Duke of Wellington - Napoleon's Nemesis Documentary

[Music] it is the 18th of june 1815 10 miles south of brussels at a village named waterloo a coalition army under the command of arthur wellsley duke of wellington is assailed by the resurgent forces of the french emperor napoleon after delaying his attack to late morning due to sodden ground the french emperor assaults the allied line and eight hours of bloody carnage ensue until by evening wellington's army is on the verge of defeat but then away to the east columns of troops appear and as they move closer napoleon realizes that the prussians under field marshal bleuka had come to his enemy's aid and after seeing his elite imperial guard turn and run in the face of wellesley's thin red lines napoleon bonaparte's final battle ends in retreat and defeat prompting wellington in the aftermath to state it has been a damned nice thing the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life [Music] the man known to history as arthur wellesley was born in dublin ireland on the 1st of may 1769 according to newspapers of the time however this date is after his recorded baptism date so it is probably the case that his birth date is actually earlier than this his mother and hill trevor came from a wealthy aristocratic banking family and was the daughter of arthur hill trevor first vi count dungannon after whom arthur was named and his father garrett colley wellesley first earl of mornington was a local politician and composer and was also professor of music at trinity college dublin the family were members of the protestant anglo-irish ruling classes in ireland as the country was at this time still under english rule but the protestant elite in ireland including the wellesleys lived separately from the catholic majority on their estates which did nothing but increase the already centuries-old resentment which the catholic irish had for their english overlords indeed the family spent their time living in their two homes one in dublin and the other at the family seat at dangan castle some 12 miles north west of the irish capital arthur was the third of six children and was generally considered by his family to be unintelligent but he would later become a gifted violin player possibly due to his father's influence and would continue to enjoy the playing of music until his early adulthood then in 1781 when arthur was 12 his father passed away aged only 45 this was disastrous for the family as he had left them nothing but a mountain of debt and it now fell upon the oldest son rich wellesley the new earl of mornington to deal with it resulting in the family's homes including dangan castle having to be rented out this essentially meant that the wellesley family now had to earn their way in the world and may have ironically been a blessing in disguise as it meant that their family had to work for their living which could at least in part explain the level of success arthur and his brothers achieved during their lifetimes thankfully for arthur his brother richard seems to have been shrewd in his judgments as he made the decision that the best way in which the family were to prosper going forward was by obtaining as good an education for his younger brothers as possible which resulted in arthur being sent to england's greatest public school eaton from 1781 to 1784. arthur hated eaton however and failed to shine academically resulting in his mother saying that she did not know what to do with him he was then sent to france to a military academy the french royal academy of equitation in the hope that he would blossom but he seemed to have been a shy lonely and idol young man and perhaps lacked the confidence to fulfill his potential but thankfully he soon became an accomplished horseman perhaps as a result of the military discipline he experienced at the academy and despite his close or possibly extramarital relationship with the governor's wife on his return from france his mother was astonished at arthur's transformation commenting that he had become a very charming young man and shortly afterwards due to his brother's connections he was brought to commission at the rank of ensign in the 73rd regiment of foot infantry and was then made aid to comp to the lord lieutenant of ireland in dublin but he soon started to fall back into his old habits of idleness and also started to gamble and so began racking up considerable debts [Music] shortly after this arthur stood in the 1789 election to become a member of the irish house of commons and after being elected served as a member of parliament for the borough of trim in which his family's estate dangan castle was situated until 1791 when he was made a captain in the 58th regiment of foot and was then transferred to the more prestigious 18th like dragoons some months later during this period arthur courted the baron of longford's daughter kitty pakhinam whom he had known since his childhood and when they first met the two were immediately attracted to each other kitty later stating that she had loved him from the moment she laid eyes on him but longford rejected arthur's proposal of marriage judging him to be too young and have little chance of a successful career wellesley was enraged by the rejection and resolved after the event to concentrate his efforts on his career in order to prove himself worthy of kitty's hand and this initial rejection along with his father's early death was another turning point in arthur's life as he had until this time shown little sign of promise but was now more determined than ever to show both his family and his doubters what he was capable of and as it turned out he didn't have to wait for long for such an opportunity [Music] since 1789 france had been in a state of economic crisis and revolution this was caused in part by the ruling classes being unwilling to pay their fair share of taxes or give the middle and lower classes a say in the country's governance who were by this time impoverished and in a state of near starvation and so king louis xvi was forced to relinquish absolute power in favor of becoming a constitutional monarch louis then attempted to flee france as did large portions of the french nobility but was captured tried for treason and guillotined in january 1793 resulting in the nations of europe who still had monarchies or constitutional monarchies being so alarmed by the rise of the country's lower orders that they formed the first coalition and declared war on the newly created french republic this in turn led to a period of near chaos as various french governments rose and fell in counter-revolutions until the country was unified under napoleon bonaparte in the late 1790s at this time britain was a member of the coalition against the french republic which resulted in the duke of york being sent to flanders to join the war in 1793 and arthur now a lieutenant colonel was sent to the continent a year later from ireland along with the 33rd regiment tasked with reinforcing the duke of york's armies but by the time of arthur's arrival the campaign had been largely decided and had resulted in the greatest defeat the british army had suffered since the american revolutionary war as well as this wellesley was involved in a number of defensive engagements against the advancing french forces in flanders which ultimately led to the army's withdrawal from europe back to england in 1795. the expedition's failure was in large part down to poor organization and logistics as many men died in freezing winter conditions which taught arthur the hard-won lesson of the vital importance of supply on military campaigns which he would become a master of later on in his career indeed wellesley later wrote regarding his experiences during the campaign quote at least i learned what not to do and that is always a valuable lesson the french republic was still able despite its domestic upheaval to triumph in the war of the first coalition in large part down to the growing progress of its military and the army's newly established meritocracy which involved the most able officers including napoleon being promoted to command replacing the old system of the purchase of rank which was prevalent under the monarchy wellesley now a full kernel was sent in 1797 with his regiment to india a voyage which would take nearly a year to complete and his time in the subcontinent would prove to be the making of him as he would become one of the key figures in britain's eventual subjugation of india by the late 1700s india was one of the key trading hubs in the eastern world which along with its rich and fertile landscape made it a prime target for the major western powers who were now vying with one another for the control of the western flow of indian goods and the british had by this time established a number of coastal territories in the subcontinent such as madras calcutta and bombay despite the french being present in india whilst the centre of the country was still the domain of various indigenous states such as the maratha confederacy and the kingdom of mysore in the south [Music] after his arrival arthur spent his first 12 months in india gaining knowledge of the country as well as his political situation and also training his troops so they were prepared as could be for any possible engagements as well as being acclimatized to the country's inhospitable climate then in 1798 wellesley received work that his eldest brother lord mornington had been made governor general of british territories in india which proved crucial to his forthcoming rapid advancement over the coming years indeed it could be said that if he had not been for his brother's appointment arthur would have had little chance of advancement in india which is almost certainly true but it also should be remembered that his later success was still more than anything down to his own intelligence and ability rather than just simply family connections britain's increased activity in india was in large part due to it wanting to acquire new territories after its loss in the american revolutionary war and it seems that lord mornington had been sent to india with a view to not only securing the british east india company's monopoly on indian trade but also to make india a british territory another important factor was the french as the british could not afford to allow them to expand their own territories in the region as it would risk the viability of britain's trade networks and possibly tilt the balance of maritime power which at the time was firmly in britain's favor in short the british felt the conquest of india was essential as if they themselves didn't control the subcontinent then another rival european power surely would a common modern misconception concerning the age of european colonialism is that the western powers purely conquered third world countries out of greed but in reality the land grabbed throughout the world was motivated by competition between the european nations who were terrified that their rivals would gain more territory and wealth which in turn could be used against them indeed there is a consensus of opinion among historians that the main reason for the european nations becoming dominant in the world was the intense and centuries-long rivalry and warfare between them as they were in an almost continual arms race with one another which inevitably meant that they were far more advanced technologically than other parts of the world one of lord mornington's first actions was to start preparations for the conquest of india his first target being the rich southern kingdom of mysore which was under the rule of tipu sultan the tiger of mysore who was also aided by an alliance with the french who supplied him with arms troops and supplies arthur was placed in charge of the logistical preparations for the forthcoming war drawing on his experiences in the failed british campaign in flanders to plan the supply of british forces to the best of his ability the force which was then sent to take mysore numbered in the region of 50 000 troops a considerable number of which were native indians the british army under the overall command of general george harris then advanced towards tibu sultan's capital of syringa patam but were blocked some 20 miles short of their objective by a portion of the sultan's army on the 27th of march 1799 and malaveli arthur commanded the left flank of harris's forces in the following battle which was attacked by a contingent of enemy infantry prompting him to move his troops into line and give the order to fire he then commanded his men to fix bayonets in charge forcing the enemy to retreat the battle of malaveli ended in british victory in which they forced the sultan's forces to withdraw towards their capital where the british then pursued them until saranga bataan was itself cut off and besieged on the 5th of may 1799 wellesley was then ordered to conduct a night attack on enemy positions outside of surrender patam but because of the darkness and lack of intelligence on the enemy position the attack ended with the british suffering nearly two dozen casualties and either himself receiving a minor wound to his knee the position was taken a day later but wellesley resolved after this to never again attack an enemy who was entrenched in a fixed position without having good reconnaissance after a bombardment of the fortress which lasted for some weeks a breach was made in the walls which allowed the british to invade tipu's stronghold and after heavy fighting sarenga patam fell and the sultan was killed and arthur was one of the first on the scene and confirmed tippu's death himself and so southern india was now under british control and arthur had gained valuable experience in the art of warfare also a day after the battle of saranga patam as a reward for his efforts he was given the responsibility of my soul's governance there had been widespread raping and pillaging by the british troops in the battle's aftermath and arthur restored order by having the ringleaders amongst the british forces hanged indeed wellesley soon gained a reputation for strict discipline during his three years governing mysore in which he clamped down on british corruption and lawlessness he once wrote quote if we lose our character for truth and good faith we have but little to stand upon in this country and these words would indeed prove to be accurate as over the next 150 years of british rule in india the population was steadily treated more and more harshly eventually resulting in india's move towards independence after the fall of mysore wellesley also had to put down a large-scale insurrection led by one of tipu sultan's followers commander dondiawag arthur led a combined east india company and british army force numbering around 8 000 troops to put down the uprising which ended in the battle of konagall on the 10th of september 1800 during the battle walk was killed in a cavalry engagement personally led by wellesley lord mornington was impressed by his younger brother's achievements and so sought to further arthas as well as his own reputation along with increasing british power by launching an attack on the greatest power in central india the maratha confederacy the marathas were a powerful coalition of smaller kingdoms which had during the 17th century replaced the mughal empire as the dominant power in the subcontinent and were at this time like the kingdom of mysore before them allied with the french wellesley who had now been promoted to the rank of general was in charge of the british forces and took it upon himself to see that the army's training and supplies were as well prepared as possible he did this by ensuring a constant supply of food and war materials by using boats and local wagons which carried the troops and the massive quantities of food on which his 25 000 strong force would depend then in august 1803 he launched an attack on the maratha fort which was quickly taken after his artillery breached its walls and he then sought to locate the main maratha army by splitting his forces in two the british advanced deeper into hostile enemy territory until wellesley then received intelligence of the location of the maratha army and planned to trap it between his two separate forces but as things turned out his own force was in very close proximity to the enemy and having surveyed their position he chose to attack despite being outnumbered by as many as four to one and the enemy possessing as many as a hundred cannons wellesley would later describe the following battle of assay as being the hardest of his career indeed it was definitely one of the most important as failure would have meant possible disaster for his own career and the fortunes of the british in the war the marathas were in a strong position across the river capina which lay in the path of the british advance but wellesley was able to cross the river downstream and attack the enemy in their left flank the british then formed a line with the cavalry close behind and engaged the enemy whilst wellesley rode up and down the british line ensuring that each regiment knew what was expected of it eventually after a series of hard-fought engagements and near-retreats the british managed to force the marathas to flee but were unable to pursue them as many of their men could hardly stand let alone walk or run due to exhaustion wellesley had risked everything in attacking the marathas but due to the experience he had gained during his previous years in india along with his logistical mastery and the training of his men he was able to claim victory despite losing a quarter of his army he then left his wounded behind in a nearby town and advanced further north once again inflicting a defeat on the marathas near agorm where wellesley inflicted over 5000 casualties on the enemy for less than 500 losses and then moved to besiege assault and captured the maratha fort of goligar on the 15th of december 1803 wellesley's victories along with another british campaign further north effectively ended the marathas hopes of maintaining their independence and they were then forced to accept british rule now a night of the order of the bath wellesley then set sail for home along with his brother in 1805 proclaiming that he had served more time in india than any man should and after returning to london wellesley was sitting in the waiting room in the secretary of war's offices when he came face to face with vice admiral horatio nelson who was by this time already a legend after his victory over napoleon's navy and the battle of the nile at first wellesley thought nelson to be arrogant as the admiral clearly didn't know who wellesley was but after nelson had seen the secretary of war he took time to speak to arthur once again and the two discussed the state of the colonies and the war situation against the french wellesley would later state that it was one of the most interesting conversations of his life but the two were never to meet again as nelson was killed less than two months later during his great victory at the battle of trafalgar arthur had not seen his childhood sweetheart kitty packing him for almost a decade and before leaving had promised to marry her after his return a promise which kitty's family now gladly accepted due to his growing reputation and success although she advised him to meet her before their marriage and when they did finally meet before the wedding arthur complained to his brother that she had grown ugly the marriage went ahead regardless on the 10th of april 1806 the ceremony presided over by wellesley's clergyman brother gerald despite the possibility that the marriage may have only taken place out of a sense of mutual duty and honor rather than love as kitty had not married in arthur's decade-long absence due to the fact that he had promised to prove himself to her family to win her hand the two were no longer the match they had been in their youth as kitty had after all had a sheltered upbringing whilst arthur had been on campaign and he had returned to england a completely different man but once married the two set up home in harley street and they remained married for 25 years and parented two sons named arthur and charles wellesley's first passion however would always be his career and soon after his marriage despite venturing once again into politics he sought to gain another command he was to get his chance in 1808 when he was appointed to command a 9 000 strong force which was to travel to south america tasked with attacking spain's colonies but both arthur and his army were then diverted to come to the aid of britain's ally portugal who'd been attacked itself by the combined forces of france and spain wellesley was at last to get the opportunity he had been waiting for to lead a british campaign on mainland europe but napoleon's armies in spain were formidable to say the least as the emperor was by this time in control of the majority of mainland europe and so once again arthur wellesley was outnumbered out-gunned and leading his troops in a foreign land but failure would mean the ruination of his name and would further strengthen napoleon's grip over the continent preventing the fall of portugal alone would require a near miracle to accomplish but wellesley as usual was unfazed by the momentous tasks that lay before him and in the summer of 1808 he set sail from ireland at the head of his army heading for portugal where either failure or fortune awaited him in the summer of 1808 western europe played under the heel of napoleon bonaparte emperor of the french empire and since his rise through the ranks of the french military napoleon had been crowned emperor in 1804 and had demonstrated his brilliance as a ruler by transforming france's governance and expanding french power with his legendary victories over france's european enemies but cracks were beginning to appear in napoleon's armor as he had lost control of the sea surrounding europe to the british in various defeats such as the battle of trafalgar and although napoleon had demonstrated himself to be a military commander almost without parallel in the first decade of the 1800s his now absolute power as emperor meant that the success of the french war effort was almost entirely dependent on him as he increasingly exerted dictatorial control over his territories and armies but the loss of maritime superiority to the british meant that the only means he now had of hurting his arch rival was through a european trade embargo which he then enacted in 1806 forbidding the countries of europe under his influence to engage in commerce with britain but one of the most important of the trading partners britain had on the continent was portugal who stubbornly continued to define napoleon's embargo which prompted him to send troops into spain who was a reluctant ally of france to essentially force them to deal with portugal portugal was soon overwhelmed by the joint french and spanish armies forcing his royal family to flee to south america and the country was thus divided between spain and france but unrest had grown within the spanish government and monarchy as its close ties with france and the loss of its navy at trafalgar had resulted in spain being isolated from its colonies which inevitably weakened his power the heir to the spanish throne the future ferdinand the seventh was strongly opposed to his father charles vi his alliance with the french and was also unhappy with his father for appointing manuel de de [ __ ] as spain's prime minister as he saw him as pro-french and so de de [ __ ] was then deposed in an uprising in the spring of 1808 which resulted in charles vi handing the spanish throne to ferdinand napoleon had by this time sent around a hundred thousand troops into spain he then sought to negate any possibility of spain reneging on its alliance with him by inviting charles vi and ferdinand to a meeting at which he forced them to give up their claim to the spanish throne and instead installed his brother joseph bonaparte as king of spain spain's ministers largely accepted napoleon's brother as king but the general population refused and widespread writing broke out throughout iberia resulting in thousands being shot by french troops and the start of the now famous and brutal guerrilla war against napoleon's forces this resulted in massive numbers of french troops being tied down in spain which greatly weakened napoleon's ability to fight at full strength in other parts of the continent the british then decided to come to the aid of the portuguese and he then sent one of his brightest young generals arthur wellesley to aid their oldest ally but upon arrival in portugal wellesley was given a letter stating that he was not to command the british forces in portugal as he had hoped but was instead to be subordinate to sir harry barrard and sir hugh dalrymple this meant that he would lose his chance to prove himself capable of command and wellesley then took it upon himself to confront the french before the aging generals arrived however borough did arrive offshore before wellesley could take action and refused arthur's plan to attack the french forces in portugal but thankfully for wellesley the french commander in portugal jean juno took the initiative by moving to attack the combined anglo-portuguese forces which forced the british to react wellesley then met and defeated the french in a minor engagement at rolica and then at the battle of romero on the 21st of august 1808 he had in the lead up to his deployment in portugal made a close study of french offensive tactics which usually consisted of dense infantry columns that marched towards an enemy and battered its way through or forced an enemy to retreat out of [ __ ] terror this method had proved itself to be staggeringly effective throughout europe and after thought it could be exploited he planned to do this by the use of sheer firepower and deduced that if the french advance towards an enemy in narrow and dense formations that long lines of well-disciplined british troops firing four to five times a minute should if they stood firm be able to out-shoot and therefore decimate the french columns this tactic combined with wellesley's strict discipline which ensured his troops feared his wrath more than the enemy along with his meticulous planning and mastery of the use of terrain brought him the success which would define his military career the battle of romero was the first example of this as the british infantry formed into a line simply mowed down the advancing french until they were in headlong retreat wellesley's new tactics have been vindicated but his jubilation wasn't to last as he argued with his superiors for the continuation of the offensive but barad and dalrymple sought to negotiate a truce with the french resulting in the defeated juno being allowed to withdraw from portugal without another shot being fired this caused outrage back home in britain resulting in barad and dalrymple and wellesley being recalled and they were then forced to justify the treaty with the french at a court of inquiry all three were cleared but a stain had been placed on them which would be difficult to remove wellesley then sought to redeem his name by writing numerous letters to influential people in the government and military which thankfully for arthur resulted in him being allowed to return to portugal and this time he was placed in sole command of the british forces on his arrival in lisbon he was greeted as a hero and he then set about planning the forthcoming war he saw to it that his army was supplied by the sea and forbade his men from taking any food from the portuguese population without payment this was in stark contrast to the french who often pillaged and looted the food they required from local populations resulting in the alienation of the people in the countries they were occupying after his arrival in lisbon in april 1809 wellesley quickly moved to retake the city of porto from marshall salt who had occupied it resulting in the second battle of porto in which the french were forced to retreat from portugal back into spain wellesley then pursued salt joining forces with the veteran spanish general gregorio de la cuesta resulting in them together meeting and engaging a french army under the command of jean-baptiste jordan at the battle of talavera in july of 1809. the allies were victorious at talavera but in the process lost over 7 000 troops and with considerable french reinforcements close by along with his supply lines being stretched to the limit wellesley had to withdraw back to portugal to rebuild his strength for over a year wellesley now vi count wellington waited in portugal as he received increasing intelligence that the french were preparing a large-scale invasion which he planned to counter by strengthening the defenses around the city of lisbon which became known as the lines of torres vedras these were comprised of concentric layers of defensive fortifications manned by local militia or armed citizens and royal marines was the main british army was left free to engage the french where and when they attacked when the invasion did come in 1810 the french under marshal andre messina who was one of napoleon's right-hand men was forced into a state of inertia as the lines of torres vedras were too formidable to invest his problems were compounded by wellington's scorched earth policy which meant that the foraging french troops had nothing to feed themselves with resulting in widespread starvation in the french army which prompted messines withdrawal from portugal leaving the bodies of tens of thousands of his troops behind him wellington then took the offensive in 1812 securing at considerable cost several fought on the portuguese spanish border one of which was badahos the taking of which resulted in the loss of nearly 5 000 allied troops as well as a massacre of spanish civilians by british troops wellington then advanced into spain itself and occupied the city of salamanca in july of 1812 just as a large french army under the command of august de mamo approached his position the two armies then faced off against each other across a wide plane between two hills neither commander being willing to commit to an attack until an opportunity for an advantage presented itself wellington then noticed that a portion of the french army had lost its formation and had become elongated whilst marching and so he immediately ordered an attack against which the enemy were unable to form a solid defense and this ultimately resulted in the french being forced to retreat after the battle the french were steadily pushed back until madrid itself was liberated and napoleon's armies ultimately retreated out of spain until 1813 when allied forces entered france itself this reversal along with napoleon's defeat in his invasion of russia and his subsequent defeats to allied armies in central europe at battles such as leipzig meant that the writing was on the wall in little over a year france had lost around three quarters of a million men on all fronts which ultimately resulted in napoleon being forced to abdicate the french throne and went into exile on the mediterranean island of alba in 1814 although it is certainly true that the french emperor's main defeats have been in central europe and russia his army's losses in spain had certainly played a considerable role in weakening his forces and the one person who more than anyone had been responsible for the victory in spain had been wellington on his return to london wellesley was awarded the title of duke of wellington and was then sent to vienna as the british delegate at a conference to decide the restoration of peace in europe but whilst at the conference word reached the allies the napoleon had escaped the island of alba landed in france and was again amassing troops to his banner once again napoleon would have to be defeated and wellington was seen by the coalition powers as the man to do it napoleon concluded that he had no chance defeating the massive coalition forces in a prolonged war and so resorted to attempt to defeat them one by one by first attacking the armies of prussia and britain which was situated in the lowlands of belgium hit amassed an army of nearly 130 000 men by the combined armies of prussia and britain would outnumber him nearly two to one and so he resolved to prevent them from joining forces and defeat each one in turn his army then crossed the river sombra south of brussels on the 15th of june 1815 and he sent a contingent of his army under marshall nay to secure the crossroad of quarter brat which was only lightly defended by a single brigade of dutch infantry commanded by the prince of orange wellington who was attending the duchess of richmond's ball in brussels in the early hours of the 16th of june was taken aback by the rapid french advance then immediately rushed south to reinforce the prince of orange nays forces had taken the crossroads by the time the british armies arrived but were pushed back in turn by wellington's forces however to the east napoleon had attacked the prussian army under marshall bluka and forced him to withdraw at the battle of leani he then sent another third of his army to pursue the prussians and joined up with marshall nay to attack the anglo-dutch forces under wellington the duke had time to get to know the terrain around brussels and decided to make a stand against napoleon's forces at a village named waterloo wellington then received an assurance from bluca that the prussian army would regroup and come to his aid which prompted him to stand and fight napoleon despite being outnumbered the duke then drew up his forces in a defensive position on a gentle slope with three farmhouses anchoring his left right and center meaning that napoleon would have to take them before he could bring his full weight against the allied army wellington's strategy was simply to play for time as he could only hope to defeat napoleon's army with bluka's support which was made more likely by ponaparte being forced to delay his attacks as the previous knight had seen heavy rain which had turned the ground in front of wellington's positions into a quagmire the attack then began at 1100 hours on the 18th of june 1815 with napoleon assaulting the allied right flank around the farm of hugemon intending to force wellington to send reserves to hold it so he could attack the allied center but the farm held out for hours forcing napoleon to resort to attacking wellington's center despite it being at full strength he attempted to soften up the enemy center with cannon fire and then ordered an infantry advance which was met with wellington's usual tactic of rapid firing lines which mowed down the french columns wellington then ordered a cavalry charge by his scots greys which trampled the now fleeing french infantry but the scots graves advanced too close to the french lines and were counter-charged by napoleon's lancers who cut the british cavalry to pieces then at around 1600 hours marshall nay thought he saw the allied forces beginning to withdraw towards brussels and ordered a mass cavalry charge to chase them down but he was mistaken as by the time his cavalry rode over the bridge upon which wellington's army was positioned they were confronted with dozens of infantry squares which was the standard formation infantry used to counter horsemen the french cavalry were then forced to weave in and out of the allied squares and were themselves shot down being unable to penetrate the enemy's infantry formations by this time the prussians were on the outskirts of the battlefield which forced napoleon to divert troops to counter them and weaken his center despite this the farm in the center of the battlefield la essante was taken which acted as an anchor from which the french could pound the allies with their artillery napoleon was by this time growing desperate and was forced to send his final reserves the elite and fearsome imperial guard which advanced towards wellington center this was the moment of truth napoleon had sent his best troops in column against him but if any general in europe knew how to deal with french columns it was wellington he ordered his men to stand form line and fire which after several volleys forced the imperial guard to retreat wellington then ordered the general advance and along with bluka's prussians forced the french from the field of waterloo ending any hopes napoleon had of regaining power in france wellington's victory at waterloo made him a hero throughout the continent and the sovereigns of europe lavished him with gifts and titles as a mark of their gratitude he had achieved everything he could have ever dreamed of achieving in military circles and could easily have retired safe in the knowledge that his name would have echoed down the centuries but arthur wellesley evidently had a great sense of duty as he then fell back on the profession that he had periodically undertaken previously in his life that being politics the british political landscape was by this time increasingly dominated by the ever-growing clamor for political reform by the lower classes which steadily grew and grew to near boiling point by the 1820s during the previous hundred years britain had become the world's first industrialized country and huge cities had sprung up in the midlands and northern england where the majority of the country's coal reserves were situated which was used as fuel for the steam-powered mills around which massive housing developments such as manchester then arose but the conditions which the british people had to live under in the new industrial cities were hellish far worse than the farms many of them had moved from in favor of a new urban life many protests were held and on one occasion in 1819 at saint petersfield in manchester cavalry was used to charge a group of thousands of protesters who were rallying in support of parliamentary reform wellesley being an old general who clamped down on unrest in his armies with the harshest of punishments supported the suppression of the so-called peterloo massacre as he was an ardent tory who along with his peers resisted any reforms to the established order as they greatly feared any repeat of the french revolution in britain the duke then served as a cabinet minister over the next decade and along with other titles was made commander-in-chief of the british army in 1827 but a year later after the fall of a weak party coalition in parliament wellington was summoned by king george iv who asked him to form a government the duke of wellington was now prime minister of great britain and he then set about his new office with the same eye to detail and discipline he had brought to his military career one of his more successful decisions was the passing of the roman catholic relief act of 1829 which gave full civil rights to catholics living in britain and ireland wellington later stated that the passing of the act was an achievement on a par with his victory at waterloo as he had to convince the king the house of lords the church of england and the population of its merits but being an old soldier the duke often failed to grasp at least at first the one of the most important aspects of politics was the ability to negotiate and so his refusal to listen to the now widespread clamor for political reform did nothing but fuel public anger against him until by 1830 there were widespread riots throughout the country and the king and his ministers including wellington were receiving death threats this then culminated in the sections of the tory party who had opposed the catholic relief act mounting a vote of no confidence against him and wellington then handed his resignation to the king in november of 1830 which the british monarch accepted george iv then invited lord gray leader of the whig party to form a government which then passed the great reform act which in turn increased the voting rights of the population wellington did not take part in the initial debates as his long-suffering wife kitty had died that year and after he had tried to block the wig's reform as tory leader of the house of lords he was forced to back down and let the various reform bills through this refusal to allow reform had made him a hated figure throughout the country and he was widely insulted and mocked in the press despite his past deeds he remained in politics but now wherever possible placed the good of the country above his own opinions seeking to avoid any possibility of future unrest wellington gradually became less and less involved in mainstream politics but the king did offer him the poster prime minister once again after the fall of the whig government in 1834 but he refused suggesting the lord peale the tory leader in the house of commons would be better suited for the role and so gradually wellington retired from public life spending more and more time at one of his estates at warmer castle on the coast of kent he did find time to sit for the odd portrait however and this amazing image is an actual early photograph of the duke of wellington in his early 70s but then on the morning of the 14th of september 1852 the duke who had been asleep as usual in his old campaign bed which he had used throughout his entire military career said that he felt unwell he was seated in a chair and then surely afterwards he lost consciousness and died despite him asking for a simple burial the outpouring of grief at his passing was so great that he was given a state funeral in which his coffin was hauled through the streets of london on a custom-built 20-ton funeral carriage in front of tens of thousands of mourning people until finally he was laid to rest in the crypt of saint paul's cathedral next to lord nelson the claim is often made that the duke of wellington was in some ways lucky to have won the battle of waterloo as without the prussians the french would have been victorious this is true to a certain degree as it is likely that the french would have won without prussian aid but it should be remembered that wellington fought the battle of waterloo because he correctly predicted that his army would be able to hold the french for long enough so the prussians could come into play indeed wellington is often dismissed as being merely a defensive or unimaginative general but these claims are often born out of a lack of knowledge concerning his career as an analysis of his battles and victories clearly reveals that he was as brilliant on the offensive as he was on the defensive although wellington is thought of as a kind of second-tier general under the likes of caesar or indeed napoleon when one looks at how competent he was in terms of his eye for detail the training and discipline he demanded of his men and his use of terrain not to mention his strategic and tactical skills arthur wellesley must certainly be one of the greatest british commanders of all time and is possibly one of the greatest commanders of all time full stop the fact remains however that there are very few people alive today who haven't heard the name wellington and do not also know that he was the man who finally defeated one of the greatest commanders of all time at the battle of waterloo what do you think of the duke of wellington was he an unimaginative commander and reluctant reformer or was he one of the greatest strategists and commanders that britain has ever had let us know what you think in the comments section and in the meantime thank you very much for watching we would like to draw your attention to our revamped patreon and buy me a coffee membership pages which contain 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Channel: The People Profiles

Views: 146,389

Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

Id: J-OvFIpdEI8

Length: 44min 0sec (2640 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 09 2020