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WELLINGTON, DUKE OF
(1769-1852). Two great generals were born in
1769. One was Napoleon Bonaparte; the other was his final conqueror, Arthur
Wellesley, who became the first duke of Wellington. Arthur Wellesley was born on
May 1, 1769, in Dublin, Ireland, the fourth son of an Irish nobleman. He
attended the preparatory school at Chelsea and Eton College. Later he was sent
to military school at Angers, France, for a year.
At 17 he entered the British army. Through the custom of purchasing
commissions, he became a lieutenant colonel at 23, but his later achievements
justified his quick promotion. In the hill country of India from 1796 to 1805,
he conquered Mahratta chiefs who had sworn to drive the English into the sea. In
making treaties that closed the war with these tribes, he proved himself an able
diplomat as well.
In 1805 he left India for the war with Napoleon in Europe. He won a notable
victory in his first campaign on the French-held Spanish peninsula, but the
results were lost by incompetent superiors. In 1809 he returned as commander in
chief. In five years he drove Napoleon's generals from the Iberian Peninsula.
After Napoleon's first exile Wellington was in Paris as Britain's ambassador
to the restored king of France. Napoleon's escape from Elba sent Wellington back
into military service. Finally at Waterloo, with the aid of Prussian troops,
Wellington met and vanquished Napoleon himself.
For years Wellington was one of the most influential men in all of Europe. As
prime minister of Great Britain from 1828 to 1830, however, he was less
successful. He was an aristocrat who failed to note the changing times. He
dismissed without consideration the demand for parliamentary reform and the
extension of the right to vote as the work of agitators. He was forced to resign
and had to protect his house from a mob. When the angry passions of the times
subsided, people granted that Wellington, while not always an able statesman,
had tried to do what he believed best for the nation. He died at Walmer Castle
in Kent, England, on Sept. 14, 1852.
WATERLOO, BATTLE
OF, On June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte received
a crushing military defeat on the fields near the Belgian village of Waterloo,
about 9 miles (14 kilometers) south of Brussels. Napoleon's defeat ended 23
years of recurrent warfare between France and the other powers of Europe. The
battle between Napoleon's forces, which included 72,000 troops, and a combined
Allied army of 113,000 British, Dutch, Belgian, and Prussian troops was fought
so hard that either side might have won. A heavy rain the evening before the
battle forced Napoleon to delay his attack. The delay cost him the battle.
Only three months before, Napoleon had slipped away from his island prison of
Elba off the western coast of Italy. When he returned to France his veteran
soldiers flocked to rejoin him. He hurried northward, hoping to defeat his
enemies before they could unite against him.
Napoleon's plan was to get between the British and Dutch, who were grouped
near Brussels, and the Prussians, who were east of the road from Charleroi to
Brussels. On June 16 French Marshal Michel Ney engaged the British at Quatre
Bras, while Napoleon crushed--as he thought--Field Marshal Gebhard L. von
Blucher's Prussians at Ligny. After these battles Napoleon ordered Marshal
Emmanuel de Grouchy to follow the Prussians, and Napoleon turned his attention
to the British. Blucher, however, marched northward to the assistance of the
duke of Wellington, the British commander, while Grouchy wasted valuable time
looking for the Prussians east of Ligny. It was at this point that Napoleon's
plans began to fall apart. The essence of his original strategy was surprise.
The battle of Ligny was indecisive because Marshal Ney had failed to send
reinforcements that could have crushed the Prussian army. Then Napoleon made the
false assumption that Blucher would retreat to the northeast instead of heading
northwest to link up with Wellington. Lastly, the element of surprise was
completely lost when Napoleon wasted the night of June 16 and the morning of the
17th without giving battle. By the time he started, Wellington was ready for
him.
The British, meanwhile, retreated from Quatre Bras to the village of
Waterloo. Napoleon overtook them late on June 17. Because of the heavy rain that
night, he could not attack until the next morning. His artillery could not move
until the ground dried. He delayed the attack until 11:00 AM.
The ensuing battle raged for ten hours. Napoleon repeatedly threw his cavalry
against the bayonet-wielding British infantry. During one furious cavalry charge
the French overran all the British artillery. Had the guns been destroyed or at
least made unusable at that time, the French cavalry might have won the battle.
For a time it looked as though the British ranks would give way under the
onslaught.
Wellington eagerly awaited the help the Prussians had promised. Finally, late
in the afternoon, Blucher and his men arrived. Those few hours of delay in the
morning had been decisive. The French made a last desperate attack but were
slowly overcome. By 9:00 PM the
French defeat had become a rout. Napoleon lost 25,000 men killed and wounded and
9,000 captured. Wellington's casualties were 15,000 and Blucher's about 8,000.
On June 22, 1815, four days after the battle of Waterloo, Napoleon signed his
second abdication in Paris. This ended his rule in France forever
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