Discover why Napoleon really lost Waterloo, the campaign that ended it all. This is the inside story of the deceit that brought down an Emperor and an era, and how the fate of the battle was written months before it ever began. This masterful plot has stood hiding in plain sight for two hundred years. No more. Now, for the first time, the suspicions of many of Napoleon's veterans and inner circle are proved by citing the hundreds of documents that only came to light after their deaths. A behind-the-scenes tour of Waterloo like you've never seen before.Presented here in luminous detail, with:* Over 100 pieces of correspondence in both the original French and translated English, many entirely unknown to the English-speaking world, alone making the book an invaluable resource. * English Translations of rarely referenced but key primary sources, conclusively demonstrating that which anti-Napoleon historians have negligently dismissed.* Hundreds of contemporaneously unavailable documents cited.Think you know Waterloo? This is the book that rewrites the campaign.

THIS BOOK HAS BEEN SUPERCEDED See Operations of the Armée du Nord: 1815, The Analysis for the definitive guide of French operations in 1815. Discover why Napoleon really lost the Waterloo Campaign Napoleon was betrayed during 1815 There is no doubt of this. The Traitors admitted as much, and the Allied powers documented their acts. In the immediate aftermath of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, many French considered treason as the primary cause. But over the next 100 years, a conventional narrative of the campaign coalesced, and acts like Bourmont's defection were downplayed and sanitized to the point of meriting barely a mention in many histories. Since the early 20th century, while the details have improved, the same basic story arc has remained unchanged. At most, treason may have contributed to fragility which some claim manifested at the close of June 18th, 1815. Waterloo Betrayed: The Secret Treachery that Defeated Napoleon presents a new narrative that demonstrates that Napoleon was massively betrayed during the Waterloo campaign and only this treason prevented a decisive victory. The 1815 Campaign in Belgium was not four days long, nor did it begin on June 15th. French military operations began on June 5th, and the planning even earlier. With a detailed analysis that starts at the beginning of the campaign, and focusing heavily on the most thorough collection of French military correspondence ever assembled in a single work, the book demonstrates: - Napoleon's concentration orders were rewritten without authorization, sabotaging his plans, and forcing him to delay the campaign a full day. - Traitors, enabled by the rewritten orders and campaign delays, tipped off the Prussians, allowing them to concentrate 12 hours earlier. This alone enabled the Prussians to give battle at Ligny. - Napoleon went to his death never having learned the actual dispositions of his left wing on June 15th or June 16th - information that was actively withheld. - Napoleon did issue recall orders to Grouchy on June 17th. - Napoleon never said that the battle of Waterloo would be "as easy as breakfast," the most often quoted statement from the campaign, frequently used to justify poor analysis. The book includes over 270 pages of Appendices that provide extensive source citations, including over 100 pieces of correspondence, each in their original French and English translation. Waterloo Betrayed provides the answers to the campaign's most enduring mysteries.

This important study of the cause and effects of Napoleon's removal from power tracks the significant events in his illustrious career through to his downfall and, while doing so, charts the clandestine diplomatic intrigues linking Britain, Austria, Russia and Prussia in the quest for the Emperor's demise. Using substantial new research, David Hamilton-Williams questions many of the established views presented in Napoleonic literature to date. By disclosing hitherto secret terrorist organizations, uncovering the attempts to assassinate Napoleon, highlighting unbridled political duplicity, and demonstrating a host of previously misinterpreted signals and actions, he instigates a fresh assessment of the fall of Napoleon, new reasons to consider how much it was self-inflicted and how much it became inevitable given the combined forces - 'friend' as well as 'foe' - ranged against him. However great his military campaigns, how often he was victorious on the battlefield, Napoleon was destined to be deposed by political connivance and personal betrayal. This volume is the second of a trilogy by David Hamilton-Williams. In Waterloo: New Perspectives he shed new light on the greatest battle of all, causing historians to reappraise their opinions and revise their maps; in The Last Battles: Napoleon, Murat and the Italian Campaign he reviews the chequered partnership between the Emperor and the commander he made King of Naples.

The author of Waterloo: The Truth at Last “sheds new light on the campaign of 1815 and surely will satisfy all with an interest in the Napoleonic Era” (The Napoleonic Historical Society Newsletter). When Napoleon returned to Paris after exile on the Island of Elba, he appealed to the European heads of state to be allowed to rule France in peace. His appeal was rejected and the Emperor of the French knew he would have to fight to keep his throne. In just eight weeks, Napoleon assembled 128,000 soldiers in the French Army of the North and on 15 June moved into Belgium (then a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands). Before the large Russian and Austrian armies could invade France, Napoleon hoped to defeat two coalition armies, an Anglo-Dutch-Belgian-German force under the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army led by Prince von Blücher. He nearly succeeded. Paul Dawson’s examination of the troops who fought at Ligny, Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, is based on thousands of pages of French archival documents and translations. With hundreds of photographs of original artifacts, supplemented with scores of lavish color illustrations, and dozens of paintings by the renowned military artist Keith Rocco, Napoleon’s Waterloo Army is the most comprehensive, and extensive, study ever made of the French field army of 1815, and its uniforms, arms and equipment. “Contains many rare and previously unpublished images in the form of full color drawings and photographs of surviving relics. As with the earlier volumes, this book will appeal to and be enjoyed by a wide readership with special interest for historians, military history enthusiasts, Napoleonic War enthusiasts and re-enactors.” —Firetrench

One of the enduring controversies of the Waterloo campaign is the conduct of Marshal Grouchy. Given command of a third of Napoleons army and told to keep the Prussians from joining forces with Wellington, he failed to keep Wellington and Blcher apart with the result that Napoleon was overwhelmed at Waterloo. Grouchy, though, was not defeated. He kept his force together and retreated in good order back to France.Many have accused Grouchy of intentionally holding back his men and not marching to join Napoleon when the sound of the gunfire at Waterloo could clearly be heard, and he has been widely blamed for Napoleons defeat.Now, for the first time, Grouchys conduct during the Waterloo campaign is analyzed in fine detail, drawing principally on French sources not previously available in English. The author, for example, answers questions such as whether key orders did actually exist in 1815 or were they later fabrications to make Grouchy the scapegoat for Napoleons failures? Did General Grard really tell Grouchy to march to the sound of the guns? Why did Grouchy appear to move so slowly when speed was essential?This is a subject which is generally overlooked by British historians, who tend to concentrate on the actions of Wellington and Napoleon, and which French historians choose not to look at too closely for fear that it might reflect badly upon their hero Napoleon.Despite the mass of books written on Waterloo, this is a genuinely unique contribution to this most famous campaign. This book is certain to fuel debate and prompt historians to reconsider the events of June 1815.

It is June 1815 and an Anglo-led Allied army under the Duke of Wellington’s command and Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher is set to face Napoleon Boneparte near Waterloo in present-day Belgium. What happens next is well known to any student of history: the two armies of the Seventh Coalition defeated Bonaparte in a battle that resulted in the end of his reign and of the First French Empire. But the outcome could have been very different, as Peter Tsouras demonstrates in this thought-provoking and highly readable alternate history of the fateful battle. By introducing minor – but realistic – adjustments, Tsouras presents a scenario in which the course of the battle runs quite differently, which in turn sets in motion new and unexpected possibilities. Cleverly conceived and expertly executed, this is alternate history at its best.

What if the power to control the most terrifying animals in history fell into the hands of one of the most brilliant and ferocious military leaders of all time? Battlesaurus reimagines the 1815 Battle of Waterloo as something other than a crushing defeat for the French emperor Napoléon Bonaparte, when he unleashes a terrible secret weapon—giant carnivorous survivors from pre-history—on his unsuspecting British and Prussian adversaries. In this world, smaller “saurs” are an everyday danger in the forests of Europe, and the Americas are a forbidden zone roamed by the largest and most deadly animals ever to walk the earth. But in his quest for power, Napoléon has found a way to turn these giant dinosaurs into nineteenth-century weapons of mass destruction. Only Willem Verheyen, an outsider living in hiding in the tiny village of Gaillemarde, has the power to ruin the tyrant’s plans. And Napoléon will stop at nothing to find him. War is coming, and young Willem is no longer safe, for Gaillemarde is just a stone’s throw from the fields of Waterloo—fields which will soon run red with blood. Battlesaurus: Rampage at Waterloo by Brian Falkner is the first in a thrilling alternate historical fantasy duology, which concludes with the sequel, Battlesaurus: Clash of Empires. “Part historical fiction, part dinosaur fantasy mash-up, this book will appeal to history buffs and dinosaur fanatics alike. The battle scenes between Napoléon's army and the British are depicted in incredible detail, making readers feel as if they are right in the midst of the fight . . . The first of a promising duology that readers will find thrilling and positively addicting.” —School Library Journal “This alternative history asks, what if Napoléon won the battle at Waterloo . . . The novel quickly ramps up to suspense, immersing the reader in the swiftly moving plot. Characters are very well drawn, capturing the reader's sympathy. With an ending wide open for a sequel, complete with a plot-thickening cliff-hanger, one can only hope that Falkner is a swift writer.” —Booklist