During the Battle of Craonne on 7 March, Blücher's army was forced to retreat into Laon after a failed attempt to halt Napoleon's east flank.

Blücher opted to face Napoleon at Laon because it was the site of a strategically important road junction, and because of its highly defensible position.

Napoleon's two marshals in the immediate vicinity, Édouard Mortier and Auguste Marmont, were covering the city with two detached corps, but they only had 10,000 men and would be unable to hold out against Blücher's larger force.

[4] Blücher unsuccessfully attacked Marmont and Mortier along the river Ourcq in late February and early March and ordered a retreat north to regroup when he heard of Napoleon's advance.

[5] On 7 March, a clash ensued at the Battle of Craonne as Napoleon attacked westwards along the Chemin des Dames (literally, the "ladies' road").

The countryside to the north was flat and open, but the south contained rough and wooded terrain that made military maneuvers difficult.

Preliminary fighting on the evening of 8 March saw the French vanguard chase off a small Russian detachment from the village of Urcel on the Soissons road.

A convincing Allied attack captured the village of Ardon, but the victorious Prussian infantry brigade was ordered to halt because Blücher feared that French forces to the east would outflank them.

Marmont then sent 1,000 men under Colonel Charles Nicolas Fabvier westwards to establish contact with Napoleon's main army.

Marmont was saved by Colonel Fabvier, who on his own initiative returned with his 1,000 troops to clear the road, and by 125 veterans of the Old Guard, who repelled the Allied cavalry trying to block the French from escaping.