Ligny, Battle of

French victory over the Prussians 16 June 1805 during Napoleon's ‘Hundred Days’, at Ligny, a Belgian village 14 km/9 mi northeast of Charleroi. It was Napoleon Bonaparte's final attempt to overcome the Prussian army before he went on to Waterloo to meet the British alone.

Marshal Gebhard von Blücher at the head of a force of 84,000 Prussians and 224 guns near Ligny was attacked by Napoleon with 75,000 French troops and 218 guns. Napoleon's orders to Marshal Michel Ney went astray, and the French met with considerable resistance, but as the Prussians tired Napoleon succeeded in launching a violent attack with a division of heavy cavalry and a reserve division of infantry. This forced the Prussians to retire with a loss of about 12,000 troops, but they survived as an organized force and so remained a threat to the French.