Convinced that he could still recover his vast territorial losses, Napoleon chose to fight on against all the odds, rejecting offers from the Allies that would have left France with its “natural” frontiers: the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees. French forces were under pressure on several fronts. Wellington’s Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish forces stood poised along the Pyrenees; the Austrians were already operating in northern Italy; and several armies were making seemingly inexorable progress from the east: Schwarzenberg approaching from Switzerland, Blücher through eastern France, and Bernadotte from the north through the Netherlands. To oppose these impressive forces, Napoleon possessed little more than a small army consisting of hastily raised units, National Guardsmen, and anyone who had somehow avoided the call-ups of the past. Somehow, at least in the initial stages of the campaign, the Emperor managed to summon up the kind of energy and tactical brilliance for which he had become renowned during the Italian campaigns of 1796–1797.

In swift succession he drubbed Blücher at Brienne on 29 January, at La Rothière on 30 January, at Champaubert on 10 February, at Montmirail on 11 February, at Château-Thierry on 12 February, and at Vauchamps on 14 February. Napoleon then turned to confront Schwarzenberg at Montereau on 18 February, before again fighting Blücher, at Craonne, near Paris, on 7 March. Yet, however many enemies he could repel in turn, Napoleon could not be everywhere at once, and his corps commanders, despite the continued enthusiasm for battle displayed by the troops themselves, could not achieve the same results in the field as the Emperor. The French could not stand up to the numbers facing them at Laon on 9–10 March, and though there were still successes in March such as at Rheims on the thirteenth, there were also setbacks such as at Arcis-sur-Aube on 20–21 March. Schwarzenberg then defeated two of Napoleon’s subordinates at La-Fère- Champenoise on 25 March, before linking up with Blücher on the twenty-eighth.

The Allies were now very close to Paris, where Joseph Bonaparte had failed to make adequate provision for the capital’s defense. After token resistance at Clichy and Montmartre on 30 March, Marmont refused to fight on, and the Allies entered the capital the following day. At a conference with his marshals, Napoleon found himself surrounded by men finally prepared to defy him; the troops, they declared, would listen to their generals, not the Emperor. With no alternative, Napoleon abdicated unconditionally on 11 April and, by the terms of the Treaty of Paris, took up residence on Elba, off the Italian coast, while the Bourbon line in France was restored under King Louis XVIII.