Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington’
In The Copybook
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington’
In The Copybook
Frederick Ponsonby’s involvement in the Battle of Waterloo began early, and it seemed to him that it went on for ever.
Early in the Battle of Waterloo on June 18th, 1815, the Union Brigade inflicted heavy losses on the French guns and then withdrew, shielded by Colonel William Ponsonby’s 12th Light Dragoons. But then 300 Polish lancers, French allies, rode up. There was a crush. The French fired indiscriminately. In minutes, Ponsonby had lost the use of his arms, his sword and his reins. Then with the flash of a sabre he was down.
Amid all the confusion of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington spotted a man in civilian clothes riding busily around on a stocky horse.
Benjamin Haydon was a respected nineteenth-century English artist and teacher, but his career was a constant struggle, blighted by debt and (in his eyes) betrayal. He died at his own hand in 1846. Haydon left behind a diary in which he recorded an anecdote set against the background of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, on the authority of the Duke of Wellington himself.
The Russians had checked it in the East, but in the West the expansion of Napoleon Bonaparte’s empire was far from over.
In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte wrapped up the short-lived French Republic, crowned himself Emperor of the French, and set about conquering Europe. However, failure to invade Moscow in 1812 was the first sign of vulnerability, and on June 18, 1815, his dream was ended by allied forces commanded by the Duke of Wellington.
Arthur Wellesley watches on as one of his soldiers is rescued from a watery grave.
Arthur Wellesley (not yet the Duke of Wellington) spent the years 1797 to 1804 in India, confronting the Maratha Empire that threatened Indian princes and the British alike. Wisely, he learnt to make war as the Maratha did, and acquired a proper respect for the elephant.
The future hero of Waterloo dealt with political ambush as comfortably as he dealt with the military kind.
Arthur Wellesley spent the years 1797 to 1804 in India. He went out as a Colonel in the British Army’s 33rd regiment of Foot, and was soon being addressed as General Sir Arthur. On 23rd September 1803, he secured a significant victory over the Maratha Empire at Assaye in the state of Maharashtra, western India.