper. Rather than wait for the Coalition to invade France, Napoleon decided to attack his enemies and hope to defeat them in detail before they could launch their combined and coordinated invasion. He chose to launch his first attack against

6264-569: The United States. The presence of blockading Royal Navy warships under Vice Admiral Henry Hotham , with orders to prevent his escape, forestalled this plan. French troops concentrated in Paris had as many soldiers as the invaders and more cannons. There were two major skirmishes and a few minor ones near Paris during the first few days of July. In the first major skirmish, the Battle of Rocquencourt , on 1 July, French dragoons, supported by infantry and commanded by General Exelmans , destroyed

6380-516: The appearance of a few Prussian cavalry, judiciously thrown forward towards the Sambre from the Advanced Guard at Gosselies . They resumed their flight, taking the direction of Beaumont and Philippeville . From Charleroi, Napoleon proceeded to Philippeville; whence he hoped to be able to communicate more readily with Marshal Grouchy (who was commanding the detached and still intact right wing of

6496-686: The army (I and II corps) to face Wellington at Quatre Bras . During the morning of 17 June Napoleon detached the right wing (III and IV corps) under Marshal Grouchy to pursue the retreating Prussians (who retreated to Wavre ), while he led the reserves (Imperial Guard, VI Corps, and I, II, III, and IV Cavalry Corps) to rejoin Ney's detachment and pursue Wellington to Waterloo . In the early days of June 1815, Wellington and Blücher's forces were disposed as follows: Wellington's Anglo-allied army of 93,000 with headquarters at Brussels were cantoned: Blücher's Prussian army of 116,000 men, with headquarters at Namur ,

6612-468: The best place in front of Brussels for him to be able to employ his reverse slope tactics when fighting a major battle: Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment close to the village of Waterloo . Aided by thunderstorms and torrential rain, Wellington's army successfully extricated itself from Quatre Bras and passed through the defile of Genappe . The infantry marched ahead and were screened by a large cavalry rearguard. The French harried Wellington's army, and there

6728-402: The campaign. The Anglo-allied army stood fast against repeated French attacks, until with the aid of several Prussian corps that arrived on the east of the battlefield in the early evening, they managed to rout the French Army. Grouchy, with the right wing of the army, engaged a Prussian rearguard at the simultaneous Battle of Wavre , and although he won a tactical victory, his failure to prevent

6844-437: The chambers and declaring Napoleon dictator, they could save France from the armies of the powers now converging on Paris. Even Davout , minister of war, advised Napoleon that the destiny of France rested solely with the chambers. Clearly, it was time to safeguard what remained, and that could best be done under Talleyrand 's shield of legitimacy. Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès was the minister of justice during this time and

6960-482: The command of Prince Blücher , it was agreed by the two commanders, on the field of Waterloo, that the Prussian army, not having been so much crippled and exhausted by the battle, should undertake the further pursuit, and proceed by Charleroi towards Avesnes and Laon ; whilst the Anglo-allied army, after remaining during the night on the field, should advance by Nivelles and Binche towards Péronne . The 4,000 Prussian cavalry, that kept up an energetic pursuit during

7076-570: The course of events, terminated its sittings; the Chamber of Representatives protested, but in vain. Their President (Lanjuinais) resigned his chair, and on the following day, the doors were closed and the approaches guarded by Coalition troops. On 8 July, the French King, Louis XVIII, made his public entry into Paris, amidst the acclamations of the people, and again occupied the throne . During Louis XVIII's entry into Paris, Count Chabrol, prefect of

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7192-481: The day was issued to the British army before they entered France. It placed the officers and men in his army under military order to treat the ordinary French population as if they were members of a Coalition nation. This by and large Wellington's army did paying for food and lodgings. This was in sharp contrast to the Prussian army, whose soldiers treated the French as enemies, plundering the populace and wantonly destroying property during their advance. From Beaumont,

7308-401: The defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but returned to Paris to try to secure political support for further action. He failed to do so, and was forced to abdicate on 22 June. Two days later, a Provisional Government took over French politics. Meanwhile, the two Coalition armies hotly pursued the French army to the gates of Paris, during which

7424-508: The department of the Seine, accompanied by the municipal body, addressed the King, in the name of his companions, in a speech that began "Sire,—One hundred days have passed away since your majesty, forced to tear yourself from your dearest affections, left your capital amidst tears and public consternation. ...". Unable to remain in France or escape from it, Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS  Bellerophon in

7540-416: The early evening they managed to rout the French army. Grouchy with the right wing of the army engaged a Prussian rearguard at the simultaneous Battle of Wavre , and although he won a tactical victory his failure to prevent the Prussians marching to Waterloo meant that his actions contributed to the French defeat at Waterloo. The next day (19 June) he left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris. After

7656-517: The early morning of 15 July 1815 and was transported to England. Napoleon was taken to the island of Saint Helena where he died as a prisoner in May 1821. Waterloo Campaign Wellington: 107,000 Blücher: 123,000 The Waterloo campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially

7772-420: The east. On 16 June the French prevailed with Marshal Ney commanding the left wing of the French army holding Wellington at the Battle of Quatre Bras and Napoleon defeating Blücher at the Battle of Ligny . On 17 June, Napoleon left Grouchy with the right wing of the French army to pursue the Prussians while he took the reserves and command of the left wing of the army to pursue Wellington towards Brussels. On

7888-558: The end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training up but not yet ready for deployment. By the end of May Napoleon had formed L'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") which, led by himself, would participate in the Waterloo Campaign . For the defence of France, Napoleon deployed his remaining forces within France with the intention of delaying his foreign enemies while he suppressed his domestic ones. By June he had organised his forces thus: The opposing Coalition forces were

8004-454: The far side of the Dyle . This meant that they were incapable of preventing the Prussians moving from Wavre towards Waterloo and too far away themselves to go directly to the aid of Napoleon on 18 June should Wellington turn and fight south of Brussels. Upon receiving the news of Blücher's defeat, Wellington organised the retreat of the Anglo-allied army to a place he had identified a year before as

8120-540: The field at Quatre Bras to consolidate their forces on more favourable ground to the north along the road to Brussels as a prelude to the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon, meanwhile, used the right wing of his army and the reserve to defeat the Prussians, under the command of General Blücher , at the Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack but the flanks held their ground. Several heavy Prussian cavalry charges proved enough to discourage French pursuit. Indeed, they would not pursue

8236-600: The fighting at Quatre Bras the two opposing commanders Ney and Wellington initially held their ground while they obtained information about what had happened at the larger Battle of Ligny. With the defeat of the Prussians Napoleon still had the initiative, for Ney's failure to take the Quatre Bras cross roads had actually placed the Anglo-allied army in a precarious position. Ney, reinforced by D'Erlon's fresh corps, lay in front of Wellington, and Ney could have fastened upon

8352-556: The following: Archduke Charles gathered Austrian and allied German states, while the Prince of Schwarzenberg formed another Austrian army. King Ferdinand VII of Spain summoned British officers to lead his troops against France. Tsar Alexander I of Russia mustered an army of 250,000 troops and sent these rolling toward the Rhine. Prussia mustered two armies. One under Blücher took post alongside Wellington's British army and its allies. The other

8468-755: The four Great Powers and key members of the Seventh Coalition, bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule. This set the stage for the last conflict in the Napoleonic Wars , the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo , the second restoration of the French kingdom, and the permanent exile of Napoleon to the distant island of Saint Helena , where he died in May 1821. The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars pitted France against various coalitions of other European nations nearly continuously from 1792 onward. The overthrow and subsequent public execution of Louis XVI in France had greatly disturbed other European leaders, who vowed to crush

8584-593: The globe, with many units still in Canada, where the War of 1812 had recently ceased. With this in mind she made up her numerical deficiencies by paying subsidies to the other Powers and to the other states of Europe that would contribute contingents. Some time after the allies began mobilising, it was agreed that the planned invasion of France was to commence on 1 July 1815, much later than both Blücher and Wellington would have liked as both their armies were ready in June, ahead of

8700-476: The island of Elba on 1 March 1815, King Louis XVIII fled Paris on 19 March, and Napoleon entered Paris the next day. Meanwhile, far from recognising him as Emperor of the French, the Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia) and their allies, who were assembled at the Congress of Vienna , declared Napoleon an outlaw , and with the signing of this declaration on 13 March 1815, so began

8816-469: The map of Europe at the Congress of Vienna . Napoleon spent only 9 months and 21 days in an uneasy forced retirement on Elba (1814–1815), watching events in France with great interest as the Congress of Vienna gradually gathered. As he foresaw, the shrinkage of the great Empire into the realm of old France caused intense dissatisfaction among the French, a feeling fed by stories of the tactless way in which

8932-459: The march of Napoleon's force before Grenoble at Laffrey , Napoleon stepped out in front of them, ripped open his coat and said "If any of you will shoot his Emperor, here I am." The men joined his cause. Marshal Ney , now one of Louis XVIII's commanders, had said that Napoleon ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage, but, on 14 March, in Lons-le-Saulnier (Jura) Ney joined Napoleon with

9048-461: The nation was suddenly thrown into military preparation, only 1,532,527 votes were cast, less than half of the vote in the plebiscites of the Consulat ; however, the benefit of a "large majority" meant that Napoleon felt he had constitutional sanction. Napoleon was with difficulty dissuaded from quashing the 3 June election of Jean Denis, comte Lanjuinais , the staunch liberal who had so often opposed

9164-521: The newly created regiment was a mixed force. The bulk of its rank and file were however from the various German states of the period. In February 1821, it was renamed the Régiment de Hohenlohe after its founder and then commanding officer Colonel-Prince Louis Aloysius de Hohenlohe . The Hohenlohe Regiment participated in the French intervention in Spain of 1823 as part of Colonel-Prince Hohenlohe's 4th Corps of

9280-618: The newly raised Legion into a functional fighting force. In its original form, the Legion's 1st and 2nd Battalions were composed of veterans of the former Swiss regiments and the Hohenlohe Regiment. The distinctive slow-stepping parade march of the modern Foreign Legion is reportedly traceable to that of the Hohenlohe and Swiss regiments prior to 1830. Hundred Days Coalition victory Aftermath The Hundred Days ( French : les Cent-Jours IPA: [le sɑ̃ ʒuʁ] ), also known as

9396-484: The night 21/22 June 1815, in which he referred to the order of the day addressed to his army, as containing an explanation of the principles by which his army would be guided. Napoleon arrived in Paris, three days after Waterloo (21 June), still clinging to the hope of concerted national resistance; but the temper of the chambers and of the public generally forbade any such attempt. Napoleon and his brother Lucien Bonaparte were almost alone in believing that, by dissolving

9512-409: The night of 17 June the Anglo-allied army turned and prepared for battle on a gentle escarpment, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Waterloo . The next day the Battle of Waterloo proved to be the decisive battle of the campaign. The Anglo-allied army stood fast against repeated French attacks, until with the aid of several Prussian corps that arrived at the east side of the battlefield in

9628-441: The night of 18 June, under the guidance of Marshal Gneisenau , helped to render the victory at Waterloo still more complete and decisive; and effectually deprived the French of every opportunity of recovering on the Belgian side of the frontier and to abandon most of their cannons. A defeated army usually covers its retreat by a rear guard , but since France had such limited military resources, wasted away largely by Napoleon over

9744-436: The offensive military option available to him, then the war would continue and he could turn his attention to defeating the rest of the Coalition armies. Napoleon's decision to attack in Belgium was supported by several considerations. First, he had learned that the British and Prussian armies were widely dispersed and might be defeated in detail . Further, the British troops in Belgium were largely second-line troops; most of

9860-438: The offensive military option available to him, then the war would continue and he could turn his attention to defeating the rest of the Coalition armies. Napoleon's decision to attack in Belgium was supported by several considerations. First, he had learned that the British and Prussian armies were widely dispersed and might be defeated in detail. The other major coalition armies of Russia and Austria would not be able to reinforce

9976-541: The opportunity to concentrate his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. Napoleon placed Marshal Ney in command of the French left wing and ordered him to secure the crossroads of Quatre Bras towards which Wellington was hastily gathering his dispersed army. Ney's scouts reached Quatre Bras that evening. Ney, advancing on 16 June, found Quatre Bras lightly held by Dutch troops of Wellington's army. Despite outnumbering

10092-466: The other European powers as much as the earlier revolutionary regime had. Despite the formation of new coalitions against him, Napoleon's forces continued to conquer much of Europe. The tide of war began to turn after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812 that resulted in the loss of much of Napoleon's army. The following year, during the War of the Sixth Coalition , Coalition forces defeated

10208-444: The other Powers and to the other states of Europe who would contribute contingents. Some time after the allies had begun mobilising, it was agreed that the planned invasion of France was to commence on 1 July 1815, much later than both Blücher and Wellington would have liked, as both their armies were ready in June, ahead of the Austrians and Russians; the latter were still some distance away. The advantage of this later invasion date

10324-561: The regiment who wished to continue to serve in the French army were transferred into the 21st Line Infantry Regiment . As an infantry regiment composed of foreigners, the Hohenlohe Regiment constituted one of the forebears of the French Foreign Legion . An immediate legacy was passed onto the Foreign Legion in the form of some of the Hohenlohe Regiment's commissioned and non-commissioned officer cadre, who were credited with forming

10440-414: The right wing of the Army of the North, to harass the Prussians to stop them reforming. These orders arrived at around 06:00 and his corps began to move out at 08:00; by 12:00 the cannon from the Battle of Waterloo could be heard. Grouchy's corps commanders, especially Gérard , advised that they should "march to the sound of the guns". As this was contrary to Napoleon's orders ("you will be the sword against

10556-406: The right wing of the French army to pursue the Prussians, while he took the reserves and command of the left wing of the army to pursue Wellington towards Brussels. On the night of 17 June, the Anglo-allied army turned and prepared for battle on a gentle escarpment, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of the village of Waterloo . The next day, the Battle of Waterloo proved to be the decisive battle of

10672-513: The small Army of the West into La Vendée to quell a Royalist insurrection in that region. By the end of May Napoleon had formed L'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") which, led by himself, would participate in the Waterloo campaign and had deployed the corps of this army as follows: Once the campaign was underway Napoleon, on the evening of 15 June, would send Marshal Ney with the left wing of

10788-507: The south near the Alps. This army was to stop Austrian advances in Italy. Second, there was an army on the French/Prussian border where he hoped to defeat any Prussians attacks. Last, the L'Armee du Nord was placed on the border with the United Netherlands to defeat the British, Dutch and Prussian forces if they dared to attack. (see Military mobilisation during the Hundred Days ). Lamarque led

10904-404: The troops that might arrive at this point, and conduct them to Laon; for which place he himself started with post horses , at 14:00. The French army, under Soult, retreated on Laon in great confusion. The troops commanded by Grouchy, which had reached Dinant, retired in better order; but they were cut off from the wreck of the main army, and also from the direct road to Paris. Grouchy, therefore,

11020-531: The two Coalition armies cantoned in modern-day Belgium, then part of the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands , but until the year before part of the First French Empire. Hostilities started on 15 June when the French drove in the Prussian outposts and crossed the river Sambre at Charleroi placing their forces between the cantonment areas of Wellington's army (to the west) and Blücher's army to

11136-517: The use of foreign mercenaries on French soil. As result, on December 12, 1830, the regiment received orders to prepare to be deployed to Greece in the vicinity of Patras to support the Morea Expedition , a French interventionist effort supporting the Greek independence movement . On January 5, 1831, however, the Hohenlohe Regiment received orders to disband from King Louis Phillippe . Those members of

11252-432: The verge of war with each other. Thus every scrap of news reaching remote Elba looked favourable to Napoleon to retake power as he correctly reasoned the news of his return would cause a popular rising as he approached. He also reasoned that the return of French prisoners from Russia, Germany, Britain and Spain would furnish him instantly with a trained, veteran and patriotic army far larger than that which had won renown in

11368-527: The veterans of the Peninsular War had been sent to America to fight the War of 1812 . And, politically, a French victory might trigger a friendly revolution in French-speaking Brussels. The Waterloo Campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies: an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army was commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte , but he left for Paris after

11484-490: The years before 1814. So threatening were the symptoms, that the royalists at Paris and the plenipotentiaries at Vienna talked of deporting him to the Azores or to Saint Helena , while others hinted at assassination. At the Congress of Vienna (November 1814 – June 1815) the various participating nations had very different and conflicting goals. Tsar Alexander I of Russia had expected to absorb much of Poland and to leave

11600-418: The years, there was nothing of the kind. The rearmost of the fugitives having reached the river Sambre , at Charleroi, Marchienne-au-Pont , and Châtelet , by daybreak of 19 June 1815, indulged themselves with the hope that they might then enjoy a short rest from the fatigues which the relentless pursuit by the Prussians had entailed upon them during the night; but their fancied security was quickly disturbed by

11716-443: Was a cavalry action at Genappe . However the French were unable to inflict any substantial casualties before night fell and Wellington's men were ensconced in bivouacs on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean. It was at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 that the decisive battle of the campaign took place. The start of the battle was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night's rain. By late afternoon

11832-468: Was a close confidant of Napoleon. Napoleon himself at last recognised the truth. When Lucien pressed him to "dare", he replied, "Alas, I have dared only too much already". On 22 June 1815 he abdicated in favour of his son, Napoleon II , well knowing that it was a formality, as his four-year-old son was in Austria. With the abdication of Napoleon, a provisional government with Joseph Fouché as President of

11948-416: Was arrested on 3 August 1815, tried on 16 November and executed on 7 December 1815. ) The royalists did not pose a major threat: the duc d'Angoulême raised a small force in the south, but at Valence it did not provide resistance against Imperialists under Grouchy 's command; and the duke, on 9 April 1815, signed a convention whereby the royalists received a free pardon from the Emperor. The royalists of

12064-485: Was carried out by Benjamin Constant in concert with the Emperor. The resulting Acte additionel (supplementary to the constitutions of the Empire) bestowed on France a hereditary Chamber of Peers and a Chamber of Representatives elected by the "electoral colleges" of the empire. According to Chateaubriand , in reference to Louis XVIII's constitutional charter, the new constitution – dubbed La Benjamine –

12180-412: Was compelled to take the road to Rethel whence he proceeded to Rheims ; and by forced marches he endeavoured to force a junction with Soult, and thus reach the capital before the Coalition armies. In the meantime, Wellington proceeded rapidly into the heart of France; but as there was no enemy in the field to oppose his progress, the fortresses alone demanded his attention. On 20 June 1815 an order of

12296-437: Was distributed as follows: The frontier in front of Binche , Charleroi and Dinant was watched by the Prussian outposts. Thus the Coalition front extended for nearly 90 miles (140 km) across what is now Belgium, and the mean depth of their cantonments was 30 miles (48 km). To concentrate the whole army on either flank would take six days, and on the common centre, around Charleroi , three days. Napoleon moved

12412-457: Was first used by the prefect of Paris, Gaspard, comte de Chabrol , in his speech welcoming the king back to Paris on 8 July. Napoleon returned while the Congress of Vienna was sitting. On the 13th of March, seven days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw, and on the 25th of March, Austria , Prussia , Russia and the United Kingdom ,

12528-431: Was followed by successive defeats from increasingly overwhelming odds . Coalition forces entered Paris after the Battle of Montmartre on 30 March 1814. On 6 April 1814, Napoleon abdicated his throne, leading to the accession of Louis XVIII and the first Bourbon Restoration a month later. The defeated Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba off the coast of Tuscany , while the victorious Coalition sought to redraw

12644-531: Was merely a "slightly improved" version of the charter associated with Louis XVIII's administration; however, later historians, including Agatha Ramm, have pointed out that this constitution permitted the extension of the franchise and explicitly guaranteed press freedom . In the Republican manner, the Constitution was put to the people of France in a plebiscite , but whether due to lack of enthusiasm, or because

12760-441: Was placed under the command of Davout. When the French Provisional Government realised that the French army under Marshal Davout was unable to defend Paris, they authorised delegates to accept capitulation terms which led to the Convention of St. Cloud (the surrender of Paris) which ended hostilities between France and the armies of Blücher and Wellington. The two Coalition armies entered Paris on 7 July. The next day Louis XVIII

12876-535: Was placed under the command of Marshal Davout. On the same day, 25 June, Napoleon received from Fouché, the president of the newly appointed provisional government (and Napoleon's former police chief), an intimation that he must leave Paris. He retired to Malmaison , the former home of Joséphine , where she had died shortly after his first abdication. On 29 June, the near approach of the Prussians, who had orders to seize Napoleon, dead or alive, caused him to retire westwards toward Rochefort , whence he hoped to reach

12992-450: Was ratified on 25 March, in which each of the Great European Powers agreed to pledge 150,000 men for the coming conflict. Such a number was not possible for Great Britain, as her standing army was smaller than those of her three peers. Besides, her forces were scattered around the globe, with many units still in Canada, where the War of 1812 had recently ended. With this in mind, she made up her numerical deficiencies by paying subsidies to

13108-566: Was restored to the French throne, and a week later on 15 July Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland of HMS  Bellerophon . Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died on 5 May 1821. Under the terms of the peace treaty of November 1815, Coalition forces remained in Northern France as an army of occupation under the command of the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon returned from his exile on

13224-410: Was still thought that most of the Prussian army was retreating north-east, although by then he realised that two Prussian corps were heading north towards Wavre. In a second dispatch written four hours later he informed Napoleon that he now intended to advance either on Corbais or Wavre. The problem for the French was that by the end of 17 June, most of Grouchy's detachment was now behind the Prussians, on

13340-516: Was that it allowed all the invading Coalition armies a chance to be ready at the same time. They could deploy their combined, numerically superior forces against Napoleon's smaller, thinly spread forces, thus ensuring his defeat and avoiding a possible defeat within the borders of France. Yet this postponed invasion date allowed Napoleon more time to strengthen his forces and defences, which would make defeating him harder and more costly in lives, time and money. Napoleon now had to decide whether to fight

13456-514: Was the North German Corps under General Kleist . At the Congress of Vienna, the Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia) and their allies declared Napoleon an outlaw , and with the signing of this declaration on 13 March 1815, so began the War of the Seventh Coalition. The hopes of peace that Napoleon had entertained were gone – war was now inevitable. A further treaty (the Treaty of Alliance against Napoleon )

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