Napoleon met his final defeat at Waterloo
On this day · 18 June 1815
On a muddy Sunday south of Brussels, an emperor's gamble collapsed and twenty-three years of European war ground to a halt.
On 18 June 1815, near the Belgian village of Waterloo, Napoleon Bonaparte staked everything on one battle and lost it. Returned from exile on Elba, he had marched north to smash the coalition arrayed against him before it could fully gather. Standing in his way was an Anglo-allied army under the Duke of Wellington, dug in along a low ridge and ordered simply to hold.
Hold it did. Rain had soaked the ground overnight, delaying the French assault and buying time. Through the afternoon, wave after wave broke against Wellington’s squares.
Late in the day the Prussians under Blucher arrived on the French right, and the balance tipped for good.
Napoleon abdicated within days, ending the First French Empire and the Napoleonic Wars that had convulsed the continent. “Waterloo” entered English as a byword for a final, total reckoning, which is rather a lot of weight for one farmer’s field to carry.
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