Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS (né Wesley; 1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish military officer and statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures in Britain during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, serving twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He is among the commanders who ended the Anglo-Mysore Wars when Tipu Sultan was killed in the fourth war in 1799 and among those who ended the Napoleonic Wars in a victory when the Seventh Coalition defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Wellesley was born into a Protestant Ascendancy family in Ireland. He 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. He was also elected as a member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. Rising to the rank of colonel by 1796, Wellesley saw service in the Low Countries and India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Siege of Seringapatam. He 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.
Rising to prominence as a general officer during the Peninsular War, Wellesley was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading British-led forces to victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon's first exile in 1814, he served as the British ambassador to France and was made Duke of Wellington. During the Hundred Days campaign in 1815, Wellington commanded another British-led army which, together with the Prussian Army under Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington's battle record is exemplary; he ultimately participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career.
Wellington is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest commanders in the modern era,[2] and many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world. After the end of his active military career, Wellington returned to politics. He 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. Wellington oversaw the passage of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, while he opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued to be one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the Forces until his death.
- ^ Gifford (1817), p. 375.
- ^ Bodart 1908, p. 789.