History UsefulNotes / TheDukeOfWellington

* Creator/RupertEverett portrays him in 2023's ''Film/{{Napoleon|2023}}''.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever 1st Duke of Wellington, KG KP GCB GCH PC FRS]] (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), was a British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. His defeat of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britain's military heroes. He is often referred to as one of the greatest English generals of all time, except that he was Irish. Indeed his real name is Arthur Wesley, he added the "lle" later. His supposed response (not recorded until after his death) to people pointing out his Irish birth [[note]] His mother, Anne Wellesley, Countess of Mornington; and his father, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, were Ango-Irish [[/note]] was something along the lines of 'If a man is born in a stable, that doesn't make him a horse', a sentiment which didn't stop him marrying an Irish woman or the Irish building a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Monument,_Dublin 200 ft tall monument in his honor]]. To be fair, his comments stemmed from a dislike of the Protestant and often power-abusing Irish aristocracy rather than the "normal" Irish (Catholic or Protestant),[[note]]Compare how ''Series/SpittingImage'''s famous song "I've Never Met A Nice South African" is directed against UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica's [[AmoralAfrikaner European-descended settler minority]] during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, not against the native Black population that they oppressed.[[/note]] whom he regarded as reasonably good soldiering material and thought no worse of than the "normal" English, Scottish or Welsh (which is to say, he didn't think of them very often), to the point where the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1832 was one of his key political achievements.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever 1st Duke of Wellington, KG KP GCB GCH PC FRS]] (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), was a British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. His defeat of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte at the [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars Battle of Waterloo]] in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britain's military heroes. He is often referred to as one of the greatest English generals of all time, except that he was Irish. Indeed his real name is Arthur Wesley, he added the "lle" later. His supposed response (not recorded until after his death) to people pointing out his Irish birth [[note]] His mother, Anne Wellesley, Countess of Mornington; and his father, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, were Ango-Irish [[/note]] was something along the lines of 'If a man is born in a stable, that doesn't make him a horse', a sentiment which didn't stop him marrying an Irish woman or the Irish building a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Monument,_Dublin 200 ft tall monument in his honor]]. To be fair, his comments stemmed from a dislike of the Protestant and often power-abusing Irish aristocracy rather than the "normal" Irish (Catholic or Protestant),[[note]]Compare how ''Series/SpittingImage'''s famous song "I've Never Met A Nice South African" is directed against UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica's [[AmoralAfrikaner European-descended settler minority]] during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, not against the native Black population that they oppressed.[[/note]] whom he regarded as reasonably good soldiering material and thought no worse of than the "normal" English, Scottish or Welsh (which is to say, he didn't think of them very often), to the point where the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1832 was one of his key political achievements.

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever 1st Duke of Wellington, KG KP GCB GCH PC FRS]] (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852), was a British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain. His defeat of UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 put him in the top rank of Britain's military heroes. He is often referred to as one of the greatest English generals of all time, except that he was Irish. Indeed his real name is Arthur Wesley, he added the "lle" later. His supposed response (not recorded until after his death) to people pointing out his Irish birth [[note]] His mother, Anne Wellesley, Countess of Mornington; and his father, Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, were Ango-Irish [[/note]]
was something along the lines of 'If a man is born in a stable, that doesn't make him a horse', a sentiment which didn't stop him marrying an Irish woman or the Irish building a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington_Monument,_Dublin 200 ft tall monument in his honor.]] To be fair, his comments stemmed from a dislike of the Protestant and often power-abusing Irish aristocracy rather than the "normal" Irish (Catholic or Protestant),[[note]]Compare how ''Series/SpittingImage'''s famous song "I've Never Met A Nice South African" is directed against UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica's [[AmoralAfrikaner European-descended settler minority]] during UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra, not against the native Black population that they oppressed.[[/note]] whom he regarded as reasonably good soldiering material and thought no worse of than the "normal" English, Scottish or Welsh (which is to say, he didn't think of them very often), to the point where the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1832 was one of his key political achievements.

* Creator/ChristopherPlummer portrayed him in ''Film/{{Waterloo}}''.

* VisualInnuendo in this satirical cartoon about the Duke's womanising. [[http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_229051/Isaac-Cruikshank/The-Master-of-the-Ordnance-exercising-his-Hobby What a big cannon he's got.]]

* Creator/RupertEverett portrays him in 2023's ''Film/{{Napoleon|2023}}''.

* Appears as a secondary character in ''Literature/JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrell'', as a ReasonableAuthorityFigure with NervesOfSteel who regards the entire city of Brussels being teleported to the Great Plains of America just prior to the Battle of Waterloo (Strange having essentially panicked) with little more than a raised eyebrow and a request to one of his aides to go and enquire of some Native American warriors he sees riding past if they'd like to join the battle the next day. His management style (once he is convinced of Strange's usefulness) mostly consists of telling Strange what magical thing he wants done, then leaving Strange to sort out the details, which makes him both a difficult and a supportive authority figure to Strange: when the latter seems to go completely insane, Wellington retains unwavering faith in him (partly because he reckoned that Strange was a bit weird to begin with) and stating that he won't be a problem or a threat to Britain - as it turns out, [[spoiler: he's completely right]]. Gets his own short story, "The Duke Of Wellington Misplaces His Horse", in the followup short story collection ''The Ladies of Grace Adieu''.

His full list of KnightFever titles, detailed at his death, was so long that it warrants its own section on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_titles_and_honours_of_Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington#Funeral the Wikipedia page dedicated to his honours]]. He received no less than eight Field Marshal's batons, of which seven (the Russian one was stolen in 1965 and has not been recovered) are on display at his former London townhouse of Apsley House, now run by English Heritage and mostly open to the public except for the 9th Duke's family apartments.

Apsley House also includes a ''lot'' of famous artwork - when Wellington's troops recovered part of the Spanish royal collection from Joseph Bonaparte who was fleeing back to France, he offered them back to King Ferdinand VII - and was told he could keep them!

* Has a fairly prominent role in the fifth book of the Literature/{{Temeraire}} series, ''Victory of Eagles''.

His full list of KnightFever titles, detailed at his death, was so long that it warrants its own section on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_titles_and_honours_of_Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington#Funeral the Wikipedia page dedicated to his honours]]. He received no less than eight Field Marshal's batons, of which seven (the Russian one was stolen in 1965 and has not been recovered) are on display at his former home

He was Tory Prime Minister 1828-1830 and again for less than a month in 1834. He also named a third ministry: the short-lived first Cabinet of UsefulNotes/TheEarlOfDerby in 1852 was the first time the Protectionist wing of the Conservative Party had governed, and so had a lot of new names (e.g. UsefulNotes/BenjaminDisraeli); when these unfamiliar names were read out in the Lords, the ageing and hard-of-hearing Duke interjected, "Who? Who?", and behold! the First Derby Ministry is forever known as the "Who? Who? Ministry". His political career is much less famous and far less celebrated mostly because it casts him in a less-than-positive light by modern standards, such as [[http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/137984/revealed-why-wellington-was-no-friend-jews his anti-semitism]] which led him to veto a bill that provided increased rights for Jews.[[note]]"... this is a Christian country and a Christian legislature, and that the effect of this measure would be to remove that peculiar character...I see no ground whatever for passing the Bill; and shall, therefore, vote against it."[[/note]] Indeed his general opposition to parliamentary reform earned him the nickname the Iron Duke, and while [[AppropriatedAppellation later supporters appropriated this sobriquet]], it was originally an insult. So unpopular was the Duke, that his house windows were smashed by supporters angry at his opposition of a Reform Bill. In response, [[IResembleThatRemark the Duke put in place iron shutters to better protect his home]]. The unrest provoked by the Duke's tone-deaf remarks on parliamentary reform, known as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_May Days of May]]", is generally regarded as the closest Britain has ever come in the post-Napoleonic era to a ''revolution''; unsurprisingly, despite the Duke's opposition, the 1832 Reform Bill was passed by the Whigs,[[note]]which they were able to do in large part because the King, seeing the aforementioned threat of revolution, got the Lords to back down on their opposition to the bill by threatening to create enough new Whig peers to ''force'' the bill through; this would not be the last time this tactic was used[[/note]] though the Duke was bitter about its passage. Ironically, the impetus for the Reform Act partly came from a legislation to improve the lot of Catholics in Ireland [[HoistByHisOwnPetard which the Duke had passed]] in the teeth of serious opposition. Fearing increased rights for the Irish catholic community, a faction of the Tories allied with the Whigs to get the Reform Act passed.

[[caption-width-right:300:Portrait by Thomas Lawrence, c. 1815-16]]