Perhaps surprisingly given the zeal with which he went on to lead the French Empire, Napoleon more readily identified as a Corsican and, in his early career, fought fervently for Corsican independence.

It was only after a falling out with Corsican resistance leader Pasquale Paoli that Napoleon made France his home and began to establish himself as the new republic’s rising star by masterminding a succession of vital military victories, including the resistance-breaking Siege of Toulon and, in 1785, the defeat of 20,000 royalists in Paris.

Identified by republican politicians as a natural leader, Napoleon’s ascent to the head of the government was meteoric, propelled by numerous battlefield victories in Italy and then Egypt. In 1799 he seized power of France and became first consul, quickly establishing himself as a hugely popular leader by overseeing continued military dominance and instituting influential legal reforms.

These legal reforms, enshrined in the Napoleonic Code, cemented the aims of the Revolution by replacing the outmoded inconsistencies of old feudal legislation.

Napoleon is perhaps more famous today for being short than for his military prowess and political talents.

Napoleon even succeeded in bringing about peace by defeating Austria and, for a time, quelling Britain’s efforts to stand against the French military. His irresistible ascent to power culminated in his coronation as the Emperor of France in 1804.

Peace in Europe did not last long, however, and the rest of Napoleon’s reign was defined by years of wars across Europe against various coalitions. During this time his reputation as a brilliant military leader was further enhanced, until the War of the Seventh Coalition and the French defeat at Waterloo led to his abdication on the 22 June 1815.

Napoleon saw out the rest of his days in exile on the remote island of Saint Helena.

Here are 10 facts you may not have known about the French emperor.

1. He wrote a romance novel

Behind the ruthless, battle-hardened facade, Napoleon was a bit of a softie, as both his embarrassingly soppy love letters and a recently unearthed romantic novella prove. Penned in 1795, when Napoleon was 26, Clisson et Eugénie is a brief (just 17 pages) exercise in sentimental self-mythologising that, according to most reviews, fails to establish him as a lost literary genius.

2. His first wife, Josephine Bonaparte, narrowly avoided the guillotine

Napoleon’s first wife nearly did not live to marry the French emperor.

Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, was previously married to Alexandre de Beauharnais (with whom she had three children), an aristocrat who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Josephine was also imprisoned and scheduled for execution before being released five days later when the Reign of Terror’s architect, Robespierre, was himself guillotined. 

3. He would disguise himself and walk the streets

At the height of his powers Napoleon developed the habit of dressing up as a lower-class bourgeoisie and wandering the streets of Paris. Seemingly, his aim was to find out what the man on the street really thought of him and he reportedly quizzed random passers-by about their Emperor’s merits. 

4. He was tone deaf

Apparently, one of Napoleon’s least endearing habits was his penchant for singing (or humming and mumbling) whenever he became agitated. Unfortunately, pained accounts suggest that his singing voice was distinctly unmusical.

5. He was afraid of cats (possibly)

Oddly, a whole host of historic tyrants — Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Mussolini, Hitler and our man Napoleon — are reputed to have suffered from Ailurophobia, the fear of cats. It turns out, however, that there is little in the way of evidence to support the common claim that Napoleon was terrified of cats, although the fact that it’s become such a well-worn rumour is interesting. It is even claimed that his alleged fear stemmed from a wildcat attack when he was an infant.

6. He discovered the Rosetta Stone

Now held in the British Museum in London, the Rosetta Stone is a granite slab carved in three scripts: hieroglyphic Egyptian, demotic Egyptian and ancient Greek. It played a vital part in deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs and has long been considered a hugely important artefact. Less well known is the fact that it was discovered by Napoleon’s soldiers during the Egyptian campaign in 1799.

7. He wore poison around his neck

It is said that Napoleon carried a vial of poison, attached to a cord he wore around his neck, that could be swiftly downed should he ever be captured. Apparently, he did eventually imbibe the poison in 1814, following his exile to Elba, but its potency was by then diminished and only succeeded in making him violently ill. 

8. A submarine escape plot was hatched to rescue him from exile in Saint Helena

An aerial view of the island where Napoleon lived out his final years.

Following his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena, a small island in the South Atlantic, 1,200 miles from the nearest land. Escape from such isolated incarceration was reckoned to be near-impossible. Even so, numerous plans were hatched to rescue the exiled Emperor, including an audacious plan involving two early submarines and a mechanical chair.

9. He wasn’t that short

Napoleon has become synonymous with shortness. Indeed, the term “Napoleon complex”, used to characterise short, overly aggressive people, is conceptually bound to his famously diminutive stature. But in fact, at the time of his death, Napoleon measured 5 feet 2 inches in French units — the equivalent of 5 feet 6.5 inches in modern measurement units — which was a distinctly average height at the time.

10. The cause of his death remains a mystery

Napoleon died, aged 51, on the island of Saint Helena after a long, unpleasant illness. The cause of this illness has never been conclusively established, however, and his death remains a subject surrounded by conspiracy theories and speculation. The official cause of death was recorded as stomach cancer, but some claim foul play was involved. Indeed, claims that he was in fact poisoned appear to be supported by analysis of hair samples that show a far higher than normal concentration of arsenic. Although it is also contended that arsenic was present in the wallpaper of his bedroom.

Driven by revolutionary zeal and militaristic ingenuity, Napoleon oversaw a period of intense warfare against six coalitions, proving his leadership and strategic acumen time and time again, before finally succumbing to defeat, and abdication, in 1815. Here are 10 facts about the conflicts.

1. There’s a good reason they are known as the Napoleonic Wars

Unsurprisingly, Napoleon Bonaparte was the central, and defining, figure of the Napoleonic Wars. They are typically considered to have commenced in 1803, by which time Napoleon had been First Consul of the French Republic for four years. Napoleon’s leadership brought stability and military confidence to France in the aftermath of the revolution and his combative leadership style undoubtedly shaped the conflicts that came to constitute the Napoleonic Wars.

2. The Napoleonic Wars were prefigured by the French Revolution

Without the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars would never have happened. The ramifications of the revolt’s violent social upheaval extended far beyond France’s borders, triggering other conflicts across the globe that became known as the “Revolutionary Wars”.

Neighbouring powers viewed France’s revolution as a threat to established monarchies and, anticipating intervention, the new republic declared war on Austria and Prussia. Napoleon’s ascent through the French military was undoubtedly driven by the increasingly influential role he played in the Revolutionary Wars.

3. The Napoleonic Wars are usually considered to have started on 18 May 1803

This was the date that Britain declared war on France, ending the short-lived Treaty of Amiens (which had brought a year of peace to Europe) and sparking what became known as the War of the Third Coalition – the first Napoleonic War.

4. Napoleon had been planning to invade Britain when it declared war on France

The escalating agitation that prompted Britain to declare war on France in 1803 was entirely justified. Napoleon was already planning an invasion of Britain, a campaign he intended to fund with the 68 million Francs the United States had just paid France for the Louisiana Purchase.

5. France fought five coalitions during the Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars are typically separated out into five conflicts, each named after the alliance of nations that fought France: The Third Coalition (1803-06), the Fourth Coalition (1806-07), the Fifth Coalition (1809), the Sixth Coalition (1813) and the Seventh Coalition (1815). The members of each alliance were as follows:

• The Third Coalition was composed of the Holy Roman Empire, Russia, Britain, Sweden, Naples and Sicily.
• The Fourth included Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Saxony and Sicily.
• The Fifth was Austria, Britain, Tyrol, Hungary, Spain, Sicily and Sardinia.
• The Sixth originally included Austria, Prussia, Russia, Britain, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, Sardinia and Sicily. They were lated joined by the Netherlands, Bavaria, Württemberg and Baden.
• The Seventh was formed of 16 members, including Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.

6. Napoleon was a brilliant military tactician

Napoleon’s reputation as a brilliant and innovative battlefield strategist was already established when the Napoleonic Wars commenced, and his brutally effective tactics were showcased throughout the ensuing conflicts. He was undoubtedly one of the most effective and influential generals in history and most historians agree that his tactics changed warfare forever. 

7. The Battle of Austerlitz is widely regarded as Napoleon’s greatest victory

The Battle of Austerlitz saw outnumbered French forces take victory.

Fought near Austerlitz in Moravia (now the Czech Republic), the battle saw 68,000 French troops defeat nearly 90,000 Russians and Austrians. It is also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors.

8. Britain’s naval supremacy played a key part in the wars

For all Napoleon’s battlefield ingenuity, Britain consistently managed to present a sturdy opposition force during the Napoleonic Wars. This owed a lot to Britain’s formidable naval fleet, which was substantial enough to allow Britain to continue its international trade and empire building, pretty much untroubled by the threat of an invasion from across the Channel.

Britain’s command of the seas was most famously showcased at the Battle of Trafalgar, a decisive and historically vaunted British naval victory which saw the Franco-Spanish fleet decimated without a single British vessel being lost.

9. The Napoleonic Wars triggered global conflict

Inevitably, power struggles in Europe had an impact on the global stage. The War of 1812 is a good example. The simmering tensions that eventually sparked this conflict between the US and Britain were, to a large extent, caused by Britain’s ongoing war with France, a situation that began to seriously impact on America’s ability to trade with either France or Britain.

10. The Hundred Days period brought the Napoleonic Wars to a dramatic conclusion

Following his abdication in 1814, Napoleon was sent to the Mediterranean island of Elba. But his exile lasted less than a year. After escaping Elba, Napoleon led 1,500 men to Paris, arriving in the French capital on 20 March 1815. This began the so-called “Hundred Days”, a brief but dramatic period that saw Napoleon seize back power before entering into a series of battles with allied forces. The period concluded on 22 June when Napoleon abdicated for a second time following France’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

History Hit has partnered with this team, and in a special episode of Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast, Dan discusses the discoveries with them. Dan Snow is also working alongside the Belgian team to make a full length documentary about the discovery, set to premiere exclusively for History Hit TV, who will also produce a short film about the remains.

As Dan says, “Waterloo was one of the bloodiest battles in European history, yet until now only two bodies have ever been found on the battlefield. The discovery of these human remains, from places on the battlefield where the fighting was fiercest is a stunning opportunity to learn more about the men who fought here. A chance to highlight the individual experience, the grim, violent reality, in telling the story of the battle where too often that story is lost. This is a huge find for anyone who cares about military history, and those who fought and died, and shaped our world; we’re honoured that History Hit gets to be part of documenting the discovery.” 

A rare find

Due to the industrial exploitation of mass battlefield burials for the sugar industry in the middle of the 19th century, only two skeletons from the Battle of Waterloo had been found by archaeology in recent years.

These new skeletons – which have now been uncovered in two separate locations thanks to the assistance of Dominique Bosquet (AWap) of the Walloon Heritage Agency, as well as the research of Belgian historian Dr. Bernard Wilkin and German independent historian Robin Schäfer – therefore constitute the largest body of Waterloo casualties ever found. 

Collection of Battle of Waterloo bones

Image Credit: R. Schäfer, Dr. B. Wilkin

One of the discoveries is compiled of the bones of what appear to be 4 Prussian soldiers killed in the fierce battle for the possession of the village of Plancenoit – less than 1,000 yards from the inn of La Belle Alliance, Emperor Napoleon’s headquarters at the Battle of Waterloo. They had been resting in an attic for more than 40 years and are now in the possession and care of the Belgian State Archives in Liege. 

The remains of 6 more skeletons – British soldiers killed between Hougoumont Farm and the Lion Mound Memorial – were retrieved from another private household, having been found during illegal digs by metal detectorists, and have since been held in a private household. They will undergo further examination by Caroline Laforest at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.

Based on objects found with the bodies, at least one of the British casualties was a soldier of the 1st Foot Guards. Interestingly, one iron cannonball was also found with the bodies. 

Skull from the Battle of Waterloo

Image Credit: R. Schäfer, Dr. B. Wilkin

What information can the skeletons tell us?

A number of the Prussian soldier’s bones bear witness to the brutality of the close-quarter fighting that had taken place for the possession of the village of Plancenoit. Several vertebrae show marks left by bladed weapons, one skull bears horrific damage caused by bayonet thrust or sword blow, while one front tooth seems to have been driven upwards into the jaw by a hard blow.

3D-Models of the skulls (by Toby Monks MSc):

Skull of a Prussian soldier killed during the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. It displays severe facial trauma. Discovered during construction work at Plancenoit / Maransart, Belgium.

Dan Snow will join the scientists as they uncover the results of the tests, and facial reconstruction will also be attempted by the Belgian criminal forensic services. 

After further research, the mortal remains of all soldiers will receive a formal burial and a grave marker / memorial, if funds and land can be acquired. Negotiations have already been initiated for this. 

Further significance

The finds underline the fact that even though it is unlikely that major burials of casualties of the Battle of Waterloo still exist, individual graves themselves may still do. 

Up until now, no remains of Prussian soldiers had been found. This discovery would link to the story of the Prussian Army’s decisive contribution not only at the battles of Ligny, Waterloo and Wavre, but also in bringing along the final downfall of Napoleon himself.

‘Prussian Attack, Plancenoit’ by Adolf Northern

Continued fighting by the French after Waterloo

The Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815 is said to have brought an end to the Napoleonic Wars, thwarting Napoleon’s efforts to dominate Europe and ending a 15-year period of near-constant war. It also laid the foundations for a unified Europe for nearly a century.

However, today it is often forgotten that the Battle of Waterloo, which was ultimately decided by the timely Prussian arrival and by the fierce battle for Plancenoit on the French right flank, wasn’t the end of Napoleon or indeed the French Empire. Often ignored by anglo-saxon historiography – and not common knowledge in the UK – is that the French Army fought on after Waterloo. 

Prussian Troops Storming the French Occupied Cemetery at Plancenoit (Battle of Waterloo) by Carl Rochling

At Versailles, Sevres, Rocquencourt and other places, French troops fought off the Prussian army, and it was the Prussians who continued to lead the race towards and into Paris, the French capital. In the Alps and along the Rhine, other French armies fought German Armies from Bavaria and Wurttemberg, and General Rapp defeated the Austrians at the Battle of La Souffel on 28 June 1815. This, and not Waterloo, was the final major battle and the last French victory of the Napoleonic Wars.

But still the fighting continued much longer after this. While Napoleon had abdicated 6 days before, on 22 June 1815, many of his commanders sought to reverse the defeat of Waterloo, seeking one more, decisive battle to turn the tables.

Marshal Grouchy, too late to come to Napoleon’s aid at Waterloo and was unjustly much criticised for it, conducted a fighting withdrawal to Paris by 29 June, with Prussian troops hard on his heels.

On 1 July 1815, Generals Vandamme, Exelmans and Marshal Davout also began the Defence of Paris with an engagement at Rocquencourt, not far from Versailles, in which French dragoons supported by infantry and commanded by General Exelmans annihilated an entire Prussian brigade of hussars under the command of Oberstleutnant Eston von Sohr.

Fighting continued well after the Battle of Waterloo, right into September 1815 when the last Bonapartist fortress surrendered to a Prussian force under Prince Augustus. Indeed the Napoleonic Wars only ended after the Second Treaty of Paris, on 20 November 1815.

Watch this space…

History Hit has partnered with the Belgian-German team who made the discoveries (including Belgian historian Dr. Bernard Wilkin and German independent historian Robin Schäfer, as well as with Dominique Bosquet (AWap) of the Walloon Heritage Agency), and are working alongside them to document their findings and assess what the skeletons can teach us about the men who fought at the Battle of Waterloo.

In addition to Dan’s podcast, later this year History Hit TV will exclusively premiere a full length documentary about the discovery and also produce a short film about the remains. 

Turner’s most enduring work is an elegiac, mournful painting, an ode to the perceived heroism of the Napoleonic wars. It’s one of Britain’s favourite paintings, titled in full, ‘The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1839’.

But what exactly is depicted in ‘The Fighting Temeraire’, and where is the painting kept today?

HMS Temeraire

HMS Temeraire was one of the most famous ships of her day. She was a 98-gun, three-decker, second-rate ship of the line built of the wood from over 5000 oaks. She became famous for the role she played at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, defending Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory. 

But as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close, many of Britain’s great warships were no longer needed. From 1820 the Temeraire was mainly serving as a supply ship, and by June 1838 – when the ship was 40 years old – the Admiralty ordered that the decaying Temeraire be sold. Anything of value was stripped from the ship, including masts and yards, leaving an empty hull.

This was sold for £5530 to John Beatson, a Rotherhithe shipbreaker and timber merchant. For many Britons – including Turner – Temeraire was symbolic of the British triumph during the Napoleonic Wars, and its disassembly signalled the nail in the coffin for a great era of British history.

Turner’s painting ‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory’ gives a glimpse of Temeraire in her heyday.

Image Credit: Tate Galley, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Beatson hired two steam tugs to tow the 2110-ton ship from Sheerness to his breaker’s wharf at Rotherhithe, which took two days. It was a remarkable sight: this was the largest ship ever to have been sold by the Admiralty for breaking up, and the largest to have been brought so high up the Thames. It was this historic moment, Temeraire’s final voyage, which Turner chose to paint.

Turner’s interpretation 

Turner’s famous painting, however, is a stretch of the truth. It’s unlikely Turner saw the event as he was probably not even in England at the time. He had seen the ship in real life, though, and read many contemporary reports to recreate the scene. Turner had also painted the Temeraire 30 years before, in an 1806 painting, ‘The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory’. 

Turner was known as “the painter of light”.

Image Credit: Tate Galley, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Turner certainly took liberties with his rendition of the Temeraire’s final voyage, perhaps to allow the ship to retain its dignity. For example, although the masts had been removed, in Turner’s painting, the ship’s three lower masts are intact with sails furled and still partly rigged. The original black and yellow paintwork is also reimagined as white and gold, giving the ship a ghostly aura as it glides across the water.

Turner took care to depict the Temeraire in particular detail.

Image Credit: National Gallery of Art, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Turner also made a point of the fact that the ship no longer flies the Union flag (as it was no longer part of the Navy). Instead, the tug’s white commercial flag is flying prominently from a tall mast. When the picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Turner adapted a line of poetry to accompany the painting: 

The flag which braved the battle and the breeze,

No longer own her.

The age of steam

The black tugboat which pulls the mighty warship is perhaps the most pertinent symbol in this elegiac painting. The steam engine of this tiny boat easily overpowers its larger counterpart, and the scene becomes an allegory about the new steam power of the Industrial Revolution. 

The dark tones of the tugboat contrast dramatically with the ghostly pale Temeraire.

Image Credit: National Gallery of Art, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

Although Temeraire was towed by two tugs, Turner has only depicted one. The position of its black funnel has changed too, to allow a long plume of sooty smoke to blow backwards through the Temeraire’s masts. This intensifies the contrast between the dwindling power of sail and the formidable power of steam. 

The final sunset

The right-hand third of the canvas is filled with a dramatic sunset of blazing copper hues, centred around the central white disk of the setting sun. This sunset is an essential part of the narrative: as John Ruskin noted, Turner’s “most deeply crimsoned sunset skies” often symbolised death, or in this case, the final moments of Temeraire before she was pulled apart for timber. The pale crescent moon which rises in the top left corner echoes the ghostly colouring of the ship and emphasises that time has run out. 

The vivid orange of the sunset is intensified by the cool blue tones on the horizon.

Image Credit: National Gallery of Art, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

This sunset is, however, another product of Turner’s imagination. The Temeraire reached Rotherhithe in the mid-afternoon, long before the sun was setting. Furthermore, a ship coming up the Thames would head west – towards the setting sun – so Turner’s location of the sun is impossible. 

The painting was widely celebrated when it was first exhibited in 1839 at the Royal Academy. It was a particular favourite of Turner’s too. He kept the painting until he died in 1851 and referred to it as ‘his darling’. It now hangs in the National Gallery in London after the Turner Bequest of 1856, where it is one of the most popular exhibits. In 2005, it was voted the nation’s favourite painting, and in 2020 it was included on the new £20 note.

The faint shape of a moon hovers in the sky as Temeraire makes her final journey up the Thames.

Image Credit: National Gallery of Art, London via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

The road to Waterloo

Napoleon had been restored as Emperor of France after escaping exile, but the Seventh Coalition of European powers had declared him an outlaw and mobilised a 150,000-strong army to force him out of power. But Napoleon sensed an opportunity to destroy the Allies in a lightning strike on their forces in Belgium.

In June 1815 Napoleon marched north. He crossed into Belgium on 15 June, brilliantly driving a wedge between Wellington’s British and allied army based around Brussels, and a Prussian army at Namur.

As the allies scrambled to respond, Napoleon lunged at the Prussians first, driving them back at Ligny. Napoleon had his first victory of the campaign. It would be his last.

Coalition in retreat

The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras – (at approximately 17:00) – Elizabeth Thompson – (1875).

British troops halted a detachment of Napoleon’s army at Quatre-Bras, but as the Prussians retreated, Wellington gave the order to pull back. Lashed by torrential rain, Wellington’s men trudged north. He ordered them to take up position on a defensive ridge he had identified just south of Brussels.

It was a hard night. The men slept in canvas tents that let the water in. Thousands of feet and hooves churned the ground into a sea of mud.

We were up to our knees in mud and stinking water…. We had no choice, we had to settle down in the mud and filth as best we could….. Men and horses shaking with cold.

But on the morning of 18 June, the storms had passed.

Napoleon planned an assault on the British and allied army, hoping to rout it before the Prussians could come to its aid and capture Brussels. In his way was Wellington’s polyglot, untested allied army. Wellington strengthened his position by turning three great farm complexes into fortresses.

18 June 1815: The Battle of Waterloo

Napoleon outnumbered Wellington and his troops were seasoned veterans. He planned a massive artillery barrage, followed by massed infantry and cavalry assaults.

His guns were slow to get in position because of the mud, but he brushed off concerns, telling his staff that Wellington was a poor general and it would be nothing more than eating breakfast.

His first assault would be against Wellington’s western flank, to distract his attention before launching a French attack right at his centre. The target was the farm buildings of Hougoumont.

At around 1130 Napoleon’s guns opened up, 80 guns sending iron cannonballs hurtling into allied lines. An eyewitness described them as being like a volcano. Then the French infantry assault began.

The allied line was pushed back. Wellington had to act fast and he deployed his cavalry in one of the most famous charges in British history.

The charge of the Scots Grey during the Battle of Waterloo.

The cavalry crashed into the French infantry; 2,000 horsemen, some of the most illustrious units of the army, elite Life Guards as well as dragoons from England, Ireland and Scotland. The French scattered. A mass of fleeing men surged back to their own lines. The British cavalry, in high excitement, followed them and ended up among the French cannon.

Another counterattack, this time by Napoleon, who sent his legendary lancers and armour-clad cuirassiers to drive off the exhausted allied men and horses. This hectic see-sawing ended with both sides back where they had begun. The French infantry and allied cavalry both suffered terrible losses and corpses of men and horses littered the battlefield.

Marshal Ney orders the charge

At around 4 pm Napoleon’s deputy, Marshal Ney, the ‘bravest of the brave’, thought he saw an allied withdrawal and launched the mighty French cavalry to try and swamp the allied centre which he hoped might be wavering. 9,000 men and horses rushed allied lines.

Wellington’s infantry immediately formed squares. A hollow square with every man pointing his weapon outwards, allowing for all round defence.

Wave after wave of cavalry charged. An eyewitness wrote,

“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.”

But the British and allied line just held.

The charge of the French Lancers and Carbineers at Waterloo.

“Night or the Prussians must come”

By the late afternoon, Napoleon’s plan had stalled and he now faced a terrible threat. Against the odds, Wellington’s army had held firm. And now, from the east, the Prussians were arriving. Defeated two days before at Ligny, the Prussians still had fight in them, and now they threatened to trap Napoleon.

Napoleon redeployed men to slow them down and redoubled his efforts to smash through Wellington’s lines. The farm of La Haye Sainte was captured by the French. They pushed artillery and sharpshooters into it and blasted the allied centre at close range.

Under terrible pressure Wellington said,

“Night or the Prussians must come.”

The Prussian attack on Plancenoit by Adolph Northen.

Committing the Old Guard

The Prussians were coming. More and more troops fell upon Napoleon’s flank. The emperor was under assault almost from three sides. In desperation, he played his final card. He ordered his last reserve, his finest troops to advance. The imperial guard, veterans of dozens of his battles, marched up the slope.

Dutch artillery pounded the guardsmen, and a Dutch bayonet charge put one battalion to flight; others trudged towards the crest of the ridge. When they arrived they found it strangely quiet. 1,500 British foot guards were lying down, waiting for the command to jump up and fire.

When the French army saw the Guard recoil, a shout went up and the entire army disintegrated. Napoleon’s mighty force was instantly transformed into a rabble of fleeing men. It was over.

“A spectacle I shall never forget”

As the sun set on 18 June 1815, bodies of men and horses littered the battlefield.

Something like 50,000 men had been killed or wounded.

One eyewitness visited a few days later:

The sight was too horrible to behold. I felt sick in the stomach and was obliged to return. The multitude of carcasses, the heaps of wounded men with mangled limbs unable to move, and perishing from not having their wounds dressed or from hunger, as the Anglo-allies were, of course, obliged to take their surgeons and wagons with them, formed a spectacle I shall never forget.

It was a bloody victory, but a decisive one. Napoleon had no choice but to abdicate a week later. Trapped by the Royal Navy, he surrendered to the captain of HMS Bellerophon and was taken into captivity.

1. Battle of the Pyramids (21 July 1798)

This battle actually took place five years before the Napoleonic Wars are generally considered to have started but it was one of the fights that would set the stage for Napoleon’s confrontations against various coalitions of nations between 1803 and 1815.

Battle of the Pyramids by Antoine-Jean Gros

Image Credit: Antoine-Jean Gros, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Also known as the Battle of Embabeh, this significant military engagement saw Napoleon — then a general in the French military — and his troops claim Cairo, a major victory in the invasion of Egypt. Napoleon’s implementation of the divisional square, one of his great military innovations, proved decisive in the battle and the Egyptian expedition would help to propel him to political power.

2. Battle of Marengo (14 June 1800)

A narrow and hard fought victory, the Battle of Marengo occurred during the War of the Second Coalition — a precursor to the coalitions that France would fight in the later Napoleonic Wars.

It pitted 28,000 of Napoleon’s men against 31,000 Austrian troops and was considered by Napoleon — by now the head of the French government — to be one of his finest triumphs. Victory helped to secure both his military and civilian authority in Paris.

3. Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805)

This famous naval battle took place at Cape Trafalgar off the south-western coast of Spain, between the British Royal Navy, led by Admiral Lord Nelson, and the fleets of France and Spain. The Royal’s Navy’s resounding victory established Britain’s naval domination but came at the cost of Lord Nelson’s life.

4. Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805)

This confrontation was also known as the “Battle of the Three Emperors”

Image Credit: Bogdan Willewalde, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps the most significant and decisive battle of the Napoleonic Wars, Austerlitz ranks as one of Napoleon’s greatest victories. Fought near Austerlitz in Moravia (now the Czech Republic) and also known as the “Battle of the Three Emperors”, this confrontation saw 68,000 French troops defeat nearly 90,000 Russians and Austrians.

Victory for France led to the Treaty of Pressburg, which aimed to establish “peace and amity” and secured Austria’s withdrawal from the Third Coalition of countries fighting France.

5. Battle of Jena-Auerstädt (14 October 1806)

An important French victory in the War of the Fourth Coalition, the Battle of Jena-Auerstädt was fought between 122,000 French troops and 114,000 Prussians and Saxons at Jena and Auerstädt in Saxony. Napoleon’s troops decimated the Prussian army at Jena as France’s Marshal Davout defeated the main Prussian force further north at Auerstädt.

6. Battle of Rolica (17 August 1808)

Although not a particularly big battle, Rolica is noteworthy as the first major action of the British Peninsular War, which saw Britain challenge Napoleon’s French forces for control of the Iberian peninsular.

Rolica became the setting for the conflict’s opening clash when Sir Arthur Wellesley’s Anglo-Portuguese troops met 4,000 rear-guard French forces en route to Lisbon. Wellesley’s army outnumbered the French three to one and eventually forced them into a withdrawal.

7. Battle of Borodino (7 September 1812)

An especially bloody fight between 130,000 French troops with more than 500 guns and 120,000 Russians with more than 600 guns, the Battle of Borodino saw General Kutuzov’s Russian troops attempt to block Napoleon’s advance on Moscow. A fierce, attritional battle ensued before Kutuzov eventually retreated. A week later, Napoleon occupied Moscow unopposed.

8. Battle of Leipzig (16–19 October 1813)

Undoubtedly one of Napoleon’s most significant defeats, this battle inflicted brutally severe losses on the French army and more or less concluded France’s presence in Germany and Poland. Also known as the “Battle of the Nations”, this bloody engagement was fought at the city of Leipzig in Saxony.

Battle of Leipzig by Vladimir Moshkov

Image Credit: Vladimir Moshkov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Napoleon’s forces were effectively surrounded by 300,000 allied soldiers (including Austrian, Prussian, Russian, and Swedish forces) who converged on the city’s perimeter. It was a crushing defeat for Napoleon who would be forced to abdicate six months later following Paris’ capitulation to the allies.

9. Battle of Ligny (16 June 1815)

The last victory of Napoleon’s military career, Ligny could nonetheless be considered a strategic failure. Though Napoleon’s troops defeated Field Marshal Prince Blucher’s Prussian army, many of the Prussian soldiers survived and joined the Duke of Wellington’s British troops at Waterloo.

10. Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815)

The battle that changed the face of Europe. An Anglo-Allied army under the Duke of Wellington faced Napoleon’s forces in Belgium. With Prussian reinforcements, the allies defeated the French — though Wellington proclaimed it was “the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life”.

In the British narrative of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington plays the part of the hero.

An even fight

Waterloo was an evenly matched struggle. Napoleon could have blasted Wellington’s allied army off their ridge and marched on Brussels before the Prussians caught him in the famous pincer that ended his dreams of an empire reborn.

If Napoleon’s subordinates had been as reliable as Massena, Davout and Berthier had been in past campaigns, if the allied centre had collapsed under the massive cavalry assault of Marshal Ney, ‘bravest of the brave’, if the Imperial Guard had managed to punch through the thin red line late in the day.

Château d’Hougoumont

One moment, though, was regarded by Wellington and many contemporaries as truly decisive. On the western edge of the battlefield was the Château d’Hougoumont. It was a strongly built, walled farm house which the Duke of Wellington had garrisoned with a mixture of British Guardsmen and German allies.

Napoleon’s first move at Waterloo was to launch a feint against Hougoumont, playing on the anxiety felt by every British commander, the security of his lifeline to the Channel Coast. The Emperor would tempt Wellington to protect his west flank by weakening his centre, which would then be subjected to a massive Napoleonic assault.  

French troops hurled themselves at the Chateau in the opening clash of Waterloo. One group managed to work their way around to the north gate and break in to the courtyard.

A giant of a man, Sous-Lieutenant Legros, broke through the gate with an axe and dozens of French soldiers stormed in. They were met by British Guardsmen and a brutal hand-to-hand battle followed.

The men fired their muskets at close quarters and then used the 15-inch razor-sharp bayonet on the end to thrust, while using the barrels and stocks to club the enemy or parry their blows. In a dazzling display of leadership, Lieutenant Colonel James Macdonell, the Coldstreamer in command of Hougoumont, fought his way to the gate helped by fellow officers and Corporal James Graham, and managed to shut and bar the gate.

30 or so Frenchmen were now trapped inside. One by one they were massacred, only a young drummer boy was spared.  

Closing the gates

Wellington nominated Corporal Graham as the “most deserving soldier at Waterloo” for his bravery. He also declared afterwards that “the success of the battle turned upon the closing of the gates at Hougoumont.”

It was not quite that simple, but if Legros’ men had seized Hougoumont, it would have put perhaps intolerable pressure on Wellington’s flank. Still early in the day, Napoleon would have had a major advantage. Instead, after that initial assault, the fighting around Hougoumont bogged down into a brutal slog which drew in men and artillery which Napoleon desperately needed elsewhere on the battlefield.  

The allies held Hougoumont, but Wellington did not greatly weaken the rest of his line to reinforce it; Napoleon’s opening move had failed. Despite this, the Emperor unleashed attack after attack, only to find that the same spirit of stubborn resistance that had saved Hougoumont was present throughout the allied army.