WELLINGTON, ARTHUR WELLESLEY, 1ST DUKE OF, MARQUESS ...

born May 1, 1769, Dublin, Ire. died Sept. 14, 1852, Walmer Castle, Kent, Eng. byname Iron Duke British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828-30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808-14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Wellington was the fifth son of Garret Wesley, 1st earl of Mornington. He was educated at Eton and at a military academy at Angers, Fr. In 1787 he entered the Army as an ensign and passed rapidly through the lower commissioned ranks. He was made aide-de-camp to the lord lieutenant of Ireland and later sat in the Irish House of Commons. In 1796 he was sent with his regiment to India, where, as a divisional commander in the Mysore war, he gained valuable experience. In the Maratha war he won victories at Assaye and Argaon and dictated peace with Sindhia and the raja of Berar-and he was rewarded with a knighthood (1804). In 1807 he was employed on the expedition against Copenhagen, and he defeated a Danish force at Kioge. Then, in 1808, began the Peninsular War, in which his military greatness was fully revealed. He sailed for Portugal with a small force and defeated Gen. A. Junot near Lisbon. He returned home but was called back to Portugal in the following year, drove the French out of the country, and was rewarded with the title of Viscount Wellington. He advanced on Madrid in 1812 and was given an earldom in February; then, he defeated Marshal Marmont at Salamanca and occupied Madrid and in October was given a marquessate and a grant of 100,000 for the purchase of an estate. The French were overwhelmed at Vitoria, and before the campaign ended Wellington had crossed the frontier into France. The final battle of the Peninsular War in April 1814 was actually fought after Napoleon had abdicated, though before the news reached southern France. Returning home, Wellington, who in 1813 had been given the Order of the Garter and made a field marshal, was rewarded with a dukedom. After the first treaty of Paris he was appointed British ambassador to the restored king of France, staying in Paris until he left for the Congress of Vienna. While there he received the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba. The allies signed a declaration against Napoleon, and Wellington and Field Marshal von Blcher were to invade France through Belgium, the Austrians and Russians from the east. The brief campaign culminated in victory on June 18. Parliament made him an additional grant of 200,000 (he had already received 500,000), and he was richly rewarded too by foreign sovereigns. The prestige of his victories made Wellington one of the most honoured men in Europe. The allied sovereigns unanimously appointed him to the command of the army that occupied northern France for the next three years, and it was mainly due to the influence of Wellington and Lord Castlereagh that France was saved from dismemberment after the Hundred Days. Wellington became prime minister of Great Britain in 1828. He made himself unpopular with the majority of his countrymen, however, when he did not oppose Catholic emancipation and the granting of rights to Roman Catholics and when he opposed reform of the voting system; and in 1830 his government fell. Wellington had won back much of his popularity by the time he retired from public life in 1846, and after his death he was buried under the dome of St. Paul's by the side of Lord Nelson. On April 10, 1806, Wellington had married Catherine Pakenham, Lord Longford's daughter, but they were uncongenial and lived apart a good deal, though there was no formal separation. She died at Apsley house on April 24, 1831. Their elder son, Arthur (1807-84), 2nd duke, edited his father's correspondence. born May 1, 1769, Dublin, Ire. died Sept. 14, 1852, Walmer Castle, Kent, Eng. Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, oil on canvas by Sir Thomas Lawrence. byname Iron Duke British army commander during the Napoleonic Wars and later prime minister of Great Britain (1828-30). He first rose to military prominence in India, won successes in the Peninsular War in Spain (1808-14), and shared in the victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Wellington twice reached the zenith of fame with a period of unexampled odium intervening. By defeating Napoleon at Waterloo he became the conqueror of the world's conqueror. After Waterloo he joined a repressive government, and later, as prime minister, he resisted pressure for constitutional reform. False pride, however, never prevented him from retreating either on the field or in Parliament, and for the country's sake he supported policies that he personally disapproved. In old age he was idolized as an incomparable public servant-the Great Duke. Reaction came after his death. He has been rated an over-cautious general and, once, Britain's worst 19th-century prime minister. Today there is widespread appreciation of his military genius and of his character as an honest and selfless politician, uncorrupted by vast prestige. Additional reading The Wellington Dispatches, published in three series (the 2nd and 3rd edited by Wellington's son), provide essential source material: John Gurwood (compiler), The Dispatches . . . from 1799 to 1818, new ed., 13 vol. (1887); and The Duke of Wellington (Arthur Richard Wellesley) (ed.), Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda, 15 vol. (1858-72, reissued 1973), and Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda . . . , 8 vol. (1867-80, reissued 1973). Other collections of correspondence include Great Britain, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, Wellington: Political Correspondence (1975- ), covering the years 1833-46; and The Duke of Wellington (Gerald Wellesley) (ed.), A Selection from the Private Correspondence . . . (1952), The Conversations of the First Duke of Wellington with George William Chad (1956), a slight but useful diary, and Wellington and His Friends (1965), containing selected letters to Mr. and Mrs. Arbuthnot and others.Two outstanding early biographies are Herbert Maxwell, The Life of Wellington, 6th ed., 2 vol. in 1 (1907); and Philip Guedalla, The Duke (1931, reissued 1976); however, they did not have the advantage of material published in Harriet Arbuthnot, The Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot, 1820-1832, 2 vol. (1950). G.R. Gleig, The Life of Arthur, Duke of Wellington, new ed. (1882, reissued 1907), and Personal Reminiscences, ed. by Mary E. Gleig (1904), are comprehensive but inaccurate. Valuable reminiscences by men who knew and admired Wellington are Philip Henry, 5th Earl of Stanhope, Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington 1831-1851, 2nd ed. (1888, reissued 1973); and Francis, the First Earl of Ellesmere (francis Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere), Personal Reminiscences of the Duke of Wellington, ed. by Alice Strafford, Countess of Strafford (1903). Collections of anecdotes proliferated after his death, the best being William Fraser, Words on Wellington (1889, reissued 1900). Two works by a relative, Muriel Wellesley, The Man Wellington Through the Eyes of Those Who Knew Him (1937), and Wellington in Civil Life (1939), pay tribute. Two unsympathetic portraits are C.R.M.F. Cruttwell, Wellington (1936); and Francis J. Hudleston, Warriors in Undress (1925, reissued 1969). Large-scale biography is found in Elizabeth Longford, Wellington: The Years of the Sword (1969), and its sequel, Wellington: The Pillar of State (1972).Studies specifically on his military capabilities and political career include Stephen G.P. Ward, Wellington's Headquarters (1957); Jac Weller, Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808-1814 (1962, reissued 1992), Wellington at Waterloo (1967, reissued 1991), and Wellington in India (1972, reissued 1993); Michael Glover, Wellington As Military Commander (1968), and The Army of the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsula (also published as Wellington's Army in the Peninsula: 1808-1814, 1977); Arthur Bryant, The Great Duke (1971); Paddy Griffith (ed.), Wellington Commander: The Iron Duke's Generalship (1985); Neville Thompson, Wellington after Waterloo (1986); Norman Gash (ed.), Wellington: Studies in the Military and Political Career of the First Duke of Wellington (1990); and Philip J. Haythornthwaite, Invincible Generals (1991), with one section dedicated to Wellington. Jacques Godechot The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica