Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
1769–1852 1 entry
Biography
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was a British soldier and statesman, the victor over Napoleon at Waterloo. Born in 1769 in Dublin into an Anglo-Irish noble family, he first made his name in India, where he won the battle of Assaye in 1803. From 1808 he commanded the British, Portuguese and Spanish forces in the Peninsular War, and over six years he drove the French armies out of Portugal and Spain.
On 18 June 1815, together with the Prussian army of Blücher, he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, ending the Napoleonic Wars. He then went into politics, served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and, though a conservative, carried through the emancipation of Catholics in 1829. Nicknamed the Iron Duke, he gave his name to a kind of boot and a beef dish. He died in 1852 at Walmer Castle and, after a state funeral, was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.
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