Seventh Coalition
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The Seventh Coalition was hurriedly prepared during the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 after Napoleon's return to France and before his successful entry of Paris. On 13 March, six days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw; four days later the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria and Prussia bound themselves to put 150,000 men into the field to end his rule.
The Seventh Coalition's members include: Austria, Netherlands, Prussia, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom and a number of German States.
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 in the coalition put together an overwhelming force. If he could destroy the existing allied forces in Belgium before they were reinforced by contingents from other allies, 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.
The major battles of the Seventh Coalition in June took place at Ligny and Quatre Bras on the 16th, at Wavre on the 18th and 19th, and at Waterloo on the 18th.
At Ligny the French under the command of Napoleon drove the Prussians from the field in disarray. At Quarte Bras in a separate action on the same day as Ligny, the left wing of the French army, under the command of Marshal Ney, blocked the Anglo-Allied army going to the aid of the Prussians fighting at Ligny.
On the 18th the major decisive engagement of the campaign took place at Waterloo. For most of the day a slightly larger French army under the command of Napoleon attacked the Anglo-allied army positioned on top of an escarpment. The arrival of the Prussians towards the end of the afternoon turned Wellington's "close run thing" into a decisive allied victory. Wavre was a French tactical victory, but a hollow one. By engaging the French pursuit, the Prussian rearguard, succeeded in tying down French troops whose presence at Waterloo could have helped save Napoleon from losing the war.
Napoleon's "Hundred Days" ended on 28 June 1815 with the restoration of Louis XVIII.
