A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by the armies of the Seventh Coalition, comprising an Anglo-allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington, combined with a Prussian army under the command of Prince Blücher. Two large forces under Wellington and Blücher assembled close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack in the hope of destroying them before they could join in a coordinated invasion of France with other members of the coalition. Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile.
Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead or wounded and Blücher some 7,000 (810 of which were suffered by just one unit: the 18th Regiment, which served in Bülow's 15th Brigade, had fought at both Frichermont and Plancenoit, and won 33 Iron Crosses). Napoleon's losses were 24,000 to 26,000 killed or wounded and included 6,000 to 7,000 captured with an additional 15,000 deserting subsequent to the battle and over the following days.
In 1820, the Netherlands' King William I ordered the construction of a monument. The Lion Mound (
visit link) , a giant mound, was constructed here using 300,000 cubic metres. Apart from the Lion Mound, there are several other monuments throughout the battlefield.
The Farm of La-Belle-Alliance, named after the "Belle Alliance" between the mistress of the house and a farmhand, is the geographic centre of the French line. It was at this farm that Blücher and Wellington met after the battle. The Prussians wanted to call the battle of Waterloo "the Battle of La Belle-Alliance" but Wellington favored the more English sounding "Battle of Waterloo."
On the wall this farm is memorial plague with inscription:
À LA MÉMOIRE DU CORPS
DE SANTÉ FRANÇAIS QUI PRODIGUA
LE 18 JUIN 1815 SES SOINS
LES PLUS DÉVOUÉS
FOND. NAPOLÉON A.F.E.W.
La plaque fut inaugurée le 23 octobre 1999, en présence de S. E. M. Jacques Rummelhard, Ambassadeur de France à Bruxelles et de nombreuses autorités belges et françaises (le Professeur J-E Humblet, président d’Honneur de l’Association franco-européenne de Waterloo, le Colonel Pierre Couvreur, Secrétaire général d’Honneur et Ph. de Villelongue, président de l’ Association, Mme Monseu, M. J-J Rateau, le Colonel (er) A. Laurent de l’Assemblée des Français de l’Etranger et du Colonel P. Marchand, qui représentait le Souvenir français. Le Colonel Couvreur dans son allocution rappela le rôle des chirurgiens et du Corps de santé dans les batailles de l’Empire.