La Bataille de La Belle Alliance- June 18, 1815

Two hundred years ago today Europe was waking up to the news of a decisive defeat of the Corsican Ogre in Belgium near a village named Waterloo.  The decisive battle on June 18, 1815 did not immediately end the conflict between France and the Coalition but soon Napoleon saw the handwriting on the wall and abdicated.  Louis the XVIII returned to rule in France.  There literally are hundreds of books on Waterloo and its impacts on world history.   None of the participant nations that day have anything to be disappointed with how their young men fought.  British histories overemphasize the importance of their hero Wellington on that day, but in reality he took a hard pounding and without the dogged assault late in the action by tens of thousands of Prussians on the right and rear of the French lines it didn't look good for the Duke's army.  Napoleon was the architect of his own downfall, as he saw the Prussians coming early in the battle and instead of breaking off the fight with the English which had degenerated into a slugging match and dealing with the crisis on the right, he chose to finish off the English army.   Wellington was in little condition to attack and it is unlikely he would remove himself from the anchor of his ridge to bail out his Prussian allies if they were repulsed.   As night fell, Napoleon's army was shattered with but a few cavalry and Imperial Guard units providing cover for the fleeing soldiers.

Europe went back to its condition of an uneasy peace as the monarchies that had kept that continent in an almost constant  state of war returned to their thrones to plot their next adventures.  Napoleon was exiled on St. Helena where he died, some maintaining that he was slowly poisoned by an agent of King Louis.