Napoleon's wish to marry Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna of Russia, the youngest daughter of Tsar Paul I of Russia, had caused alarm in Austria, who were afraid of being sandwiched between two great powers allied with each other.

At the persuasion of Count Metternich, a marriage between Napoleon and Marie Louise, the daughter of Emperor Francis I!, had been suggested by Francis himself to the Count of Narbonne but no official overture had been made by the Austrians.

Though officials in Paris and Austria were beginning to accept the possibility of the union, Marie Louise had been kept uninformed of developments.

Frustrated by the Russians delaying the marriage negotiations, Napoleon had rescinded his proposal in late January 1810 and began negotiations to marry Marie Louise with the Austrian ambassador,  Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg.

Schwarzenberg had signed the marriage contract on February 7.

Marie Louise had been informed of the pending marriage by Metternich.

When asked for consent, she had replied: "I wish only what my duty commands me to wish."

Marie Louise is married by proxy to Napoleon on March 11, 1810 at the Augustinian Church, Vienna.

Napoleon is represented by Archduke Charles, the bride's uncle.

Three Coalition armies are preparing to invade France on the northeastern front; however, by the time that the Six Days' Campaign ends, only two armies have crossed the frontier into France:

    The Army of Bohemia or the Grand Army, with two hundred thousand to two hundred and ten thousand Austrian, Russian, Bavarian, and Wurttemberg soldiers under Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, had passed through Swiss territory (violating the cantons' neutrality) and crossed the Rhine between Basel and Schafhausen on December 20, 1813.

    The Army of Silesia, with fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand Prussians and Russians under Prince Gebhard von Blücher, had crossed the Rhine between Rastadt and Koblenz on January 1, 1814.

At the same time Wellington has invaded France over the Pyrenees.

Leaving Marshals Soult and Suchet to defend south-west France, Napoleon commands the French resistance in northeast France.

Napoleon has inflicted further defeats on both Schwarzenberg's and Blücher's armies.

Thus, after six weeks fighting, the Coalition armies have hardly gained any ground.

The Coalition generals still hope to bring Napoleon to battle against their combined forces.

However, after the Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube on March 20, where the Austrians outnumber his dwindling army eighty thousand to twenty-eight thousand, Napoleon realizes that he can no longer continue with his current strategy of defeating the Coalition armies in detail and decides to change his tactics.

He has two options: he can fall back on Paris and hope that the Coalition members will come to terms, as capturing Paris with a French army under his command will be difficult and time-consuming; or he can copy the Russians and leave Paris to his enemies (as they had left Moscow to him two years earlier).

He decides to move eastward to Saint-Dizier, rally what garrisons he can find, and raise the whole country against the invaders and attack their lines of communications.

A letter containing an outline of Napoleon's plan of action is captured by his enemies.

The Coalition commanders had held a council of war at Pougy on March 23 and initially decided to follow Napoleon, but the next day Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick of Prussia, along with their advisers, reconsider, and realizing the weakness of their opponent, decide to march to Paris (now an open city), and let Napoleon do his worst to their lines of communications.

The Allies had agreed in the Treaty of Chaumont on March 9 to preserve the Coalition until Napoleon's total defeat.

The Allies enter Paris on March 30, 1814 after a short battle.

Napoleon is determined to fight on, proposing to march on Paris.

His soldiers and regimental officers are eager to fight on, but Napoleon's marshals and senior officers mutiny.

On April 4, Napoleon is confronted by his marshals and senior officers, led by Michel Ney.

They tell the Emperor that they refuse to march

The victors restore the Bourbon monarchy in the person of the Duke of Provence, brother of Louis XVI, on April 6, inviting the future Louis XVIII to occupy the French throne.

Napoleon abdicates on April 11, 1814 and the war will officially end soon after, although some fighting will continue until May.

The Treaty of Fontainebleau is signed on April 11 between the continental powers and Napoleon; it will be followed by the Treaty of Paris on May 30 between France and the Great Powers, including Britain.

The First Treaty of Paris is signed by Louis XVIII on May 30, returning France's borders to their 1792 extent, which extend east of the Rhine.

She has to pay no war indemnity, and the occupying armies of the Sixth Coalition withdraw instantly from French soil.

These generous terms will be reversed in the next Treaty of Paris after the Hundred Days (Napoleon's return to France in 1815).

Napoleon is exiled to Elba on the same day.

The counterrevolutionaries' first major victory comes in Austria.