Key Facts
- Duration
- Late 1813 – April 1814
- Concluding armistice
- 17 April 1814
- Treaty triggering end
- Treaty of Fontainebleau, 11 April 1814
- Key cities taken
- Toulouse captured; Bayonne besieged
- Allied nations
- Britain, Portugal, Spain
Strategic Narrative Overview
Wellington's combined British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces crossed the Pyrenees and engaged Marshal Soult's French army in a series of battles across south-west France. The allies captured Toulouse and besieged Bayonne, steadily pushing Soult's forces back. Soult conducted a fighting retreat, contesting each engagement but unable to halt the allied advance through the difficult terrain of south-western France.
01 / The Origins
By late 1813, Wellington's allied army had driven French forces back across the Pyrenees after years of fighting on the Iberian Peninsula. Napoleon's empire was crumbling on multiple fronts, and the allied advance into south-west France represented the final push to expel French military power from the peninsula and carry the war onto French soil for the first time in the Peninsular conflict.
03 / The Outcome
The campaign concluded not by battlefield decision but by political event: Napoleon's deposition and the Treaty of Fontainebleau on 11 April 1814 prompted a general armistice. Wellington and Soult signed a local ceasefire on 17 April 1814, ending hostilities. The Peninsular War thus closed, with France evacuating Iberia and allied forces occupying key positions in south-west France.
Belligerents & Mobilization Analysis
Side A
3 belligerents
Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington.
Side B
1 belligerent
Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult.
Kinetic Engagement Axis
Scroll horizontally to view full axis. Events plotted relatively.