The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army under the command of Napoleon I was defeated by two armies of the Seventh Coalition. One of these was a British-led force with units from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick, and Nassau, under the command of field marshal Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington (often referred to as the Anglo-allied army or Wellington’s army). The other comprised three corps (the 1st, 2nd and 4th corps) of the Prussian army under Field Marshal Blücher; a fourth corps (the 3rd) of this army fought at the Battle of Wavre on the same day. The battle was known contemporarily as the Battle of Mont Saint-Jean in France (after the hamlet of Mont-Saint-Jean) and La Belle Alliance in Prussia (“the Beautiful Alliance”; after the inn of La Belle Alliance).

     On 13 March 1815, six days before Napoleon I reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw. Four days later, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, and Prussia mobilised armies to defeat Napoleon I. Critically outnumbered, Napoleon I knew that once his attempts at dissuading one or more members of the Seventh Coalition from invading France had failed, his only chance of remaining in power was to attack before the coalition mobilised.

     Had Napoleon succeeded in destroying the existing coalition forces south of Brussels before they were reinforced, he might have been able to drive the British back to the sea and knock the Prussians out of the war. Crucially, this would have bought him time to recruit and train more men before turning his armies against the Austrians and Russians.

     An additional consideration for Napoleon was that a French victory might cause French-speaking sympathisers in Belgium to launch a friendly revolution. Also, coalition troops in Belgium were largely second line, as many units were of dubious quality and loyalty.

     Last but not least, we would like to declare that our delegates are going to be the representatives of Generals and Marshals. 8 French and 8 Coalition Commanders are going to be chosen among our delegates. So we will have 16 Commander-Delegate in our committee. We are going to support our delegates with a lot of maps and soldiers. We are going to supply two distinguished cabinets and an “authentique” environment for the Battle of Waterloo Committee.