Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley (formerly Wesley) was an Anglo-Irish British Army officer and statesman whose principal military commands fell in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, and whose later career included senior cabinet office and two terms as Prime Minister. He was born in Dublin on 1 May 1769, the third surviving son of Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and Anne Hill-Trevor. After education in Ireland and at Eton, and training at Angers in France, he entered the British Army in 1787. He served in Ireland in the early years of his commission and sat as a member of the Irish House of Commons (1790–1797).

In 1794–1795 he served with British forces in the Low Countries during the Flanders campaign. In 1797 he departed for India, where his military and administrative responsibilities expanded. He served in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War, including operations culminating in the fall of Seringapatam (1799), after which he held posts connected with the settlement and administration of territories taken from Mysore, including responsibilities in Mysore and Seringapatam. During the Second Anglo-Maratha War he held independent command and fought at Assaye (1803), Argaum (1803), and the storming of Gawilghur (1803), and he concluded further operations associated with the reduction of Maratha forces in the Deccan. He returned to Britain in 1805.

Wellesley combined military and political roles in the years immediately preceding his Peninsular command. He sat in the House of Commons at Westminster (1806–1809) and served as Chief Secretary for Ireland (1807–1809). In 1807 he took part in the expedition to Denmark and commanded in the action at Køge during the campaign connected with the British attack on Copenhagen.

In 1808 he was sent to Portugal following the French occupation, assuming command of British forces and fighting at Roliça and Vimeiro. After the Convention of Cintra he briefly left the theatre, returning in 1809 to resume command in Portugal. In that year he conducted the operation crossing the Douro at Porto and fought at Talavera while operating in conjunction with Spanish forces. From 1809 he held the principal British command in the Iberian Peninsula and was appointed marechal-general and commander-in-chief of the Portuguese army, directing its reorganization and employing Anglo-Portuguese forces as a combined field army. In 1810, faced with the invasion led by Masséna, he fought at Bussaco and withdrew behind the Lines of Torres Vedras, holding the Lisbon position until the French army retired in 1811. In 1811 he fought at Fuentes de Oñoro and continued operations along the frontier while coordinating with British and Portuguese forces and Spanish allies. He was promoted to full general in 1811.

In 1812 he resumed Major offensive operations, taking Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and then advancing into Spain, defeating Marmont at Salamanca and entering Madrid. In connection with operations in Spain and Portugal he received foreign honors and titles, including the Spanish Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) and Portuguese peerage titles, culminating in the Portuguese duque da Vitória (1812). In 1813 he renewed the advance from Portugal into Spain, defeating Joseph Bonaparte at Vitoria and forcing the French withdrawal from central Spain; he was promoted to field marshal in 1813. He then carried the campaign over the Pyrenees and into southern France, conducting operations that included actions on the Nivelle and the Nive and fighting at Orthez and Toulouse in 1814. In 1814 he was raised in the British peerage to the dukedom as Duke of Wellington.

After Napoleon’s first abdication, Wellington served as British ambassador to France and was a British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. On Napoleon’s return in 1815 he was appointed to command the Anglo-allied army in the Low Countries. He fought the opening actions of the campaign at Quatre Bras and commanded at Waterloo (18 June 1815) in cooperation with the Prussian army under Blücher. Following the campaign he commanded allied forces during the occupation of France.

Wellington continued to hold senior military and political responsibilities after the wars, including service as Master-General of the Ordnance and as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. He served as Prime Minister (1828–1830; briefly in 1834) and remained an influential figure in cabinet and parliamentary affairs for decades. He died on 14 September 1852 at Walmer Castle, Kent, and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

Sources

• Britannica: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Wellesley [formerly Wesley], Arthur, first duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
• National Army Museum: Wellington: The Iron Duke
• GOV.UK: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (Past Prime Ministers)
• UK Parliament: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
• Royal Collection Trust: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852)
• English Heritage: Apsley House Collection Highlights
• National Portrait Gallery: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• Wikipedia (English): Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Sir Thomas Lawrence, oil on canvas, c. 1815–1817, Apsley House (The Wellington Collection), London.