ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON (1769-1852)

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ARTHUR WELLESLEY, 1ST DUKE OF WELLINGTON Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was probably Britain's greatest soldier, but also one of her worst prime ministers. While his premiership was fortunately only short-lived, it was more than made up for by the splendour of a wartime career in which he never lost a battle or a cannon, at a time of peril when his country most desperately needed victories. Born in Dublin the fourth son of the 1st Earl of Mornington, Wellesley always denied being Irish, saying that being born in a stable did not make someone a horse. This was because he hailed from the Anglo-Irish aristocratic 'Protestant Ascendancy' that ruled Ireland until the partition of 1922. Educated firstly at Eton, where he learned little except perhaps how to use his fists, and then -- probably due to a lack of funds at his father's early death -- at Brussels, he entered the Angers Military Academy at Anjou in 1786. Although his mother decried the idea of a military career for him, believing him to have nil aptitude for soldiering, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment of foot in 1787 and became a captain of dragoons five years later. In the meantime he was elected to a seat in the Irish parliament, but took as little interest in politics as he initially did in soldiering, preferring to idle life away socialising and playing the violin. Indeed he might have spent his life as a wallflower attending the picnics of the Irish Lord-Lieutenant as an aide-de-camp, had not the French executed their king in 1793, prompting Wellesley suddenly to take his life and career seriously. He burnt his violin in the grate and became a colonel of the 33rd Foot Regiment, in which capacity he saw his first action at Boxtel in the Netherlands Campaign in 1794 and then fought again at Geldermalsen the following year. The campaign was short-lived and disastrous, though no blame attached to Wellesley who performed well, but the incompetence of the British officers prompted him to take up a still closer study of the military arts. When his elder brother Richard became the new Governor-General of India in 1797, Wellesley took the 33rd Foot out there and founded a great reputation for himself as a brilliant but also painstaking commander. His victories in Mysore, at Seringapatam and over Dhoondiah Waugh won him promotion to major-general. In the Mahratta Wars, Wellesley won the famous victory of Assaye in September 1803, which he personally considered the finest of all the sixty battles he fought. He was knighted the following year and in 1805 he returned home, stopping off on the way on the remote island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. From commanding thousands and subduing sub-continents, he was given the command of a lowly battalion in Hastings in 1806, and the same year he was elected MP for Hastings. This time he took politics more seriously, and became Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1807, largely as the result of the influence of the ambitious and influential Wellesley family, who were prominent Tory politicians. He also found time to take part in the Copenhagen campaign, which was also short-lived, but not quite so disastrous as earlier British incursions on Napoleon's continent of Europe had been. In 1808, by then a lieutenant-general, Wellesley was at last given an opportunity for genuine glory, when he was -- albeit too briefly -- given command of the British expeditionary force destined for Portugal. He told a friend that he would not be chased off the continent as so many other similar forces had been, because he had made a study of French tactics and would not be at any kind of psychological disadvantage to the enemy. 'They may overwhelm me but I don't think they will outmanoeuvre me', he said. 'First, because I am not afraid of them, as everybody else seems to be; and secondly, because if what I hear of their system of manoeuvre is true, I think it a false one against steady troops. I suspect that all the continental armies were more than half beaten before the battle was begun -- I, at least, will not be frightened beforehand.' It was a brave boast, but fully justified by events. The Peninsular campaign started off well after victories at Rolica and Vimeiro, but soon afterwards Wellesley was superseded in command by two generals, Sir Harry Burrard and Sir Hew Dalrymple, who signed an armistice with the French that allowed the defeated enemy safe passage back to France with all their arms, baggage and booty, and even transportation in Royal Navy vessels! Back in Britain there was outrage at the terms of what was called the Convention of Cintra, and an 'Inquiry' (which was effectively a court-martial) was heard in the Great Hall of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, after several weeks of which Wellesley was finally acquitted. Soon after the Cintra Inquiry closed, Wellesley returned to the Peninsula in command again, but in one of History's great coincidences, the time when he had been in England coincided with the only two months that Napoleon campaigned in Spain. So the two men quite by chance missed one another, and only came face to face for the first and last time at the battle of Waterloo six years later. Reassuming command in Portugal in 1809, Wellesley -- aided at all times by the Portuguese army and the Spanish guerrillas -- proceeded to spend the next five years trying to expel the French from the Iberian Peninsula. He took not one day's leave as he campaigned backwards and forwards across Portugal and Spain, occasionally being forced to retreat because of the pressure of numbers opposing him, but never losing a battle or even so much as a single cannon. He was almost always outnumbered by the huge French forces that were occupying Spain in the name of Napoleon's brother, King Joseph. The leadership Wellesley showed in the Peninsula campaign was exemplary; he won a reputation of expecting the best, and being a harsh disciplinarian when he did not get it. Yet his troops always knew he never risked their lives unnecessarily. Wellesley -- who had been elevated to the Dukedom of Wellington by 1814 -- had crossed the Pyrenees into France before Napoleon abdicated, after which he became the Ambassador to Paris. He was then appointed British plenipotentiary to the Congress of Vienna, which is where he was when in March 1815 the news arrived that the ex-Emperor had escaped from exile on the island of Elba. Pausing only to declare Napoleon an international outlaw, Wellington went to take up command of the Anglo-Allied army in Brussels. This was an ungainly melange of different units made up from the British, Dutch, Belgians and some German formations, a large proportion of whom were raw recruits. It was far removed from the seasoned army Wellington had moulded into a crack fighting unit in the Peninsula. In June 1815 Napoleon suddenly marched north into present-day Belgium, making for Brussels. On the 16th he simultaneously attacked the Anglo-Allied army at Quatre Bras and the Prussian army under Field Marshal Prince von Blücher at Ligny, routing the latter. Wellington was forced to retreat to the easily-defensible slopes of Mont St-Jean, three miles south of his headquarters at Waterloo. Only three-and-a-half miles wide, the battlefield was protected by woods and villages on the flanks and two well-defended farms -- Hougoumont and La Haie Sainte -- in the centre. The French attacked before noon on Sunday 18 June, but after repeated assaults they failed to break Wellington's line. The Duke was everywhere on the battlefield, encouraging his men and giving orders about how best to repulse the French attacks. He later described the battle as 'a close run thing'. By the afternoon, Prussian corps that had survived the battle of Ligny -- and unbeknownst to Napoleon had marched northwards rather than eastwards back towards Prussia -- began appearing on Wellington's left flank, forcing Napoleon to draw off many of his troops to deal with them which he had hoped to employ against Wellington. By 7pm, after his famed Imperial Guard had also failed to break Wellington's line, Napoleon was routed. A month later he had abdicated and surrendered to the British who exiled him to the remote island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean. Wellington was covered in honours both from Britain and all the European Powers, but instead of retiring he entered the Cabinet in 1818, staying there as Master-General of Ordinance until 1827. The following year he became prime minister, and, despite being a reactionary Tory he passed Catholic Emancipation in 1829 with the help of Sir Robert Peel, but against his private inclinations. He resigned in 1830 when it became clear that he could not prevent parliamentary reform being enacted. As commander-in-chief of the British Army between 1827 and 1828 and from 1842 until his death in 1852 he was also a force for conservatism, and it has been argued that the lack of army reforms led to the ill-preparedness of the Crimean War. Yet even if his political and administrative careers were nothing like as impressive as his military and diplomatic ones, nothing can detract from his untarnishable glory as the conqueror of Napoleon and, along with Malborough, as one of the two finest soldiers that Britain has ever produced. WELLINGTON CHRONOLOGY 1769 May 1 Born 1781 May His father, the Earl of Mornington, died 1784 Left Eton and went to Brighton for tutoring 1786 Jan 16 Attended School of Equitation, Angers, Anjou until the end of the year 1787 March 17 Became an ensign in the 73rd Highland Regiment 1790 April Elected MP for Trim in Ireland 1794 Commanded a brigade in Flanders 1796 June Sailed for India in command of 33rd Regiment of Foot 1799 May 4 Stormed Seringapatam, during which Tipu Sultan was killed 1800 Sept 10 Defeated Dhoondiah Waugh 1803 Sept 23 Defeated Sindhia at the battle of Assaye 1804 Sept Knighted 1805 March Embarked for home (via St Helena) 1806 Feb Posted to Hastings on anti-invasion patrol April 10 Married Kitty Pakenham in Dublin 1808 July 12 Put in temporary charge of the expeditionary force to Portugal Aug 1 His expeditionary force landed in Mondego Bay 17 Defeated General Junot at Roliça 21 Defeated General Junot at Vimiero 30 Convention of Cintra; recalled to face an Inquiry, subsequently cleared 1809 April 26 Landed at Lisbon with a new British army May 12 Defeated Marshal Soult at Oporto June 27 Entered Spain July 27-28 Defeated King Joseph and Marshal Jourdon at Talavera Sept 4 Becomes Viscount Wellington of Talavera 1810 Sept 27 Defeated Masséna at Bussaco Oct 8 Entered the Lines of Torres Vedras outside Lisbon 1811 May 3-5 Defeated Masséna at Fuentes d'Oñoro 1812 Jan 8-19 Captured Ciudad Rodrigo April 6 Captured Badajoz (besieged since 16 March) July 22 Defeated Marshal Marmont at Salamanca 1813 June 21 Routed King Joseph at Vitoria, became Field-Marshal Aug 3 Besieged San Sebastian (which fell on 9 September) Oct 7 Crossed the river Bidassoa into France Nov 10 Defeated Soult at the Nivelle 1814 March 12 Captured Bordeaux April 10 Defeated Soult at the battle of Toulouse May 3 Created Duke of Wellington July 5 Appointed ambassador to the French court 1815 Feb 3 Arrived in Vienna as British plenipotentiary to the Congress April 4 Arrived in Brussels June 16 Won the battle of Quatre Bras 17 Retreated to the slopes of Mont St-Jean 18 Defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo 1828 Jan 25 Became Prime Minister 1830 Nov 15 Resigned the Premiership 1852 Sept 14 Died Nov 18 Buried at St Paul's

ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON (1769-1852)

A WHITE MARBLE BUST OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, ENGLISH SCHOOL

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ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON (1769-1852)
A white marble bust of the Duke of Wellington, English school
Wearing military attire and three medals, on a circular spreading socle
20in. (51cm.) high

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