The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813–1814 (review)

Michael V. Leggiere wrote The Fall of Napoleon to “analyze the invasion of France from both the French and Allied perspectives.” Late October, 1814 found the remnants of Napoleon’s army retreating westward across the Rhine to try to defend the French homeland against a looming invasion. That invasion involved an allied host whose leading members included Austria, Prussia, and Russia. An assortment of lesser German states such as Bavaria, that only recently had been Napoleon’s allies, participated in the invasion. The author examines in detail this allied coalition “in which politics influenced strategy and military operations affected diplomacy.” On the French side, Leggiere is particularly interested the performance of Napoleon’s key marshals charged with guarding the frontier. He seeks to fill what he correctly identifies as “a surprising gap in the literature concerning the final year of Napoleon’s reign.”

After a scene-setting introduction, Chapter Two begins with a meeting in Frankfurt in the first week of November 1813, where Austria, Russia, and Prussia hammered out invasion plans. This chapter contains extensive analysis from modern scholars, including Gordon Craig, Henry Kissinger, and Steven Ross, interwoven with contemporary quotes. This is seemingly in keeping with the author’s desire to reach a grand historical consensus among historians from different eras. This reviewer found the modern insertions and arguments distracting.

Essentially, the book details the military movements associated with the allied invasion of France while examining the concurrent debate among the allies about the invasion’s goal; namely whether or not to replace Napoleon. The second chapter dealing with the Frankfurt Proposals, and the last chapter addressing the Protocols of Langres, mark literal bookends for this topic. The Frankfurt Proposals set the conditions by which the allies offered Napoleon the opportunity to remain in power. The Protocols of Langres withdrew this option. The 470 pages between these chapters are full of detailed descriptions of diplomatic machinations, alternative military plans, and actual decisions and military movements. Through it all, Leggiere generally maintains his focus on decision-making processes to the exclusion of tactical-level battle discussions or consideration of soldiers’ experiences.

The main text is arranged geographically — “The Left Bank,” “The Right Bank,” “The Lower Rhine,” etc. — in order to discuss all issues bearing on actions in a given theater of operations before moving on to the next theater. Given the level of detail presented in each discussion, this is probably a wise approach although it does require the reader to possess some temporal and geographic memory. The author notes that he wrote “with a Michelin motoring atlas by my side” and that the book’s maps include “every population center mentioned” in the text. No doubt both statements are true, but it still left this reader, in spite of having lived for four years in one of the invasion corridors, spending too much time searching through thirty to fifty plus place names on a map for the one mentioned in the text.

The publisher has done the reader and the author a disservice by failing to place on the cover or in the flap copy a notice that this is volume one of a planned multi-volume account. Indeed, The Fall of Napoleon ends only days after Napoleon departs Paris to begin leading his forces. Readers expecting coverage of the memorable battles that eventually led to Napoleon’s first exile will find that topic still well in the future upon reaching the last page. Unfortunately, they may vent their disappointment on the author, who never intended to cover them in this tome.

The Fall of Napoleon presents an enormous wealth of densely written detail supported by solid archival research. As such it will be of particular appeal to future scholars when they study this campaign.