Early life
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852), was probably Britain's greatest military commander, but he was also perhaps one of her worst prime ministers. Fortunately his premiership was only short-lived, and its failings were more than made up for by the splendour of his wartime career. At a time of peril, when his country most desperately needed victories, this great soldier never lost a battle.
Wellesley was born in Dublin, the fourth son of the 1st Earl of Mornington. He always denied being Irish, however, saying that being born in a barn does not make someone a horse. He felt he was not truly Irish because he hailed from the Anglo-Irish aristocratic 'Protestant Ascendancy' that ruled Ireland until the partition of 1922.
'...his mother decried the idea of a military career for him, believing him to have no aptitude for soldiering...'
He was educated first at Eton, where he learned little except perhaps how to use his fists, and then - probably due to lack of funds because of his father's early death - at school in Brussels. He entered the French military academy at Angers, in Anjou, in 1786. Although his mother decried the idea of a military career for him, believing him to have no aptitude for soldiering, he was commissioned as a lieutenant in an infantry regiment in 1787 and became a captain of dragoons five years later.
In the meantime he was elected to a seat in the Irish parliament, but took as little interest in politics as he initially did in soldiering, preferring to idle his life away socialising and playing the violin. Indeed, he might have spent his entire life as a wallflower attending the picnics of the Irish Lord-Lieutenant as an aide-de-camp, had not the French executed King Louis XVI in 1793, prompting Wellesley suddenly to take his life and career seriously. He burned his violin in his fireplace, and became a lieutenant colonel of the 33rd Foot Regiment, in which capacity he saw his first action at Boxtel in the Netherlands campaign in 1794, and then fought again at Geldermalsen the following year.
Published: 2001-01-01
Bookmark with:
What are these?