This article is about Napoleon's last period of rule and the Seventh Coalition. For the final Allied offensive on the Western Front during World War I, seeHundred Days Offensive. For other uses, seeHundred Days (disambiguation).
TheHundred Days (French:les Cent-JoursIPA:[lesɑ̃ʒuʁ]),[3] also known as theWar of the Seventh Coalition (French:Guerre de la Septième Coalition), marked the period betweenNapoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island ofElba toParis on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of KingLouis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 110 days).[a] This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes theWaterloo campaign[8] and theNeapolitan War as well as several otherminor campaigns. The phraseles Cent Jours (the Hundred Days) was first used by theprefect of Paris,Gaspard, comte de Chabrol, in his speech welcoming the king back to Paris on 8 July.[c]
Napoleon returned while theCongress of Vienna was sitting. On 13 March, seven days before Napoleon reached Paris, the powers at the Congress of Vienna declared him an outlaw, and on 25 March,Austria,Prussia,Russia and theUnited Kingdom, the four Great Powers and key members of the Seventh Coalition, bound themselves to put 150,000 men each into the field to end his rule.[11] This set the stage for the last conflict in theNapoleonic Wars, the defeat of Napoleon at theBattle of Waterloo, the second restoration of the French kingdom, and the permanent exile of Napoleon to the distant island ofSaint Helena, where he died in 1821.
TheFrench Revolutionary andNapoleonic Wars pitted France against various coalitions of other European nations nearly continuously from 1792 onward. The overthrow and subsequent public execution ofLouis XVI in France had greatly disturbed other European leaders, who vowed to crush theFrench Republic. Rather than leading to France's defeat, the wars allowed the revolutionary regime to expand beyond its borders and createclient republics. The success of the French forces made a hero out of their best commander,Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1799, Napoleon stageda successful coup d'état and became First Consul of the newFrench Consulate. Five years later, he crowned himself Emperor Napoleon I.[citation needed]
The rise of Napoleon troubled the other European powers as much as the earlier revolutionary regime had. Despite the formation of new coalitions against him, Napoleon's forces continued to conquer much of Europe. The tide of war began to turn after a disastrousFrench invasion of Russia in 1812 that resulted in the loss of much of Napoleon's army. The following year, during theWar of the Sixth Coalition, Coalition forces defeated the French in theBattle of Leipzig.[citation needed]
Following its victory at Leipzig, the Coalition vowed to press on to Paris and depose Napoleon. In the last week of February 1814, PrussianField MarshalGebhard Leberecht von Blücher advanced on Paris. After multiple attacks, manoeuvring, and reinforcements on both sides,[12] Blücher won theBattle of Laon in early March 1814; this victory prevented the coalition army from being pushed north out of France. TheBattle of Reims went to Napoleon, but this victory was followed by successive defeats fromincreasingly overwhelming odds. Coalition forces entered Paris after theBattle of Montmartre on 30 March 1814.
On 6 April 1814, Napoleon abdicated his throne, leading to the accession ofLouis XVIII and the firstBourbon Restoration a month later. The defeated Napoleon was exiled to the island ofElba off the coast ofTuscany, while the victorious Coalition sought to redraw the map of Europe at theCongress of Vienna.[citation needed]
The journey of a modern hero, to the island of Elba. Print shows Napoleon seated backwards on a donkey on the road "to Elba" fromFontainebleau; he holds a broken sword in one hand and the donkey's tail in the other while two drummers follow him playing a farewell(?) march.Napoleon with the Elba Squadron of volunteers from the1st Polish Light Cavalry of his Imperial Guard
Napoleon spent only 9 months and 21 days in an uneasy forced retirement on Elba (1814–1815), watching events in France with great interest as the Congress of Vienna gradually gathered.[13] As he foresaw, the shrinkage of the greatEmpire into the realm of old France caused intense dissatisfaction among the French, a feeling fed by stories of the tactless way in which theBourbon princes treated veterans of theGrande Armée and the returning royalist nobility treated the people at large. Equally threatening was the general situation in Europe, which had been stressed and exhausted during the previous decades of near constant warfare.[13]
The conflicting demands of major powers were for a time so exorbitant as to bring thePowers at theCongress of Vienna to the verge of war with each other.[14] Thus every scrap of news reaching remote Elba looked favourable to Napoleon to retake power as he correctly reasoned the news of his return would cause a popular rising as he approached. He also reasoned that the return of French prisoners from Russia, Germany,Britain and Spain would furnish him instantly with a trained, veteran and patriotic army far larger than that which had won renown in the years before 1814. So threatening were the symptoms, that theroyalists at Paris and theplenipotentiaries atVienna talked of deporting him to theAzores or toSaint Helena, while others hinted at assassination.[13][15]
At theCongress of Vienna (November 1814 – June 1815) the various participating nations had very different and conflicting goals. TsarAlexander I of Russia had expected to absorb much of Poland and to leave a Polishpuppet state, theDuchy of Warsaw, as abuffer against further invasion from Europe. The renewed Prussian state demanded all of theKingdom of Saxony. Austria wanted to allow neither of these things, while it expected to regain control of northern Italy.Castlereagh, of the United Kingdom, supported France (represented byTalleyrand) and Austria and was at variance with his own Parliament. This almost caused a war to break out, when the Tsar pointed out to Castlereagh that Russia had 450,000 men near Poland and Saxony and he was welcome to try to remove them. Indeed, Alexander stated "I shall be the King of Poland and the King of Prussia will be the King of Saxony".[16] Castlereagh approached KingFrederick William III of Prussia to offer him British and Austrian support for Prussia's annexation of Saxony in return for Prussia's support of an independent Poland. The Prussian king repeated this offer in public, offending Alexander so deeply that he challengedMetternich of Austria to a duel. Only the intervention of the Austrian crown stopped it. A breach among the fourGreat Powers was avoided when members of Britain's Parliament sent word to the Russian ambassador that Castlereagh had exceeded his authority, and Britain would not support an independent Poland.[17] The affair left Prussia deeply suspicious of any British involvement.[citation needed]
Napoleon leavingElba, painted byJoseph BeaumeThe brigInconstant, under Captain Taillade and ferrying Napoleon to France, crosses the path of the brigZéphir, under Captain Andrieux.Inconstant flies the tricolour of the Empire, whileZéphir flies the white ensign of the House of Bourbon.
While the Allies were distracted, Napoleon solved his problem in characteristic fashion. On 26 February 1815, when the British and French guard ships were absent, his tiny fleet, consisting of thebrigInconstant, four small transports, and twofeluccas, slipped away fromPortoferraio with some 1,000 men and landed atGolfe-Juan, betweenCannes andAntibes, on 1 March 1815.[18] Except in royalistProvence, he was warmly received.[13] He avoided much of Provence by taking a route through the Alps, marked today as theRoute Napoléon.[19]
Firing no shot in his defence, his troop numbers swelled until they became an army. On 5 March, the nominally royalist 5th Infantry Regiment atGrenoble went over to Napoleonen masse. The next day they were joined by the 7th Infantry Regiment under its colonel,Charles de la Bédoyère, who would be executed for treason by the Bourbons after the campaign ended. An anecdote illustrates Napoleon's charisma: when royalist troops were deployed to stop the march of Napoleon's force before Grenoble atLaffrey, Napoleon stepped out in front of them, ripped open his coat and said "If any of you will shoot his Emperor, here I am." The men joined his cause.[20]
Marshal Ney, now one of Louis XVIII's commanders, had said that Napoleon ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage, but, on 14 March, inLons-le-Saulnier (Jura) Ney joined Napoleon with a small army of 6,000 men. On 15 MarchJoachim Murat,King of Naples, declared war onAustria in an attempt to save his throne, starting theNeapolitan War. Four days later, after proceeding through the countryside promising constitutional reform and direct elections to an assembly, to the acclaim of gathered crowds, Napoleon entered the capital, from where Louis XVIII had recently fled.[13] (Ney was arrested on 3 August 1815, tried on 16 November and executed on 7 December 1815.[21])
The royalists did not pose a major threat: theduc d'Angoulême raised a small force in the south, but atValence it did not provide resistance against Imperialists underGrouchy's command;[13] and the duke, on 9 April 1815, signed a convention whereby the royalists received a free pardon from the Emperor. The royalists of theVendée moved later and caused more difficulty for the Imperialists.[13]
Evidence as to Napoleon's health is somewhat conflicting:Carnot,Pasquier,Lavalette,Thiébault and others thought him prematurely aged and enfeebled.[13] At Elba SirNeil Campbell had noted that he had become inactive andcorpulent.[22]Also at Elba he had begun to suffer intermittently fromretention of urine, but to no serious extent.[13]For much of his public life, Napoleon had been troubled byhemorrhoids, which made sitting on a horse for long periods of time difficult and painful. This condition had disastrous results at Waterloo; during the battle, his inability to sit on his horse for other than very short periods of time interfered with his ability to survey his troops in combat and thus exercise command.[23]Others reported no marked change in him.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.[13]
AtLyon, on 13 March 1815, Napoleon issued an edict dissolving the existing chambers and ordering the convocation of a national mass meeting, orChamp de Mai, for the purpose of modifying the constitution of theNapoleonic empire.[24] He reportedly toldBenjamin Constant, "I am growing old. The repose of a constitutional king may suit me. It will more surely suit my son".[13]
That work was carried out by Benjamin Constant in concert with the Emperor. The resultingActe additionel (supplementary to theconstitutions of the Empire) bestowed on France a hereditaryChamber of Peers and aChamber of Representatives elected by the "electoral colleges" of the empire.[13]
According toChateaubriand, in reference to Louis XVIII's constitutional charter, the new constitution – dubbedLa Benjamine – was merely a "slightly improved" version of the charter associated with Louis XVIII's administration;[13] however, later historians, including Agatha Ramm, have pointed out that this constitution permitted the extension of thefranchise and explicitly guaranteedpress freedom.[24] In the Republican manner, the Constitution was put to the people of France in aplebiscite, but whether due to lack of enthusiasm, or because the nation was suddenly thrown into military preparation, only 1,532,527 votes were cast, less than half of the vote in the plebiscites of theConsulat; however, the benefit of a "large majority" meant that Napoleon felt he had constitutional sanction.[13][24]
Napoleon was with difficulty dissuaded from quashing the 3 June election ofJean Denis, comte Lanjuinais, the staunch liberal who had so often opposed the Emperor, as president of the Chamber of Representatives. In his last communication to them, Napoleon warned them not to imitate the Greeks of the lateByzantine Empire, who engaged in subtle discussions while theram was battering at their gates.[13]
Strategic situation in Western Europe in 1815: 250,000 Frenchmen faced a coalition of about 850,000 soldiers on fourfronts. In addition, Napoleon had to leave 20,000 men in Western France to reduce a royalist insurrection.
During the Hundred Days the Coalition nations as well as Napoleon mobilised for war. Upon re-assumption of the throne, Napoleon found that Louis XVIII had left him with few resources. There were 56,000 soldiers, of which 46,000 were ready to campaign.[25] By the end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training up but not yet ready for deployment.[26] By the end of May Napoleon had formedL'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") which, led by himself, would participate in theWaterloo Campaign.[citation needed]
For the defence of France, Napoleon deployed his remaining forces within France with the intention of delaying his foreign enemies while he suppressed his domestic ones. By June he had organised his forces thus:
V Corps, –L'Armée du Rhin – commanded byRapp, cantoned nearStrasbourg;[27]
III Corps of Observation[28] – Army of the Pyrenees orientales[30] – commanded byDecaen, based at Toulouse;
IV Corps of Observation[28] – Army of the Pyrenees occidentales[30] – commanded byClauzel, based at Bordeaux;
Army of the West,[28] –Armée de l'Ouest[30] (also known as the Army of the Vendee and the Army of the Loire) – commanded byLamarque, was formed to suppress the Royalist insurrection in theVendée region of France which remained loyal to KingLouis XVIII during the Hundred Days.[citation needed]
Archduke Charles gathered Austrian and allied German states, while thePrince of Schwarzenberg formed another Austrian army. KingFerdinand VII of Spain summoned British officers to lead his troops against France. TsarAlexander I of Russia mustered an army of 250,000 troops and sent these rolling toward the Rhine. Prussia mustered two armies. One under Blücher took post alongside Wellington's British army and its allies. The other was theNorth German Corps under GeneralKleist.[31]
Assessed as an immediate threat by Napoleon:
Anglo-allied, commanded by Wellington, cantoned south-west of Brussels, headquartered at Brussels.
Prussian Army commanded by Blücher, cantoned south-east of Brussels, headquartered at Namur.
Close to the borders of France but assessed to be less of a threat by Napoleon:
The German Corps (North German Federal Army) which was part of Blücher's army, but was acting independently south of the main Prussian army. Blücher summoned it to join the main army once Napoleon's intentions became known.
A Reserve Russian Army to support Barclay de Tolly if required.
A Reserve Prussian Army stationed at home in order to defend its borders.
An Anglo-Sicilian Army under General SirHudson Lowe, which was to be landed by the Royal Navy on the southern French coast.
Two Spanish Armies were assembling and planning to invade over the Pyrenees.
A Netherlands Corps, underPrince Frederick of the Netherlands, was not present at Waterloo but as a corps in Wellington's army it did take part in minor military actions during the Coalition's invasion of France.
A Danish contingent known as the Royal Danish Auxiliary Corps (commanded by GeneralPrince Frederik of Hesse) and a Hanseatic contingent (from the free cities of Bremen, Lübeck and Hamburg) later commanded by the British Colonel Sir Neil Campbell, were on their way to join Wellington;[32] both however, joined the army in July having missed the conflict.[33][34]
A Portuguese contingent, which due to the speed of events never assembled.[citation needed]
At the Congress of Vienna, the Great Powers of Europe (Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia) and their alliesdeclared Napoleon an outlaw,[35] and with 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.[citation needed]
A further treaty (theTreaty 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.[36] Such a number was not possible for Great Britain, as her standing army was smaller than those of her three peers.[37] Besides, her forces were scattered around the globe, with many units still in Canada, where theWar of 1812 had recently ended.[38] With this in mind, she made up her numerical deficiencies by paying subsidies to the other Powers and to the other states of Europe who would contribute contingents.[37]
Some time after the allies had begun mobilising, it was agreed that the planned invasion of France was to commence on 1 July 1815,[39] 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.[40] 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. They could deploy their combined, numerically superior forces against Napoleon's smaller, thinly spread forces, thus ensuring his defeat and avoiding 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.[citation needed]
Napoleon now had to decide whether to fight a defensive or offensive campaign.[41] Defence would entail repeating the1814 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, 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.[42]
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 the governments of the Seventh Coalition to the peace table[42] to discuss terms favourable to himself: namely, peace for France, with himself remaining in power as its head. If peace were rejected by the Coalition powers, 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 the Coalition armies.[citation needed]
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 bedefeated in detail.[43] Further, the British troops in Belgium were largely second-line troops; most of the veterans of thePeninsular War had been sent to America to fight theWar of 1812.[44] And, politically, a French victory might trigger a friendly revolution in French-speaking Brussels.[43]
A portion of Belgium with some places marked in colour to indicate the initial deployments of the armies just before the commencement of hostilities on 15 June 1815, with British forces in red, Prussians in green, and French in blue
Hostilities started on 15 June when the French drove in the Prussian outposts and crossed theSambre atCharleroi and secured Napoleon's favoured "central position"—at the junction between the cantonment areas of Wellington's army (to the west) and Blücher's army to the east.[45]
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 the village ofWaterloo.[47]
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 on the east of the battlefield in the early evening, they managed to rout the French Army.[48] Grouchy, with the right wing of the army, engaged a Prussian rearguard at the simultaneousBattle 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), Grouchy left Wavre and started a long retreat back to Paris.[49]
Invasion of France by the Seventh Coalition armies in 1815
After the defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon chose not to remain with the army and attempt to rally it, but return to Paris to try to secure political support for further action. This he failed to do. The two Coalition armies hotly pursued the French army to the gates of Paris, during which time the French, on occasion, turned and fought some delaying actions, in which thousands of men were killed.[50]
On arriving at Paris, three days after Waterloo, Napoleon still clung 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 brotherLucien 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. EvenDavout, minister of war, advised Napoleon that the destiny of France rested solely with the chambers. Clearly, it was time to safeguard what remained, and that could best be done underTalleyrand's shield of legitimacy.[51]Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès was the minister of justice during this time and was a close confidant of Napoleon.[52]
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 II, well knowing that it was a formality, as his four-year-old son was in Austria.[53]
With the abdication of Napoleon, a provisional government withJoseph Fouché as President of the Executive Commission was formed, under the nominal authority of Napoleon II.
Initially, the remnants of the French Army of the North (the left wing and the reserves) that was routed at Waterloo were commanded by Marshal Soult, while Grouchy kept command of the right wing that had fought at Wavre. 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 Marshal Davout.[54]
On the same day, 25 June, Napoleon received from Fouché, the president of the newly appointed provisional government (and Napoleon's former police chief), an intimation that he must leave Paris. He retired toMalmaison, the former home ofJoséphine, where she had died shortly after his first abdication.[53]
On 29 June, the near approach of the Prussians, who had orders to seize Napoleon, dead or alive, caused him to retire westwards towardRochefort, whence he hoped to reach the United States.[53] The presence of blockadingRoyal Navy warships under Vice AdmiralHenry Hotham, with orders to prevent his escape, forestalled this plan.[55]
French troopsconcentrated in Paris had as many soldiers as the invaders and more cannons.[citation needed] There were two major skirmishes and a few minor ones near Paris during the first few days of July. In the first major skirmish, theBattle of Rocquencourt, on 1 July, French dragoons, supported by infantry and commanded by GeneralExelmans, destroyed a Prussian brigade of hussars under the command of Colonelvon Sohr (who was severely wounded and taken prisoner during the skirmish), before retreating.[56] In the second skirmish, on 3 July, GeneralDominique Vandamme (under Davout's command) was decisively defeated by Generalvon Zieten (under Blücher's command) at theBattle of Issy, forcing the French to retreat into Paris.[57]
With this defeat, all hope of holding Paris faded and the French Provisional Government authorised delegates to accept capitulation terms, which led to theConvention of St. Cloud (the surrender of Paris) and the end of hostilities between France and the armies of Blücher and Wellington.[58]
On 4 July, under the terms of the Convention of St. Cloud, the French army, commanded by Marshal Davout, left Paris and proceeded to cross the riverLoire. The Anglo-allied troops occupiedSaint-Denis,Saint Ouen,Clichy andNeuilly. On 5 July, the Anglo-allied army took possession ofMontmartre.[59] On 6 July, the Anglo-allied troops occupied theBarriers of Paris, on the right of the Seine, while the Prussians occupied those upon the left bank.[59]
On 7 July, the two Coalition armies, with von Zieten's Prussian I Corps as the vanguard,[60] entered Paris. TheChamber of Peers, having received from the Provisional Government a notification of the course of events, terminated its sittings; theChamber of Representatives protested, but in vain. Their President (Lanjuinais) resigned his chair, and on the following day, the doors were closed and the approaches guarded by Coalition troops.[59][61]
On 8 July, the French King, Louis XVIII, made his public entry into Paris, amidst the acclamations of the people, andagain occupied the throne.[59]
During Louis XVIII's entry into Paris, Count Chabrol, prefect of the department of the Seine, accompanied by the municipal body, addressed the King, in the name of his companions, in a speech that began "Sire,—One hundred days have passed away since your majesty, forced to tear yourself from your dearest affections, left your capital amidst tears and public consternation. ...".[10]
Unable to remain in France or escape from it, Napoleon surrendered to CaptainFrederick Maitland ofHMS Bellerophon in the early morning of 15 July 1815 and was transported to England. Napoleon wastaken to the island ofSaint Helena where he died as a prisoner in May 1821.[62][53]
While Napoleon had assessed that the Coalition forces in and around Brussels on the borders of north-east France posed the greatest threat, becauseTolly's Russian army of 150,000 were still not in the theatre, Spain was slow to mobilise, PrinceSchwarzenberg's Austrian army of 210,000 were slow to cross the Rhine, and another Austrian force menacing the south-eastern frontier of France was still not a direct threat, Napoleon still had to place some badly needed forces in positions where they could defend France against other Coalition forces whatever the outcome of the Waterloo campaign.[63][27]
Napoleon had made his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, King of Naples on 1 August 1808. After Napoleon's defeat in 1813, Murat reached an agreement with Austria to save his own throne. However, he realized that the European Powers, meeting as theCongress of Vienna, planned to remove him and return Naples to its Bourbon rulers. So, after issuing the so-calledRimini Proclamation urging Italian patriots to fight for independence, Murat moved north to fight against the Austrians, who were the greatest threat to his rule.[citation needed]
The war was triggered by a pro-Napoleon uprising in Naples, after which Murat declared war on Austria on 15 March 1815, five days before Napoleon's return to Paris. The Austrians were prepared for war. Their suspicions were aroused weeks earlier, when Murat applied for permission to march through Austrian territory to attack the south of France. Austria had reinforced her armies inLombardy under the command ofBellegarde prior to war being declared.[citation needed]
The war ended after a decisive Austrian victory at theBattle of Tolentino.Ferdinand IV was reinstated as King of Naples. Ferdinand then sent Neapolitan troops under General Onasco to help the Austrian army in Italy attack southern France. In the long term, the intervention by Austria caused resentment in Italy, which further spurred on the drive towardsItalian unification.[65][66][67][68]
In early June, GeneralRapp's Army of the Rhine of about 23,000 men, with a leavening of experienced troops, advanced towardsGermersheim to block Schwarzenberg's expected advance, but on hearing the news of the French defeat at Waterloo, Rapp withdrew towards Strasbourg turning on 28 June to check the 40,000 men of GeneralWürttemberg's Austrian III Corps at theBattle of La Suffel—the last pitched battle of theNapoleonic Wars and a French victory. The next day Rapp continued to retreat to Strasbourg and also sent a garrison to defendColmar. He and his men took no further active part in the campaign and eventually submitted to the Bourbons.[27][70]
To the north of Württenberg's III Corps, GeneralWrede's Austrian (Bavarian) IV Corps also crossed the French frontier, and then swung south and capturedNancy, against some local popular resistance on 27 June. Attached to his command was a Russian detachment, under the command of General CountLambert, that was charged with keeping Wrede's lines of communication open. In early July, Schwarzenberg, having received a request from Wellington and Blücher, ordered Wrede to act as the Austrian vanguard and advance on Paris, and by 5 July, the main body of Wrede's IV Corps had reachedChâlons. On 6 July, the advance guard made contact with the Prussians, and on 7 July Wrede received intelligence of the Paris Convention and a request to move to the Loire. By 10 July, Wrede's headquarters were atFerté-sous-Jouarre and his corps positioned between the Seine and the Marne.[1][71]
Further south, GeneralColloredo's Austrian I Corps was hindered by GeneralLecourbe'sArmée du Jura, which was largely made up of National Guardsmen and other reserves. Lecourbe fought four delaying actions between 30 June and 8 July atFoussemagne,Bourogne,Chèvremont andBavilliers before agreeing to an armistice on 11 July. ArchdukeFerdinand's Reserve Corps, together withHohenzollern-Hechingen's II Corps, laid siege to the fortresses ofHüningen andMühlhausen, with two Swiss brigades[72][page needed] from the Swiss Army of GeneralNiklaus Franz von Bachmann, aiding with the siege of Huningen. Like other Austrian forces, these too were pestered byfrancs-tireurs.[1][73]
Like Rapp further north, MarshalSuchet, with theArmée des Alpes, took the initiative and on 14 June invadedSavoy. Facing him was GeneralFrimont, with an Austro-Sardinian army of 75,000 men based in Italy. However, on hearing of the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, Suchet negotiated an armistice and fell back toLyons, where on 12 July he surrendered the city to Frimont's army.[74]
The coast ofProvence was defended by French forces under MarshalBrune, who fell back slowly into the fortress city ofToulon, after retreating from Marseilles before the Austrian Army of Naples under the command of General Bianchi, the Anglo-Sicilian forces of SirHudson Lowe, supported by the British Mediterranean fleet ofLord Exmouth, and theSardinian forces of the Sardinian General d'Osasco, the forces of the latter being drawn from the garrison of Nice. Brune did not surrender the city and its naval arsenal until 31 July.[1][75]
The main body of the Russian Army, commanded by Field Marshal CountTolly and amounting to 167,950 men, crossed the Rhine atMannheim on 25 June—after Napoleon had abdicated for the second time—and although there was light resistance around Mannheim, it was over by the time the vanguard had advanced as far asLandau. The greater portion of Tolly's army reached Paris and its vicinity by the middle of July.[1][76]
All the participants of the War of the Seventh Coalition.Blue: The Coalition and their colonies and allies.Green: TheFirst French Empire, its protectorates, colonies and allies.
Under the 1815 Paris treaty, the previous year'sTreaty of Paris and the Final Act of theCongress of Vienna, of 9 June 1815, were confirmed. France was reduced to its 1790 boundaries; it lost the territorial gains of the Revolutionary armies in 1790–1792, which the previous Paris treaty had allowed France to keep. France was now also ordered to pay 700 million francs inindemnities, in five yearly installments,[d] and to maintain at its own expense a Coalition army of occupation of 150,000 soldiers[77] in the eastern border territories of France, from theEnglish Channel to the border with Switzerland, for a maximum of five years.[e] The two-fold purpose of the military occupation was made clear by the convention annexed to the treaty, outlining the incremental terms by which France would issue negotiable bonds covering the indemnity: in addition to safeguarding the neighbouring states from a revival of revolution in France, it guaranteed fulfilment of the treaty's financial clauses.[f]
On the same day, in a separate document, Great Britain, Russia, Austria and Prussia renewed theQuadruple Alliance. The princes and free towns who were not signatories were invited to accede to its terms,[80] whereby the treaty became a part of the public law according to which Europe, with the exception of theOttoman Empire,[g] established "relations from which a system of real and permanentbalance of power in Europe is to be derived".[h]
^abHistories differ over the start and end dates of theHundred Days; another popular period is from 1March, when Napoleon I landed in France, to his defeat at Waterloo on 18June.[citation needed]Winkler Prins (2002) counted 100 days from Napoleon's entry in Paris on 20 March to the Cambray Proclamation of 28 June 1815.[7]
^Louis XVIII fled Paris on 19March.[9] When he entered Paris on 8 July, Count Chabrol, prefect of the department of the Seine, accompanied by the municipal body, addressed Louis XVIII in the name of his companions, in a speech that began "Sire,—One hundred days have passed away since your majesty, forced to tear yourself from your dearest affections, left your capital amidst tears and public consternation. ...".[10]
^Clodfelter, M. (2017). "Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015" (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0786474707. Page 172.
^Muel, Leon (1891).Gouvernements, ministères et constitutions de la France depuis cent ans. Marchal et Billard. p. 100.ISBN978-1249015024.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Adams, Keith (November 2011)."Driven: Citroen SM".Classic and Performance Cars—Octane. Dennis Publishing. Archived fromthe original on 7 May 2013.
Baines, Edward (1818).History of the Wars of the French Revolution, from the breaking out of the wars in 1792, to, the restoration of general peace in 1815. Vol. 2. Longman, Rees, Orme and Brown. p. 433.
Chandler, David (1966).The Campaigns of Napoleon. New York: Macmillan.
Chandler, David (1981) [1980].Waterloo: The Hundred Days. Osprey Publishing.
Chalfont, Lord; et al. (1979).Waterloo: Battle of Three Armies. Sidgwick and Jackson.
Chapuisat, Édouard (1921).Der Weg zur Neutralität und Unabhängigkeit 1814 und 1815. Bern: Oberkriegskommissariat. (also published as:Vers la neutralité et l'indépendance. La Suisse en 1814 et 1815, Berne: Commissariat central des guerres)
Chartrand, Rene (1998).British Forces in North America 1793–1815. Osprey Publishing.
Gildea, Robert (2008).Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799–1914 (reprint ed.). Penguin UK. pp. 112, 113.ISBN978-0-1419-1852-5.
Gifford, H. (1817).History of the Wars Occasioned by the French Revolution: From the Commencement of Hostilities in 1792, to the End of ... 1816; Embracing a Complete History of the Revolution, with Biographical Sketches of Most of the Public Characters of Europe. Vol. 2. W. Lewis. p. 1511.
Glover, Michael (1973).Wellington as Military Commander. London: Sphere Books.
Hamilton-Williams, David (1996).Waterloo New Perspectives: the Great Battle Reappraised. Wiley.ISBN978-0-4710-5225-8.
Hertslet, Edward (1875).The map of Europe by treaty; showing the various political and territorial changes which have taken place since the general peace of 1814. London: Butterworths. p. 18.
Hibbert, Christopher (1998).Waterloo (illustrated, reprint, revised ed.). Wordsworth Editions. p. 144.ISBN978-1-8532-6687-4.
Hofschroer, Peter (2006).1815 The Waterloo Campaign: Wellington, his German allies and the Battles of Ligny and Quatre Bras. Vol. 1. Greenhill Books.
Houssaye, Henri (2005).Napoleon and the Campaign of 1815: Waterloo. Naval & Military Press Ltd.
Nicolle, André (December 1953). "The Problem of Reparations after the Hundred Days".The Journal of Modern History.25 (4):343–354.doi:10.1086/237635.S2CID145101376.
Siborne, William (1895). "Supplement section".The Waterloo Campaign 1815 (4th ed.). Birmingham, 34 Wheeleys Road. pp. 767–780.
Sørensen, Carl (1871).Kampen om Norge i Aarene 1813 og 1814. Vol. 2. Kjøbenhavn.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Strupp, K.; et al. (1960–1962). "Wiener Kongress".Wörterbuch des Völkerrechts (in German). Berlin.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)[full citation needed]
Townsend, George Henry (1862).The Manual of Dates: A Dictionary of Reference to All the Most Important Events in the History of Mankind to be Found in Authentic Records. Routledge, Warne, & Routledge. p. 355.
Uffindell, Andrew (2003).Great Generals of the Napoleonic Wars. Staplehurst: Spellmount.ISBN978-1-8622-7177-7.
Veve, Thomas Dwight (1992).The Duke of Wellington and the British Army of Occupation in France, 1815–1818 (illustrated ed.). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. pp. ix, 4, 114, 120.ISBN978-0-3132-7941-6.
Waln, Robert (1825).Life of the Marquis de La Fayette: Major General in the Service of the United States of America, in the War of the Revolution... J.P. Ayres. pp. 482–483.
Wood, Hugh McKinnon (April 1943). "The Treaty of Paris and Turkey's Status in International Law".The American Journal of International Law.37 (2):262–274.doi:10.2307/2192416.JSTOR2192416.
Bowden, Scott (1983).Armies at Waterloo: a detailed analysis of the armies that fought history's greatest battle. Arlington, Tex: Empire Games Press.ISBN978-0-913037-02-7.
Smith, Digby George (1998).The Greenhill Napoleonic wars data book: actions and losses in personnel, colours, standards and artillery, 1792-1815. London:Greenhill Books.ISBN978-1-85367-276-7.
