Waterloo was the last battle fought by Napoleon and the one which finally ended his imperial dreams. It involved the deployment of huge armies and incurred heavy losses on both sides; for those who fought in it, Dutch and Belgians, Prussians and Hanoverians as well as British and French troops, it was a murderous struggle. It was a battle that would be remembered very differently across Europe. In Britain it would be seen as an iconic battle whose memory would be enmeshed in

Alan Forrest is Emeritus Professor of Modern History at the University of York. He has published widely on French Revolutionary and Napoleonic history in France and Europe, on the history of armies and war, and on the cultural history of modern France, most recently a biography of Napoleon (2011).

• 1: Introduction
• 2: The Genesis of the Waterloo Campaign
• 3: The Battle
• 4: The Return of Peace: First Responses to Waterloo
• 5: Eye-witness Accounts
• 6: Wellington, Waterloo, and British Identity
• 7: Waterloo and the Napoleonic Legend
• 8: Waterloo in German, Dutch and Belgian Memory
• Further Reading
• Notes
• Index