ABSTRACT
B ECAUSE OF his supreme position at the centre of French power, Napoleon is seldom regarded as a coalition general, and indeed he faced none of the difficulties with which Wellington, Schwarzenberg or Prevost were so familiar. Napoleon called no councils of war, consulted no peer, had no need to placate any opinion. But it cannot be denied that by 1813, his armies were more and more reliant on manpower supplied by allied or client states, or annexed territories. This situation is a classic illustration of the fact, which is more difficult to determine among the central European allies, that coalitions are rarely a partnership of equals: power tends to lie with the strongest member, which will inevitably determine the effectiveness — politically as well as militarily — of the coalition.
