Wellington lecture 2012 | To war with Wellington | UoS

thank you thank you very much thank you very much indeed and everything in my life seems to be happening at Southampton right now Eddie oh we should go on ten days ago but Mayor and I many others were saying goodbye to an old Nelson of the square rigged ship that's going around the world for the doobly sailing trust my son's bought a house on the Solent expensive one to run I managed to do that and when I have a boat round the corner from here I came here to look at the wellington papers once I started getting excited by the idea of doing a project of the Duke of Wellington and of course only I think two or three years ago in this very lecture hall I heard that great master of lecturing all the Duke and many other military subjects coverage at Holmes who so sadly passed away in the a few months ago effectively seems to be and that was a great loss to us all but what I didn't do is talk to you about this extraordinary story that ends already mentioned he was undoubtedly for me the most particulars matchless tactician and strategist of all time he wasn't first about the kind of thing that his great opponent was fast about conquering all sorts of other countries grandly their parading in the in the diplomatic and a political world he was a man who was absolutely single mindedly dedicated to defeating the enemy the government of the side was the enemy which was across the poem Bonaparte they never met they never fought each other until of course the great Battle of Waterloo in which Napoleon was decisively defeated so what many think the poem was one of the greatest perhaps the greatest military evolved of all time but he when he met his master at Waterloo he was completely outsmarted now what excited me about this story about the earlier writing this book about studying Wellington was the fact that all the people who fought with him throughout his campaign many many of the brief there diaries and memoirs and books about how what they experienced what they made of what it was like to fight in those battles the horrific conditions in which they had to fight the appalling medical conditions and of course most importantly we get we hear from them what they thought of of Arthur Wellesley himself the Duke of Wellington he was extraordinary he was he was a he was a a haughty man with a run along there is he used to look down that long those of his rather arrogant Lear people and he didn't fall suffer fools gladly he did the people in his armies I suspect didn't love him very much but by god they respected him because he won every battle he ever fought he was extraordinary master of timing and ground on a battlefield and he also had a fascinating private life many people think that Wellington was just a soldier . he won of course later great politician a soldier that's of ideation but he had really very little very little character necessarily apart from this this extraordinary cause self-confidence I think that's quite wrong there are many occasions in his in his in his life and in his campaigns when we see that he was a deeply emotional man as well and one who give vent to great feeling about the kind of thing with his his efforts and others were leading to on the battlefield and of course he was a great ladies matters I will tell you as well now the story really begins in 1808 Napoleon occupied Spain and Portugal probably the biggest mistake he ever made and he put on the throne of Spain his brother Joseph a highly important fellow who made a complete nonsense of it and Spain and Portugal rose in rebellion against the podium and this gave Britain a huge opportunity for the periodic Wars course Napoleon was moving to take over most of the rest of Europe apart from Britain where which Nelson had 10 years earlier effectively same for the country with his tremendous and it was decided in London very quickly really when the rebellions began in Spain in Portugal but here was a huge opportunity to get Napoleon on land we done it at sea there was a chance to get a tip on land and so we decided to send a expedition under arthur wellesley a general a youngest general at the time who'd had a very distinguished career in india which looked that many people knew a great deal about but he had learnt a huge amount about military strategy and tactics in India so he came back with by the distinguished Indian history behind him and he was sent off with a fairly small army about 15 17 thousand men to Montego Bay and Portugal to see if he'd get a foothold in Portugal and start pushing the French back and so he ships pulled up in the outside Montego Bay cash to Portugal anybody who was sail all there but it's appalling as this dead-straight was just the odd little Bay like bomb Diego Bay and there you get one or two ships got right in she could anchor there this chaps unloaded but most of the ships were out at sea rolling around and quite a swell and people like Jonathan leach from The Rifles young chap who had very little military experience really although he was more experienced than some he was very upset because the swell will be the rocking of the ship from side to side pushed the wineglasses onto the floor a chateau boom so here's this young chap getting I'm thinking it's all going a bit of a doll or beating these Frenchmen and who they really have on some wine and bread fun little didn't there what was to come there he was complaining about the wine glasses being shattered so there we are mum there you go babe and wells their lands with his chaps up upon Diego Bay halfway between a Porto and Lisbon there are the guys the Redcoats huge heavy uniforms it was so sweaty all was the first 1808 incredibly hot within moments the lovely red uniforms are covered in dust they were carrying most of them their muskets some had rifles some had muskets very few had rifles the advantage of having rifle was quite considerable those of your who know about these things will never be the musket has an effective range of little more than 50 meters maybe a hundred if you were lucky the rifle had arranged two or three times that 200 to 300 meters who could kill someone with a rifle you pretty unlikely the he's even dead on with a musket so most of them are carrying their muskets 70 rounds of musket balls and all that heavy creates as well it was a hell of a sweat getting down that coast but they marched on towards Lisbon to see if they could find the French and they found the French at the mirror and the Frenchman that they found there was general and Arjuna robber arrogant chap who thought this is ridiculous these Brits think they're doing stepping on the land did they have never heard of Austerlitz and gala and more grim predictions what they think they're doing and and oh shoot I lost his chaps up from Lisbon which of course the French how old because they they've beaten they've been oppressed and conquered the Portuguese and Spanish and he marched up and it was assumed that he would march up the coast it was flat of the coast of suitable hilly and awkward inland so Wellesley planted his chaps along there you see the red slabs are Wells Lee's brigades and here comes through though not up the coast from the South but southeast he came up the southeast Wellesley took one look he had a few scouts out and they said general coming up not from the south and the southeast so well they said who right it'll switch the guys around quickly which he did didn't take long very very fast master of territory said to rein in this guy and he occupied that Ridge that you see going up there towards ventoso in the northeast and he left one Brigade down there facing south just in case but most of them move heaps shifted over facing southeast thank God he did because that was where and or Schuler came in and well it will see did other things too he he had a clear perception that what was vital in the particularly was to keep your chaps in line rather than in square or anything else in the line if your attacker at your face by infantry and to put them just behind the brow of the hill so you put these guys just behind the brows of those hills there so that when the French came up in the formation that was easiest to advance him which was for column perhaps 30 guys wide by 30 deep terribly frightening thing to see coming straight at you a column absolute terrified looking like a great big sort of thundering spear head of people coming straight at you but trouble will a column is that if you're on the third or fourth rank behind the front you can't use your musket so you only really have thirty or sixty muskets able to fire whereas Wellesley once his chaps got up when the light infantry in front of the brow of the hill tipped you off once the chaps were up they were standing in line every single musket was brought to bear on the enemy and all of those attacks were completely defeated the French lost several hundred and fifty casualties the service orbs fifteen hundred the Brits saw 750 and they and here on the right you can see what's happening there's Wellesley himself always very close to the front line without being in it just behind it close enough to talk to the battalion commanders close enough always he absolutely hands on all who has to be in the range of the people he had to talk to and he had to deploy the switch and so on and he was see on the right there the British in line three lines all those muskets can be brought to bear the French had a very achieved from Tripucka French there with a tricular advancing in column and it was a disaster for the French for mirror absolute disaster they were defeated it led really to the French leaving Portugal it was a tough on winter though 1808 nine for Wellesley went home his marriage was not looking too good he had married the daughter at then sister Lord Longford the new Lord lawfully was kitty macaroons sister and when lord longford originally was asked by wells near long time before he went to india could I marry your daughter he rather fell for her way back and Longford said they report on what their future yeah I rather I can see their fourth what's this exercise I've said it okay my daughters far too good for you he got back from India and he thought he would ask her again she said yes and he immediately said My dear chap let's welcome our young Indian campaign was very successful I do congratulate ruins so Gideon and Arthur got married but very soon and certainly after he got back from the mirror he found himself finding this marriage was was was not very rewarding she was a very inward looking person she was rather timid she was a lovely person I'm sure but she was very very introverted and he had his huge carefully future ahead of him and he mentioned when he actually got married to her which was an extraordinary moment one of his friends were there before he got married to her he said to his friends his grandmother ugly hasn't she extraordinary man and that I suppose explains perfectly why is early as 1809 he was having an affair with Harriet Wilson famous quarters around in London it wasn't that unusual for chaps of this sort of that stature to chase the courtesans but she was a bit naughty because she decided to write her memoirs a bit later on I'm sorry world over the story and she wrote a memoirs from the the editor of the memoirs said to God because we got word to the Duke of Wellington he became dead wrong look come I didn't think we all the publish all this stuff about you and her do you um what about a few thousand pounds and he just didn't even think about Jesus said you publish and be damned and she did publish it didn't do much good really because by that Salman but I knew that he was quite a ladies man and so his private life was a bit questionable what I'd say but his public life went from strength to strength he went to back to Portugal in 1809 tell to regain the whole of Portugal as the French had moved in together the north of it as we'll see in a moment and he took within a number of interesting people and who well I get to introduce you to a very quickly because the night I was writing this book and the whole project was full of us this wonderful material that I got from people like Thomas Picton massive lone Welshman who didn't like taking orders very much certainly not from chefs like Wellesley and people like Robert Crawford and then his black bomber he was the commander of the riflemen very important unit the riflemen the my first 95th and Robert Crawford was their commander he was ever their tough lad he was a real disciplinarian like Wilson himself but even more so and Crawford for example one day he was very keen as Wellesley was on commissariat on on supplies on his men being fed every night and one of his commissariat officer said to Crawford one evening generalized terrible problem and that does the breads a bit short I didn't get all the guys are going to bill to get their bread to rise and so of course I said look I tell you what if you don't get the wall bread tonight I will hang you so service for commerce officer went up to Wells me thinking I shouldn't really be a behind the generals back but I really must have a word with a barber and chief and he said to Wellesley look general I won't I could just hospital help really I've got General Crawford telling me he PT if i don't supply always remember british I really can't he's scared to hang me and Wells he said well I remember if I were you I should certainly do it because he will hang you trade bunsen VI mean just to take a few names out of a hat really wonderful guy he was the the son of the accounts the best brother yellow best brother and his sister was Lady Caroline lamb he was an aristocrat well as needed liked working with Arastoo Kratz he trusted them he finally could talk to him many they were pretty stupid but well snake had this passion for working meritocratic officers and fred was certainly one of them he was a great cavalry commander he was reckless as we'll see in a moment but he was a bit of a gambler - he's made character so there's Fred ponds but he of course wrote a lot of stuff he made the story of his extrordinary escape at Waterloo which I'll come to later ordinary rifleman Ned Costello worked with Robert Crawford's rifleman in the 95th he wrote an extraordinarily impressive book you've invited a rifleman Costello wonderful stories written in modern English actually Irish but written in modern era promote a wonderful memoirist and wreck alter and very funny as well here a very brave man indeed he's volunteered frequently for leading guys into the into the breaches of the sieges one interesting thing about Willington wells his army when he went off the boats alone it was not unusual but it was it was it was strongly adhered to by him was that something like 10 percent of the lads could take their wives to war with them they lie they were a lot of half a man's rations the children were allowed a quarter of the house rations quite by two of the wives are half quite right too you can see some of them with the sort of cartoon cartoon you can see here some of the women gaggle oh well every like months as we could imagine a child would have here a baby would appear so there's one woman there carrying a couple of babies and then roll the family here at the back as the chaff here got the right ideas well he's been carried by his wife happy don't her bad but it wasn't they women were very useful he did a lot of good work they helped feed and care for the guys and it was an important part of Extraordinary that there was we went along with the some otherwise went along with their husbands anyway back to the 1809 campaign well snake landed in Lisbon which of course was retaken from the French by him after Rivera and he then pushed up because unfortunately Oporto had been recaptured by a law put character called Nicolas soon quite impressive general one of the Poland's best but again someone who thought put the beer in a problem of this Brit and he had his headquarters you can see I don't really see his headquarters there soon to headquarters they're facing interestingly and understandably perhaps out to sea because you know what plane was flat here placed across the door over here were coming around from the north was was down here it was flat open country the likeliest way to attack reporter would be from the flat coastal plain but well Z of course did precisely the opposite by the way little green bits here are the beginnings of the Portuguese element in the in the in the Anglo Allied army at Lesley Brits but you do have someone some Portuguese coming in Portuguese hugely anti-french good soldiers forming very effective battalions within a very short time of the rebellion beginning anyway in went um Wellesley here and he then crossed the Douro where it was not flat but very much but can you see it here is very very high cliffs here I've he crossed here we learnt the French for that sold million any what was happening so having breakfast facing west is what was barred headquarters when Wellesley was crossing the Douro in some winding boats he'd managed to find some barges he's managed to pinch and of course they went up to the seminary up on the cliff here and then they turned west and took a Porto from the east souls left his breakfast rather sharply and Wellesley and his teammates his commanders tucked in to soothe breakfast so the next thing that happened late of the same year was that Wellesley moved into Spain things have gone so well in Portugal he started moving towards Madrid it may have been a step too far because of the Battle of Calavera and 28th of July you know nine about three four months after a porto he met got a substantial french army and although he won the battle in the sense that he was left on the battlefield after it when the French withdrew he lost 5,000 casualties in Talavera it was a big battle successfully fought by Wellesley but it was an expensive cost in in human life Oh Fred constantly I mentioned that he was a bit of a reckless chap he led the cab of some of the cavalry of Talavera and he charged with his lads wills they said look you need to take out that infantry unit every one level their friend and his lads went in his light dragoons went in on the left-hand side and they totally scattered the French infantry but then they went beyond that they got so excited that the success they'd had against infantry that they went beyond that another three four or five hundred yards and they found themselves surrounded by French cavalry and they had a terrible time and Fred said in a letter to his mum dear Mum Bubba it wasn't very agreeable or my first contact with contact with the French and we lost two hundred and twenty billion one hundred and eighty horses and the odd thing was the French didn't run when we charged them so it was a worry and Wellesley found his cavalry awkward right the way through from the beginning here to the end he found that the cavalry were not people he could really control properly it was always a problem well Z then Wellington found that getting the infantry and cavalry working together was never something he really ever got a hand long medicine was terrifying in those days after talavera here we have the pictures here of chaps being carried off but lucky man being carried off by two of his mates terrace or stretcher and others being tended by doctors on the side of a field what tended to happen if you were if you were hit by a musket ball in your arm or leg if anil ambani you were in trouble if your animal leg the recommendation of the doctors usually was to have it have the problem amputated and here we have a rather terrifying contemporary picture of one chap who is being attended by five people to see round him his arm has a musket ball in it here and the decision has obviously been made and he's been persuaded to accept but he have the arm amputated and so this chap he is going to pull it off while this surgeon here cuts it off these people held him up this man here with his hand firmly on the subclavian a lottery to stop the blood pouring out if he can and this chappals supporting him the best chance was that the person would faint and they briefly did and therefore be fine but there was no anesthetic and the I felt until about the 1840s so it's a terrifying picture only what two hundred years ago that they had of course some time in camps they had some time for leisure they had some time to play all sorts of games but the soccer a lot of games they also had time to go visit the local people and the great thing about the Peninsular campaign what Wellesley was terribly keen on was hearts and minds of the local people being on outside and so he was passionately determined to make sure people didn't rob farmers of their chickens and their pigs he was passionately concerned to make sure we treated well explained ourselves what was going on either their modern general in many ways in this way particularly but they had a great fun young lad called versed shaman from the Kings German Legion they fought with thee with their wealth his troops he here he brought up and if I do recommend it to acidify today on the road to Waterloo and he writes this wonderful memoir in which he says that one village he was he had done six girlfriends six girlfriends all of them were lovers including particularly important one was the wife of the church organist because she was particularly available on Sunday mornings yeah it's true later you don't say that a father and the baby face chapter the the the convince sanitary conditions the conditions in which they exist in the catskills reporting they hadn't really yet caught up with the need to have a proper laboratories and there's that in the other so you bring me that you could imagine that the the the problem was of course that what happened was that three-quarters of the deaths in wells Lee's army in Portugal and Spain three quarters of their deaths were caused by disease typhus all sorts of other dysentery and producers Bob but they died most of them because they were not fit and because they'd probably been poisoned by drinking terrible water and victim cells up with all sorts of disgusting things and so it happened like that but one thing that did happen was that they fretted eyes the great deal of course these meds with the French and one story I quite like is that they didn't always fight the French occasionally they were having a chat with them and at one River frontier in Portugal there was one young lad who was some century and the French were just say blister south side of the river I mean ten meters away and one evening he got his missed him they put some money in the most tip and he pushed the mister onto a rock in the middle of a river and he shot shouting whisper morning mmm following morning he pulled the best his back and my dear the money was gone and it was half-full he says of a rather indifferent brandy good fun but this or that could happen all the time after Talavera arthur wellesley became Lord Wellington and he said to his brother he said focus Veritas advice I need to find a suitable place Wellesley Wellesley Wellesley get something near that as you can any ideas and off went it was one of the brothers have to have the job of William William his father was was was asked to find a suitable town which he could be Lord of and he found Wellington in Somerset so he became Lord Wellington now in 1810 the next year he faced a new problem and Ramos Sainath he was most impressed by Messina Wellington receivables the saner was a very dangerous man an extremely flexible ingenious and talented general the third in line we've had you know we've had salt pepper I've had the Hubble capable high drop and that was a noise coming from a Hydra and andré Macedo that mummy of 50,000 men into Portugal in July 1810 and he arrived here a little acara and he found Robert Crawford's rifleman and several other units forward of Wellington's main force was kept on the west bank and when he had said to Crawford I really would prefer it if you'd stay on the west bank of this very dicey river of acara because crossing back over it if you're pushed back I'll be very difficult and there was only this bridge and Crawford's riflemen and some of the best troops in Wellington's army rollin on the east side you're looking now north of the East Side's over there his mursalin in from this way and the French completely outnumbered Crawford's men over here and Crawford's men were pushed back they fought very bravely they were pushed back across this bridge which I took this picture in the last year that's exactly the same today wonderful thing to go and look at today and this is so here this'll halfway mark cross the bridge and they literally they found themselves running across this bridge in Ned Costello that wonderful Irishman I mentioned he had to drag himself across here he couldn't be he was badly wounded drag himself across here and he was only saved by being able to say the one chap look please give an Irishman the lift we'll never make it on my own and fortunately then was hiked on the back of one of his comrades and the 95th rifles answer he made it across here but after the Kara Wilmington drew up his men will pass Cobra Saco here see here on the map there's the Keller where a Crawford was pushed back I think he's wrong to say he was defeated at the Kerr was the fighting withdrawal pushed back and Wellington had chosen the bridge of moussaka all the list incredulous they wondering whether the French will attack him on this huge Ridge it was a monumental position terribly powerful position he spread his chaps all the way along this Ridge and the French were saying I had a go at it heavily defeated Resaca was a disaster for the French in September 1810 but Mussina Kenny led that he was had found a way around for the rest of his army who survived misako and he started getting round the top there and down the coast toward Lisbon well of course Wellington was one step ahead he'd thought this sort of thing would happen and just in case it was going to happen he told his chief engineer to build fortifications about ten miles north of Lisbon and a phase called tourism hills called tellus vedras was Tallinn of torres vedras so that is dead it would see these hills now see some of the fortifications that that his chief engineer built there and it was incredibly a bit of mobs but a full sight because when the French got down there Wellington retreated very rapidly to torres vedras after boosah : he'd won the battle of osaka and he was able them to place his chaps on the ridges here on the high points of the torres vedras hills in three whole lines of modifications were saying that took one look have a Dereham turn round and decided to live off the land on till the spring but it was dreadful but Santa was starved off the land and it was such as a Portuguese of course was our anti French sir so determine of them have we food that they scrubbed all their food and burnt all their crops and the French went back to the French went back must sail away back into Spain and the Poland promptly sacked him the extraordinary thing is that he'd been through three marshals now he still didn't go himself he was quite busy in the Poland of course I mean 1812 was popping along and he was looking east and we must always remember the fact rather like the Second World War that the rails Napoleon the real problem for Napoleon was coping with Central and Eastern Europe but his decision of course to have a gallop that went to trial conquer Berlin and subdue them and but he was determined to conquer the Russians they have a Gallic Russia in 1812 and less of me for Wellington who was quite happily moving gently I'll Priscilla that kept the Persian busy but Wellington always said Napoleon on the battlefield against me would have been worth 40,000 extra troops and 40,000 troops but they're really really talking about 60,000 each 5060 thousand Beach would have been a huge difference if the president kept himself but he didn't and in the next couple of years the level in 12 we have these wonderful moments when Wellington is crossing into Spain again getting back into Spain and pushing the French back he has a crossing river guadiana I found this sketch in a farmhouse in Gloucestershire written by our group drawn by a cavalry officer who was just explaining to us how they got the horses across this river guadiana fascinating we have the huge rafts huge ruffs and you see the three blokes here who are pulling on this rope to pull the raft across with the horses home you get a picture of Wellington's men crossing back into Spain and at the beginning of skipping rather quickly about 1812 beginning the 1812 campaign lady in a level the sailor was removed in 1812 and Wellington was about to have launched himself properly into Spain again now he had two key places to capture which he didn't want to leave behind him one was about a half huge fortress down here in the south of Spain and the other was shoot at Rodrigo upper the north huge fortress towns just look at you that Rodrigo here it's just that's what it looks like today much the same as it looked then sous vide Rodrigo and I do recommend any of you haven't been there you would do it's one of the first places I would go if you're excited by the Peninsular campaign extraordinary place should have a drink overlooking re from the Northwest now and Wellington had to capture it January 1812 and he said to Thomas picked on you know that will smell I mentioned tougher old boot and you know he was here and the third division the fighting senator division they call themselves and picton was told to go for this corner here Wellington said look I'll batter it down that'll be your breach Thomas you're gonna go for that one and Robert Crawford was told to go for the north gate here with his his rifleman and serene they went in January 1812 and a dreadful thing happened was Pickton's lads went through the bridge where brilliantly made two breaches successfully by the way in went are picked it into the breach in the northwest corner just as they were getting in a mine a great big explosion went to and thirty blokes were killed almost immediately but picton managed to get in and took the north local and western side of Roderigo it went Crawford through the gate successfully but tragically Crawford himself was fatally wounded and so that was the end of black Bob Crawford and he was hugely missed by Wellington and his own riflemen but you die Rodrigo fell and is rather lovely picture the following morning you can see I mean remember the picture with today overfed brough I took earlier I didn't take it sorry was taken for an airplane but you can see here how similar it looks there's the picton breach and there's the Crawford breach and this is the chaps painting it the two lads painting this watercolor the morning after and if you go to see that Rodrigo today you will see that you can see the new stonework that suppose well in his men built up and Ava's built up in the Spanish built up in this area here to repair the breaches so and that was the end of slavery go this is a much tough enough to crack this was probably the bloodiest night of the entire Peninsular war when 5000 British casualties happened as they were attacking the breaches down here at Pella hoth and also the the castle walls here on the northwest corner of Badajoz it was tremendously difficult night for Wellington he was looking pretty desperate by about midnight and they failed really to get in here but the built some of the best troops were had down here the light divisions of the fourth division down here they could not get they made breaches all right but they could not really get in and it was good old Thomas pictum who managed to get in into the castle and his guys climbed up the walls 30-foot high walls on ladders and they got in here they managed to - two - two months has escalated the walls they took down their French tickler one of the blokes they had Mali flags but they banged up a Redcoat uniform on the flagpole here to represent the British success and of course Wellington was hugely relieved but he heard the news of the successful capture of the Citadel the castle at Babel Hoth and the city then very quickly fell there the walls today we just look at that those are walls that they've bent up on the ladders in in April 18 1812 now what followed that was a disgraceful plundering and looting and raping that took place in the city about a half after the success and Wellington was appalled at it here's a picture of it in the synthesis indistinct I expect here's a picture of him here in the breach the breaches they'd failed to get through initially of the South were cyber V of battle Hoth and here he is in fact he was seen by pictum to be in tears looking at the appalling carnage I said five thousand or so casualties and picton the road after was there wasn't a de with you that poor old Wellington said well just look at what what was happened as a result of our our effort to take this city and and it was it was it was dreadful what happened then the Brits behaved disgracefully badly Wellington tried to stop them perhaps he could have done what was awful but there was another story Victoria by the loft was perhaps and they behaved very badly indeed and one of the young ladies was badly treated was a lyrical wanna Dolores she was any 14 very beautiful young lady of 14 and she and her friend were seen walking up the street by captain Harry Smith Harry Smith a wonderful character wrote wonderful Diaries Ruby my autobiography house with his own lives it must certainly little walls Harry Smith had a wonderful memoir he was a rifleman the first 95th and he saw these two girls coming up and and he he said what's matter with you and they had blood pouring down from their ears here because the British shoulders will pinch their hip all their earrings doctor said may I have your earring but he's pulled it off and so they were in tears and Harry said oh this is Jason's dreadful life but you're under my protection from now on and half an hour later he proposed to father and said will you marry me and she said yes and if Dublin and then from then on and then they were an absolutely wonderful marriage a wonderful couple he called her his guardian angel and they went on right the way through the she followed him all the way to Waterloo all the way through Waterloo as well and when to see where he was in the battlefields and find him and bring him back and give him a glass of beer all over he wanted and if she was amazing and he called her his guardian angel and and and they went right the way through he became a general later on to South Africa where he was governor of the cape province and they were so fond of them the South Africans sort of 40 40 years later that they named two cities after Juana and Harry one was Harry Smith and the other was lady Smith well lovely so that's the story of Harry and Juana wonders many stories and now just to take you very quickly through the eighteen twelve thirteen campaigns when Wellington was just pushing the French remorselessly forward never going for a huge big battle with all the French armies together always trying to pick off an army he knew he could beat he always said that the mark of a great general is to know when to retreat and to dare to do it he did that after he successfully won the battle Salamanca physical Bourgas up here he had a disastrous failure the passage Bourgas and it retreated all the way back to Portugal very sensibly because it was faced by a lot of French armies but the Battle of Salamanca was a huge success at 1812 this was a battle in which he he was up here in the looking having a picnic actually in the middle of the day and Marmont next to a French marshal for the high jump was coming down here trying to slip past well the slip past a march past the Brits and to try and cut off their line of supply from Portugal here so Marmont army is moving sideways like this and here's Wellington facing facing south and he had he having his lunch and hang a chicken a chicken he looked down that and he saw my mom saw his blushing person Edward watching him and watching me amid water and suddenly he said ah that'll do my Montebello a mother's finished and he rode off he kept on his horse always start with a healthy doing he left on his horse this is a man he had no deputy didn't believe in deputizing his command he was in charge and thank God he never got badly wounded he was always in charge he made sure he was in charge unless he and he only knew exactly what to do off he went on his horse went over to his brother-in-law but his wife Kitty Packard him was a pack of them led tack of them commands the third division over here and he said to met he said Ned you see that French division there they've gone rather too far ahead of one behind them I think you should girl attacked them and I'll send some cavalry to your assistance as they're in whip their pékerman totally destroyed Tommy our general Tommy ales division here with the assistance of cavalry and then one by one Willington picked off the French divisions at Salamanca and it was extraordinary I mean he he timed it exactly right he could see what the terrain was like he here's a picture of him running the battle there he is up his staff and his generals what to do and he he knew exactly when to move in the reserves there was a division under general Clinton in their relation general Clinton and he was sent in just at the right moment when the center godmother dodgy later on the battle salamanca and Clinton really rescued the the position but Wellington knew when to deploy him well he was always there always there keeping an eye open and never very far behind the front line then there was the Battle of Vitoria a whole year later by this time I think I totally had retreated from Bourgas it was bad news but he did that didn't want to avoid fighting to bigger French army but by the time the Victorian 1813 yet enough men he reckoned to face the best that Joseph could put together remember that disastrous fellow Joseph by the part who by now had pulled out of Madrid taking an awful spoil with him and was heading back for France and began to make a last stand here and he thought he'd survived because the rivers of Dora while the conveniently went all around Victoria but rather stupidly the French left all the bridges intact and so Wellington took one look here and is it right I'm getting into four different directions I'm getting again from the north cross Kamara the block amara bridge here and getting up here and come down from the heights of Puebla and getting myself from the West and again ascend Colonel Thomas picton and a chap called Lord Dalhousie in from the north well Thomas picton was in charge of the third division fighting 3rd and he was sitting on his horse looking down on the French thing he's bad time I attacked with that kid up came became a chap on a horse over there part of the aid to call from sent from Wellington and Thomas picked and said yes young man what can I do for you and the iron chef said he said Sir Thomas I'm directed by Lord Wellington to ask you whether you'd be kind enough just to wait for Lord Dalhousie to happen because you you and he together I'll be able to attack cross the bridge Thomas picton said you go back and tell Lord Wellington I'm not wasting credit old Dalhousie I down across that bridge right now come on lads let's go and so picked and then went down when he Leslie across the bridge and they began rolling up the front line here of the French defense a wedding course was furious initially but then he he recovered his composure is over Thomas pick them have done and the French collapse the position collapse these fall almost synchronized attacks it was a brilliant piece of maneuvering no no mobile phones was and he was saying earlier about that though helicopters their radios but he had the ball gag in borås at the same time and it was a great success Victoria was a disaster for the French they started heading back for France and when they left the battlefield they left behind them a huge number of wagons with the spoil of their the booty that they'd seized from Madrid and among them were some canvases round up they found these rolls of canvas and some of these guys brought them to Wellington and said my lord we've have here some canvases they're willing to open them up Caravaggio Neil realtor you name it and he said whoo I'll take these back and I'll put them up on the walls around the house and so he I'm cutting corner of it he took them home and they are still on the walls of FC house and each one that was pinched Remington began from the tour from the friendship vitória has a little black X and the low-blower there were left-hand corner but he did write immediately after big an honest fellow he did write to the king of Spain has succeeded in Spain after the defeat of Napoleon and he said dear King I have your pictures which I brought back from the French in Victoria I will of course now return them and the King as I understand it very back saying my lord my your grace Duke worried I will have nothing to come back from you you keep them you liberated our country from terrible Frenchman so that was Victoria but after that very quickly the French were wrapped up as petal Saroyan forbiddeth Sarah San Sebastiano a successful siege by the Brits again very badly run and then they moved into France in early 1814 battle of an evil that's the PI on the Battle of leave and finally in the spring of 1814 the Battle of Toulouse and because after the Battle of Toulouse again always really some generals might have gone in a few weeks from Victoria to to lose but not Wellington Wellington didn't want to risk two million lives didn't wanted me to believe French and didn't want to force the podium to come and face him on the battlefield Napoleon by this time of a busy again fortunately two very busy fighting me your mid the central Europeans in the central east of Europe he to course been defeated by the Russians and push back without defeated by the Russians but pushed back out of Russia either whether they're they anyway he got far as Toulouse Wellington and it was then he heard that Napoleon loves the results not of his campaign so much has happened in Central Europe at the Battle of Leipzig the disastrous defeat for the Poland's forces and the Polian abdicated Napoleon abdicated and was sent off a cleverly the Allies sent him off to an island that was not several thousand miles away from France but a few hundred and they're actually once you have about 120 Elba he was sent to Elba and Wellington again rather odd move was asked whether he that be ambassador in Paris so he went to be ambassador of the nation he just defeated something a bit dodgy but him anyway he went there and he made the best of it he had a good time there you ladies man already and two of the purlins mistresses including Mademoiselle George here actress our said to have slept with with the pyro he become a Duke by the way he was now the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Bethel of Toulouse it was best from Paris and Mademoiselle George cause she too had to wise her memoirs and she said she had been she said in the book she'd been Napoleon's mistress and she'd also had the pleasure of the company of Azurill Wellington and she said but I must say of the two the Duke was by far the more vigorous by this time I mean soon after soon after this that this is a cycle in later cartoon but really he had become a sort of them well-known lady's man and that people really less for it and there's a wonderful life a follow this cartoon here which which is actually it's in the book the illustration and you've got these ladies here of course it was wonderful bubbles that happens and one of them will say blimey what a whopper I I hope he doesn't date miss at me every various and of course by this time you know the Paris and we're trying to sort out the future of Europe when suddenly this bloke cares and turns up again and he came back from Elba as we know and the France rallied to him the Grande armée which had been shattered that Leipzig and destroyed him for a day well loved Moscow and the battles of followed than the crossing of the palace ena and yet they rallied to him they rallied to the program and the podium managed to collect an army of something like a hundred thousand men and within a few months or hundred days of returning to France he had advanced up to the Belgian border crossed the river Sombra areas blue ones and the poll informed his chaps up facing the ridge at also roll and he had his infantry in front his cavalry behind he himself was back here somewhere Imperial Guard in reserve and some light dragoons up here Wellington's line on the ridge of balls and roll was as you can see mixed a third of his only British the gray ones but the gray ones it doesn't look like a Thursday supposed to be I'm sorry about that the gray ones allies what he thought he do is try and put the allies with Brits on either side of them so they would be encouraged and heartened by the way the British fought many of them being Peninsula veterans and that they would then survived Wellington the Persians attack the Polian saw the value to Wellington of this farm at who bowl over here which is still visible today sadly derelict but the significant peel going on I hope they were mighty truly to try and restore conserve who grew ball rather than restore and conserve it and try and keep it going as it looked in there in those days a farm which Wellington was determined to defend through the rain la Hache and here in the middle was another farm which Willington was determined to defend and also a couple of farms over on this side here all through the day a Napoleon attacked Whoville and attacked the hasad this is a picture here of LaHaye's shunt with we now from north to south there's Napoleon's army down there or most of it some of it's come up here to attack Wellington here's Wellington on his on his horse Copenhagen it's coming into view here and everything it was happening in this picture great dramatic license everything's happy you've got some some of the British here in squares resisting the French cavalry attacks you point to square if you have a cavalry attack as I'll show you remember and some of them attacking the infantry in total chaos but in the morning the lunchtime the French attacked on foot and the afternoon they're attacked with their cavalry por el Thomas picton was killed with a bullet in the brain very soon after the French attacked his infantry his infantry succeeded in pushing the French infantry back and immediately after picked and died the Scots greys and avec heavy cavalry went in to attack the French retreating French infantry have been beaten back by Pickton's troops and they made a complete success of their attack on the French infantry up there they went too far Oxbridge was their boss and he went too far he led his men beyond the French infantry were destroyed in amongst the French guns and the French cavalry who went breathless like the British Webber this time attacked the British cavalry there were huge numbers of British casualties along with the cavalry including poor old Fred Ponsonby who was he was a Light Dragoons read constantly went in and he he came off his horse and French a Polish Lancer actually came up and shouted at Fred he said he said to napalm or coke any you're not dead my friend belivet saucer-eyed and he shoved his lungs right into Fred's lungs and Fred was left for death dead of the battlefield and this happened to a great deal the number of British cavalry men well then in came the French cavalry and you will see here a Courvoisier is actually it's a medieval knight whether you're curious extraordinary it's a curious which wasn't interestingly enough impervious to musket fire muskets were effective against the cuirass they just somehow look rather random them a little proper frightening in them these serve breastplates but they attacked the British squares now in a square in three lines of the square with your bear that's pointing out it's extraordinary how effective they were against cavalry attacks hardly a horse in history threw itself against the line of Berlitz when the people were in squares and as long as you kept that square rigidly in formation and the occasion of the square was tilted to move allow allow them through preparing them to come through because he'd been caught outside but he throws up again as long as the square kept at formation it would it would keep the cavalry away and it did effectively do that so the British squares succeeded in resisting the French cavalry as the infantry head of the morning and there's Wellington again always in the right place at the right time unfortunately having to say now the commanders have said can you give us some help sorry chaps you really have to fight this one out it's gonna be hard and Englishmen I'll fight this one right through the day and they did and they all stood on the line remain steady and here you can see there's the line the same old line up there the prediction squares that are facing the cavalry attacks in the afternoon it's round about teatime and round about tea time the French looked over here and they saw black uniforms Prussians approaching the purlins allowed it to be sent around the army that it was GRU she coming back from his marshal he'd sent off to try and keep the presence of BAE coming back but few believed it and it very soon became apparent but Blucas a couple of calls and Blucas army were moving in here on the right Lobo was sent off he should really been gave up this way he was sent this way the young guard part of Imperial Guard was sent to a key Blucher away and willings and of course looking over here around about tee time seeing the Prussians were their fourth I think we might win this battle and round about this time the when when Blucher was winding up they the East Wing we might have been here of the French and the cavalry were being successfully resisted up here Napoleon decided all I can do now to stay back there forget all I can do now once these cavalry have failed to get through and the line was still there and he he even captured Napoleon even captured by his servant he hadn't captured who gevalt he had captured by his son he thought one more effort and maybe I can break this damn British line rather than retreat and fight another battle I'll put in the Imperial Guard so he marched up himself at the head of the imperial guard handed over at mayor's suggestion to lay before he attacked by foolish from the podium to the front line and they then led the imperial guard against the British guards who were all now lined up in this position and wedding that of course is quickly there himself not in the front line but was behind it talking to the general Maitland who was the commander of the guards and shouting a patron how long wait mate that wait and and wait till you see is it whether whites of their lives wait till they get toast enough the important thing about soldiers armed with muskets is not to fight not to lose him off when it's a waste of time River 100 meters away wait till they're close and then when he saw the Imperial Guard very close up indeed Wellington said to mates of now Maitland now's your time and they fired and there was them chewing and throwing a very vicious battle indeed and all sorts of very heroic things with on both sides but the Imperial Guard eventually of course pulled back and the word went from the French army like God real cool the God is pulling back and Wellington then stood up and allegedly said I'm knowing whether it's true or office he said oh well in for a penny in for a pound as telomers visco and the entire British Army angler of Allied army then moved in and wiped out the French and he and blue care meted labelled aleosis farm Drosophila battlefield they shook hands and Wellington was always made generous about pukka and thanked him very profusely and also he's in his dispatches that night he said how much he owed to the Prussians and the battle was won Tyrell Fred Ponsonby I've mentioned that he was left for dead on the battlefield is one of 45,000 casualties at the Battle of Waterloo 45,000 on both sides and he was there badly wounded indeed he survived and this Frenchman came up at one stage when the French have really taken over this area where poor little Fred was wounded this Frenchman came up and said I hear about his a here's a here's a little sip of cognac for you and I hope you're alright but I'd better go back now because the Brits are going to attack again so poor old Fred was left there with his with his glass of cognac and my dear he'd survived he's staggeringly survived and his sister did he Caroline lamb came and helped him find his way back to health again in Brussels but 20 years later when he was governor of Malta Fred Ponsonby was sitting round some examples of the French delegation come to see you sir so how's the French delegation came in led by our chaplain a sort of a chap and said hello there you would Waterloo where we were fighting in the great battle and Fred said yeah it was there I was terribly badly wounded and this very nice Frenchman came up and gave me a glass of cognac which brilliant revived my spirits Frenchman said what was he wearing this chap and friend described precisely author how he remembered the Frenchman in this blue carrot and black hat and the Frenchman said it was me the Great King stood imagine wonderful small world anyway that's just one of the many stories which i think is more lovely the podium was sent off to censor leader as we all know where he spent his time writing his memoirs and saying well a terrible General Wellington still was to his mind he'd been let down by his n chaps by drew che by salt by their you name it I was very sad ending relate an extraordinary impressive life although he helped us resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen and thought of ours as well and Willington went on of course to be a politician and he became prime minister he achieved a great deal as Prime Minister but it wasn't really his matey a and he was a soldier he wanted to give orders and be obeyed coming out of his first cabinet meeting he's memorably said to have said to a friend of his with friendship what was it like your first cabinet he said well it wasn't very all the fair indeed because I gave them my robos and they wanted to sit and discuss them anyway he was Prime Minister another great success he didn't think this should be the Pope given for everybody if all those bad idea so through a formal bill was not a good idea that rather put him I made him a little bit passé and but he still went on for goodness me another forty years and he's held these dinners every every water new day June 18 he would tell these tillers of EPs their house and that's that wonderful the room looks so like that today and he of course that one by one they would fall out until 1852 this is the picture what it was like then and there were all these generals and chaps gathered round including Fred Paulson base my friend died rather sadly and Fred Paulson his wife Emily was one of those who was advised one of the only ladies invited to pay that last dinner and then only a few months later Alfa Wellington died at the end of 1852 and so there we are in an extraordinary story and I must say I think I mean some of my tasks whether he's mobile as the best or slim or whatever I think I'd give it to Reddington but then I would because I've been spending the last four years studying him in such detail thank you so much I'm sorry

Channel: University of Southampton

Views: 19,869

Rating: 4.7538462 out of 5

Keywords: wellington, Peter Snow, military strategy, Duke of Wellington, British history

Id: kqByK_HPiuQ

Length: 61min 51sec (3711 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 07 2013