About half of Wellington's army at Waterloo, 1815, was made up of Dutch and Belgian troops. After Napoleon's first defeat in 1814 the Allied powers formed a new (and short-lived) 'kingdom of Holland and Belgium' under the house of Orange. The joint army was a mixture of patriots who had rebelled against Napoleon's occupation; and recent ex-troops of Napoleon's army; the Dutch and Belgian units were mutually suspicious, and were kept entirely separate; most officers had served Napoleon in Russia and Germany. This book shows that despite criticism from the British, many units fought extremely well at Quatre Bras and Waterloo defending some decisive points.