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Because he made several mistakes short before and during the battle of Waterloo, the most notables of which were:

1 - He left Field-Marshall Davout in Paris as Minister of War, thus depriving the army of his precious contribute as skillful and reliable field-commander, placing instead Ney.

Furthermore, Ney, who was suffering of a sort of nervous breakdown since 1812, after the end of the Russian Campaign, joined the army only four days before the Battle of Waterloo and had but no time for setting down with his new subordinates.

2 - He chose Soult as his Chief of Staff instead of Suchet, who was undoubtedly the very apt man for such a demanding job, which he had successfully covered since 1798 during all conflicts fought throughout Europe, serving in all French armies.

3 - He chose Grouchy as commander of the 40,000 men who were committed to pursue the defeated Prussian Army after Ligny, but he neglected to order the Marshall to keep him informed about the developments of that operation. So, Grouchy idle behavior allowed the Prussian Army to reach Wellington's left wing just in time to reverse the course of the battle, that in spite of Ney's tactical mistakes, was slowly turning in favour of Napoleon.

4 -- During the Battle Napoleon was prey of a sort of apathy, which prevented him of taking effective measures to sort out the tactical setbacks Ney committed in the conduct of the battle on the left French wing.

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12y ago

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