The Duke of Wellington was born the Hon Arthur Wesley, a younger son of the Earl of Mornington in 1769. He was a son of the Anglo Irish aristocracy, who were a small minority of Protestants living in a largely Catholic country. The Catholic population suffered legal disabilities and were very poor. The aristocracy often were short of money, and the Wesleys, who changed their name to Wellesley, were no exception. Arthur was not considered a very promising young man and his mother wrote of him that he was “food for powder and nothing else.”
He was not unintelligent but lacked social graces. His brother Richard was considered the high flier of the family. However Arthur while he was a slow starter gradually became the more prominent of the brothers and was the one who made the greatest success of his career.
He was transferred to the new 76th Regiment forming in Ireland and on Christmas Day, 1787, was promoted to lieutenant. During his time in Dublin his duties were mainly social; attending balls, entertaining guests. While in Ireland, he over extended himself in borrowing due to his occasional gambling. His brother Richard was Governor of India and Wellesley went to India with his regiment. He saw action in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799, and as a newly appointed major-general won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.
In June 1804 he applied for permission to return home from India and as a reward for his services, he was made a Knight of the Bath. During his time in India, Wellesley had amassed a fortune of £42,000 - prize money from his campaigns. He next served in the Anglo Russian expedition to Germany, but it was not successful. However his with his title and new fortune, he was finally accepted as a suitor for Catherine (Kitty) Pakenham, the daughter of another Anglo Irish peer, to whom he had proposed before going to India. Her family had forbidden the marriage but eventually, they married in Dublin in 1806. However the marriage was not a success. Kitty was vague and silly, and had lost her looks during the years they had been parted. She was not up to his level intellectually and he had fallen out of love with her, but he felt obliged to go ahead with the marriage. They had 2 sons but neither of them was as intelligent or successful as their father and Arthur’s relationship with them, like that with his wife, was not very close. He turned for intelligent sympathy to other women, but there was no very definitive evidence of his having mistresses during his marriage.
Soon after the marriage, he took leave from the army and went again into politics, serving under as Chief Secretary for Ireland, under the Duke of Richmond. He was liberal in his enforcement of the Penal laws. But in May 1807, he returned to the army and was part of the expedition to Denmark. He was appointed to command an infantry brigade in the Second Battle of Copenhagen which took place in August.
In 1808, he went to the Peninsula and gradually began to emerge as a brilliantly successful general. He had a reputation for keeping strict discipline and he had a poor opinion of many of the men under his command, but he also fought Napoleon’s best marshals and drove the French out of the Iberian Peninsula. He became a hero to the British public. He was granted various peerages during his service in Spain and Portugal and in 1814 when the war seemed to be over, he was given the title of Duke of Wellington. (He was also given honours by the Spanish Government).
After the ending of the war, it seemed as if Wellington was set for a political career but he had one more battle to fight. Napoleon’s escape from Elba and the adventure of the Hundred Days, gave Wellington one last command, at the Battle of Waterloo. The battle with his “infamous army” – a mixture of British, Dutch Belgians, and German troops, defeated Napoleon completely and finally ended the French Empire. Wellington had borne a charmed life during the battle, narrowly escaping death, and had seen his troops devastated, but they won. However in spite of his being battle hardened, he wept after the battle, when reading the long list of casualties, and said that “next to a battle lost, the most melancholy thing was a battle won”. After the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington gave up his military career and became a politician. He was a Tory, and in general a very conservative minded man, suspicious of change, fearful of the “mob” and caring nothing for popular praise or criticism. He was not very successful as a politician because he was used to giving orders, rather than discussions. While he was popular to a degree, his conservatism made him less than loved by the working classes. However, he was in his way a kindly man and was generous - particularly to children and to old soldiers. In spite of his conservatism, he forced through the act for Catholic Emancipation and while he was never reconciled to Reform, did accept the Reform Act of 1832. In retirement, he became a friend and adviser to the young Queen Victoria. He had a sharp tongue but a certain turn for witty remarks, such as his famous “Publish and Be Damned” when asked to pay a certain courtesan, Harriette Wilson, not to be mentioned in her memoirs. He died in 1852.
