Hans Ernst Karl von Zieten

Hans Ernst Karl von Zieten was born in 1770 and entered Prussian military service during the revolutionary and Napoleonic era. A cavalry officer by training, he rose through command during the wars against France and by 1815 led I Corps in Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher’s Army of the Lower Rhine.

Zieten’s corps fought at Ligny on 16 June 1815 and then withdrew with the rest of the Prussian army before returning to support Wellington at Waterloo. The arrival of Prussian formations on the French flank helped turn the battle against Napoleon. Zieten later became a field marshal and died in 1848.

In Iain Gale’s Four Days in June, Zieten provides a Prussian viewpoint on the Waterloo campaign. His uncertainty about coordination with the Anglo-allied army and responsibility for troops recovering from Ligny show the battle as an allied operation rather than a purely British confrontation with Napoleon.