From: GALLERY : A PICTORIAL BACKGROUND TO THE LIFE & TIMES OF WILLIAM ROWBOTTOM, circa 1757 - 1830

1815
'The Evening of Waterloo' - Napoleon after his Defeat Preparing for Flght.
Painting by Ernest Crofts

from Wikipedia :
" The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an Anglo-allied army under the command of theDuke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher.

Upon Napoleon's return to power in March 1815, many states that had opposed him formed the Seventh Coalition and began to mobilize armies. Wellington and Blücher's armies were cantoned close to the north-eastern border of France. Napoleon chose to attack them 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. According to Wellington, the battle was "the nearest-run thing you ever saw in your life." The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. Napoleon abdicated 4 days later, and on the 7 July coalition forces entered Paris. "