The careers of Napoleon Bonaparte and Arthur Wellesley, 1st duke of Wellington, contrasted in many different ways. The manner in which both rose to glory was quite dissimilar. Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Corsica on August 15, 1769 and was thought to be the most formidable military commander since Alexander the great. He was a bright, charismatic child of noble background. As a boy, he was described as good -willed and generous. At nine, through his father's influence, Napoleon went off to military school in Paris at the expense of King Louis XVI. It was here that it was discovered that he had and amazing brain capacity and was considered a genius, yet nobody could imagine his success and all of the dead bodies he left in his wake for the sake of peace.

Wellesley, on the other hand, was born on May 1, 1769, in Dublin and was also of noble background. As an adult, Wellesley would rise to rule the British empire, but as a schoolboy his future looked grim and lacked the genius that Napoleon possessed. His situation became so desperate that he was sent to military school, where his metamorphosis was astonishing. He found that he enjoyed the army and needed it to establish a

After a night of rain, the British and French troops met at Waterloo and it was one of the greatest ironies of life that Wellington was already acquainted with the land and knew its attributes. To the French, who didn't thoroughly examine the battlefield, it looked flat, but Wellington knew that it actually consisted of a series of rolling hills and wasn't, in actuality, flat at all. On June 18, 1815, after 46 years, the two military geniuses came face to face. Napoleon was confident that he would win and it never crossed his mind that Wellington had never lost a major campaign. Because the ground was saturated with water, the French artillery wouldn't work well so Napoleon decided to wait for the ground to dry while the two armies faced each other.

When Napoleon arrived in Paris, jubilant crowds surrounded him. He has conquered the entire country of France without a drop of blood spilled. Napoleon made overtures to his neighbors, expressing his desires for peace, but they didn't want to hear of it. By June 1, three months after reclaiming the throne, Napoleon had a standing army in place and complete control. On March 17 many European countries each agreed to contribute troops for an invasion to be assembled in Belgium near the French border and Wellington was put in command of the British troops. Napoleon learned of this invasion, which was to be launched on July 1, 1815, and he quickly determined to attack the allies on their own ground before their army could take shape. On June 16, he defeated most of the Prussian troops led by Prussian field marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher. On June 17, Napoleon went in pursuit of Wellington's army but the day of the big battle was forced to the 18th because of muddy roads and the rain. During the stormy night of the seventeenth, Wellington had received assurances from Blucher that strong reinforcements from his army would arrive during the day. Wellington then decided to resist Napoleon until Blucher's forces would arrive, but the muddy roads made it difficult to travel so the battle started before the arrival of the Prussian troops.

career in life. He was given the title "1st Duke of Wellington" due to his military successes.

Wellington had become the embodiment of the ideal knight after Napoleon was conquered and was made British ambassador for France. Things went bad for Louis XVIII after Napoleon's banishment and Napoleon felt that if he could get back to Paris he could exploit the situation. After 11 months of banishment, Napoleon escaped from Elba and on March 1, 1815, he landed on the coast of France and chose to take the long, hard route to Paris through the Alps. Napoleon had doubts as to whether he could take over France once more but as he marched through the Alps his doubts went away. The people of France welcomed him bac

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Approximate Word count = 1893
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)