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Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley | |
|---|---|
 Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, painted by the artist Thomas Lawrence, months before the Battle of Waterloo. | |
_(St_Edwards_Crown).svg){kind=small} Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | |
| In office 22 January 1828 – 16 November 1830 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Preceded by | Frederick John Robinson |
| Succeeded by | Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey |
| In office 14 November 1834 – 10 December 1834 | |
| Monarch | William IV |
| Preceded by | William Lamb |
| Succeeded by | Robert Peel |
Commander-in-Chief of the British Army | |
| In office 1827–1828 | |
| Monarch | George VI |
| Preceded by | Frederick of York |
| Succeeded by | Rowland Hill |
| In office 1842–1852 | |
| Monarch | William IV |
| Preceded by | Rowland Hill |
| Succeeded by | Henry Hardinge |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1, 1769 Dublin (Ireland) |
| Died | September 14, 1852 (aged 83) Walmer (England) |
| Resting place | St Paul's Cathedral, London |
| Spouse | Catherine Pakenham |
| Relations | Natural heir: Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington House: House of Wellington |
| Children |
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| Parents |
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Awards | Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight of the Order of the Garter Knight of the Order of Saint Patrick Grand Cross of the Guelphic Order |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | The Iron Duke |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Commands | Captain general of the Spanish Army Field Marshal of the British Army |
| Battles/wars | |
Arthur Wellesley (Dublin, May 1, 1769 – Walmer, September 14, 1852), better known from 1814 onward by his title of Duke of Wellington, was a British soldier, politician and statesman of Irish origin, who played a prominent part in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly at the head of the Anglo-Portuguese troops in the expulsion of the French armies during the three attempts to invade Portugal (1808, 1809 and 1810), and in the Napoleonic Invasion of Spain, coming to hold the supreme command of the Spanish armies.[1]
Victorious and elevated to the status of a hero in England, he continued fighting in Europe to command the Anglo-allied forces at the Battle of Waterloo, after which Napoleon Bonaparte was permanently exiled to the Island of Saint Helena. Wellington is frequently compared with the first Duke of Marlborough, with whom he shared many characteristics, chiefly the transition to political life after a successful military career. Wellington was Prime Minister for the Tory party on two occasions and was one of the leading figures of the House of Lords until his retirement in 1846.
The Duke of Wellington is considered one of the most acclaimed heroes in the history of the United Kingdom. His fame equals or even surpasses that of such well-known figures as Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill or fellow Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. His London mansion (Apsley House) is open to the public as a museum and displays the numerous gifts he collected, works of art and luxury objects, "presented" by various governments and royal houses, mainly coming from the plundering of Spanish works of art perpetrated by Joseph Bonaparte.
Childhood and education
Arthur Wesley (a surname later changed to Wellesley) was born at Mornington House, his family's summer residence in Dublin, or else at Dangan Castle, near Trim in County Meath, which was the family's usual residence. He was the third son of Garret Wesley, first Earl of Mornington. The exact date of his birth is also a matter of controversy. All that exists is the record of the event in a church archive. The most widely accepted date is May 1, but it could possibly have been a few days earlier or later. He was baptized as Arthur Wesley, a name legally changed to Arthur Wellesley in March 1798. Wellesley was educated at Eton between 1781 and 1785, later moving to Brussels (Belgium) to continue his education.
Military career
In 1787, his brother purchased for Wellesley a commission as second lieutenant in the 73rd Regiment of Infantry. He attended the military academy at Angers, in France. His first posting was as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland, between 1787 and 1793. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1788, and two years later he was elected an independent Member of Parliament with liaison duties with the Irish House of Commons, a position he held until 1797. He rose rapidly through the military ranks (on many occasions by the procedure of purchasing promotion, a practice permitted in those times and, indeed, necessary to obtain certain posts), becoming lieutenant colonel in the 33rd Regiment of Infantry in 1793. He then fought in the Netherlands between 1794 and 1795 and was present at the Battle of Boxtel. His regiment formed the reserve of the forces of the Duke of York, who attempted in vain a counterattack against the French forces. Covering the army's retreat to prevent it from being harassed by the French cavalry, he received his baptism of fire.[2]
India
In 1796, after being promoted to colonel, he accompanied his Division to India. The following year, his elder brother, Richard Wellesley, second Earl of Mornington, was appointed Viceroy of India, and when war broke out in 1799 against the sultan of Mysore, Tipu Sultan, Arthur Wellesley commanded his own division. While carrying out these responsibilities, he was appointed Governor of Seringapatam and Mysore, posts he held until 1805. He fought at Assaye and Argaum and attacked the fortress of Gawilghur. After the final success of the campaign, he was appointed supreme military and political Commander in the Deccan, a post in which he defeated the bandit chief Dhundia Wagh (who, ironically, had escaped from prison in Seringapatam during the last battle of the Mysore war). He also defeated the Marathas in 1803. In 1804 he was made a knight of the Order of the Bath (Knight of the Bath), which would be the first of the many distinctions he obtained during his life. When his brother's term as Governor of India ended in 1805, both brothers returned together to England, where they were forced to defend the costly imperialist policy of the British forces in India.
Return to Great Britain
Wellesley was elected representative for Rye in the House of Commons, holding the seat for six months in 1806. A year later he was elected for Newport, on the Isle of Wight, a seat he would hold for two years. During this time he defined himself politically as a Tory, and in April 1807 (while he was representative for St Michael's), he was sworn in as a counselor of the Crown. In addition, he served as Chief Secretary for Ireland for some time. However, his political life would soon come to an abrupt end and he would have to sail to Europe to take part in the Napoleonic Wars.
The Napoleonic Wars
It was between 1808 and 1815 that Wellesley carried out the feats that earned him a place in history. Since 1789, France had been engulfed in Revolution, and after coming to government in 1799, Napoleon had become the de facto power in Europe. The British government was looking for options to put an end to Napoleon's threat, and Wellesley helped to secure them. First, he went as Commander on the expedition to Denmark in 1807, which soon earned him promotion to Lieutenant General.
Iberian Peninsula
Wellesley was transferred to the war in the Iberian Peninsula, where he fought alongside William Carr Beresford. Although this war was not going very well, it was the only place where the English and Portuguese forces had managed to establish a front on continental territory against France and its allies (the disastrous Walcheren Expedition was one of the typical failed expeditions of the period). Wellesley had sent a memorandum to Castlereagh on the defense of Portugal, and Castlereagh appointed him head of the expeditionary force. Wellesley defeated the French in Portugal, at the Battle of Roliça and at the Battle of Vimeiro, in 1808. The resulting Convention of Sintra, which stipulated that the British army would transport the French soldiers out of Lisbon with all their equipment, was highly controversial, and Wellesley was briefly recalled to England. Meanwhile, Napoleon himself had arrived in Spain with his veteran troops, and when the Commander-in-Chief, John Moore, died during the Battle of La Coruña, Wellesley was appointed the new commander-in-chief of all British forces in Portugal, returning to the Peninsula in April 1809.
On July 27, 1809, he defeated one of the armies of King Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's elder brother) at the Battle of Talavera. For this success he was raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount Wellington, of Talavera and of Wellington in the County of Somerset. When the French invaded Portugal again in 1810, he stopped them at Buçaco, later blockading them and preventing them from taking the Lisbon Peninsula thanks to his magnificently constructed land lines of defense at Torres Vedras, together with the maritime protection of the British Royal Navy (the bloodless Battle of Lisbon). The overwhelmed and starving French invasion forces withdrew after six months, after which Wellesley definitively expelled France from Portugal in 1811, fighting at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro and at the Battle of La Albuera. In May 1811 he was promoted to general for his services in Portugal.
Once inside Spain, after breaking the siege of the fortress of Badajoz on April 6, 1812, the population of the stronghold suffered 72 hours of looting and rape at the hands of the drunken soldiery after they found the stores of Portuguese brandy (see Battle of Badajoz).
He defeated the French again at the Battle of the Arapiles, reaching Madrid on August 12, 1812. Around this time he was made Earl of Wellington. The French counterattack placed the English forces in a precarious situation, but Wellington took command of all the allied forces in Spain,[3] while being made Marquess of Wellington on October 3. On that date Wellington was at his headquarters in Villatoro directing the Siege of Burgos (September 19 to October 21, 1812), which was one of the few defeats of his military career.[4]
Taking advantage of the withdrawal of a large part of the French army to take part in Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign, Wellington took the offensive in 1813, culminating in the Battle of Vitoria, which drove the enemy back into France, an action for which he was promoted to field marshal. For this feat, Ludwig van Beethoven composed his work Wellington's Victory. At Vitoria important paintings and valuable works of art were seized that Joseph Bonaparte had stolen from various Spanish Museums and wanted to take out of the country (the so-called "baggage of King Joseph"). Wellington appropriated the entire booty, shipped it to London, and, claiming that the Spanish ambassador in England had told him that King Ferdinand VII had said he could keep them, kept them in his London mansion, Apsley House, where they are preserved today, and they are jokingly known by the name of the "Spanish Gift".
For his help to Spain in the war against Napoleon he was granted the Dukedom of Ciudad Rodrigo,[5] the Grand Cross of the National Order of Saint Ferdinand,[6] and the Golden Fleece.[7]
Wellington also received considerable criticism for his condescending attitude toward the looting and rape that his troops committed during the Peninsular campaigns, and for his disloyalty toward the Spanish government, demonstrated when he ordered the bombardment of key parts of the Spanish economic and proto-industrial fabric, among others the textile manufactures in Béjar (Salamanca) (competitors of the English ones), or the Royal Porcelain Factory of the Buen Retiro in Madrid, laying the blame on the Napoleonic forces, which, however, had already evacuated the city.
Francisco de Goya himself nearly killed him in his own studio because of the haughty attitude and contempt toward Spaniards that he constantly displayed, as Mesonero Romanos recounted in one of his books:
"[…] The Lord appeared, accompanied by Álava, at the studio of Goya, for whom an hour's sitting was enough to sketch a portrait, and he immediately set to work. When he believed it was in a state to be shown, he presented it to the Lord, who, whether from scant intelligence or from natural aloofness, made a contemptuous gesture and added not a few words expressing that he did not like the portrait, that it was a real daub and that he could not accept it in any way; all of which he said in English to General Álava, so that he might convey it to the artist through his son Don Javier, who was present, and through the language of the fingers, which was the only one that could serve Goya."
"The latter watched the Lord's gestures and his exchanges with Álava with suspicion and displeasure; and Goya's son, a very learned person who knew the English language, politely refused to inform his father of any of the Lord's opinions or words, trying to convince the Lord of his mistaken view of the painting; but neither the judicious observations of Don Javier nor the prudent intervention of General Álava sufficed to soften Wellington's disdainful and haughty attitude, nor the ill-repressed fits of anger that showed on the artist's face; and amid all this, Don Javier, who was watching the one and the other, who saw his father casting sinister glances at the pistols (which he always kept loaded on the table), and who feared a dreadful outcome to that conflict, did not know which one to turn to; until he saw the Lord rise with great arrogance and put on his hat as if to leave. Then Goya, no longer able to restrain himself, seized the pistols while the Lord reached for the hilt of his sword, and only thanks to the gigantic efforts of General Álava, telling him that the artist was afflicted by mental derangement, and those of Goya's son forcibly holding back his father's hand, could a regrettable scene finally be ended."[8]
Afterwards, Wellington invaded France with the allied army, where one Spanish and two British divisions were massacred by the French during the Battle of Toulouse, although the latter also suffered heavy casualties. Half of the Spanish officers were killed or wounded during a frontal attack devoid of any military strategic logic ordered by Wellington, in a war that was already practically over. Generals Ezpeleta and Mendizábal, along with Brigadiers Méndez de Vigo and Carrillo de Albornoz, were wounded, while Colonels Balanzat, Sicilia and Ortega were killed.
Acclaimed as a hero and conqueror, Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington, a title still held by his descendants. He was appointed ambassador to the France of Louis XVIII and took Castlereagh's place as first plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna, where he argued forcefully for allowing France to keep its place in the European balance of power, to the detriment of Spain and its overseas territories.
Waterloo
On February 26, 1815, Napoleon left his exile on Elba to return to France, retaking control of the country in May. Wellington then led the re-formation of the alliance against him. He left Vienna to command the allied forces in the Waterloo campaign, taking position in Belgium together with the Prussian troops of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher and fighting first at the Battle of Quatre Bras, before facing Napoleon again four days later at the Battle of Waterloo, where the latter was definitively defeated.
After the victory at Waterloo, the allied troops advanced into France in pursuit of Napoleon, and on July 8 the crown of Louis XVIII was restored. Two days later Napoleon surrendered, abdicating once again, and was later deported to the distant Island of Saint Helena.
Political career
Politics again proved useful to him in 1819, when Wellington was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance during Liverpool's "Tory" government. In 1827 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British army, a post he would retain for the rest of his life, except for his period as head of government. Together with Robert Peel, Wellington became one of the stars of the Tory party.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In 1828 he became Prime Minister and was the face of the ultraconservative faction, although strangely, one of the points of his program was Catholic emancipation, the guarantee of practically all civil rights for the Catholics of the United Kingdom. The change was forced by the crushing electoral victory of Daniel O'Connell, an activist for Catholic emancipation who had been elected despite not having the legal right to sit in Parliament. Winchilsea accused the Duke of Wellington of "having dangerously plotted the destruction of the Protestant constitution." Wellington responded immediately to the accusation by challenging Winchilsea to a duel. On March 21, 1829, Wellington and Winchilsea met in the fields of Battersea, but when the moment came to fire, the Duke deliberately aimed away from his opponent, and Winchilsea fired into the air. Winchilsea afterwards wrote to the Duke to apologize. In the House of Lords, and facing tense opposition, Wellington spoke in favor of Catholic emancipation, giving one of the best speeches of his career. The Catholic Emancipation Act was passed with a majority of 105 votes.
Wellington's government fell in 1830. In the summer and autumn of that year, a wave of riots swept the country. The Whigs had been kept out of power, except for a few years, since 1770, and saw political reform in response to popular unrest as the key to their return. Wellington attacked the Tory policy of neither reforming nor expanding rights, and as a result he lost the motion of no confidence of November 15, 1830, being replaced as Prime Minister by Grey.
Reform Act
The Whig party presented the first Reform Act to Parliament, but Wellington and the "Tories" fought to prevent its passage. The bill was passed in the House of Commons, but was rejected in the House of Lords. Next, and as a direct response to this, elections were held that gave the Whig party an even larger majority. A second Reform Act was presented and was rejected in the same way, and another wave of riots ravaged the country. During this time, Wellington was received with hostility by the population during the opening of the railway between Liverpool and Manchester. Finally, the reform was passed when the Whig party suggested to the King that he "swamp" the House of Lords by creating a sufficient number of new peerages to ensure the passage of the Reform Bill. After some hesitation by King William IV, the House of Lords passed the reform. Despite this, Wellington never agreed with the change. When Parliament met after the first elections held under the reform, Wellington is said to have remarked: "I never saw so many bad, shocking hats in my life." By then, Wellington was already gradually being replaced by Robert Peel as leader of the "Tory" party.
Conservative government
When the "Tories" returned to power in 1834, Wellington declined to take the post of Prime Minister, and Peel was chosen instead. Unfortunately, Peel was traveling in Italy, and for three weeks, between November and December 1834, Wellington acted as caretaker of the government, taking on the responsibilities of Prime Minister and of most of the other ministries. In Peel's first government (1834–1835), Wellington was appointed Foreign Secretary, and in the second (1841–1846) he was minister without portfolio and Leader of the House of Lords.
Retirement and death
Wellington retired from political life in 1846, although he retained his post as commander-in-chief of the Army, and briefly returned to the public eye in 1848, when he helped organize the forces for the protection of London during the year of European revolution. He died in 1852 and was buried in a sarcophagus of a rare granite called "luxullianite" in St. Paul's Cathedral.
In 1838, the proposal to erect a statue of Wellington took shape with the construction of a gigantic equestrian statue that was placed on Constitution Hill, in London, right in front of his former residence of Apsley House, in 1846. Because of the enormous scale of the monument, 40 tons and 10 m high, it was removed in 1883, and the following year it was transported to Aldershot, where it still stands, near the Royal Garrison Church.
Filmography
See also
- Dukedom of Wellington
- Napoleonic Wars
- Napoleonic Invasion of Spain
- History of the United Kingdom
- History of Portugal (1777–1834)
References
- ↑ Decreto CXCV, de 22 de setiembre de 1812. El Lord Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo es nombrado General en Jefe de todas las tropas españolas de la Península. Cervantes Virtual (in Spanish)
- ↑ D'Arjuzon, Antoine. Wellington. Ediciones Palabra (2003). p. 43. ISBN 84-8239-716-8, 9788482397160 (in Spanish)
- ↑ Decreto de las Cortes de Cádiz, confiriendo a Wellesley el mando de todas las tropas de la península, September 22, 1812. (in Spanish)
- ↑ Reseña a la efeméride en National Geographic. (in Spanish)
- ↑ Decreto CXXXII, de 30 de enero de 1812. Se concede Grandeza de España al lord vizconde Wellington, con el título de Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo (in Spanish)
- ↑ Decreto CXLVIII, de 11 de abril de 1812. Se autoriza a la Regencia del Reino para que pueda conceder al Lord Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo la Gran Cruz de la Orden Nacional de San Fernando, con las mayores distinciones, y sin las formalidades que prescribe su reglamento. (in Spanish)
- ↑ Decreto CLXXXIII, de 7 de agosto de 1812. Se concede el Toisón de oro al Lord Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo. (in Spanish)
- ↑ El dia que Goya pudo matar al Duque de Wellington Historia de Aragon (in Spanish)
Bibliography
- Corral Lafuente, José Luis. El Rey Felón. De las Cortes de Cádiz a Waterloo. Edhasa 2009. ISBN 978-84-350-6079-0 (in Spanish)
External links
- Napoleon's judgment on the Duke of Wellington (Wikisource, in Spanish).
