The War of the Sixth Coalition (3 March 1813-30 May 1814) was a war between a coalition of Austria, Prussia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain, and a number of German states, and the First French Empire and its allies and client states. The Coalition finally succeeded in completely defeating Napoleon I; Napoleon was forced to abdicate as Emperor of France, and he was forced into exile on the island of Elba. The Bourbon Restoration occurred after Napoleon's overthrow, and the House of Bourbon was restored to power after 22 years.
Background[]
The disastrous failure of Napoleon I's 1812 invasion of the Russian Empire led to his reluctant allies - Austria and Prussia - drawing up plans for the final destruction of the First French Empire. Sweden had been alienated by France after Napoleon occupied Swedish Pomerania to prevent illegal smuggling from the region from violating his embargo against Britain, while Prussia's forces - unwilling to fight against the Russians in a war started by France - made an armistice with Russia on 30 December 1812. On 28 February 1813, Prussia made its final changeover onto the Coalition side, followed by Sweden on 3 March.
War[]
Opening stages[]
Sweden joined Britain, Spain, and Portugal's war against France on 3 March 1813, and Prussia followed suit a fortnight later. The first armed conflict occurred on 5 April 1813, in which the Prussians and Russians defeated the French at Mockern in Saxony-Anhalt. Napoleon responded by vowing to build up an army as large as the army used for the Russia campaign, reinforcing his army in the east from 30,000 troops to 130,000 troops and, eventually, 400,000 troops. At Lutzen and Bautzen in May 1813, the French won two victories against the Coalition forces, but they suffered heavy losses in the process, including the general Geraud Duroc, who was killed by a cannonball at Bautzen. From 4 June to 13 August, the two sides declared an armistice, with Austria backing a compromise between the powers. However, when neither side chose to accept a compromise, Austria entered the war on the side of the coalition in August 1813.
German Campaign[]
Austria joined the war with a combined 300,000 troops in Bohemia and northern Italy, bringing the Allied strength up to 800,000 frontline troops with a strategic reserve of 350,000. Napoleon brought up the number of imperial forces in the region to 650,000 troops, although only 250,000 were under his direct command. In Spain, an additional 200,000 French troops were being beaten back by around 150,000 British and Spanish troops under the Duke of Wellington.
The Battle of Leipzig, October 1813
Following the armistice, France initially fought well, defeating the Allies at the Battle of Dresden on 26-27 August 1813 and inflicting heavy losses. However, Marshal Nicolas Oudinot's thrust towards Berlin was beaten back, and the French were defeated at Grossbeeren, Katzbach, and Dennewitz. On 29-30 August 1813, the French lost an entire army corps at the Battle of Kulm, and he withdrew with 175,000 troops to Leipzig in Saxony. From 16 to 19 October 1813, Napoleon's reinforced army of 191,000 troops faced three Allied armies totaling 430,000 troops, and the bloody Battle of Leipzig resulted in a crushing defeat for Napoleon. As the French retreated, they blew up the bridge over the Elster River prematurely, abandoning 30,000 French troops to be captured; Marshal Jozef Poniatowski drowned while trying to escape across the river after the bridges had been blown.
After Leipzig, many German states in Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine switched sides and joined the Allies, and Napoleon defeated the Bavarians at Hanau on 30-31 October 1813 before pulling back into France. In November 1813, the Allies offered Napoleon peace terms: France could retain Belgium, Savoy, and the bank of the Rhineland, while it would lose all of Poland, Spain, and the Netherlands and most of Italy and Germany. Klemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister, warned Napoleon that the Allied terms would be even more harsh if Napoleon did not accept the current ones. Napoleon still believed that he could win the war, so the Allies withdrew this offer in December 1813. In 1814, Napoleon sought new peace terms, but the Allies introduced harsher terms that stipulated that France would return to its 1791 borders (which meant the loss of Belgium); Napoleon adamantly refused.
Defense of France[]
Napoleon and his staff during the Defense of France
During the last months of 1813 and into 1814, the Duke of Wellington led the British and Spanish armies into south-west France and fought a number of battles against Marshals Nicolas Soult and Louis-Gabriel Suchet. From January to March 1814, Napoleon fought a brilliant series of defensive battles in north-east France, issuing the call for a levee en masse. Napoleon drafted 110,000 troops between the ages of 16 and 60, but he had to face the Swedes in Belgium, the Prussians in Lorraine, and the Austrians in Switzerland. Between 29 January and 18 February, Napoleon scored a series of victories over the Prussians and Austrians, but he was beaten by Gebhard von Blucher at Laon on 9 March and by Karl von Schwarzenberg at Arcis-sur-Aube on 20 March. Napoleon then attempted to advance east of the Allies to drive them away from Paris, but they ignored him, instead advancing on the French capital. On 30 March 1814, Paris surrendered to the Allies, falling after a short battle. Napoleon proposed a march on Paris, supported by his soldiers and regimental officers, but his marshals and senior officers mutinied and refused to march. On 10 April 1814, the British army in southern France took the major city of Toulouse, and Napoleon abdicated from the throne a day later, although some fighting would continue until May. On 30 May, Napoleon made peace with Britain, and he was exiled to Elba, with King Louis XVIII of France being enthroned in the "Bourbon Restoration".