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Arthur Wellesley, Duke of WELLINGTON (1769-1852)
Autograph letter signed ('Wellington') to 'The Honble Admiral Berkeley', Viseu, 15 March 1810, 3 pages, 8vo.
'I have sent to Col[onel] Fletcher your observations upon his report, & I shall be very much obliged to you if you will send with him the guide to look at the ground which has been described to you. ... I have done everything in my power to prevail upon them to send away the Spanish ships from Cadiz. If I can get them to Mahon I think I shall do a great deal; and I have begged to secure that Island which is at present a most important object. The Spaniards will never consent to send the ships to Malta'. Wellington, at his headquarters in northern Portugal, takes steps to strengthen the British hand before the anticipated arrival of Bonaparte to conduct the French operation in the Iberian peninsula. In a seven-line postscript he requires Berkeley to return a transport ship after it has taken some men from the Mondego to the Tagus. At the beginning of 1810 it was commonly believed that Napoleon would himself arrive shortly in the Iberian peninsula to conduct the French operation and crush local resistance by expelling the British forces. His marriage to the Austrian Princess Marie Louise pre-empted this, leading to the appointment in April of Marshal André Masséna to the command of the army in Portugal.
Wellington's correspondent, Admiral George Cranfield Berkeley (1753-1818), was appointed to the chief command on the coast of Portugal from 1808 to 1812. Colonel Richard Fletcher (1768-1813) was the chief engineer on Wellington's staff in Portugal and responsible for the construction of the lines of Torres Vedras. Wellington had ridden with him all over the Lisbon peninsula the previous autumn and sent him numerous instructions.
Autograph letter signed ('Wellington') to 'The Honble Admiral Berkeley', Viseu, 15 March 1810, 3 pages, 8vo.
'I have sent to Col[onel] Fletcher your observations upon his report, & I shall be very much obliged to you if you will send with him the guide to look at the ground which has been described to you. ... I have done everything in my power to prevail upon them to send away the Spanish ships from Cadiz. If I can get them to Mahon I think I shall do a great deal; and I have begged to secure that Island which is at present a most important object. The Spaniards will never consent to send the ships to Malta'. Wellington, at his headquarters in northern Portugal, takes steps to strengthen the British hand before the anticipated arrival of Bonaparte to conduct the French operation in the Iberian peninsula. In a seven-line postscript he requires Berkeley to return a transport ship after it has taken some men from the Mondego to the Tagus. At the beginning of 1810 it was commonly believed that Napoleon would himself arrive shortly in the Iberian peninsula to conduct the French operation and crush local resistance by expelling the British forces. His marriage to the Austrian Princess Marie Louise pre-empted this, leading to the appointment in April of Marshal André Masséna to the command of the army in Portugal.
Wellington's correspondent, Admiral George Cranfield Berkeley (1753-1818), was appointed to the chief command on the coast of Portugal from 1808 to 1812. Colonel Richard Fletcher (1768-1813) was the chief engineer on Wellington's staff in Portugal and responsible for the construction of the lines of Torres Vedras. Wellington had ridden with him all over the Lisbon peninsula the previous autumn and sent him numerous instructions.
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