Napoleon Bonaparte

Recorded sideFrench Empire

Recorded resultvictory

Decisive French victory; collapse of the Third Coalition

Napoleon deliberately gave up the Pratzen Heights and weakened his right to bait the allies into attacking it. When they committed their center to the flanking move, he stormed the now-empty heights, split their army in two, and rolled up the isolated wings.

What followed

Regarded as Napoleon's tactical masterpiece and a model of luring an enemy into overcommitting.

Recorded sideFrench (Armee du Nord, Napoleon)

Recorded resultarmy destroyed

Decisive Coalition victory; the French army was routed

Wellington's defensive use of the reverse slope and the fortified farms blunted repeated French assaults through the day, fixing Napoleon's army in place until Blucher's Prussians arrived on the French right flank, giving the Coalition decisive numerical superiority; the repulse of the Imperial Guard's final attack collapsed French morale.

What followed

Ended Napoleon's Hundred Days and his rule, brought the final collapse of the First French Empire, and opened a long period of relative peace in Europe.