Arthur Wellesley: The Iron Duke of Wellington

For centuries, the British Army was not held in very high esteem by the public. It was notorious for employing the dregs of society – poor, desperate men, prone to drunkenness and criminal behavior. Its officers were almost the exact opposite – foppish gentlemen who literally bought their way up the ranks. It was this army that Britain needed to use to contain the seemingly endless ambitions of the Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, who crushed countless armies sent against him and his Marshals, and he seemed destined to become the master of Europe. It was at this moment of crisis that a man almost single-handedly changed the course of world history through his skill on the battlefield. He took the British Army, full of fools and rogues as it was, and honed it into a deadly weapon that defeated every Marshal Napoleon sent against him. He helped drive Napoleon off his throne, was rewarded handsomely by his King with money and titles, and then, incredibly, was asked to take down Napoleon again when the man escaped from exile and reclaimed his crown. When the two men finally faced each other on the battlefield, it set up one of the greatest war stories the world had ever seen. Initially, Arthur Wellesley did not seem to be a very remarkable man. He was born on May 1, 1769, in Dublin, Ireland. He was the second son of an Anglo-Irish nobleman, Garrett Wesley, the Earl of Mornington. He grew up in Ireland, though the family, like most members of the Irish Protestant nobility, modeled themselves after the English aristocrats they were descended from. When Garrett died in 1781, Arthur's older brother Richard inherited his title as Earl of Mornington, along with all the landed estates. As was often the case with younger sons of noblemen, it left the question of what to do with Arthur. He was enrolled at the prestigious Eton College in England soon after his father's death. He hated it there. It was very lonely for him, being so far from his family, and the other boys made fun of him because of his Irish heritage. He left the school in 1784 and moved to Brussels with his mother, who became worried about him, telling friends, I don't know what I shall do with my awkward son, Arthur. Wellesley's opportunity for advancement came through the British Army. Serving in the military was considered an honorable profession for lesser sons of the nobility, assuming, of course, that you had the money for it. Unlike in the Navy, where officers were appointed and promoted based on merit and seniority, in the Army it was standard practice to purchase your commission, usually for an exorbitant sum of money that is the equivalent of tens of thousands of English pounds in today's money. The purchase system was put in place in the aftermath of the English Civil War in an effort to ensure that commoners like Oliver Cromwell would never be in a position to lead an army against the Crown again. As a result, the officer ranks of the British Army were almost exclusively filled with gentlemen, regardless of their actual martial ability. Wellesley was able to take full advantage of this system, along with his connection to his brother, the Earl of Mornington, to buy his way up the ranks until, in 1793, he was a lieutenant-colonel attached to the 33rd Regiment of Foot, raised in Yorkshire. This was as high as he could rise through the purchase system. Further promotion would have to be secured through merit or seniority, as even the British nobility recognized that allowing untrained officers to literally buy command of an army was a bad idea. Wellesley first got the taste of battle in 1794, when the 33rd Foot was sent to the Netherlands to join the army commanded by the Duke of York, attempting to contain the power of France, who was attempting to spread the ideals of the French Revolution to all of Europe by force. At the Battle of Boxstall, Wellesley and the 33rd acquitted itself well, repelling a French cavalry charge. But the campaign was a failure for the British, plagued by disease and incompetent leadership, and Wellesley returned to England in 1795. In 1796, Wellesley, newly promoted to colonel, was sent along with the 33rd Regiment to India, one of the most important strongholds of British trade in the world. India was a complicated place at the time. British interests were represented by the British East India Company, which started as an ordinary trading corporation, but by the 1790s had become essentially a law unto itself in India. The company controlled vast swathes of Indian territory, made alliances with neighbouring principalities and raised large armies composed of a mix of native Indian soldiers called sepoys and troops from Great Britain. Complicating this was the machinations of the French, who, recognising the importance of India to British commerce, constantly worked to undermine them. In 1798, a celebrated French general named Napoleon Bonaparte had landed with an army in Egypt and took control of the Ottoman province, which would give them access to the Red Sea and an ability to directly threaten British trade in India. Not satisfied with that, the French made an alliance with the powerful Indian Kingdom of Mysore. Mysore and its ruler, the Tipu Sultan, had long been an enemy of the British. Mysore had fought three wars already with them, and the idea of a French army in Egypt allying with a Mysorian army scared the British, who decided to conquer the Sultanate to prevent that from happening. Mysore had a well-trained army and, like many Indian princes, had European officers in its employ to train them in the modern style of warfare, especially French officers in the case of the Tipu Sultan. They also had a large store of Mysorian rockets, advanced projectiles that could be launched up to 2km, far more advanced than anything the British had at the time. The Tipu Sultan would be a formidable foe. In April, 1799, the British and their Indian allies invaded Mysore from all sides, converging on the capital, Seringapatam, which they put under siege. In command of the 33rd Regiment, and seconded as a division commander, was Colonel Arthur Wellesley. Wellesley wasn't well-liked by the other senior officers, who considered him young and inexperienced, a product of nepotism since his brother was the Governor General of India. This was further reinforced when Wellesley suffered a defeat at the hands of the Tipu Sultan's forces during the siege of Seringapatam. Sent to attack a small village outside the main fortress to clear way for the siege artillery, Wellesley's men got lost and stumbled into a Mysorian trap, coming under fire from a storm of musketry and the ever-present rocket explosives. The men were driven back in confusion, with several killed or captured. Wellesley himself was wounded in the knee and narrowly avoided capture. For another officer in his position, the humiliation might have meant the end of his military career. But thanks to the patronage of his brother, he was able to recover and took part in the final storming of the city in May, which resulted in the capture of the city and the death of the Tipu Sultan, marking the end of the war. Wellesley was named Governor of Seringapatam and stayed while most of the army withdrew, but he never forgot the defeat before Seringapatam. For the rest of his military career, he showed an immense dislike for night attacks and sieges in general, and tried to avoid both wherever possible. At the end of 1802, Wellesley was promoted to Major General and sent off to war again. To the north of Seringapatam was the powerful Maratha Confederacy, controlled by five chieftains that were constantly squabbling with each other. The British intervened in one of these power struggles, taking the side of Peshwa Bajo Rao II against the Daulat Skindia, the Raja Bara, and triggering the Second Anglo-Maratha War. General Wellesley was put at the head of a mixed army of native Indian sepoys and British regulars and sent north to destroy Sindia and Bara's combined armies. Like the Tipu Sultan, Skindia's army was large, but most were poorly trained, although it did have some 10,000 troops that were trained and commanded by European officers. The army itself was commanded by Anthony Pullman, a former sergeant in the British East India Company from the German province of Hanover who had deserted in the 1790s, lured by the lucrative rewards offered by the Indian princes for European soldiers. Wellesley split his army in two, with a smaller force commanded by Colonel James Stevenson to try and trap Pullman's army. After over a month of pursuit, the two received intelligence that their quarry was at Borkadan, some 30 miles to the north, and planned to combine their forces there on the 24th of September, 1803, to attack and destroy the Maratha army. However, the day before the planned meet-up, scouts reported that the Marathas had moved and were now in position directly in front of Wellesley's army, near the small village of Arsay. Wellesley, in command of 4,500 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, found himself confronting a army of 50,000. He knew that if he waited for Stevenson to join up with him, the army would move off, and the pursuit would drag on further, straining the British supply lines and possibly drawing the British forces into a disadvantageous position. The 34-year-old general had heard whispers from his colleagues that he was a product of nepotism, too young and inexperienced for such an important command. In order to make his reputation, he needed victory. So he resolved to attack the Marathas right there and then, without waiting for reinforcements. The idea was not as insane as it might sound at the outset. The Maratha army was large, certainly, but mostly composed of irregular infantry that Wellesley reasoned wouldn't stand up under fire. He had only the European-trained infantry to worry about. The Marathas were in a strong defensive position behind the river Kaipner, covering the only known ford in the area. However, Wellesley spotted twin villages on either side of the Kaipner, Pipagayan and Waror. They were small hamlets and didn't even appear on most maps. However, Wellesley reasoned that the only way two villages would exist on either side of the river like that is if there was a ford between them. Scouts soon confirmed the existence of the ford, and Wellesley decided to cross his army there. Wellesley initially attempted to flag Polman's army, but the Germans saw what he was doing and swung his army like a door hinge, rotating it 90 degrees to form a new line facing the British. Now it was Wellesley who was in the strong position, as both armies were on a narrow isthmus between the Kaipner and Chua rivers, which favoured Wellesley's smaller army. Wellesley ordered his infantry to attack, and they started off across the plains towards the Maratha position at Assay. The Marathas had more than 100 cannons, and they laid down a withering fire on the advancing British troops. However, the British withstood the pounding and maintained their formation, and charged the cannons, capturing them and killing the gunners. The right flank of Polman's line panicked and fled, and half of the Maratha army fled the battlefield before being engaged. Wellesley's right flank, on the other hand, was being hard pressed, and Wellesley sent in cavalry to support them. Amidst the violent encounter, it came to Wellesley's attention that some of the Maratha gunners who had pretended to be dead were now remanning their cannons. The general himself led a cavalry charge to recapture the gun positions, being unhorsed by a spearman and nearly killed in the melee. Polman had reformed his infantry, but when Wellesley formed up to attack them, they too broke and ran, giving Wellesley the field. The Battle of Assay was bloody in proportion to the numbers involved. A third of Wellesley's army was killed or wounded, and as many as 6,000 Marathas fell. It was also strategically very important on the outcome of the war, as afterwards many of Skindir and Baraa's men deserted, including many of their European officers, who accepted an amnesty from the British East India Company if they surrendered. Wellesley would win two more victories over the Marathas, as Aghwam and Gawalagur and Skindir and Baraa were forced to sue for peace. The campaign in India made Wellesley's career. For the rest of his life, he would maintain that Assay was his greatest victory. Napoleon, on the other hand, would refer to Wellesley as the Sepoy General, implying that his reputation was inflated by a series of victories over minor opponents. Wellesley would soon have a chance to prove the newly-crowned French Emperor wrong. And what a tease that was! We're going to escalate the conflict between Napoleon and Wellesley in just a minute, but first, here is a word from today's amazing sponsor, Squarespace. Now more than ever, people are getting creative with their time. They're reaching deep into their savings account to start a new business or launch a blog, a website of some kind. The world is yours with Squarespace, the perfect tool to help you fashion a website into whatever you want it to be. It's the platform to use when you're ready to get started on that web project you've been thinking about. You're looking to get in and out quick without thinking too much about what your website should look like? Bam! Use one of their quick and beautiful templates to make a website that's fresh and for you. Or maybe you're more of a hands-on person. You've got lots of opinions and ideas about exactly what your site should look like. Squarespace gives you all the customization options you could ever want, with no updates, no patches, no technical BS to worry about. And once you're done setting up your website, tinkering with the design if you're so inclined, or maybe just playing around with the colors, there are so many extra features that Squarespace provides so that your website can thrive. Email campaigns, patronage portals, social integrations, member-only areas, analytics, commercial options, 30% customer support. It's all in there, in one convenient place. So when you're ready to get started on the next web project of yours, big or small, if it involves a website, it's gotta be with Squarespace. Right now you can go to squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com forward slash biographics and you'll save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. And let's get back to the Duke. By 1805, Wellesley was tired of India, had spent seven years there, and was ready to go home. He requested a transfer, and when his brother's tour as Governor General of India ended, the two returned to England on board the same ship. For the next three years, Wellesley dabbled in politics while also participating in military adventures in Russia and Denmark. Raised a Lieutenant General in 1808, he was put in command of an expeditionary force of 9,000 men that was supposed to attack Spanish colonies in South America. But at the last minute, his force was diverted to Portugal. Little did he realize it at the time, but events had just been set in motion that would consume Wellesley's life for the next seven years and turn him into a national hero. In 1808, Napoleon Bonaparte was master of Europe. The French Emperor had decisively defeated both the Austrians and the Prussians, had control of all of Italy and much of Germany, and had just concluded a treaty with Russia. His only real opposition left came from Great Britain. The two countries were in an awkward stalemate because, while Britain couldn't hope to match Napoleon's powerful army, neither could France mount any effective opposition to the British Navy, which was the undisputed master of the seas. The cream of the French naval fleet had been destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar in October of 1805, and with no way to counter the British Navy, Napoleon was unable to invade Britain, standing his army on the wrong side of the English Channel. Napoleon tried to undermine the British by again attacking their commercial interests, just as he'd attempted to do in Egypt ten years earlier. This time, Napoleon devised the Continental System, which tried to block trade between Britain and the countries of mainland Europe. He enforced this system at bayonet point, threatening to invade any country that didn't comply. His threats didn't impress the country of Portugal, located on the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal was one of Great Britain's oldest and longest standing allies, and the country's economy depended heavily on foreign trade. Further, Portugal was separated from France by the country of Spain, which, while France's ally, didn't seem likely to permit French troops to march all the way across their country to get to Portugal. Finally, Great Britain promised to defend Portugal if it was attacked. Napoleon, however, in his usual spectacular fashion, turned on his ally and invaded Spain, deposing the government in Madrid and placing his brother Joseph on the Spanish throne. He also occupied Portugal, forcing the Portuguese royal family to flee into exile in Brazil. Great Britain intervened, and Wellesley was the first general to arrive in Portugal. With a combined British and Portuguese army, he defeated the forces of French General Jean and De Juno at the Battle of Rolica and Banheiro in August, 1808. However, immediately after the two battles, Wellesley found himself superseded in command by the Governor of Gibraltar, General Hugh d'Arimple. d'Arimple undermined everything Wellesley had done by signing an agreement with General Junot, the Convention of Sintra, that stipulated that the French army would be evacuated from Portugal on board British ships, complete with all their arms, their cannons, and even the booty they'd stolen from the Portuguese during the invasion. The Convention of Sintra caused outrage in Great Britain, and both d'Arimple and Wellesley were recalled to face a court of inquiry over the whole affair. Meanwhile, Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula himself, at the head of his Grand Army, decisively defeating the British at Caruna in January, 1809, killing the British commander, Sir John Moore, in the process. d'Arimple was blamed for the entire affair, and would never hold a field command again. Wellesley, who had vehemently opposed the agreement his superior had made, was cleared of all wrongdoing. At a loss for what to do next, the British Secretary of War, Lord Castle Ray, received a memo from Wellesley that stated that he believed that Portugal was still an ideal place for Britain to carry on the war against the French, that Lisbon should be their base of operations because it could be protected by the Royal Navy. Castle Ray agreed, and sent Wellesley back to Portugal in April, 1809, this time in command of all British forces in theatre, a position he would hold for the rest of the war. Wellesley immediately went on the offensive. Portugal had named him commander-in-chief of their army, as well as the British one, and he quickly combined them together into one integrated army. Less than a month after his arrival, he led his new army north from Lisbon, and routed Marshal Jean de Deux Seul's army at Porto, liberating Portugal's second city. Seul's army escaped, but had to abandon their artillery and baggage in the process. With Portugal cleared, Wellesley advanced into Spain and linked up with the Spanish army commanded by General Gregorio Cuesta. Cuesta proved a rather ineffectual ally, however. He routinely promised supplies to the British and didn't provide them, and he arrogantly believed that he knew more about military strategy than everyone around him, including Wellesley. At the same time, his army was poorly trained. At one point during the campaign, as Wellesley and the other Anglo-Portuguese officers watched, the entire battle line of Spanish soldiers fired a cacophonous volley at a small group of French scouts who were out of range, causing no damage. Terrified by the noise of their own volley, four entire battalions of Spanish soldiers – over 2,000 men – fled the field in a panic, looting the British baggage train on their way out. The next day, the 28th of July, 1809, Wellesley faced off against the French Marshal Jourdan at the Battle of Talavera. This was far larger in scale than any battle Wellesley had fought before. He commanded an army of 55,000 British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops against 46,000 French. Wellesley held his ground while Jourdan sent his army forward in three great columns, a tactic Napoleon had perfected over the years as being able to smash through enemy formations like a hammer blow. But Wellesley, who had studied Napoleon's battles extensively, showed off for the first time his counter to the attacking columns, putting his troops in a defensive position on a hill, arranging them in two deep firing lines, and taking advantage of superior British musketry training, concentrating an almost continuous volley of fire onto the approaching columns until the French panicked and retreated. This is what happened at Talavera, and at the end of a bloody day of fighting that saw 15,000 combined casualties, Wellesley was in command of the field. The victory at Talavera was celebrated all over Britain, and Wellesley was raised to the British peerage named the Viscount Wellington of Talavera. But Wellington, as he was now known, couldn't afford to rest on his laurels. Soon after his victory, he was forced to retreat into Portugal. The supply situation had become untenable as Wellington's Spanish allies failed him completely. He was incensed to discover that not only had Cuesta refused to help him defend Portugal against another incursion by Marshal Sowe, but that Cuesta had also abandoned 1,500 wounded British soldiers left in his care and were captured by the French. 1810 saw Wellington under threat from a massive new French army commanded by Marshal André Messina. Messina was one of Napoleon's most celebrated Marshals, and had been given orders by the Emperor to sweep the British out of Portugal. Wellington was forced to retreat before Messina's forces, though he was able to briefly check the Marshal's advance at the Battle of Barcego on the 27th of September. British opinion of the army was low, and there was speculation that the whole Portuguese adventure would have to be called off. But Wellington wasn't beaten yet. Messina arrived at Torres Vedras in October of 1810 to discover that his army had run into a literal wall. The British had, in complete secrecy, constructed an elaborate line of forts and redoubts that chained together the mountains across the entirety of the Lisbon Peninsula. The lines of Torres Vedras had an effective communication system and interior lines all along it to rush defenders to any threatened portion. But the Portuguese had adopted a scorched-earth policy before the lines, removing or destroying any food, fodder, or shelter for miles, evacuating a quarter of a million civilians to positions behind the lines. Messina was completely baffled, and found himself stuck in a position as winter set in. When Messina finally retreated back into Spain in March 1811, he had lost 21,000 men to starvation and the elements. The lines of Torres Vedras marked the high-water mark of the French advance, while Wellington's army emerged from behind them in the spring of 1811 and never used them again. When Wellington emerged from behind the lines of Torres Vedras, he did so at the head of an army that was beginning to be honed into a powerful weapon. The average British soldier came from a very poor background. Many had criminal records and were given a choice between joining the army or going to prison. Others joined because the only alternative was starving. Wellington, like most of the upper class, considered these men to be rogues, prone to drunkenness and debauchery, and thus needed to be disciplined harshly. However, Wellington also respected their ability as soldiers and praised them for fighting well in battle. Wellington found himself at the head of a multinational army, eventually consisting of British, Portuguese, and Spanish soldiers, in addition to troops from the German province of Hanover, who formed the King's German Legion. His ability to negotiate the complications of this coalition force was just as important as his tactical skill on the battlefield. Equally important was his conviction not to throw away the lives of his soldiers needlessly. He excelled as a defensive general, able to pick his ground and force the enemy to attack him. In 1811, after chasing the French army out of Portugal, Wellington laid siege to the strategic border fortress of Almeida, the first of three strongholds he needed to capture in order to secure his invasion route into Spain. He took Almeida in May, 1811, after the French abandoned it, with most of the garrison able to avoid capture, much to Wellington's anger. He then took the French by surprise in January, 1812, advancing through a snowstorm to lay siege to and capture the second fortress, Ciudad Rodrigo, before the French had a chance to send a relief force. Now Wellington went south, knowing he had to capture the third fortress to secure his line of communication and supply into Spain. Unfortunately, Badajoz was the most difficult of the three to take. It boasted a modern wall bristling with cannons and manned by a garrison of 5,000 French soldiers. Wellington's army put the city under siege in March, 1812, and made three breaches in the walls. On the night of April 6th, Wellington ordered his troops to assault Badajoz and attack the breaches. Since the French knew they were coming, they had prepared all sorts of nasty surprises for the British assault troops, including mines, ditches, sharpened stakes, and, of course, plenty of cannons and muskets. The storming of Badajoz was a violent affair, compounded by the small space in which the battle was fought. Two hours of attacks had produced nothing but carnage for the British, until two attacks with ladders on the flanks of the fortress that were only supposed to be diversions unexpectedly succeeded in entering the city and capturing the breaches from behind. The victorious British ran wild through the city, raping and killing Spanish civilians and fleeing French soldiers, looting and burning homes, an orgy of violence and destruction that wouldn't be fully stopped for three days. Daybreak on April 7th revealed why the soldiers had been so bloodthirsty. The site of the breaches was filled with bodies stacked on top of each other like firewood. Blood soaked the ground and ran in the ditches like streams. Over 2,000 British soldiers lay dead or dying in the relatively small space, part of 4,800 total casualties sustained during the assault. The normally composed Wellington broke down and wept when he viewed the carnage. But despite the high cost, Wellington now had the keys to Spain in his pocket, and he intended to use them to push the French out of Spain once and for all. The Battle of Badajoz After capturing Badajoz, Wellington intended to advance into Spain, but first he needed to deal with a French army commanded by Marshal Auguste Marmont, who had replaced Messina. After months of maneuvers, the two armies met at Salamanca on the 22nd of July. Both armies were roughly the same size, about 50,000. But Wellington took advantage of a mistake in positioning by Marmont and caught the French by surprise, inflicting a decisive defeat on them. 14,000 casualties to the Allies' 5,000. It was said that Wellington had defeated an army of 40,000 in 40 minutes. The victory forced the French out of the Spanish capital, Madrid, which was occupied by the Allies. It also convinced the Spanish, who had been mistrustful of their allies, to make Wellington commander of all their armies, the Generalissimo. But Wellington was unable to capture the strategic fortress of Badajoz, despite laying siege to it. force, Wellington was compelled to retreat again towards Portugal. By the time the campaign of 1813 began, the strategic picture of the entire war had changed. Napoleon's invasion of Russia the year before had ended in disaster, when his grand army was virtually destroyed. The defeat prompted the previously defeated countries of Austria and Prussia to rise up against Napoleon again, joining together with Russia, Sweden and the Allied countries fighting in Spain in a new coalition against the French. There would be no more reinforcements sent to Iberia. In fact, the Emperor started moving troops out of Spain to reinforce his increasingly pressed armies in Germany. Wellington, on the other hand, had a reinforced and well-organized army of 120,000 British, Spanish and Portuguese soldiers. With it, he attacked not east, as he did in 1812, but north, towards the Spanish city of Santander, a port city on the Bay of Biscay. Only then did he advance east, not to meet the French army, but to attempt to cut it off from France. The French army retreated, abandoning central Spain, trying to avoid being outflanked. It was nominally headed by King Joseph Bonaparte, though he left operational control to his Marshals. But the King's presence meant that the army carried with them not only equipment needed to make war, but also all the treasure that the French had amassed since their invasion – perhaps as much as $100 million in today's money. Wellington caught up with the French at Vitoria on the 21st of June, 1813. In the battle that followed, the French army was completely routed. It suffered 8,000 killed, wounded or captured, and the rest fled the field in panic, abandoning over 150 artillery pieces to the enemy. French casualties might have been worse, but the victorious British troops stopped pursuing the fleeing French in order to loot the baggage train, which had also been abandoned. Wellington continued to push, and by the end of the year had thrown the French out of Spain entirely and had invaded southern France. He had just captured the city of Toulouse, when word came in on the 12th of April, 1814, that Napoleon, his position untenable as the combined Russian, Austrian and Prussian armies captured Paris, had abdicated and the war was over. The news prompted the austere Wellington to break out into an impromptu flamenco dance. As is victories mounted in Spain, Wellington was rewarded with increasingly prestigious titles of nobility. First Viscount, then Earl, then Marquis and, finally, on the 3rd of May, 1814, he was created as the first Duke of Wellington. He was also promoted to the army's highest rank, Field Marshal, the only one in active army service. He was also hailed as a conquering hero in Britain, the most successful British general since the Duke of Marlborough some hundred years earlier. The Prime Minister wanted to send him to North America to beat the United States in the War of 1812, but Wellington felt he was needed more in Europe. Instead, he was named the British Ambassador to the Congress of Vienna, convened to carve up Europe in the post-Napoleon world. Everything changed on the 26th of February, 1815, when Napoleon, exiled to the island of Elba in the Mediterranean Sea, escaped and returned to France. The restored French monarchy crumbled under the onslaught of renewed support for Napoleon and, by May, he had regained control of the country. The Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon an outlaw and all the major powers of Europe resolved to, once again, put their armies in the field to remove him from power. Wellington, appointed to command British forces, left Vienna for the Netherlands, where British troops were being combined with Dutch and small German state forces into an allied army that would fight alongside a Prussian army commanded by General Gebhard von Blücher. They were planning to wait there until July, when the Russian and Austrian armies would join them and they would all invade France together as an overwhelming force. Napoleon, figuring that if he defeated both the British and the Prussian armies in turn, he could force the coalition to the negotiating table, marched first. He invaded the Netherlands on the 15th of June, catching Wellington and Blücher by surprise. The first part of Napoleon's plan worked well. He prevented the two armies from combining together and beat the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny on the 16th of June, forcing them to retreat. Believing the Prussians to be out of the fight, Napoleon now turned on Wellington, who moved his army to a position he believed he could defend, a ridgeline just south of the Belgian town of Waterloo. On the 18th of June, the two armies faced off against each other in one of the greatest battles ever fought on European soil. If you want a detailed play-by-play of the Battle of Waterloo, you should check out our The short version is that it was gargantuan in scale, involving more than 200,000 soldiers by the day's end. And it was bloody. 65,000 were dead, wounded, or missing. Napoleon had made two key mistakes at Waterloo that would prove to be his undoing. First, he had underestimated Wellington. Despite being warned about him by his marshals, who had fought and been beaten by him, the Emperor dismissed him as an opponent unworthy of respect, the sepoy general who fought sitting on his arse. He believed he could be easily swept aside. Second, the Prussians hadn't retreated. By mid-afternoon, they had appeared on the battlefield at Waterloo, catching the French in the flank, just as the British, who had not been swept aside but were still occupying the ridgeline they'd held all day, defeated an attack spearheaded by the wanted French Imperial Guard. The collapse of the Guard triggered a rout of the entire French army, and just like that, it was all over. Wellington and Blucher were masters of the field, and Napoleon was finished. Less than a week after the battle, he had abdicated again, never to return again to power, and after over 20 years of almost continuous conflict, Europe was at last at peace. Wellington was already a hero before the Battle of Waterloo, when his victorious armies had marched over 6,000 miles across Spain and Portugal and defeated a parade of French marshals and a king, too. But after defeating Napoleon, he crossed into the realm of legend, at the same level as Admiral Horatio Nelson, who had decisively defeated the French Navy at Trafalgar ten years earlier. The nations of Europe lined up to throw honours at him. He eventually acquired field marshal batons from eight different countries, and was bestowed with noble rank or honours by 18 nations. Reportedly, if he had affixed all the medals he'd earned to his uniform, it would have been too heavy to wear to war. But Wellington, after over 20 years of military service, had grown tired of war. Riding amongst the slaughter of the Battle of Waterloo, he wept, and was heard to say … I pray to God, I have seen my last battle. True to his word, he never saw combat again. Returning to England, Wellington discovered that not only was he one of the most influential men in the Kingdom now, but he was also one of the most admired. It became fashionable to dress, as Wellington did while on campaign, and the man soon found himself at the centre of London politics. Yes, it seemed everyone got along well with the war hero, except, unfortunately, for his wife. Wellington had married Catherine Kirti Pakenham in 1806, and she had borne him two children, Arthur and Charles. However, Wellington soon made it clear that he found her to be unpleasant company, and the marriage was not a particularly happy one. The two spent much of their time apart. Wellington had been in Spain for years during the war, while Kirti had remained in London. Instead, Wellington was known to enjoy the company of other women, a fact that was hardly a secret in London society, even being lampooned in the press. When one publisher wrote a letter asking the Duke for money in exchange for not publishing the lurid memoirs of one of his mistresses, Wellington supposedly responded to the blackmail attempt by replying, Publish and be damned. Nevertheless, Wellington became an increasingly important member of the Tory party, until, in 1828, he was made Prime Minister, one of the last members of the House of Lords to serve in that role. His ministry was dominated by the issue of Catholic emancipation. For almost 300 years, ever since King Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and founded the Church of England, Catholics and Protestants had battled for influence and power in Great Britain. The issue was seemingly decided in the Protestants' favour when the Catholic King James II was deposed in favour of the Protestant King William III. To keep their hold on power, the Protestants had passed what was known as Penal Laws, harsh discriminatory regulations designed to make Catholics second-class citizens within the Kingdom. While most of the more harsh measures had been repealed by the 1820s, there were still laws on the books banning Catholics from serving in most public offices. They could be judges, sheriffs, or sit in Parliament. Wellington had grown up in Ireland, which was majority Catholic, and many of his best soldiers in Spain were Irish. He had great sympathy for their plight, and as a result, he pushed hard for the repeal of these laws, which was accompanied with the passing of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, despite vigorous opposition from within his own party. However, Wellington's government was brought down in 1830 when a wave of civil unrest prompted by the unfair rules government's election to the House of Commons that were heavily tilted in favour of the rich and powerful swept the country. Parliament voted on a vote of no confidence in Wellington's ministry, and Wellington resigned in November. The Death of the Duke of Wellington Wellington remained an important political figure as the Tory party transformed into the Conservative party led by Sir Rob Peel. He would serve as a Cabinet Minister in Peel's government, and as the Conservative leader of the House of Lords until his retirement in 1846. He also served as an advisor to the young Queen Victoria. The Duke of Wellington died on September 14, 1852, in Kent at the age of 83 from a stroke. His body was transported by train to London, where he was honoured with a state funeral, the first since Admiral Nelson in 1805. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral next to Nelson, who he had met once a few weeks before the Admiral's death, and had a long conversation with him. The legacy of the Duke of Wellington is enormous. His name adorns everything from the capital city of New Zealand to a popular style of boots. His military tactics inspired a generation of military scholars and generals, and can be seen most clearly in the campaigns of Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War. Most importantly, his victory over Napoleon ushered in an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity on the European continent that lasted until the outbreak of the First World War a century later. With less focus on military campaigns and destruction, the European nations instead focused on industrial outputs, and later on social welfare. It was an incredibly transformative period that likely would not have been possible without the work of one man who rose from obscurity to become perhaps the greatest soldier the United Kingdom has ever seen.