delichon
Likely apocryphal. It isn't in the massive official
"Despatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington" and
the exaggerated, humorous style is not characteristic.
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> morsch
Thanks, I read through a few pages and found it a more
interesting read than the original link.E.g. here he's
complaining to the undersecretary of
state:https://archive.org/details/dispatchesoffiel10we
lluoft/page/...Here (and a few lines on the page
before) is a long letter with his advice on how to
reconstitute the (allied) government of
Spain:https://archive.org/details/dispatchesoffiel10we
lluoft/page/...
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> gjm11
Also, the letter is allegedly (1) dated 1812 and (2)
signed "Wellington". In 1812 he was still plain old
Arthur Wellesley; he wasn't duked[1] until 1814.[1] I
am sure this is not actually the right term. I do not
care.
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> > junto
It doesn't exist as a term, but I always thought
"enduked" would have been a nice term for this
process.Instead it's the more wordy "created a
duke", since his status was both created and
granted to him. The title "Duke of Wellington" was
expressly created for him.Fun fact, he should have
been "Duke of Wellesley", but his elder brother,
Richard Wellesley, had already been made Marquess
Wellesley.Since the peerage from Viscount to
Marquess to Duke would ended up with two brothers
potentially sharing the same title, they chose to
give Arthur the title Viscount Wellington, from
the town where the family heritage was connected
to.Therefore his title peerage line:Viscount
Wellington -> Earl of Wellington -> Marquess of
Wellington -> Duke of WellingtonHe was also
technically a Baron before Viscount but he
received that peerage the same day as his Viscount
title.Outside British peerage he held some other
cool honors and titles. As well as being the
Prince of Waterloo in Belgium the the Netherlands,
he was granted the honor of "Knight of the Golden
Fleece" in Spain, "Knight of the Black Eagle" in
Prussia, and my personal favorite was "Knight of
the Elephant" in Denmark.In the UK we have lots of
reminders of him namely because of the large
number of pubs called "The Duke of Wellington".
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> > zb
In 1812 he was the Earl of Wellington.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_titles_and_h
onours_of_...
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> > > quuxplusone
Yes (I think). In this particular case I
believe you could also say he was created duke
(since he was the first Duke of Wellington); I
think one would have to say that the second
Duke of Wellington succeeded to the dukedom.
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cjs_ac
Why would Wellington have to answer to the Foreign Office
for the administration of the forces under his command
when that was the responsibility of the War Office?
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TacticalCoder
> Tis of no matter your Highness, I have seen their backs
beforeDon't know whether that's true or not (that the Duke
of Wellington said that) but... One year later (1815), he
handed the french's arses back to them big, big, big,
times at Waterloo.Basically the battle of Waterloo (a few
kilometers away from where I was born) is considered the
time when the UK overtook France as the world's number one
superpower.Since then both have only ever been falling in
the rankings and it doesn't look like that fall is going
to stop anytime soon but that's another topic.
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> jemmyw
> is considered the time when the UK overtook France
as the world's number one superpower.But unlikely a
result of said battle, rather the instability of
politics in France.Us British oft think of Waterloo as
a great victory, although the circumstances,
participants and objectives were pretty nuanced.
Wellington himself rejected congratulations and
thought battle to have very high cost.
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> B1FF_PSUVM
> superpowerThat's an anachronism, from the 19th to
mid-20th century there were just "great powers", not
perfectly matched but considered to be in the same
class. The Ottoman empire falling off the league
("sick old man") was a bit of a shocker.
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ggm
Entertaining if fictive. His comments to his army and his
own role in the victory are I hope better attested to.
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BigTTYGothGF
There's no way that's not a joke written many decades or
more later.
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RobotToaster
Technically from Sir Arthur Wellesley, he wasn't made duke
until 1814.
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