Waterloo : the Battle before the Peace

by Edward Shepherd Creasy

The battle of Waterloo is an enigma. It is as obscure to those who won it as to those who lost it. For Napoleon it was a panic; Blucher sees nothing in it but fire; Wellington understands nothing in regard to it. Look at the reports. The bulletins are confused, the commentaries involved. Some stammer, others lisp. Jomini divides the battle of Waterloo into four moments; Muffling cuts it up into three changes; Charras alone, though we hold another judgment than his on some points, seized with his haughty glance the characteristic outlines of that catastrophe of human genius in conflict with divine chance. All the other historians suffer from being somewhat dazzled, and in this dazzled state they fumble about. It was a day of lightning brilliancy; in fact, a crumbling of the military monarchy which, to the vast stupefaction of kings, drew all the kingdoms after it--the fall of force, the defeat of war. (Victor Hugo)

124 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2016

About the author

Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy was a British historian. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge and called to the Bar in 1837. In 1840, he began teaching history at the University of London. He was knighted in 1860 and assumed the position of Chief Justice of Ceylon. His best known contribution to literature is his Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World (1851). Other works include; Historical and Critical Account of the Several Invasions of England (1852), History of the Ottoman Turks, The Rise and Progress of the English Constitution, and Imperial and Colonial Institutions of the British Empire (1872).