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There is a commonplace, dismissive, reductive argument you will hear all the time. That napoleon stood no chance. Even if he had triumphed on the field at Waterloo, as in some ways he really could have. The forces arrayed against him were so massive he had really no hope. A huge Austrian and German army was coming in from the Rhine, in addition to the British army with its line of communications through Brussels and the Prussians with their line of communications further east. And a truly massive Russian force was gathering at Wurzberg.

Napoleon was strategically outnumbered 5:1. He could triumph for a day, for a battle, for a campaign perhaps. But the advantages of the French army, high quality leadership, the elan of its men, were just not so marked as they had been in the past. His own genius and energy was more fitful now that he was older. There was really no hope of French military triumph.

So that’s the common historical analysis you will see everywhere, in everything 21st century, and it is not wrong. But step in a little closer and there are a number of fascinating elements. Like, who is really the Legitimate ruler in France?

1815 The Hundred Days; Talleyrand in History Part 6