Stephen M Beckett

Waterloo Betrayed: the Secret Treachery That Defeated Napoleon Stephen M Beckett

Publisher Marketing: Discover why Napoleon really lost the Waterloo Campaign Napoleon was betrayed during 1815 There is no doubt of this. The Traitors admitted as much, and the Allied powers documented their acts. In the immediate aftermath of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, many French considered treason as the primary cause. But over the next 100 years, a conventional narrative of the campaign coalesced, and acts like Bourmont's defection were downplayed and sanitized to the point of meriting barely a mention in many histories. Since the early 20th century, while the details have improved, the same basic story arc has remained unchanged. At most, treason may have contributed to fragility which some claim manifested at the close of June 18th, 1815. Waterloo Betrayed: The Secret Treachery that Defeated Napoleon presents a new narrative that demonstrates that Napoleon was massively betrayed during the Waterloo campaign and only this treason prevented a decisive victory. The 1815 Campaign in Belgium was not four days long, nor did it begin on June 15th. French military operations began on June 5th, and the planning even earlier. With a detailed analysis that starts at the beginning of the campaign, and focusing heavily on the most thorough collection of French military correspondence ever assembled in a single work, the book demonstrates: Napoleon's concentration orders were rewritten without authorization, sabotaging his plans, and forcing him to delay the campaign a full day. Traitors, enabled by the rewritten orders and campaign delays, tipped off the Prussians, allowing them to concentrate 12 hours earlier. This alone enabled the Prussians to give battle at Ligny. Napoleon went to his death never having learned the actual dispositions of his left wing on June 15th or June 16th - information that was actively withheld. Napoleon did issue recall orders to Grouchy on June 17th. Napoleon never said that the battle of Waterloo would be "as easy as breakfast," the most often quoted statement from the campaign, frequently used to justify poor analysis. The book includes over 270 pages of Appendices that provide extensive source citations, including over 100 pieces of correspondence, each in their original French and English translation. Waterloo Betrayed provides the answers to the campaign's most enduring mysteries."