The meeting of Wellington and Blucher, at La Belle Alliance, during the Battle of Waterloo. The defeat of the French forces of Napoleon Bonaparte. The last major battle of the Napoleonic wars. The Battle of Waterloo was fought on June 18, 1815, near Waterloo in present-day Belgium. 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 the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army under the command of Gebhard Leberecht von Bl羹cher. Waterloo was the decisive engagement of the Waterloo Campaign and Napoleon's last. Waterloo cost Wellington around 15,000 dead or wounded and Bl羹cher some 7,000. Napoleon's losses were 24,000 to 26,000 killed or wounded and included 6,000 to 7,000 captured with an additional 15,000 deserting subsequent to the battle and over the following days. The defeat at Waterloo ended Napoleon's rule as Emperor of the French, and marked the end of his Hundred Days return from exile. He abdicated 4 days later, and on July 7 coalition forces entered Paris. Illustrated by William Heath and J C Stadler, 1819.