where was the battle of waterloo held?
Waterloo
entailment
 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 Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition : an Anglo @-@ led Allied army under the command of the Duke of Wellington , and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher , Prince of Wahlstatt . The battle resulted in the end of Bonaparte 's reign and of the First French Empire , and set a chronological milestone between serial European wars and decades of relative peace . 

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 Waterloo was a decisive battle in more than one sense . Every generation in Europe up to the outbreak of the First World War looked back at Waterloo as the turning point that dictated the course of subsequent world history . In retrospect , it was seen as the event that ushered in the Concert of Europe , an era characterised by relative peace , material prosperity and technological progress . The battle definitively ended the series of wars that had convulsed Europe , and involved many other regions of the world , since the French Revolution of the early 1790s . It also ended the First French Empire and the political and military career of Napoleon Bonaparte , one of the greatest commanders and statesmen in history . 

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 In the middle of the position occupied by the French army , and exactly upon the height , is a farm ( sic ) , called La Belle Alliance . The march of all the Prussian columns was directed towards this farm , which was visible from every side . It was there that Napoleon was during the battle ; it was thence that he gave his orders , that he flattered himself with the hopes of victory ; and it was there that his ruin was decided . There , too , it was that , by happy chance , Field Marshal Blücher and Lord Wellington met in the dark , and mutually saluted each other as victors . 

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 The field at Waterloo was 5 @.@ 5 km wide , with two parallel ridges running west to east , creating a shallow valley 1 @.@ 4 km across . On the allied right lay the chateau of Hougoumont , a collection of walled farm buildings lying closer to the French line than the Allies ' line . Recognising its defensive importance , Wellington ordered Hanoverian and Nassau troops to occupy the farm . In allied hands , it would provide cover for flanking fire against any French assault of the main allied line ; in French hands , it would provide a bastion from which they could launch attacks . Since it defended the Nivelles road as well as the Allies ' right flank , Wellington ordered that it was to be held at all costs . 

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 In the months between trial and duel , Marguerite and the French queen Isabeau of Bavaria had both given birth to sons . While Marguerite 's son Robert was a strong , healthy boy , the Dauphin was a sickly child and on the 28 December he died . Rather than descend into mourning , the King ordered a frenzy of parties and celebrations , the pinnacle of which was intended to be the duel between Carrouges and Le Gris . The morning of the combat saw thousands of Parisians arriving at the Abbey at dawn , long before the appointed hour . Amongst the spectators were the King and his entourage , including his uncles John , Duke of Berry , Philip the Bold and Louis II , Duke of Bourbon as well as his brother the Duke of Orléans . Also present , dressed in black and sitting in a carriage overlooking the field , was Marguerite . Should her husband lose the battle , she would be burnt at the stake in Montfaucon immediately following the duel , having been thus " proven " guilty of perjury by its outcome . 
