Battle of Craonne in the context of Battle of Laon

The "Marie-Louises" were the conscripts, mostly teenage French boys, who were conscripted into Napoleon's French Imperial Army between October 1813 and 1815. On 9 October 1813, Empress of the French Marie Louise issued a decree ordering the conscription of 200,000 men into the army; as there was a shortage of military-age males in France, recruiting regulations were changed to allow for those as young as 14 and as short as 5 feet 1 inch (1.55 m) to be conscripted. The majority of Marie-Louises served in the campaign in north-east France from January to March 1814, defending against an invasion by the Sixth Coalition. Though they received as little as two weeks of training and would be soundly defeated in the War, French historians lionized the Marie-Louises as courageous youths motivated by patriotic ideals instead of being forced into military service.

The conscription of so many men proved unable to prevent the Sixth Coalition from defeating the French and occupying Paris, resulting in Napoleon's abdication on 13 April 1814, ending the War of the Sixth Coalition. Eventually, the term "Marie-Louises" was extended to anyone conscripted into the French Imperial army between 1813 and 1815, including when Napoleon briefly assumed power in France again during the Hundred Days. The Marie-Louises were featured in several works of art and literature, particularly after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 to bolster French nationalism and patriotism. In 1914, the term was revived to describe Frenchmen conscripted into the French army after the outbreak of World War I.

In France, the Chemin des Dames ([ʃə.mɛ̃ de dam]; literally, the "ladies' path") is part of the route départementale (local road) D18 and runs east and west in the Aisne department, between in the west, the Route Nationale 2 (Laon to Soissons), and in the east, the D1044 at Corbeny. It is some 30 kilometres (19 mi) long and runs along a ridge between the valleys of the rivers Aisne and Ailette.

It acquired the name in the 18th century, as it was the route taken by the two daughters of Louis XV, Adélaïde and Victoire, who were known as Ladies of France. At the time, it was scarcely a carriage road, but it was the most direct route between Paris and the Château de la Bove [Wikidata], near Vauclair, on the far side of the Ailette. The château belonged to Françoise de Châlus, former mistress of Louis XV, Countess of Narbonne-Lara and former lady of honour to Adélaïde, whom the two ladies visited frequently. To make the way easier, the count had the road surfaced, and it gained its new name. The ridge's strategic importance first became evident in 1814 when Napoleon's young recruits defeated an army of Prussians and Russians at the Battle of Craonne.