Teign u3a great Lives 2014/15

Start of military career

In 1793 Arthur finally decided that his future was with the army and he resigned as MP for Trim. He was then deployed with the 33rd Foot Regiment to Holland to join the allies against France in Belgium. The French forced the allies back to Holland where Wellington was commended for an action at Boxtel.

Arthur was now a full colonel at the age of 27. When his unit was called up to India he had to follow later as he was suffering from a recurrent fever. During the sea voyage to India Arthur spent his time studying maps and reading a lot of military manuals, and also Voltaire, Rousseau, Plutarch, Locke, and Swift.

India

The British dependencies in India were Bengal, Madras and Bombay. Wellington's first big campaign was against the Muslim leader Tipoo Sultan (nicknamed the Tiger of Mysore). With the backing of the French, Tipoo was arming Indian troops to resist the British.

Wellington and the 33rd Foot were sent to Seringapatam with a large force under Generals Harris and Baird to deal with the problem of Tipoo. They laid siege to the city and the 33rd Foot were sent in under cover of night to clear out an outpost of Indian troops. Due to lack of information many soldiers were killed and Arthur only just escaped with his life. This made Arthur Wellesley determined to make sure that in future they would have good intelligence about enemy positions.

After Seringapatam the generals got £150,000, Wellington received £4000 and the sepoys and Indian surgeons received £5 each. These were the spoils of war which the winners distributed after their campaigns. Arthur's last battle in India was at Argaum in 1803. Arthur next deployment should have been to Egypt, but he did not travel as he had a fever caused by the "Malabar itch.” The ship he should have travelled on went down with all hands.

At the end of 1805 he finally left India with a fortune of £42,000 consisting mainly of prize money. He returned to England as Sir Arthur Wellesley.

Back in England he was put in charge of troops in Hastings and elected as MP for Rye. He married Catherine (Kitty) Pakenham in Ireland in April 1806. Their first child Arthur was born in 1807 and their second son, Charles in 1808. Catherine and Arthur were not really suited as husband and wife as she hated his work because it took him away from home. She was also jealous as he was also a bit of a ladies man, and women found him attractive. He and Kitty spent a lot of time apart. For the 6 years he was in the Peninsula he never came home once and when he was home they had separate rooms. Kitty was devoted to their two young boys and also their 4 adopted children. She lived until 1831 and died in April of that year with Wellington at her side.

Wellington continued as an MP in England first at Rye then at Mitchell in Cornwall and finally Newport in the Isle of Wight. He then returned to active service against the French led by Napoleon Bonaparte. At the end of 1806 Napoleon closed all continental ports to British trade and wanted Denmark and Portugal to surrender their fleets to him. Britain couldn't allow France the use of these ships, so they requested that Denmark place her fleet in Britain's safe custody. They refused, Britain attacked and Copenhagen surrendered. The British people were not happy at the way the government had attacked a neutral country and the government and the army were not popular.

Peninsula Campaign

Late in 1807 France, under Napoleon Bonaparte, declared war on Portugal, marched through Spain and captured Lisbon. The next year he invaded Spain and put his brother Joseph on the throne.

In 1808 Arthur and his troops were sent to Portugal to fight the French and won the battle of Vimeiro. The Convention of Sintra was signed despite Arthur's objections, and the French were allowed to leave Spain taking everything that they had looted from Portugal and all their weapons. The British navy gave them a lift to La Rochelle. The two generals and Arthur had to face an enquiry in England as the treaty was considered a disgrace. All three men were cleared. Arthur returned to active duty but the Generals Burrand and Dalrymple were quietly asked to retire.

When Arthur Wellesley returned to Portugal he found that the French army had returned and were stationed at

Oporto. The British marched north and drove off the French at Talavera. Wellington then went south to protect Lisbon from General Soult who was preparing to cut Lisbon off from the British. Around Torres Vedras, Arthur built fortifications that stretched 25 miles to the Atlantic coast. This enabled the British army to get supplies brought in by sea and also be protected by the British Navy.

In 1812 Wellington won the battles of Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz in Spain. Wellington’s army then marched on Salamanca where the French army were severely beaten, and therefore silenced Wellington's critics in the British parliament. The next siege, at Bourgas in the north, failed and Wellington returned to Portugal to regroup. In 1813 they again marched north into Spain and beat Joseph Bonaparte's army at Vitoria. They captured his baggage train containing his art collection which now adorns the walls of Apsley House (Wellington's house) in London. Wellington then took San Sebastian and Pamplona crossed into France and met the French army at Toulouse. Napoleon soon after abdicated and an armistice was signed by Marshall Soult on April 17th 1814. At the end of the peninsula conflict Wellington had accumulated a series of titles. In 1809 after Talavera he was made Viscount Wellington and Baron Douro of Wellesley. After Cuidad Rodrigo he was made an earl, and after Salamanca he was made a Marquess, and a grant of £400,000 was made to him by the government.

When he finally left Spain he was the Duke of Wellington and returned to England to take his place in the House of Lords.

In 1815 he was made ambassador to the restored Bourbon court of Louis XVIII. He represented Britain at the Congress of Vienna in Paris in February 1815 with representatives from Russia, Prussia and Austria with the main aim of stabilizing Europe.

However before this agreement was even ratified Napoleon escaped from Elba. It took him only 23 days to assume power in France. His intention was to invade Belgium and his plan was to split the British and Russian armies in Belgium before they were joined by the Austrians and Russians. Napoleon succeeded in keeping the two armies apart but made the mistake of believing that the Prussian Army was defeated and had fled. He advanced to la Belle Alliance across the valley from Wellington and the Allies. The battle was won by the allies when Blucher's Prussian Force join them at Waterloo. Napoleon had delayed his attack at Waterloo because of the bad weather allowing the Prussian force to arrive in time to support Wellington. Wellington called it "a damned near run thing". Napoleon was exiled to St Helena and died there in 1821.

After the huge loss of life at Waterloo, Wellington wrote to Lady Frances Stanley saying that "next to a battle lost the greatest misery is a battle gained". He had had enough of war and returned home in 1818 at the age of 49.