In Spring of 1815 the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte, one of history's most accomplished generals, escaped his jailers and returned to Paris in what is known as the 'Hundred Days'. After receiving the news, the powers of Europe formed the Seventh Coalition to remove Napoleon from the French throne and raised a huge army. Napoleon responded by marching into Belgium with the objective of splitting Allied forces and capturing Brussels. He pushed a Prussian army back at the Battle of Ligny on 15 June 1815, and three days later attacked an Anglo-Allied force led by the Duke of Wellington near the village of Waterloo. The battle that followed would be a watershed moment in European history, finally ending Napoleon's military career and ushering in a new era of relative peace.
Up Next in Waterloo Documentaries
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The Uniform of the British Army
The British Army is one of the world’s most experienced fighting forces. From Blenheim to Waterloo, from Balaclava to the Somme, it has played its part in the history’s most bloody conflicts. But as these troops executed Herculean tasks in the worlds harshest terrains, what were they wearing? How...
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Could You Survive the Duke of Welling...
During the Napoleonic Wars the British Army experienced a time of rapid change. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, the army was a small, awkwardly administered force of barely 40,000 men. By the end of the period, the numbers had vastly increased to over a quarter of a mil...
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Could You Survive a Napoleonic Invasi...
Imagine, it’s the mid-1800s. Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, peace between Britain and France had been secured for close to half a century. And yet, for the English, the threat of an imminent invasion across the channel never seemed too far-fetched.
That’s why thousands of ‘navvies’ and l...
