NationMaster - Encyclopedia: War of the Seventh Coalition

The Hundred Days (French Cent-Jours) or the Waterloo Campaign commonly names the period between 20 March 1815, the date on which Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris after his return from Elba, and 28 June 1815, the date of the restoration of King Louis XVIII. The phrase Cent jours was first used by the prefect of Paris, the comte de Chabrol, in his speech welcoming the king. It is also referred to as War of the Seventh Coalition because at each stage of the Napoleonic wars, France fought against different combinations of countries in coalitions allied against it. This was the last conflict and it was fought by a coalition of Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, Austria and a number of German States against the person of Napoleon Bonaparte, whom the Coalition powers in Vienna declared an outlaw and not the leader of France. March 20 is the 79th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (80th in Leap years). ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Bonaparte as general, by Antoine-Jean Gros. ... The Eiffel Tower has become a symbol of Paris throughout the world. ... Elba and the Tuscan Archipelago. ... (Some entries on this page have been duplicated on August 1. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Restoration can be one of several things, depending on context: In criminal justice, restoration is another term for restorative justice. ... Louis XVIII (November 17, 1755 - September 16, 1824) was King of France from 1814 (although he declared that he considered his reign to have begun in 1795) until his death in 1824. ... The word prefect can refer to any of a number of types of official, including: in Latin, a praefectus was a high-ranking military or civil official in the Roman Empire. ... The Napoleonic Wars are the wars fought during Napoleon Bonapartes rule of France. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... The German Confederation (German: Deutscher Bund) was a loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to organize the surviving states of the Holy Roman Empire, which had been abolished in 1806. ... Butch Cassidy, a famous outlaw An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, is most familiar to contemporary readers as a stock character in Western movies. ...

Napoleon spent eleven months in uneasy retirement on Elba (1814–1815), watching with close interest the course of events in France. As he foresaw, the shrinkage of the great Empire into the realm of old France caused infinite disgust, a feeling fed every day by stories of the tactless way in which the Bourbon princes treated veterans of the Grand Army. Equally threatening was the general situation in Europe. The demands of Tsar Alexander I were for a time so exorbitant as to bring the powers at the Congress of Vienna to the verge of war. Thus everything portended a renewal of Napoleon's activity. The return of French prisoners from Russia, Germany, Britain and Spain would furnish him with an army far larger than that which had won renown in 1814. So threatening were the symptoms that the royalists at Paris and the plenipotentiaries at Vienna talked of deporting him to the Azores, while others more than hinted at assassination. Elba and the Tuscan Archipelago. ... The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire, the Napoleonic Empire or simply as The Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. ... The House of Bourbon dates from at least the beginning of the 13th century, when the estate of Bourbon was ruled by a Lord, vassal of France. ... La Grande Armée (in English, the Big or Grand Army) is the French military term for the main force in a military campaign. ... Tsar (Bulgarian цар, Russian царь, listen; often spelled Czar or Tzar and sometimes Csar or Zar in English), was the title used for the autocratic rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires since 913, in Serbia in the middle of the 14th century, and in Russia from 1547 to... Aleksandr Pavlovich Romanov or Tsar Alexander I (The Blessed), (Russian: Александр I Павлович) (December 23, 1777–December 1, 1825), Emperor of Russia (reigned March 23, 1801–December 1, 1825), King of Poland (reigned 1815–1825), son of the Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, afterwards Paul I, and Maria Fedorovna, daughter of... Sociologists usually define power as the ability to impose ones will on others, even if those others resist in some way. ... The Congress of Vienna was a conference between ambassadors from the major powers in Europe that was chaired by the Austrian statesman Klemens Wenzel von Metternich and held in Vienna, Austria, from October 1, 1814, to June 9, 1815. ... The noun or adjective, Royalist, can have several shades of meaning. ... Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... Flag of Azores Shaded relief map of the Azores from 1975 The Azores (Portuguese: AÃ§ores) are an archipelago of Portuguese islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, about 1,500 km from Lisbon and about 3,900 km from the east coast of North America. ... Jack Ruby murdered the alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ...

Napoleon solved the problem in characteristic fashion. On 26 February 1815, when the British and French guardships were absent, he slipped away from Porto Ferrajo with some 1,000 men and landed near Antibes on 1 March 1815. Except in royalist Provence he received everywhere a welcome that attested the attractive power of his personality and the nullity of the Bourbons. Firing no shot in his defence, his little troop swelled until it became an army. Ney, who had said that Napoleon ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage, joined him with 6,000 men on 14 March; five days later the emperor entered the capital, whence Louis XVIII had recently fled. February 26 is the 57th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Antibes is a small resort town of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean Sea in the Côte dAzur, located between Cannes and Nice. ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Provence is a former Roman province and is now a region of southeastern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea adjacent to Frances border with Italy. ... Michel Ney, Marshal of France Michel Ney (January 10, 1769 – December 7, 1815) called Le Rougeaud (the ruddy) and le Brave des Braves (the bravest of the brave) was a marshal of the French army who fought in the French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. ... March 14 is the 73rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (74th in Leap years) with 292 days remaining in the year. ...

An old anecdote serves as a illustration of both Napoleon's charisma and popularity, and if not true, serves to illustrate the propaganda industry that operated in his lifetime and ever since: his army was confronted by troops sent by the king to stop him; the men on each side formed into lines and prepared to fire. Before fighting began, Napoleon walked into the ground between the two forces, faced the king's men, ripped open his coat and said "If any of you will shoot your Emperor, shoot him now." The men all joined his cause. It is however now established that Napoleon knew the weapons were loaded with powder only. An anecdote is a short tale told about an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. ...

Napoleon was not misled by the enthusiasm of the provinces and Paris. He knew that love of novelty and contempt for the gouty old king and his greedy courtiers had brought about this bloodless triumph; and he felt instinctively that he had to deal with a new France, which would not tolerate despotism. On his way to Paris he had been profuse in promises of reform and constitutional rule. It remained to make good those promises and to disarm the fear and jealousy of the great powers. Gout (old name: podagra) is a form of arthritis caused by the accumulation of uric acid crystals (due to hyperuricemia) in joints. ... Courtiers follow an ancient profession. ... Despotism is government by a singular authority, either a single person or tightly knit group, which rules with absolute power. ... Reform can refer to: Reform (think tank) Reform, Alabama Reform Judaism Reform movement Reform Party (disambiguation page) See also: Reformation, Reformed This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

This was the work he set before himself in the Hundred Days. One may doubt whether his powers, physical as well as mental, could equal the task. Certainly the evidence as to his health is somewhat conflicted. Some persons (as, for instance, Carnot, Pasquier, Lavalette and Thiéhault) thought him prematurely aged and enfeebled. Others again saw no marked change in him; while Mollien, who knew the emperor well, attributed the lassitude which now and then came over him to a feeling of perplexity caused by his changed circumstances. This explanation seems to furnish a clue to the likely truth. The autocrat felt cramped and chafed on all sides by the necessity of posing as a constitutional sovereign; and, while losing something of the old rigidity, he lost very much of the old energy, both in thought and action. His was a mind that worked wonders in well-worn grooves and on facts that were well understood. The necessity of devising compromises with men who had formerly been his tools fretted him both in mind and body. But when he left parliamentary affairs behind and took the field, he showed nearly all the powers of initiative and endurance that had marked his masterpiece, the campaign of 1814. Lazare Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot (Nolay, May 13, 1753 - Magdeburg, August 22, 1823) was a French politician and mathematician. ... An autocrat is generally speaking any ruler with absolute power; the term is now usually used in a negative sense (cf. ... A monarch is a type of ruler or head of state. ...

To date his decline, as Chaptal does, from the cold of the Moscow campaign is clearly incorrect. The time of lethargy at Elba seems to have been more unfavourable to his powers than the cold of Russia. At Elba, as Sir Neil Campbell noted, he became inactive and proportionately corpulent. There, too, as sometimes in 1815, he began to suffer intermittently from retention of urine, but to no serious extent. On the whole it seems safe to assert that it was the change in France far more than the change in his health which brought about the manifest constraint of the emperor in the Hundred Days. His words to Benjamin Constant "I am growing old. The repose of a constitutional king may suit me. It will more surely suit my son" show that his mind seized the salient facts of the situation, but his instincts struggled against them. Hence the malaise both of mind and body. Neil A. Campbell (1946 – 2004) was an American scientist known best for his Biology textbook. ... Benjamin Constant ( October 25, 1767 – December 8, 1830) was a Swiss thinker, writer and politician. ...

The attempts of the royalists gave him little concern: the duc d'Angoulême raised a small force for Louis XVIII in the south, but at Valence it melted away in front of Grouchy's command; and the duke, on 9 April 1815, signed a convention whereby they received a free pardon from the emperor. The royalists of la Vendée moved later and caused more trouble. But the chief problem centred in the constitution. At Lyon, on 13 March 1815, Napoleon had 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. That work 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 an hereditary chamber of peers and a chamber of representatives elected by the "electoral colleges" of the empire, which comprised scarcely one hundredth part of the citizens of France. As Châteaubriand remarked, in reference to Louis XVIII's constitutional charter, the new constitution — La Benjamine, it was dubbed — was merely a slightly improved charter. Its incompleteness displeased the liberals; it garnered only 1,532,527 votes in the plebiscite, a total less than half of those of the plebiscites of the Consulate. AngoulÃªme is a town in southwestern France, prÃ©fecture (capital city) of the Charente dÃ©partement. ... Valence is a scientific term in chemistry to describe electrons in the outermost orbital. ... Emmanuel, Marquis de Grouchy, Marshal of France Emmanuel, marquis de Grouchy (October 23, 1766 - May 29, 1847), marshal of France, was born in Paris. ... April 9 is the 99th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (100th in leap years). ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... See also The Emperor disambiguation page. ... VendÃ©e is a dÃ©partement in west central France, on the Atlantics Bay of Biscay. ... City motto: Avant, avant, Lion le melhor. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... The First French Empire, commonly known as the French Empire, the Napoleonic Empire or simply as The Empire, covers the period of the domination of France and much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. ... FranÃ§ois-RenÃ© de Chateaubriand, painting by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, beginning of 19th century. ... A referendum (plural: referendums or referenda) or plebiscite is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. ... The Consulate marks a period of French constitutional history between 1799 and 1804 - from the fall of the Directory and the First French Republic to the start of the Napoleonic Empire. ...

Not all the gorgeous display of the Champ de Mai (held on 1 June 1815) could hide the discontent at the meagre fulfilment of the promises given at Lyon. Napoleon ended his speech with the words "My will is that of the people: My rights are its rights." The words rang hollow as was seen when, on 3 June, the deputies chose, as president of their chamber, Lanjuinais, the staunch liberal who had so often opposed the emperor. The latter was with difficulty dissuaded from quashing the election. June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... Jean Denis, comte Lanjuinais (12 March 1753 - 13 January 1827) was a French politician. ...

Other causes of offence arose, and Napoleon in his last communication to them warned them not to imitate the Greeks of the later Empire, who engaged in subtle discussions when the ram was battering at their gates. On the next day (12 June 1815) he set out for the northern frontier. His spirits rose at the prospect of rejoining the army. At Saint Helena he told Gourgaud that he intended in 1815 to dissolve the chambers as soon as he had won a great victory. June 12 is the 163rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (164th in leap years), with 202 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

In point of fact, the sword alone could decide his fate, both in internal and international affairs. Neither France nor Europe took seriously his rather vague declaration of his contentment with the role of constitutional monarch of France. No one believed that he would be content with the "ancient limits". So often had he declared that the Rhine and the Netherlands were necessary to France that everyone looked on his present assertions as a mere device to gain time. As far back as 13 March, six days before he reached Paris, the powers at Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule. Their recollection of his conduct during the congress of Châtillon was the determining fact at this crisis; his professions at Lyon or Paris had not the slightest effect; his efforts to detach Austria from the coalition, as also the feelers put forth tentatively by Fouché at Vienna, were fruitless. The coalitions, once so brittle as to break at the first strain, had now been hammered into solidity by his blows. If ever a man was condemned by his past, Napoleon was so in 1815. The Rhine canyon (Ruinaulta) in Graubünden in Switzerland Length 1,320 km Elevation of the source Vorderrhein: approx. ... March 13 is the 72nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (73rd in leap years). ... Butch Cassidy, a famous outlaw An outlaw, a person living the lifestyle of outlawry, is most familiar to contemporary readers as a stock character in Western movies. ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and...

Napoleon knew that, once his attempts at dissuading one or more of the allies from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the Allies put together an overwhelming forces. If he could destroy the existing Allied forces in Belgium before they were reinforced, he might be able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war. This was a successful strategy he had used many times before.

Napoleon moved two armies, the Army of the North (AotN) and the Reserve Army (RA), up to the French Belgium frontier without alerting the Allies. He crossed the frontier and split his AoTN in two. He took the RA and the right wing of the AotN and attacked the Prussians under the command of General Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher at the Battle of Ligny on June 16, 1815. The left wing of the army under Marshal Ney proceeded to block the Nivelles-Namur road at the crossroads of Quatre Bras so that the British-allied forces under the Duke of Wellington could not go to the aid of the Prussians. Ney's wing of the French army engaged the Wellington's forces in the Battle of Quatre Bras on the same day as Napoleon engaged the Prussians. The outcome of the day of fighting was that, at Quatre Bras, Ney stopped any of Wellington's forces going to the aid of Blücher's Prussians and Napoleon, although unable to destroy the Prussian army, forced it to retreat in disarray. Download high resolution version (800x910, 42 KB)Map of force movements and major engagements during the Waterloo Campaign, June 15-18, 1815. ... Gebhard Leberecht von BlÃ¼cher Gebhard Leberecht von BlÃ¼cher (December 16, 1742 in Rostock (Mecklenburg) - September 12, 1819 in Krieblowitz (Silesia) (now Krobielowice in Poland)), Graf (Count), later elevated to FÃ¼rst von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian general who led his army against Napoleon I at the Battle of... Battle of Ligny Conflict Napoleonic Wars Date June 16, 1815 Place Ligny, Belgium Result French victory The Battle of Ligny, fought June 16, 1815, was a French victory under Napoleon against the Prussian army under Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher in the Napoleonic Wars. ... June 16 is the 167th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (168th in leap years), with 198 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Quatre Bras is the name of a crossroads in Belgium where the Charleroi-Brussels Road and the Nivelles-Namur Road. ... Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1 May 1769â€“14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, widely considered one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. ... The Battle of Quatre Bras was fought between contingents of the Anglo-allied army and the left wing of the French Army on June 16, 1815, near the crossroads of Quatre Bras, in Belgium. ...

On the morning of the June 17 Napoleon sent the right wing of the Army of the North under the command of Marshal Grouchy to harass the Prussians to stop them reforming. He set off via Quatre Bras with the RA and combined his forces with the left wing of the AotN to pursue Wellington's forces, which were retreating towards Brussels. Just before the small village of Waterloo, Wellington deployed most of his forces on the rear side of an escarpment. He placed some of his forces in front of the main deployment in two fortified farmhouses at the base of the escarpment, which guarded the two roads to Brussels. It was here on June 18, 1815 that the decisive European battle of the 19th century took place. Within the sound of cannon fire a second battle took place at the village of Wavre. Grouchy, who was dilatory in his pursuit of the Prussians, failing to stop them regrouping after their defeat at Ligny, attacked the Prussian IV Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann, believing that he was engaging the rearguard of a still-retreating Prussian force. However only one Corps remained — the other three Prussian Corps were marching towards Waterloo. June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining. ... Waterloo The top of the knoll and the famous lion. ... June 18 is the 169th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (170th in leap years), with 196 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Battle of Wavre Conflict Napoleonic Wars Date June 18, 1815 – June 19, 1815 Place Wavre, Belgium Result French tactical victory, Prussian strategic victory The Battle of Wavre was a battle of the War of the Seventh Coalition, the last of the Napoleonic Wars. ... Wavre is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant, of which it is the capital. ...

The start of the Battle of Waterloo was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night's rain. By late afternoon the French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's Allied forces from the escarpment on which they stood. Once the Prussians arrived, attacking the French right flank in ever increasing numbers, Napoleon's key strategy of keeping the Allied armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined Allied general advance. The next morning the battle of Wavre ended in 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 Allied forces, so it retreated towards Paris. Map of the Waterloo campaign The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was Napoleon Bonapartes last battle. ...

On arriving at Paris three days after Waterloo he still clung to the hope of concerting national resistance; but the temper of the chambers and of the public generally forbade any such attempt. The autocrat and Lucien Bonaparte were almost alone in believing that, by dissolving 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 destinies of France rested solely with the chambers. That was true. Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino (May 21, 1775 - June 29, 1840) was the second of the brothers to Emperor Napoleon I of France. ... Dictator was the title of a magistrate in ancient Rome appointed by the Senate to rule the state in times of emergency. ... Davout, Marshal of France Louis Nicolas dAvout (May 10, 1770 - June 1, 1823), better known as Davout, was duke of Auerstädt, prince of Eckmühl, and a marshal of France. ...

The career of Napoleon, which had lured France far away from the principles of 1789, now brought her back to that starting-point; just as, in the physical sphere, his campaigns from 1796–1814 had at first enormously swollen her bulk and then subjected her to a shrinkage still more portentous. Clearly, it was time to safeguard what remained; and that could best be done under Talleyrand's shield of legitimacy. 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 Charles Bonaparte well knowing that it was a formality, as his son was in Austria. On 25 June he received from Fouché, the president of the newly appointed provisional government, an intimation that he must leave Paris. He retired to Malmaison, the former home of Josephine, where she had died shortly after his first abdication. On 29 June the near approach of the Prussians, who had orders to seize him, dead or alive, caused him to retire westwards towards Rochefort, whence he hoped to reach the United States. The full restoration of Louis XVIII followed the emperor's departure. 1796 was a leap year starting on Friday. ... 1814 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-PÃ©rigord (February 2, 1754 - May 17, 1838) was a French diplomat. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... June 25 is the 176th day of the year (177th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 189 days remaining. ... The Ch teau de Malmaison is a country house (or ch teau) in the city of Rueil-Malmaison about 12 km (7 mi) from Paris. ... JosÃ©phine de Beauharnais, Empress JosÃ©phine JosÃ©phine de Beauharnais (June 23, 1763 â€“ May 29, 1814) was the first wife of NapolÃ©on Bonaparte, and became Empress of France. ... June 29 is the 180th day of the year (181st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 185 days remaining. ... Rochefort is a commune in western France, a seaport on the Atlantic Ocean. ... Louis XVIII (November 17, 1755 - September 16, 1824) was King of France from 1814 (although he declared that he considered his reign to have begun in 1795) until his death in 1824. ...

References

The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the EncyclopÃ¦dia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...