He gave Marshal Grouchy 30,000 men and ONE JOB, make sure the Prussian’s, who are pretty beaten up right now, don’t come back. Earlier on in the week, Napoleon beat the Prussian’s, plain and simple, and then planned to move on to the British. So he was forced to make up what was once a grand order of Marshals, with one Hot headed, competent, but very violent man named Marshal Ney (insert horse joke here), Marshal Soult, an idiot, and Marshal Grouchy, a bigger idiot. Napoleon’s army was a wreck, a shadow of its former self, made of zealots and some of his lesser generals, most were dead, or had fled by this point. And it would be good to note at this point that the British had less men than the French, not too far less, but a majority of them were Dutch, and the Dutch, well they didn’t like the British very much, and were likely to desert.īut enough about British failings, lets get on to the many failings of the French on this day. Transforming a heroic cavalry charge into a mess of murder, which added to the already considerable British dead. Napoleon seeing this ordered in his cavalry, and in moments, the Great Household cavalry was being wiped out along with the Scot’s Greys. The moment in particular, its unknown who ordered the charge, but when it happened, it was because of the advancement of the French line, Scottish and English Infantry could not hold the advancing French, so the Cavalry charged, and it all went very well to begin with, until everyone got very enthusiastic and began to break ranks. Leading this was a man named Ponsonby, who would proceed to die for his errors. When British Cavalry charged it would stay together, but then everyone seemed to get ideas, and would run off to try and get their own glory, which led to the group splitting, which meant after the initial charge they were easy to mop up with the French cavalry. And that’s kind of true, the British Cavalry had a habit of getting carried away, Knightly manners had not yet left Britain by that point, and something about charging gloriously into battle had yet to be beaten out of the British, even the Charge of the Light Brigade didn’t seem to dissuade them. Let’s start with the cavalry, as an aide to Napoleon would say during the fateful ‘Charge of the Scot’s Greys’, “They are the noblest cavalry in Europe, and the worst led!”. To give an example of some of this incompetence, lets start with the British, they won, so they are entitled to a little scrutiny. However, on the day, there were large cases of incompetence going around, and on all sides, which is rather disappointing. Now this sounds great, this sounds like a battle of the ages, two experienced armies, well three technically, old grudges being settled, famous men fighting it out. Good god, it sounds like a novel, something out of Hardy perhaps. After this, was organised the first “Concert of Europe”, which would lay the foundations of the EU, and the idea of a peace in Europe, peace that would be inevitably shattered by the First World War. 1815 became a date burned in history, and the removal of Bonaparte and restoration, for the second time, of the Bourbon Monarchy of France. Both armies had met after a night of heavy rain, and the day was a battle to be remembered, the defensive position of Wellington being hammered by the ferocious French forces, fighting until the final moments of the day, and just before the French could decimate Wellington in his last stand (much like the plot of a war film) here come the Germans, or Prussian’s as they were known, hurrying out of the forest, commanded by the Courageous Marshal Blucher, spelling doom for Napoleon and ending his time as Master of Europe, and Scourge of Monarchs, for the rest of time. To paint the scene for those who do not know much about it, set in Belgium, acting as the end to the Napoleonic Wars, the Imperial Army of Napoleon Bonaparte, matches itself against the defensive Peninsular Task Force of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. Incredible Generals there, acting in a way as protagonists, hundreds of experienced men, lots of fervour for both sides, it was climactic, important, and above all a very thematic battle. I loved Waterloo, as a battle it was great.