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128-699: Wellington: 107,000 Blücher: 123,000 The Waterloo campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army had been commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte , but he left for Paris after the French defeat at the Battle of Waterloo . Command then rested on Marshals Soult and Grouchy , who were in turn replaced by Marshal Davout , who took command at

256-403: A Bourbon Restoration. The opinions expressed in the declaration were largely those of Antoine de Bésiade, Count of Avaray , Louis's closest advisor in exile. Louis XVIII was forced once again to leave Jelgava when Tsar Alexander informed him that his safety could not be guaranteed in continental Europe. In July 1807, Louis boarded a Swedish frigate bound for Stockholm , bringing with him only

384-488: A blocking rearguard, the three other corps advanced westward to attack the right flank of the French army in front of Waterloo. Both Napoleon and Grouchy assumed that the Prussians were retreating towards Namur and Liège , with a view to occupy the line of the river Meuse , and so during 17 June Grouchy sent the bulk of his cavalry ranging in that direction as far as Perwez . In his despatch to Napoleon written at 22:00 he

512-564: A captured enemy town (rather than one liberated for their ally King Louis XVIII), and on entering the town, the greatest excesses were committed by the Prussian soldiery, which instead of being restrained was encouraged by their officers. On his arrival at Malplaquet—the scene of one of the Duke of Marlborough 's victories—Wellington issued the Malplaquet proclamation to the French people on

640-503: A contemporary living there at the time, the Prussian local authorities, wishing to honour the arrivals, had music played, but trying to give this a national and patriotic character, unwittingly chose La Marseillaise , the hymn of the French Republic with unflattering allusions to both Louis XVI and Louis XVIII. They later apologised for their mistake. It was very soon after their arrival that Louis and Marie-Thérèse learned of

768-492: A correspondence with Napoleon Bonaparte (by then First Consul of France ), urging him to restore the Bourbons to their throne, but the future emperor was impervious to this idea and continued to consolidate his own position as ruler of France. Louis XVIII encouraged his niece to write her memoirs, as he wished them to be used as Bourbon propaganda. In 1796 and 1803, Louis also used the diaries of Louis XVI's final attendants in

896-400: A generous pension, though later discontinued payment. Marie-Thérèse finally joined Louis XVIII at Jelgava in 1799. In the winter of 1798–1799, Louis XVIII wrote a biography of Marie Antoinette titled Réflexions historiques sur Marie Antoinette . Moreover, being surrounded at Jelgava with many old courtiers, he attempted to recreate the court life of Versailles, re-establishing various of

1024-426: A harmonious relationship and often quarrelled, as did their wives. Louis Stanislas did impregnate his wife in 1774, having conquered his aversion. However, the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. A second pregnancy in 1781 also miscarried, and the marriage remained childless. On 27 April 1774, Louis XV fell ill after contracting smallpox and died a few days later on 10 May, aged 64. Louis Stanislas' elder brother,

1152-563: 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 coalition forces, so it retreated toward Paris. After the combined victory at Waterloo by the Anglo-allies under the command of the Duke of Wellington and the Prussians under

1280-510: A hostile stance against this rejection, and Louis XVI had to implement a "bed of justice" ( Lit de justice ), which automatically registered an edict in the Parlement of Paris, to ratify the desired reforms. On 8 May, two of the leading members of the Parlement of Paris were arrested. There was rioting in Brittany , Provence, Burgundy and Béarn in reaction to their arrest. This unrest

1408-484: A manifesto in response to Louis XVII's death. The manifesto, known as the " Declaration of Verona ", was Louis XVIII's attempt to introduce the French people to his politics. The Declaration of Verona beckoned France back into the arms of the monarchy, "which for fourteen centuries was the glory of France". Louis XVIII negotiated the release of Marie-Thérèse from her Paris prison in 1795. He desperately wanted her to marry her first cousin, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême ,

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1536-448: A new property tax, and new elected provincial assemblies which would have a say in local taxation. Calonne's proposition was rejected outright by the notables, and, as a result, Louis XVI dismissed him. The Archbishop of Toulouse, Étienne Charles de Loménie de Brienne , acquired Calonne's ministry. Brienne attempted to salvage Calonne's reforms, but ultimately failed to convince the notables to approve them. A frustrated Louis XVI dissolved

1664-562: A possible defeat within the borders of France. Yet this postponed invasion date allowed Napoleon more time to strengthen his forces and defences, which would make defeating him harder and more costly in lives, time and money. Napoleon now had to decide whether to fight a defensive or offensive campaign. Defence would entail repeating the 1814 campaign in France but with much larger numbers of troops at his disposal. France's chief cities, Paris and Lyon, would be fortified and two great French armies,

1792-569: A pursuit of the two Coalition armies. He took the reserves and marched with Ney in pursuit of the Duke of Wellington 's Anglo-allied army, and he gave instructions to Marshal Grouchy to pursue the Prussians wherever they were going and harry them so that they had no time to reorganise. After their defeat at the Battle of Ligny the Prussians successfully disengaged and withdrew to north west to Wavre where they reorganised. Leaving one corps in Wavre as

1920-657: A second wave of White Terror headed by the Ultra-royalist faction. The following year, Louis dissolved the unpopular parliament (the Chambre introuvable ), giving rise to the liberal Doctrinaires . His reign was further marked by the formation of the Quintuple Alliance and a military intervention in Spain . Louis had no children, and upon his death the crown passed to his brother, Charles X . Louis XVIII

2048-550: The Ancien Régime . Accordingly, in 1805 he reformulated his public policies with a view to reclaiming his throne, issuing a declaration that was far more liberal than his earlier pronouncements. This repudiated his Declaration of Verona, promised to abolish conscription, retain the Napoleonic administrative and judicial system, reduce taxes, eliminate political prisons, and guarantee amnesty to everyone who did not oppose

2176-692: The Austrian Netherlands in conjunction with the royal family's failed Flight to Varennes in June 1791. When the Count of Provence arrived in the Low Countries , he proclaimed himself regent of France. He exploited a document that he and Louis XVI had written before the latter's failed escape to Varennes-en-Argonne . The document gave him the regency in the event of his brother's death or inability to perform his role as king. He would join

2304-643: The Battle of Hondshoote in September, forcing the English to raise the Siege of Dunkirk . Nevertheless, the government arrested Houchard for not following up his victory and executed him. Jean-Baptiste Jourdan won the Battle of Wattignies in October. On 17–18 May 1794, the Army of the North won a victory at the Battle of Tourcoing while under the temporary leadership of Joseph Souham . The right wing of

2432-578: The Battle of Jemappes on 6 November 1792. On 18 March 1793, the Austrians defeated Dumouriez at the Battle of Neerwinden . Auguste Dampierre was killed in battle on 8 May at the Battle of Raismes near Valenciennes . Under François Joseph Drouot de Lamarche , the army lost again at the Battle of Famars on 23 May. Charles Edward Jennings de Kilmaine skirmished with the Coalition army at Caesar's Camp near Cambrai on 7 August. Houchard won

2560-488: The Battle of Quatre Bras and Napoleon defeating Blücher at the Battle of Ligny . On 17 June, Napoleon left Grouchy with the right wing of the French army to pursue the Prussians while he took the reserves and command of the left wing of the army to pursue Wellington towards Brussels. On the night of 17 June the Anglo-allied army turned and prepared for battle on a gentle escarpment, about 1 mile (1.6 km) south of

2688-494: The Comte de Blacas as his principal political advisor. Queen Marie Joséphine died on 13 November 1810. That same winter, Louis had a particularly severe attack of gout , which was a recurring problem for him at Hartwell, and he had to take to a wheelchair. In 1812, Napoleon I embarked on an invasion of Russia , initiating a war which would prove to be the turning point in his fortunes. The expedition failed miserably, and Napoleon

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2816-595: The Duchy of Alençon in December 1774. The duchy was given to enhance Louis Stanislas's prestige. However, the appanage generated only 300,000 livres a year, an amount much lower than it had been at its peak in the fourteenth century. Louis Stanislas travelled about France more than other members of the Royal Family, who rarely left the Île-de-France . In 1774, he accompanied his sister Clotilde to Chambéry on

2944-526: The Duchy of Brunswick after his departure from Verona. He lived in a modest two-bedroom apartment over a shop. Louis XVIII was forced to leave Blankenburg when King Frederick William II of Prussia died. In light of this, Marie-Thérèse decided to wait a while longer before reuniting with her uncle. In 1798, Tsar Paul I of Russia offered Louis the use of Jelgava Palace in Courland (now Latvia). The Tsar also guaranteed Louis' safety and bestowed on him

3072-668: The Storming of the Bastille two days later. On 16 July, the King's brother, Charles, Comte d'Artois , left France with his wife and children, along with many other courtiers. Artois and his family took up residence in Turin , the capital city of his father-in-law's ( Carlo Emanuele Ferdinando Maria IV ) Kingdom of Sardinia , with the family of Louis Joseph, Prince de Condé . The Count of Provence decided to remain at Versailles. When

3200-621: The Tuileries Palace . In March 1791, the National Assembly created a law outlining the regency of Louis Charles in case his father died while he was still too young to reign. This law awarded the regency to Louis Charles' nearest male relative in France (at that time the Count of Provence), and after him, the Duke of Orleans , thus bypassing the Count of Artois. If Orleans were unavailable, the regency would be submitted to election. The Count of Provence and his wife fled to

3328-513: The "dual representation" proposal. Louis Stanislas was the only notable to vote to increase the size of the Third Estate. Necker disregarded the notables' judgment, and convinced Louis XVI to grant the extra representation. The king duly obliged on 27 December. The Estates-General were convened in May 1789 to ratify financial reforms. The Count of Provence favoured a stalwart position against

3456-456: The 128,000 strong Army of the North up to the Belgian frontier in relative secrecy, and crossed the frontier at Thuin near Charleroi on 15 June 1815. The French drove in Coalition outposts and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position" – at the junction between Wellington's army to his north-west, and Blücher's Prussians to his north-east. Wellington had expected Napoleon to try to envelop

3584-401: The Anglo-allied army and held it in place during the early morning of 17 June, sufficiently long to allow Napoleon to close round his foe's open left flank and deal him a deathblow. But it did not happen because the French were desultory in the aftermath of Ligny. Napoleon wasted the morning of 17 June by taking a late breakfast and going to see the previous day's battlefield before organising

3712-467: The Anglo-allies heavily throughout the day, Ney fought a cautious and desultory battle which failed to capture the crossroads. By the middle of the afternoon Wellington had taken personal command of the Anglo-allied forces at Quatre Bras. The position was reinforced steadily throughout the day as Anglo-allied troops converged on the crossroads. The battle ended in a tactical draw. The next day the Allies ceded

3840-571: The Army of the North on 14 December 1791, the government of the Kingdom of France appointed Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau , as its commander. Rochambeau was replaced in May 1792, and he retired from service. The suspicious government of the First French Republic later charged him with treason and he barely escaped execution. In 1792–1794, the guillotine awaited military commanders who either failed, belonged to

3968-517: The Army of the North). He tarried for four hours expediting orders to generals Rapp , Lecourbe , and Lamarque, to advance with their respective corps by forced marches to Paris (for their corps locations see the military mobilisation during the Hundred Days ): and also to the commandants of fortresses , to defend themselves to the last extremity. He desired Marshal Soult to collect together all

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4096-870: The Austrian army was still mobilising. Also, the British troops in Belgium were largely second-line troops; most of the veterans of the Peninsular War had been sent to America to fight the War of 1812. In addition, the army of the United Netherlands was reinforcing the British. These Dutch troops were ill-equipped and inexperienced. And, politically, a French victory might trigger a pro-French revolution in French-speaking Belgium. During

4224-544: The Bourbons were forced to assume pseudonyms. With Louis XVIII using the title Comte d'Isle , named after his estate in Languedoc and at times spelt as Comte de Lille. After an arduous journey from Jelgava, he and his family took up residence in the years 1801–1804 at the Łazienki Palace in Warsaw , which after the partitions of Poland became part of the province of South Prussia . According to Wirydianna Fiszerowa ,

4352-456: The Coalition armies by moving through Mons and to the west of Brussels. Wellington feared that such a move would cut his communications with the ports he relied on for supply. Napoleon encouraged this view with misinformation. Wellington did not hear of the capture of Charleroi until 15:00, because a message from Wellington's intelligence chief, Colquhoun Grant , was delayed by General Dörnberg. Confirmation swiftly followed in another message from

4480-456: The Coalition armies. Napoleon's decision to attack in Belgium was supported by several considerations. First, he had learned that the British and Prussian armies were widely dispersed and might be defeated in detail. The other major coalition armies of Russia and Austria would not be able to reinforce the Prussians and British. This was because the Russian army was still moving across Europe and

4608-762: The Dauphin Louis Joseph . Louis Stanislas and his brother, the Count of Artois , served as godfathers by proxy for Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor , the Queen's brother. When Marie Antoinette gave birth to her second son, Louis Charles , in March 1785, Louis Stanislas slid further down the line of succession. In 1780, Anne Nompar de Caumont , Countess of Balbi, entered the service of Marie Joséphine. Louis Stanislas soon fell in love with his wife's new lady-in-waiting and installed her as his mistress, which resulted in

4736-500: The Dauphin Louis Auguste, succeeded their grandfather as King Louis XVI. As eldest brother of the King, Louis Stanislas received the title Monsieur . Louis Stanislas longed for political influence. He attempted to gain admittance to the King's council in 1774, but failed. Louis Stanislas was left in a political limbo that he called "a gap of 12 years in my political life". Louis XVI granted Louis Stanislas revenues from

4864-520: The Dauphin's own premature death in 1765. The two deaths elevated Louis Stanislas to second in the line of succession, while his brother Louis Auguste acquired the title of Dauphin. Louis Stanislas found comfort in his governess, Madame de Marsan , Governess of the Children of France , as he was her favourite among his siblings. Louis Stanislas was taken away from his governess when he turned seven,

4992-980: The Duke of Angoulême. This stay in Sweden was short-lived since in November 1807 he disembarked at Great Yarmouth , on the Eastern coast of England. He then took up residence in Gosfield Hall in Essex, leased to him by the Marquess of Buckingham . In 1808, Louis brought his wife and queen, Marie Joséphine, to join him in England. His stay at Gosfield Hall did not last long; he soon moved to Hartwell House in Buckinghamshire, where over one hundred courtiers were housed. The King paid £500 in rent each year to

5120-752: The East. Louis XVIII of France Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (French: le Désiré ), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 years in exile from France beginning in 1791, during the French Revolution and the First French Empire . Until his accession to

5248-708: The French . In July, Louis XVIII and his nephew departed for Sweden for a Bourbon family conference, where Louis XVIII, the Count of Artois, and the Duke of Angoulême issued a statement condemning Napoleon's move. When the King of Prussia decreed that Louis XVIII would have to leave Prussian territory, and hence Warsaw, Tsar Alexander I invited Louis XVIII to resume residence in Jelgava, which he did. However, having to live under less generous conditions than those enjoyed under Paul I, Louis XVIII decided to embark for England as soon as possible. As time went on, Louis XVIII realised that France would never accept an attempt to return to

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5376-644: The French Empire, defeated Napoleon again, and again restored Louis XVIII to the French throne. Louis XVIII ruled as king for slightly less than a decade. His Bourbon Restoration government was a constitutional monarchy , unlike the absolutist Ancien Régime in France before the Revolution. As a constitutional monarch, Louis XVIII's royal prerogative was reduced substantially by the Charter of 1814 , France's new constitution. His return in 1815 led to

5504-721: The French Revolution and during the Napoleonic era , Louis XVIII lived in exile in Prussia , Great Britain , and Russia . When the Sixth Coalition first defeated Napoleon in 1814, Louis XVIII was placed in what he, and the French royalists, considered his rightful position. However, Napoleon escaped from his exile in Elba and restored his French Empire. Louis XVIII fled, and a Seventh Coalition declared war on

5632-520: The French army had not succeeded in driving Wellington's forces from the rise on which they stood. Once the Prussians arrived, attacking the French right flank in ever increasing numbers, Napoleon's key strategy of keeping the Seventh Coalition armies divided had failed and his army was driven from the field in confusion, by a combined coalition general advance. On the morning of 18 June 1815 Napoleon sent orders to Marshal Grouchy, commander of

5760-502: The French army's intent rather more accurately. The Prussians were not taken unawares. General Zieten noted the number of campfires as early as 13 June and Blücher began to concentrate his forces. Napoleon considered the Prussians the greater threat and so moved against them first with the right wing of the Army of the North and the Reserves. Graf von Zieten's I Corps rearguard action on 15 June held up Napoleon's advance, giving Blücher

5888-571: The Hundred Days both the Coalition nations and Napoleon mobilised for war. Upon resumption of the throne, Napoleon found that he was left with little by Louis XVIII. There were 56,000 soldiers of which 46,000 were ready to campaign. By the end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training but not yet ready for deployment. Napoleon placed some corps of his armed forces at various strategic locations as armies of observations. Napoleon split his forces into three main armies; first, he placed an army in

6016-673: The Legislative Assembly declared that all of the émigrés were traitors to France. Their property and titles were confiscated. The monarchy of France was abolished by the National Convention on 21 September 1792. Louis XVI was executed in January 1793 . This left his young son, Louis Charles, as the titular King. The princes-in-exile proclaimed Louis Charles "King Louis XVII ". The Count of Provence now unilaterally declared himself regent for his nephew, who

6144-555: The Prince of Orange. Wellington ordered his army to concentrate around the divisional headquarters, but was still unsure whether the attack in Charleroi was a feint and the main assault would come through Mons. Wellington only determined Napoleon's intentions with certainty in the evening, and his orders for his army to muster near Nivelles and Quatre Bras were sent out just before midnight. The Prussian General Staff seem to have divined

6272-412: The Prussian III Corps under the command of General Johann von Thielmann near the village of Wavre. Grouchy believed that he was engaging the rearguard of a still-retreating Prussian force. However, only one Corps remained; the other three Prussian Corps (I, II and the still fresh IV) had regrouped after their defeat at Ligny and were marching toward Waterloo. The next morning the Battle of Wavre ended in

6400-433: The Prussians advanced to Avesnes, which surrendered to them on 21 June. The French at first seemed determined to defend the place to the last extremity, and made considerable resistance; but a magazine having blown up, by which 400 men were killed, the rest of the garrison, which consisted chiefly of national-guards, and amounting to 439 men, surrendered at discretion . On capture of the town the Prussian soldiers treated it as

6528-429: The Prussians in open battle. The army was severely weakened by low morale, supply problems, the terrible winter weather and low troop quality, whilst general Faidherbe was unable to command due to his poor health, the result of decades of campaigning in West Africa . At the Battle of St. Quentin , the Army of the North suffered a crushing defeat and was scattered, releasing thousands of Prussian soldiers to be relocated to

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6656-468: The Prussians until the morning of 18 June. D'Erlon's I Corps wandered between both battles contributing to neither Quatre Bras nor to Ligny. Napoleon wrote to Ney warning him that allowing D'Erlon to wander so far away had crippled his attacks on Quatre Bras. However, he made no move to recall D'Erlon when he could easily have done so. The tone of his orders shows that he believed he had things well in hand at Ligny without assistance (as in fact he had). After

6784-411: The Prussians' back driving them through Wavre and join me here") Grouchy decided not to take the advice. It became apparent that neither Napoleon nor Marshal Grouchy understood that the Prussian army was no longer either routed or disorganised. Any thoughts of joining Napoleon were dashed when a second order repeating the same instructions arrived around 16:00. Following Napoleon's orders Grouchy attacked

6912-441: The Queen gave birth to a daughter, who was named Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France and given the honorific title Madame Royale . That the baby was a girl came as a relief to the Count of Provence, who kept his position as heir to Louis XVI, since Salic Law excluded women from acceding to the throne of France. However, Louis Stanislas did not remain heir to the throne much longer. On 22 October 1781, Marie Antoinette gave birth to

7040-481: The Revolution) would be compensated for their losses. Allied troops entered Paris on 31 March 1814. Louis, unable to walk, had sent the Count of Artois to France in January 1814 and issued letters patent appointing Artois Lieutenant-General of the Kingdom in the event of his being restored as king. On 11 April, five days after the French Senate had invited Louis to resume the throne of France, Napoleon I abdicated. The Count of Artois ruled as Lieutenant-General of

7168-410: The Royal Family plotted to abscond from Versailles to Metz , Provence advised the King not to leave, a suggestion he accepted. The Royal Family was forced to leave the palace at Versailles on the day after the Women's March on Versailles , 5 October 1789. They were taken to Paris. There, the Count of Provence and his wife lodged in the Luxembourg Palace , while the rest of the Royal Family stayed in

7296-413: The Swiss magnate Jacques Necker . In November 1788, a second Assembly of Notables was convened by Jacques Necker, to consider the makeup of the next Estates-General. The Parlement of Paris recommended that the Estates should be the same as they were at the last assembly, in 1614 (this would mean that the clergy and nobility would have more representation than the Third Estate ). The notables rejected

7424-408: The Third Estate and its demands for tax reform. On 17 June, the Third Estate declared itself a National Assembly , an Assembly not of the Estates, but of the people. The Count of Provence urged the King to act strongly against the declaration, while the King's popular minister Jacques Necker aimed at reaching a compromise with the new assembly. Louis XVI was characteristically indecisive. On 9 July,

7552-409: The age at which the education of boys of royal blood and of the nobility was turned over to men. Antoine de Quélen de Stuer de Caussade, Duke of La Vauguyon  [ fr ] , a friend of his father, was named as his governor. Louis Stanislas was an intelligent boy, excelling in the classics. His education was of the same quality and consistency as that of his older brother, Louis Auguste, despite

7680-409: The appearance of a few Prussian cavalry, judiciously thrown forward towards the Sambre from the Advanced Guard at Gosselies . They resumed their flight, taking the direction of Beaumont and Philippeville . From Charleroi, Napoleon proceeded to Philippeville; whence he hoped to be able to communicate more readily with Marshal Grouchy (who was commanding the detached and still intact right wing of

7808-482: The armies of Blücher and Wellington. The two Coalition armies entered Paris on 7 July. The next day Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne, and a week later on 15 July Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland of HMS  Bellerophon . Napoleon was exiled to the island of Saint Helena where he died on 5 May 1821. Under the terms of the peace treaty of November 1815, Coalition forces remained in Northern France as an army of occupation under

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7936-638: The army (I and II corps) to face Wellington at Quatre Bras . During the morning of 17 June Napoleon detached the right wing (III and IV corps) under Marshal Grouchy to pursue the retreating Prussians (who retreated to Wavre ), while he led the reserves (Imperial Guard, VI Corps, and I, II, III, and IV Cavalry Corps) to rejoin Ney's detachment and pursue Wellington to Waterloo . In the early days of June 1815, Wellington and Blücher's forces were disposed as follows: Wellington's Anglo-allied army of 93,000 with headquarters at Brussels were cantoned: Blücher's Prussian army of 116,000 men, with headquarters at Namur ,

8064-408: The army fought at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro . The Spanish beat a 1,500-man detachment on 23 June at Cogorderos in León (province) . This action prevented the army from helping in the fight against Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington 's Anglo-Portuguese Army. Only 800 men fought at the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813. After the disastrous defeat at Vitoria, the Army of the North became part of

8192-456: The army fought under Jourdan in an important victory at the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June. Soon after this, the Allied position in Flanders collapsed, leading to Austria's loss of Belgium and the extinction of the Dutch Republic in the winter of 1794-1795. During this period, the army was engaged in mopping up operations and sieges. On 25 October 1797, the Army of the North officially ceased to exist and its troops became an army of occupation in

8320-408: The assembly declared itself a National Constituent Assembly that would give France a Constitution. On 11 July, Louis XVI dismissed Necker, which led to widespread rioting across Paris. On 12 July, the sabre charge of the Régiment Royal–Allemand Cavalerie (Royal German Cavalry Regiment) of Charles-Eugène de Lorraine, Prince de Lambesc , against a crowd gathered at the Tuileries gardens , sparked

8448-503: The assembly. Brienne's reforms were then submitted to the Parlement of Paris in the hopes that they would be approved. (A parlement was responsible for ratifying the King's edicts; each province had its own parlement , but the Parlement of Paris was the most significant of all.) The Parlement of Paris refused to accept Brienne's proposals and declared that any new taxation would have to be approved by an Estates-General (the nominal parliament of France). Louis XVI and Brienne took

8576-466: The best place in front of Brussels for him to be able to employ his reverse slope tactics when fighting a major battle: Mont-Saint-Jean escarpment close to the village of Waterloo . Aided by thunderstorms and torrential rain, Wellington's army successfully extricated itself from Quatre Bras and passed through the defile of Genappe . The infantry marched ahead and were screened by a large cavalry rearguard. The French harried Wellington's army, and there

8704-416: The campaigns of 1813 and 1814. Its left and right wings ( Aile Gauche and Aile Droite ) were under the independent command of Marshals Ney and Grouchy respectively, when Napoleon himself was not present to direct them. This Armée du Nord is often mistakenly regarded as separate from Armée de la Réserve (Reserve Army), which it fought beside during the 1815 campaign. In fact the Armée de la Réserve

8832-412: 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. Clearly, it was time to safeguard what remained; and that could best be done under Talleyrand 's shield of legitimacy. Army of the North (France) At the creation of

8960-481: The command of Prince Blücher , it was agreed by the two commanders, on the field of Waterloo, that the Prussian army, not having been so much crippled and exhausted by the battle, should undertake the further pursuit, and proceed by Charleroi towards Avesnes and Laon ; whilst the Anglo-allied army, after remaining during the night on the field, should advance by Nivelles and Binche towards Péronne . The 4,000 Prussian cavalry, that kept up an energetic pursuit during

9088-438: The command of the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon returned from his exile on the island of Elba on 1 March 1815, King Louis XVIII fled Paris on 19 March, and Napoleon entered Paris the next day. Meanwhile, far from recognising him as Emperor of the French, the Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia) and their allies, who were assembled at the Congress of Vienna , declared Napoleon an outlaw , and with

9216-552: The couple's already limited affection for each other cooling entirely. Louis Stanislas commissioned a pavilion for his mistress on a parcel of land at Versailles which became known as the Parc Balbi . Louis Stanislas lived a quiet and sedentary lifestyle at this point, not having a great deal to do since his self-proclaimed political exclusion in 1774. He kept himself occupied with his vast library of over 11,000 books at Balbi's pavilion, reading for several hours each morning. In

9344-479: The day was issued to the British army before they entered France. It placed the officers and men in his army under military order to treat the ordinary French population as if they were members of a Coalition nation. This by and large Wellington's army did paying for food and lodgings. This was in sharp contrast to the Prussian army, whose soldiers treated the French as enemies, plundering the populace and wantonly destroying property during their advance. From Beaumont,

9472-603: The death of Tsar Paul I. Louis hoped that Paul's successor, Alexander I , would repudiate his father's banishment of the Bourbons, which he later did. Louis then intended to set off to the Kingdom of Naples . The Count of Artois asked Louis to send his son, Louis-Antoine, and daughter-in-law, Marie-Thérèse, to him in Edinburgh , but the King did not do so at that time. Artois had an allowance from King George III of Great Britain and he sent some money to Louis, whose court-in-exile

9600-647: The early 1780s, he also incurred huge debts totalling 10 million livres, which his brother Louis XVI paid. An Assembly of Notables (the members consisted of magistrates, mayors, nobles and clergy) was convened in February 1787 to ratify the financial reforms sought by the Controller-General of Finance Charles Alexandre de Calonne . This provided the Count of Provence, who abhorred the radical reforms proposed by Calonne, his long-awaiting opportunity to establish himself in politics. The reforms proposed

9728-683: The fact that Louis Auguste was heir and Louis Stanislas was not. Louis Stanislas's education was quite religious in nature; several of his teachers were priests, such as Jean-Gilles du Coëtlosquet , Bishop of Limoges; the Abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet ; and the Jesuit Guillaume-François Berthier . La Vauguyon drilled into young Louis Stanislas and his brothers the way he thought princes should "know how to withdraw themselves, to like to work," and "to know how to reason correctly". In April 1771, when he

9856-456: The far side of the Dyle . This meant that they were incapable of preventing the Prussians moving from Wavre towards Waterloo and too far away themselves to go directly to the aid of Napoleon on 18 June should Wellington turn and fight south of Brussels. Upon receiving the news of Blücher's defeat, Wellington organised the retreat of the Anglo-allied army to a place he had identified a year before as

9984-538: The field at Quatre Bras to consolidate their forces on more favourable ground to the north along the road to Brussels as a prelude to the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon, meanwhile, used the right wing of his army and the reserve to defeat the Prussians, under the command of General Blücher , at the Battle of Ligny on the same day. The Prussian centre gave way under heavy French attack but the flanks held their ground. Several heavy Prussian cavalry charges proved enough to discourage French pursuit. Indeed, they would not pursue

10112-613: The fighting at Quatre Bras the two opposing commanders Ney and Wellington initially held their ground while they obtained information about what had happened at the larger Battle of Ligny. With the defeat of the Prussians Napoleon still had the initiative, for Ney's failure to take the Quatre Bras cross roads had actually placed the Anglo-allied army in a precarious position. Ney, reinforced by D'Erlon's fresh corps, lay in front of Wellington, and Ney could have fastened upon

10240-609: The former court ceremonies, including the lever and coucher (ceremonies that accompanied waking and bedding, respectively). On 9 June 1799, Marie-Thérèse married her cousin Louis-Antoine at the Jelgava Palace. Desperate to display to the world a united family, Louis XVIII ordered his wife Queen Marie Joséphine , who at the time was living apart from her husband in Schleswig-Holstein , to attend

10368-410: The governments of the Seventh Coalition to the peace table to discuss results favourable to himself, namely peace for France with himself remaining in power as its head. If peace were rejected by the allies despite any pre-emptive military success he might have achieved using the offensive military option available to him, then the war would continue and he could turn his attention to defeating the rest of

10496-463: The journey to meet her bridegroom Charles Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont , heir to the throne of Sardinia . In 1775, he visited Lyon and also his spinster aunts Adélaïde and Victoire while they were taking the waters at Vichy . The four provincial tours that Louis Stanislas took before the year 1791 amounted to a total of three months. On 5 May 1778, Dr. Lassonne, Marie Antoinette's private physician, confirmed her pregnancy. On 19 December 1778,

10624-485: The king of France and considered Napoleon a usurper. Rather than wait for the Coalition to invade France, Napoleon decided to attack his enemies and hope to defeat them in detail before they could launch their combined and coordinated invasion. He chose to launch his first attack against the two Coalition armies cantoned in modern-day Belgium, then part of the newly formed United Kingdom of the Netherlands , but until

10752-417: The larger before Paris and the smaller before Lyon, would protect them; francs-tireurs would be encouraged, giving the Coalition armies their own taste of guerrilla warfare. Napoleon chose to attack, which entailed a pre-emptive strike at his enemies before they were all fully assembled and able to co-operate. By destroying some of the major Coalition armies, Napoleon believed he would then be able to bring

10880-476: The newly created Batavian Republic . The Army of the North's commanders are listed as follows. The Army of the North in Spain formed in January 1811 and included soldiers from the Imperial Guard . Its duties included holding cities and fortresses in northern Spain, fighting guerillas, and keeping the roads to France clear. On 3–5 May 1811, about 1,600 cavalry and six artillery pieces belonging to

11008-535: The night 21/22 June 1815, in which he referred to the order of the day addressed to his army, as containing an explanation of the principles by which his army would be guided. Napoleon arrived in Paris, three days after Waterloo (21 June), still clinging to the hope of concerted national resistance; but the temper of the chambers and of the public generally forbade any such attempt. Napoleon and his brother Lucien Bonaparte were almost alone in believing that, by dissolving

11136-439: The night of 18 June, under the guidance of Marshal Gneisenau , helped to render the victory at Waterloo still more complete and decisive; and effectually deprived the French of every opportunity of recovering on the Belgian side of the frontier and to abandon most of their cannons. A defeated army usually covers its retreat by a rear guard , but since France had such limited military resources, wasted away largely by Napoleon over

11264-483: The nobility, or displayed insufficient revolutionary zeal. In the Army of the North these unfortunates included Nicolas Luckner , Adam Custine , and Jean Houchard . Under Charles François Dumouriez , the Army of the North helped blunt the Prussian invasion at the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792. It also made up a large part of Dumouriez's expedition into the Austrian Netherlands which resulted in victory at

11392-545: The opportunity to concentrate his forces in the Sombreffe position, which had been selected earlier for its good defensive attributes. Napoleon placed Marshal Ney in command of the French left wing and ordered him to secure the crossroads of Quatre Bras towards which Wellington was hastily gathering his dispersed army. Ney's scouts reached Quatre Bras that evening. Ney, advancing on 16 June, found Quatre Bras lightly held by Dutch troops of Wellington's army. Despite outnumbering

11520-602: The other princes-in-exile at Coblenz soon after his escape. It was there that he, the Count of Artois, and the Condé princes proclaimed that their objective was to invade France. Louis XVI was greatly annoyed by his brothers' behaviour. Provence sent emissaries to various European courts asking for financial aid, soldiers, and munition. Artois secured a castle for the court in exile in the Electorate of Trier (or "Treves"), where their maternal uncle, Clemens Wenceslaus of Saxony ,

11648-665: The owner of the estate, Sir George Lee. The Prince of Wales (the future George IV of the United Kingdom) was very charitable to the exiled Bourbons. As Prince Regent, he granted them permanent right of asylum and extremely generous allowances. The Count of Artois did not join the court-in-exile in Hartwell, preferring to continue his frivolous life in London. Louis's friend the Count of Avaray left Hartwell for Madeira in 1809, and died there in 1811. Louis replaced Avaray with

11776-589: The planned invasion of France was to commence on 1 July 1815, much later than both Blücher and Wellington would have liked as both their armies were ready in June, ahead of the Austrians and Russians; the latter were still some distance away. The advantage of this later invasion date was that it allowed all the invading Coalition armies a chance to be ready at the same time. Thus they could deploy their combined numerically superior forces against Napoleon's smaller, thinly spread forces, thus ensuring his defeat and avoiding

11904-690: The reorganized Army of Spain. Its commanders were as follows. This name was also given to the force commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte during the Waterloo Campaign in 1815. At its height, including reserves, it numbered 130,000 strong and consisted of many veterans from previous campaigns. In terms of quality it was the best army Napoleon had commanded since 1812 when he had led his Grande Armée (Grand Army) to disaster in Russia . It also fielded proportionally more artillery (344 pieces) and significantly more cavalry , than had French armies in

12032-544: The request of the French Provisional Government. The Anglo-allied army was commanded by the Duke of Wellington and the Prussian army by Field Marshall Graf von Blücher . The war between France and the Seventh Coalition came when the other European Great Powers refused to recognise Napoleon as Emperor of the French upon his return from exile on the island of Elba , and declared war on him, rather than France, as they still recognised Louis XVIII as

12160-413: The right wing of the Army of the North, to harass the Prussians to stop them reforming. These orders arrived at around 06:00 and his corps began to move out at 08:00; by 12:00 the cannon from the Battle of Waterloo could be heard. Grouchy's corps commanders, especially Gérard , advised that they should "march to the sound of the guns". As this was contrary to Napoleon's orders ("you will be the sword against

12288-599: The right wing. However, on 25 June Soult was relieved of his command by the Provisional Government and was replaced by Grouchy, who in turn was placed under the command of Davout. When the French Provisional Government realised that the French army under Marshal Davout was unable to defend Paris, they authorised delegates to accept capitulation terms which led to the Convention of St. Cloud (the surrender of Paris) which ended hostilities between France and

12416-562: The same way. In January 1801, Tsar Paul told Louis XVIII that he could no longer live in Russia. The court at Jelgava was so low on funds that it had to auction some of its possessions to afford the journey out of Russia. Marie-Thérèse even sold a diamond necklace that the Emperor Paul had given her as a wedding gift. Marie-Thérèse persuaded Queen Louise of Prussia to give her family refuge on Prussian territory. Though Louise consented,

12544-608: The signing of this declaration on 13 March 1815, so began the War of the Seventh Coalition . The hopes of peace that Napoleon had entertained were gone – war was now inevitable. A further treaty (the Treaty of Alliance against Napoleon ) was ratified on 25 March in which each of the Great European Powers agreed to pledge 150,000 men for the coming conflict. Such a number was not possible for Great Britain, as her standing army

12672-481: The simultaneous Battle of Wavre , and although he won a tactical victory his failure to prevent the Prussians marching to Waterloo meant that his actions contributed to the French defeat at Waterloo. The next day (19 June) he left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris. After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but returned to Paris to try to secure political support for further action. He failed to do so, and

12800-520: The small Army of the West into La Vendée to quell a Royalist insurrection in that region. By the end of May Napoleon had formed L'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") which, led by himself, would participate in the Waterloo campaign and had deployed the corps of this army as follows: Once the campaign was underway Napoleon, on the evening of 15 June, would send Marshal Ney with the left wing of

12928-823: The son of the Count of Artois. Louis XVIII deceived his niece by telling her that her parents' last wishes were for her to marry Louis-Antoine, and she duly agreed to Louis XVIII's wishes. Louis XVIII was forced to abandon Verona when Napoleon Bonaparte invaded the Republic of Venice in 1796. Louis XVIII had been vying for the custody of his niece Marie-Thérèse since her release from the Temple Tower in December 1795. He succeeded when Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor , agreed to relinquish his custody of her in 1796. She had been staying in Vienna with her Habsburg relatives since January 1796. Louis XVIII moved to Blankenburg in

13056-569: The south near the Alps. This army was to stop Austrian advances in Italy. Second, there was an army on the French/Prussian border where he hoped to defeat any Prussians attacks. Last, the L'Armee du Nord was placed on the border with the United Netherlands to defeat the British, Dutch and Prussian forces if they dared to attack. (see Military mobilisation during the Hundred Days ). Lamarque led

13184-464: The throne of France, he held the title of Count of Provence as brother of King Louis XVI , the last king of the Ancien Régime . On 21 September 1792, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and deposed Louis XVI, who was later executed by guillotine . When his young nephew Louis XVII died in prison in June 1795, the Count of Provence claimed the throne as Louis XVIII. Following

13312-561: The time of his marriage, Louis Stanislas was obese and waddled instead of walked. He never exercised and continued to eat enormous amounts of food. Despite the fact that Louis Stanislas was not infatuated with his wife, he boasted that the two enjoyed vigorous conjugal relations – but such declarations were held in low esteem by courtiers at Versailles. He also proclaimed his wife to be pregnant merely to spite Louis Auguste and his wife Marie Antoinette , who had not yet consummated their marriage. The Dauphin and Louis Stanislas did not enjoy

13440-403: The troops that might arrive at this point, and conduct them to Laon; for which place he himself started with post horses , at 14:00. The French army, under Soult, retreated on Laon in great confusion. The troops commanded by Grouchy, which had reached Dinant, retired in better order; but they were cut off from the wreck of the main army, and also from the direct road to Paris. Grouchy, therefore,

13568-403: The village of Waterloo . The next day the Battle of Waterloo proved to be the decisive battle of the campaign. The Anglo-allied army stood fast against repeated French attacks, until with the aid of several Prussian corps that arrived at the east side of the battlefield in the early evening they managed to rout the French army. Grouchy with the right wing of the army engaged a Prussian rearguard at

13696-507: The wedding on 20 May. Louis Stanislas found his wife repulsive; she was considered ugly, tedious, and ignorant of the customs of the court of Versailles. The marriage remained unconsummated for years. Biographers disagree about the reason. The most common theories propose Louis Stanislas' alleged impotence (according to biographer Antonia Fraser ) or his unwillingness to sleep with his wife due to her poor personal hygiene. She never brushed her teeth, plucked her eyebrows, or used any perfumes. At

13824-480: The wedding. Furthermore, she was to come without her long-time friend (and rumoured lover) Marguerite de Gourbillon . The Queen refused to leave her friend behind, creating an unpleasant situation that rivalled the wedding in notoriety. Louis XVIII knew that his nephew Louis-Antoine was not compatible with Marie-Thérèse. Despite this, he still pressed for the marriage, which proved to be quite unhappy and produced no children. In 1800, Louis XVIII attempted to strike up

13952-479: The year before part of the First French Empire. Hostilities started on 15 June when the French drove in the Prussian outposts and crossed the river Sambre at Charleroi placing their forces between the cantonment areas of Wellington's army (to the west) and Blücher's army to the east. On 16 June the French prevailed with Marshal Ney commanding the left wing of the French army holding Wellington at

14080-418: The years, there was nothing of the kind. The rearmost of the fugitives having reached the river Sambre , at Charleroi, Marchienne-au-Pont , and Châtelet , by daybreak of 19 June 1815, indulged themselves with the hope that they might then enjoy a short rest from the fatigues which the relentless pursuit by the Prussians had entailed upon them during the night; but their fancied security was quickly disturbed by

14208-468: Was forced to abdicate on 22 June. Two days later, a Provisional Government took over French politics. Meanwhile, the two Coalition armies hotly pursued the French army to the gates of Paris, during which the French on occasion turned and fought some delaying actions, in which thousands of men were killed. Initially the remnants of the French left wing and the reserves that were routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult while Grouchy kept command of

14336-428: Was 15, Louis Stanislas's education was formally concluded, and his own independent household was established, which astounded contemporaries with its extravagance: in 1773, the number of his servants reached 390 In the same month his household was founded, Louis was granted several titles by his grandfather, Louis XV: Duke of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Perche, and Count of Senoches. During this period of his life he

14464-442: Was a cavalry action at Genappe . However the French were unable to inflict any substantial casualties before night fell and Wellington's men were ensconced in bivouacs on the plain of Mont-Saint-Jean. It was at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 that the decisive battle of the campaign took place. The start of the battle was delayed for several hours as Napoleon waited until the ground had dried from the previous night's rain. By late afternoon

14592-505: Was chosen to honour his great-grandfather King Stanislaus I of Poland who was still alive at the time; and Xavier was chosen for Saint Francis Xavier , whom his mother's family held as one of their patron saints. At the time of his birth, Louis Stanislas was fourth in line to the throne of France, behind his father and his two elder brothers: Louis Joseph Xavier, Duke of Burgundy , and Louis Auguste, Duke of Berry . The former died in 1761, leaving Louis Auguste as heir to their father until

14720-411: Was compelled to take the road to Rethel whence he proceeded to Rheims ; and by forced marches he endeavoured to force a junction with Soult, and thus reach the capital before the Coalition armies. In the meantime, Wellington proceeded rapidly into the heart of France; but as there was no enemy in the field to oppose his progress, the fortresses alone demanded his attention. On 20 June 1815 an order of

14848-434: Was distributed as follows: The frontier in front of Binche , Charleroi and Dinant was watched by the Prussian outposts. Thus the Coalition front extended for nearly 90 miles (140 km) across what is now Belgium, and the mean depth of their cantonments was 30 miles (48 km). To concentrate the whole army on either flank would take six days, and on the common centre, around Charleroi , three days. Napoleon moved

14976-625: Was engineered by local magistrates and nobles, who enticed the people to revolt against the Lit de Justice , which was quite unfavourable to the nobles and magistrates. The clergy also joined the provincial cause, and condemned Brienne's tax reforms. Brienne conceded defeat in July and agreed to a convocation of the Estates-General to meet in 1789. He resigned from his post in August and was replaced by

15104-469: Was forced to retreat with an army in tatters. In 1813, Louis XVIII issued another declaration from Hartwell. The Declaration of Hartwell was even more liberal than his Declaration of 1805, asserting that those who had served Napoleon or the Republic would not suffer repercussions for their acts, and that the original owners of the biens nationaux (lands confiscated from the nobility and clergy during

15232-498: Was not only being spied on by Napoleonic agents but was also being forced to make significant economies, financed as it was mainly from interest owed by the Emperor Francis II on valuables his aunt, Marie Antoinette, had removed from France. In 1803, Napoleon tried to force Louis XVIII to renounce his right to the throne of France, but Louis refused. In May the following year, 1804, Napoleon declared himself Emperor of

15360-696: Was often known by the title Count of Provence. On 17 December 1773, he was inaugurated as a Grand Master of the Order of St. Lazarus . On 16 April 1771, Louis Stanislas was married by proxy to Princess Maria Giuseppina of Savoy . The in-person ceremony was conducted on 14 May at the Palace of Versailles . Marie Joséphine (as she was known in France) was a daughter of Victor Amadeus , Duke of Savoy (later King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia), and his wife Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain . A luxurious ball followed

15488-420: Was protected by the belt of fortresses in northern France, allowing Faidherbe's men to launch quick attacks against isolated Prussian units, then retreat behind the fortresses. Despite access to the armaments factories of Lille , the Army of the North suffered from severe supply difficulties, which depressed morale. In January 1871, Léon Gambetta forced Faidherbe to march his army beyond the fortresses and engage

15616-647: Was simply a large corps of the Armée du Nord that remained under Napoleon's direct command. For more detailed organizational details on this Armée du Nord , see Order of Battle of the Waterloo Campaign . During the Franco-Prussian War a new Army of the North was created under Louis Faidherbe to try to break the Siege of Paris from the North. The army had achieved several small victories at towns such as Ham, La Hallue , and Amiens and

15744-456: Was smaller than the three of her peers. Besides, her forces were scattered around the globe, with many units still in Canada, where the War of 1812 had recently ceased. With this in mind she made up her numerical deficiencies by paying subsidies to the other Powers and to the other states of Europe that would contribute contingents. Some time after the allies began mobilising, it was agreed that

15872-410: Was still thought that most of the Prussian army was retreating north-east, although by then he realised that two Prussian corps were heading north towards Wavre. In a second dispatch written four hours later he informed Napoleon that he now intended to advance either on Corbais or Wavre. The problem for the French was that by the end of 17 June, most of Grouchy's detachment was now behind the Prussians, on

16000-644: Was the Archbishop-Elector . The activities of the émigrés bore fruit when the rulers of Prussia and the Holy Roman Empire gathered at Dresden . They released the Declaration of Pillnitz in August 1791, which urged Europe to intervene in France if Louis XVI or his family were threatened. Provence's endorsement of the declaration was not well received in France, either by the ordinary citizens or by Louis XVI himself. In January 1792,

16128-475: Was the grandson of the reigning King Louis XV . As a son of the Dauphin, he was a Fils de France . He was christened Louis Stanislas Xavier six months after his birth, in accordance with Bourbon family tradition, being nameless before his baptism . By this act, he also became a Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit . The name of Louis was bestowed because it was typical of a prince of France; Stanislas

16256-456: Was the last king or emperor of France to die a reigning monarch: his successor, Charles X ( r.   1824–1830) abdicated; and both Louis Philippe I ( r.   1830–1848) and Napoleon III ( r.   1852–1870) were deposed. Louis Stanislas Xavier , styled Count of Provence from birth, was born on 17 November 1755 in the Palace of Versailles , a younger son of Louis, Dauphin of France , and his wife Maria Josepha of Saxony . He

16384-496: Was too young to be head of the House of Bourbon. Louis XVII, still a minor, died in prison in June 1795. His only surviving sibling was his sister Marie-Thérèse , who was not considered a candidate for the throne because of France's traditional adherence to Salic law . Thus on 16 June, the princes-in-exile declared the Count of Provence "King Louis XVIII". The new king accepted their declaration soon after and busied himself drafting

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