94 Facts About Duke Wellington

Duke Wellington is among the commanders who won and ended the Napoleonic Wars when the coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Duke Wellington was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive lords lieutenant of Ireland.

Duke Wellington was elected as a member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons.

Duke Wellington was a colonel by 1796 and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam.

Duke Wellington 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.

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Duke Wellington is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses.

Duke Wellington is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, and many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world.

Duke Wellington was twice British prime minister as a member of the Tory party from 1828 to 1830 and for a little less than a month in 1834.

Duke Wellington oversaw the passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832.

Duke Wellington continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.

Duke Wellington's siblings included Richard, Viscount Wellesley ; later 1st Marquess Wellesley, 2nd Earl of Mornington, Baron Maryborough.

Duke Wellington went to the diocesan school in Trim when at Dangan, Mr Whyte's Academy when in Dublin, and Brown's School in Chelsea when in London.

Duke Wellington then enrolled at Eton College, where he studied from 1781 to 1784.

Duke Wellington was transferred to the new 76th Regiment forming in Ireland and on Christmas Day, 1787, was promoted lieutenant.

Duke Wellington became a major by purchase in the 33rd Regiment in 1793.

Duke Wellington understood that the failure of the campaign was due in part to the faults of the leaders and the poor organisation at headquarters.

Duke Wellington remarked later of his time in the Netherlands that "At least I learned what not to do, and that is always a valuable lesson".

Duke Wellington hoped to be given the position of secretary of war in the new Irish government but the new lord-lieutenant, Lord Camden, was only able to offer him the post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance.

Duke Wellington resolved "never to attack an enemy who is preparing and strongly posted, and whose posts have not been reconnoitred by daylight".

Duke Wellington took residence within the Sultan's summer palace and reformed the tax and justice systems in his province to maintain order and prevent bribery.

Duke Wellington defeated the rebel warlord Dhoondiah Waugh in the Battle of Conaghull, after the latter had escaped from prison in Seringapatam during the battle there.

Duke Wellington had been gazetted on 29 April 1802, but the news took several months to reach him by sea.

Duke Wellington's intelligence reported the location of the Marathas' main army, between two rivers near Assaye.

Duke Wellington established high regard for the acquisition of intelligence through scouts and spies.

Duke Wellington reported to the office of the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies to request a new assignment.

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Some 30 years later, Duke Wellington recalled a conversation that Nelson began with him which Wellesley found "almost all on his side in a style so vain and silly as to surprise and almost disgust me".

On this second discussion, Duke Wellington recalled, "I don't know that I ever had a conversation that interested me more".

Duke Wellington then took a period of extended leave from the army and was elected as a Tory member of the British parliament for Rye in January 1806.

Duke Wellington fought at Køge, during which the men under his command took 1,500 prisoners, with Wellesley later present during the surrender.

Duke Wellington knew about command from the ground up, about the importance of logistics, about campaigning in a hostile environment.

Duke Wellington enjoyed political influence and realised the need to maintain support at home.

Duke Wellington stressed its mountainous frontiers and advocated Lisbon as the main base because the Royal Navy could help to defend it.

Duke Wellington's pursuit was hindered by a series of reverses inflicted by Marshal Ney in a much-lauded rear guard campaign.

In 1811, Massena returned toward Portugal to relieve Almeida; Duke Wellington narrowly checked the French at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro.

In 1812, Duke Wellington finally captured Ciudad Rodrigo via a rapid movement as the French went into winter quarters, storming it before they could react.

Duke Wellington then moved south quickly, besieged the fortress of Badajoz for a month and captured it during the night on 6 April 1812.

On viewing the aftermath of the Storming of Badajoz, Duke Wellington lost his composure and cried at the sight of the British dead in the breaches.

Duke Wellington's army now was a veteran British force reinforced by units of the retrained Portuguese army.

Duke Wellington routed the French at the Battle of Salamanca, taking advantage of a minor French mispositioning.

Duke Wellington was later made Marquess of Wellington, in the said county on 18 August 1812.

Duke Wellington attempted to take the vital fortress of Burgos, which linked Madrid to France.

Duke Wellington withdrew his army and, joined by the smaller corps under the command of Rowland Hill, which had been moved to Madrid, began to retreat to Portugal.

In 1813, Duke Wellington led a new offensive, this time against the French line of communications.

Duke Wellington struck through the hills north of Burgos, the Tras os Montes, and switched his supply line from Portugal to Santander on Spain's north coast; this led to the French abandoning Madrid and Burgos.

When troops failed to return to their units and began harassing the locals, an enraged Duke Wellington to write in a famous despatch to Earl Bathurst, "We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers".

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Duke Wellington then forced Soult's demoralised and battered army into a fighting retreat into France, punctuated by battles at the Pyrenees, Bidassoa and Nivelle.

Duke Wellington invaded southern France, winning at the Nive and Orthez.

Duke Wellington received some recognition during his lifetime and the Spanish King Ferdinand VII allowed him to keep part of the works of art from the Royal Collection which he had recovered from the French.

Duke Wellington's victory fitted well with the passion and intensity of the Romantic movement, with its emphasis on individuality.

Duke Wellington was appointed Ambassador to France, then took Lord Castlereagh's place as first plenipotentiary to the Congress of Vienna, where he strongly advocated allowing France to keep its place in the European balance of power.

Duke Wellington left Vienna for what became known as the Waterloo Campaign.

Duke Wellington arrived in the Netherlands to take command of the British-German army and their allied Dutch, all stationed alongside the Prussian forces of Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher.

Duke Wellington mistook the movement of casualties to the rear for the beginnings of a retreat, and sought to exploit it.

Bulow sent the 15th Brigade to link up with Duke Wellington's left flank in the Frichermont–La Haie area while the brigade's horse artillery battery and additional brigade artillery deployed to its left in support.

Duke Wellington's centre was now on the verge of collapse and wide open to an attack from the French.

Luckily for Duke Wellington, Pirch I's and Zieten's corps of the Prussian Army were now at hand.

Zieten's corps permitted the two fresh cavalry brigades of Vivian and Vandeleur on Duke Wellington's extreme left to be moved and posted behind the depleted centre.

Duke Wellington then stood up in Copenhagen's stirrups, and waved his hat in the air to signal an advance of the Allied line just as the Prussians were overrunning the French positions to the east.

Duke Wellington entered politics again when he was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance in the Tory government of Lord Liverpool on 26 December 1818.

Duke Wellington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army on 22 January 1827 and Constable of the Tower of London on 5 February 1827.

Duke Wellington moved in only because his own home, Apsley House, required extensive renovations.

Duke Wellington's term was marked by Roman Catholic Emancipation: the restoration of most civil rights to Roman Catholics in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Duke Wellington was born in Ireland and so had some understanding of the grievances of the Roman Catholic majority there; as Chief Secretary, he had given an undertaking that the remaining Penal Laws would only be enforced as "mildly" as possible.

Duke Wellington had threatened to resign as prime minister if King George IV did not give Royal Assent.

Nickname "Iron Duke Wellington" originated from this period, when he experienced a high degree of personal and political unpopularity.

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Duke Wellington stuck to the Tory policy of no reform and no expansion of suffrage, and as a result, lost a vote of no confidence on 15 November 1830.

The Whig Government fell in 1832 and Duke Wellington was unable to form a Tory Government partly because of a run on the Bank of England.

Duke Wellington was never reconciled to the change; when Parliament first met after the first election under the widened franchise, Duke Wellington is reported to have said "I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life".

Duke Wellington was gradually superseded as leader of the Tories by Robert Peel, while the party evolved into the Conservatives.

Hence, Duke Wellington acted as interim leader for three weeks in November and December 1834, taking the responsibilities of prime minister and most of the other ministries.

In Peel's first cabinet, Duke Wellington became foreign secretary, while in the second he was a minister without portfolio and Leader of the House of Lords.

Duke Wellington was re-appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Army on 15 August 1842 following the resignation of Lord Hill.

Duke Wellington served as the leader of the Conservative party in the House of Lords from 1828 to 1846.

Duke Wellington worked to transform the Lords from unstinting support of the Crown to an active player in political manoeuvring, with a commitment to the landed aristocracy.

Duke Wellington used his London residence as a venue for intimate dinners and private consultations, together with extensive correspondence that kept him in close touch with party leaders in the Commons, and the main persona in the Lords.

Duke Wellington gave public rhetorical support to Ultra-Tory anti-reform positions, but then deftly changed positions toward the party's centre, especially when Peel needed support from the upper house.

Duke Wellington's success was based on the 44 elected peers from Scotland and Ireland, whose elections he controlled.

Duke Wellington retired from political life in 1846, although he remained Commander-in-Chief, and returned briefly to the public eye in 1848 when he helped organise a military force to protect London during the year of European revolution.

Duke Wellington became Chief Ranger and Keeper of Hyde Park and St James's Park on 31 August 1850.

Duke Wellington remained colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot from 1 February 1806 and colonel of the Grenadier Guards from 22 January 1827.

Kitty died of cancer in 1831; despite their generally unhappy relations, which had led to an effective separation, Duke Wellington was said to have been greatly saddened by her death, his one comfort being that after "half a lifetime together, they had come to understand each other at the end".

Duke Wellington had found consolation for his unhappy marriage in his warm friendship with the diarist Harriet Arbuthnot, wife of his colleague Charles Arbuthnot.

Duke Wellington died at Walmer Castle in Kent, his residence as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and reputedly his favourite home, on 14 September 1852.

Duke Wellington was found to be unwell on that morning and was helped from his campaign bed, which he had used throughout his military career, and seated in his chair where he died.

Duke Wellington's death was recorded as being due to the after-effects of a stroke culminating in a series of seizures.

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Duke Wellington was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, and during his funeral, there was little space to stand due to the number of attendees.

Duke Wellington's casket was decorated with banners which were made for his funeral procession.

Duke Wellington was renowned for the quality of the wine that he drank and served, often drinking a bottle with his dinner.

Duke Wellington was eating a chicken leg while observing the manoeuvres of the French army through a spyglass.

Duke Wellington spotted an overextension in the French left flank, and realised that he could launch a successful attack there.

Duke Wellington shed tears after Waterloo on the presentation of the list of British fallen by Dr John Hume.

In 1824, one liaison came back to haunt him, when Duke Wellington received a letter from a publisher, John Joseph Stockdale offering to refrain from issuing an edition of the rather racy memoirs of one of his mistresses Harriette Wilson, in exchange for money.

Duke Wellington was a remarkably practical man who spoke concisely.

Duke Wellington has often been portrayed as a defensive general, even though many, perhaps most, of his battles were offensive.