Rather than fighting a defensive campaign against the 7th anti-French coalition Napoleon choose to attack his enemies in Belgium before they were all fully assembled and able to co-operate.

Napoleon moved his right wing against the Prussians at the battle of Ligny. On his left wing the battle of Quatre Bras ended in a tactical draw.

The Allies ceded the field at Quatre Bras in order to consolidate their forces on more favourable ground at Mont-Saint-Jean as a prelude to the Battle of Waterloo.

After the close, hard-fought Battle of Waterloo, the combined armies of Wellington and Blücher decisively defeated Napoleon's French Army of the North.