Napoleon: A Biography

Bamberg palace in Bavaria. His place was taken by Soult, whose speciality was to issue opaque or sibylline orders that required ...

the Emperor's advance. Wellington was obsessed with the idea that the movement towards Charleroi was a feint preparatory to an a ...

It must have been obvious that speed was essential if this operation was to be successful. But Ney compounded his tardiness of t ...

devastated the exposed Prussian infantry - for the arrogant Blucher had waved away Wellington's suggestions for placing them in ...

that evening by a Prussian counterattack. Rain was already falling heavily and darkness coming down fast when the Guard finally ...

By the time Napoleon girded himself for action, the moment of advantage was past. After Qu atre Bras, Gneisenau, taking over com ...

as reinforcement. By yet another of the twists that made the Belgian campaign a chapter of accidents for Bonaparte, the Prussian ...

produce a grand slam of mistakes. It is surprising that his great name as a captain has survived the lengthy checklist of errors ...

It must have been obvious to the merest lieutenant in Grouchy's corps that the Emperor's overall intention was to impede a junct ...

108 guns, discovered the secret, which seemed an impossibility, of being neither on the field of battle at Mont-St-Jean, nor at ...

around 2 p.m. Napoleon left the conduct of the battle in this sector to Ney, for reasons that are not entirely clear; some say h ...

Mont-St-Jean without infantry back-up; it has been conjectured that he mistook a redeployment in Wellington's lines for a genera ...

supposed to get them from? Do you want me to manufacture some?' But some military historians think the true reason Napoleon did ...

the crest of the ridge on the left flank of the Guard and began to pour volleys into the massed columns of the 4th Chasseurs. Wh ...

The French lost 25,000 in dead and wounded at Waterloo plus some 8,ooo prisoners; Wellington's casualties were I s,ooo (includin ...

less satisfactory than either: he decided to return to Paris and work within the context of constitutional niceties. This was su ...

become an 'Emperor of the rabble' and claimed that to harness the people to his cause would simply plunge France into civil war ...

Beauharnais, who had inherited on Josephine's death. There was some consolation in being with his extended family. Marie Walewsk ...

of the massacre of civil war, has on this occasiOn deserved well of mankind.' On 27 June Fouche stopped stalling and decided to ...

Fouche. The infernal vision passed slowly in front of me, went into the King's study and disappeared. Fouche was coming to swear ...