[1814] - Napoleon defeated at Toulouse; exiled to Elba

With the French retreat from Spain in the winter of 1813, the allied army comprising British, Portuguese and Spanish forces under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the Marquis (subsequently Duke) of Wellington, crossed the Pyrenees to pursue the war against Napoleon in southern France. In the spring of 1814, after the capture of Orthez and Bordeaux, the allies moved on to Toulouse, which was defended by Marshal Soult, the Duke of Dalmatia. The Battle of Toulouse on 10 April was one of the last military encounters in the Napoleonic Wars. Unable to resist Wellesley’s advances, Soult managed to escape from the city with his entire army intact. Wellesley entered the city on 12 April, the day he heard news of Napoleon’s abdication and the end of the war.

Useful Links and Further Reading

• The War Times Journal, ‘Wellington’s Despatches, Peninsula and Waterloo: 1808–1815’, http://www.wtj.com/archives/wellington/
• www.historyofwar.org, ‘Peninsular War (1807–14)’,
  http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_peninsular.html
• www.peninsularwar.org, ‘The Peninsular War 1808–1814’,
  http://www.peninsularwar.org/penwar_e.htm
• Sir Charles Oman, A History of the Peninsular War, 7 vols (Oxford, 1902–30)
• Jac Weller, Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808–1814 (London, 1973)
• David Gates, The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War (London, 1986)