Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as Prime Minister. He won a notable victory against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
Wellesley was born in Dublin into the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. He was commissioned as an ensign in the British Army in 1787, serving in Ireland as aide-de-camp to two successive Lords Lieutenant of Ireland. He was also elected as a Member of Parliament in the Irish House of Commons. He was a colonel by 1796 and saw action in the Netherlands and in India, where he fought in the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War at the Battle of Seringapatam. He was appointed governor of Seringapatam and Mysore in 1799 and, as a newly appointed major-general, won a decisive victory over the Maratha Confederacy at the Battle of Assaye in 1803.
Wellesley rose to prominence as a general during the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, and was promoted to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to victory against the French Empire at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he served as the ambassador to France and was granted a dukedom. During the Hundred Days in 1815, he commanded the allied army which, together with a Prussian Army under Blücher, defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington's battle record is exemplary; he ultimately participated in some 60 battles during the course of his military career.
Wellington is famous for his adaptive defensive style of warfare, resulting in several victories against numerically superior forces while minimising his own losses. He is regarded as one of the greatest defensive commanders of all time, and many of his tactics and battle plans are still studied in military academies around the world. After the end of his active military career, he returned to politics. He was twice British prime minister as a member of the Tory party: from 1828 to 1830, and for a little less than a month in 1834. He oversaw the passage of the Catholic Relief Act 1829, but opposed the Reform Act 1832. He continued as one of the leading figures in the House of Lords until his retirement and remained Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death. Wikipedia
“Mistaken for me, is he? That's strange, for no one ever mistakes me for Mr. Jones.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
In response to being told that the painter George Jones bore a strong resemblance to him, and that he was often mistaken for him, as quoted in My Autobiography and Reminiscences Vol. 1 (1887).
“I never saw so many shocking bad hats in my life.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
When asked what he thought of the first Reformed Parliament, as quoted in Words on Wellington (1889) by Sir William Fraser, p. 12.
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
His response in 1824 to John Joseph Stockdale who threatened to publish anecdotes of Wellington and his mistress Harriette Wilson, as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford. This has commonly been recounted as a response made to Wilson herself, in response to a threat to publish her memoirs and his letters. This account of events seems to have started with Confessions of Julia Johnstone In Contradiction to the Fables of Harriette Wilson (1825), where she makes such an accusation, and states that his reply had been "write and be damned".
“Give me night or give me Blücher”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Comment made at a crisis point during during Battle of Waterloo at about 5.45 pm on 18 June. The Military Maxims of Napoleon by Napoleon Bonaparte, David G. Chandler, William E. Cairnes , p. 143 http://books.google.co.uk/books?um=1&spell=1&q=%22Give+me%0D%0Anight+or+give+me+Blucher%22+was+the+Duke%27s+prayer+at+about+5.45+pm+on+18+June.%0D%0Anight+or+give+me+Blucher%22+wellington&btnG=Search+Books Alternatively wording may have been "Night or the Prussians must come": quoted by David Howarth, page 162, "Waterloo: Day of Battle", ISBN=0-88365-273-0
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Wellington's reply when asked, late in his life, what was the most inane remark he had ever heard, as quoted in Journals of Alec Guinness (February 1998) by Alec Guinness
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Statement (1838), quoted in John Morley, The Life of William Ewart Gladstone, Vol. I (1903), p. 155
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Statement in conversation with John Croker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Wilson_Croker and Croker's wife (4 September 1852), as quoted in The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.Dm F.R.S, Secretary of the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830 (1884), edited by Louis J. Jennings, Vol.III, p. 276.
“It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."
Context: It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. … By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Letter to John Croker (8 August 1815), as quoted in The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848) by Thomas Babington Macaulay, Volume I Chapter 5 http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/hst/european/TheHistoryofEnglandfromtheAccessionofJamesIIVol1/chap5.html, p. 180.; and in The Waterloo Letters (1891) edited by H. T. Sibome
“Napoleon has humbugged me, by God; he has gained twenty-four hours' march on me.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
At the Duchess of Richmond's ball (15 June 1815), as quoted in Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/9460 (1896) by Archibald Forbes, quotes Captain Bowles account and citing the Letters of the First Earl of Malmesbury.
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Letter from the field of Waterloo (June 1815), as quoted in Decisive Battles of the World (1899) by Edward Shepherd Creasy. Quoted too in Memorable Battles in English History: Where Fought, why Fought, and Their Results; with the Military Lives of the Commanders by William Henry Davenport Adams; Editor Griffith and Farran, 1863. p. 400.
Context: My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won: the bravery of my troops hitherto saved me from the greater evil; but to win such a battle as this of Waterloo, at the expens of so many gallant friends, could only be termed a heavy misfortune but for the result to the public.
“My rule always was to do the business of the day in the day.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Notes for 2 November 1835.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
“The only thing I am afraid of is fear.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Notes for 3 November 1831.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
“I believe I forgot to tell you I was made a Duke.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Postscript to a letter to his brother Henry Wellesley (22 May 1814), published in Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K. G.: South of France, embassy to Paris, and Congress of Vienna, 1814-1815. Editors: Arthur Richard Wellesley Duke of Wellington, Arthur Richard Wellesley Wellington (2d Duke of). Editor: J. Murray, 1862. Origin of the original: Universidad de Michigan. Digitized: 28 November 2006. p. 100. Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington
“I have seen their backs before, madam.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
This is attributed to Wellington as a statement to an unidentified woman at a reception in Vienna, who had apologized for the rudeness of some French officers who had turned their backs on him when he entered, as quoted in Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes (2000), edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard, p. 568
This is attributed to Wellington as a statement to King Louis XVIII at a ball in the spring of 1814, as quoted in "Anecdotes of Wellington" at The Wellington Society of Madrid http://www.wellsoc.org/Anecdotes.htm
Variant: 'Tis of no matter, your Highness, I have seen their backs before.
Source: https://books.google.cl/books?id=aarPgpKPA0oC&q=vienna+I%27ve+seen+their+backs+before,+madam&dq=vienna+I%27ve+seen+their+backs+before,+madam&hl=es-419&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyz4SKk93sAhVyBtQKHZx7AjsQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg page 27
“We always have been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be, detested in France.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in Wellington and His Friends (1965) by Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington, p. 138, and in The Economist (16 June 2005) http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4079435
“[I don't] care a twopenny damn what [becomes] of the ashes of Napoleon Bonaparte.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in The Times [London] (9 October 1944); this attribution probably originates in a letter by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (6 March 1849), in which he states "How they settle the matter I care not, as the duke says, one twopenny damn."
Disputed
“I have no small talk and Peel has no manners.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in Collections and Recollections (1898) by G. W. E. Russell, ch.14.
“If you believe that you will believe anything.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
In reply to a man who greeted him in the street with the words "Mr. Jones, I believe?", as quoted in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) by Elizabeth Longford.
“Hard pounding this, gentlemen; let's see who will pound longest.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
At the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), as quoted by Sir Walter Scott, in Paul's Letters to His Kinsfolk (1815).
“I should have given more praise.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in A History of Warfare (1968) by Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein: "Sir Winston Churchill once told me of a reply made by the Duke of Wellington, in his last years, when a friend asked him: "If you had your life over again, is there any way in which you could have done better?" The old Duke replied: "Yes, I should have given more praise."
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Speaking about soldiers in the British Army, 4 November 1813
A French army is composed very differently from ours. The conscription calls out a share of every class — no matter whether your son or my son — all must march; but our friends — I may say it in this room — are the very scum of the earth. People talk of their enlisting from their fine military feeling — all stuff — no such thing. Some of our men enlist from having got bastard children — some for minor offences — many more for drink; but you can hardly conceive such a set brought together, and it really is wonderful that we should have made them the fine fellows they are.
Notes for 11 November 1831.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Quoted in ""A portion of the journal kept by Thomas Raikes, esq., from 1831 to 1847 ; comprising reminiscences of social and political life in London and Paris during that period."", volume 2. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1858.
Also attributed to Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie by Thomas Carlyle
“There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
In response to William Huskisson declaring there had been a mistake, and he had not intended to resign, after Wellington chose to interpret a letter to him detailing his obligation to vote for a measure opposed by him as a letter of resignation. As quoted in The Military and Political Life of Arthur Wellesley: Duke of Wellington (1852) by "A Citizen of the World", and in Wellingtoniana (1852), edited by John Timbs.
“They wanted this iron fist to command them.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812, in notes for 8 November 1840.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Wellington's papers (17 August 1815), as quoted in The History of England from the Accession of James II (1848) by Thomas Babington Macaulay
“The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in The New York Times (26 December 1886), and in Words on Wellington (1889) by Sir William Fraser, this is almost certainly apocryphal. The first attributions of such a remark to Wellington were in De l'Avenir politique de l'Angleterre (1856) by Charles de Montalembert, Ch. 10, where it is stated that on returning to Eton in old age he had said: "C'est ici qu'a été gagnée la bataille de Waterloo." This was afterwards quoted in Self-Help (1859) by Samuel Smiles as "It was there that the Battle of Waterloo was won!" Later in Memoirs of Eminent Etonians (2nd Edition, 1876) by Sir Edward Creasy, he is quoted as saying as he passed groups playing cricket on the playing-fields: "There grows the stuff that won Waterloo."
Elizabeth Longford in Wellington — The Years of the Sword (1969) states he "probably never said or thought anything of the kind" and Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington in a letter published in The Times in 1972 is quoted as stating: "During his old age Wellington is recorded to have visited Eton on two occasions only and it is unlikely that he came more often. … Wellington's career at Eton was short and inglorious and, unlike his elder brother, he had no particular affection for the place. … Quite apart from the fact that the authority for attributing the words to Wellington is of the flimsiest description, to anyone who knows his turn of phrase they ring entirely false."
Misattributed
“Up, Guards, and at them again.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Said at the Battle of Waterloo, as quoted in a letter from a Captain Batty of the Foot Guards (22 June 1815), often misquoted as "Up Guards and at 'em." Wellington himself, years later, declared that he did not know exactly what he had said on the occasion, and doubted that anyone did.
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Expressing his total opposition to demands for Parliamentary reform in November 1830. Cited in "The House of Lords: A handbook for Liberal speakers, writers and workers" (1910) by Liberal Publication Department, p. 19.
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in Words on Wellington (1889), by Sir William Fraser, p. 163.
“I used to say of him that his presence on the field made the difference of forty thousand men.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
On Napoleon Bonaparte, in notes for 2 November 1831; later, in the notes for 18 September 1836, he is quoted as saying:
It is very true that I have said that I considered Napoleon's presence in the field equal to forty thousand men in the balance. This is a very loose way of talking; but the idea is a very different one from that of his presence at a battle being equal to a reinforcement of forty thousand men.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
As quoted in Genetic Studies in Joyce (1995) by David Hayman and Sam Slote. Though such remarks have often been quoted as Wellington's response on being called Irish, the earliest published sources yet found for similar comments are those about him attributed to an Irish politician:
The poor old Duke! what shall I say of him? To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell, in a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Shaw's Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials (1844), p. 93 http://books.google.com/books?id=dpKbWonMghwC&pg=PA93&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=0YVZSIWXCIiSjgG37bGIDA
No, he is not an Irishman. He was born in Ireland; but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.
Daniel O'Connell during a speech (16 October 1843), as quoted in Reports of State Trials: New Series Volume V, 1843 to 1844 (1893) "The Queen Against O'Connell and Others", p. 206 http://books.google.com/books?id=zWETAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT108&dq=%22+make+a+man+a+horse%22&num=100&ei=MohZSJ-PK4a4jgG-lLGJDA
Variants: If a man be born in a stable, that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as as an anonymous proverb in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1899), p. 171
Because a man is born in a stable that does not make him a horse.
Quoted as a dubious statement perhaps made early in his career in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (1992) edited by John Simpson and Jennifer Speake, p. 162.
Misattributed
“Depend upon it, Sir, nothing will come of them!”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
On the coming of the railways, in The Birth of the Modern (1991), by Paul Johnson. p. 993.
“I don't know what effect these men will have on the enemy, but by God, they terrify me.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Said to be his remarks on a draft of new troops sent to him in Spain (1809), as quoted in A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources (1942) by H. L. Mencken, this quote is disputed, and may be derived from a comment made to Colonel Robert Torrens about some of his generals in a despatch (29 August 1810): "As Lord Chesterfield said of the generals of his day, "I only hope that when the enemy reads the list of their names, he trembles as I do."
Disputed
“Uxbridge: By God, sir, I've lost my leg!
Wellington: By God, sir, so you have!”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Exchange said to have occurred at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815), after Lord Uxbridge lost his leg to a cannonball; as quoted in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
Variant account:
Uxbridge: I have lost my leg, by God!
Wellington: By God, and have you!
Thomas Hardy, in The Dynasts, Pt. III Act VII, scene viii, portraying the incident.
“Circumstances over which I have no control.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Phrase said to have first been used by Wellington, as quoted in notes for 18 September 1836
I hope you will not think I am deficient in feeling toward you, or that I am wanting in desire to serve you, because the results of my attempts have failed, owing to circumstances over which I have no control.
As quoted in The Life and Letters of Lady Hester Stanhope (1914) http://www.archive.org/details/lifelettersoflad00clevuoft edited by Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Powlett, Duchess of Cleveland
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Queen Victoria, concerned about the sparrows that had nested in the roof of the partly finished Crystal Palace, asked Wellington's advice as to how to get rid of them. Wellington’s reply was succinct and to the point, Sparrow-hawks, Ma'am. He was right, by the time the Crystal Palace was opened by the Queen in 1851, they had all gone!
Source: Historic UK http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Duke-of-Wellington/
“Not at all. If I had lost the battle, they would have shot me.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Wellington's retort when he was asked if he felt honored at being feted as a hero by the people of Brussels after returning victorious from Waterloo, according to Sir John Keegan's chapter on Wellington in his book The Mask of Command
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Letter to John Wilson Croker (29 December 1835), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 288
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Letter to John Wilson Croker (30 September 1833), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. II (1884), p. 218
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Remarks to John Wilson Croker (20 October 1825), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. I (1884), p. 353
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Letter from the field of Waterloo (June 1815), as quoted in Decisive Battles of the World (1899) by Edward Shepherd Creasy. Quoted too in Memorable Battles in English History: Where Fought, why Fought, and Their Results; with the Military Lives of the Commanders by William Henry Davenport Adams; Editor Griffith and Farran, 1863. p. 400.
“They came on in the same old way, and we sent them back in the same old way.”
— Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Source: About the French attacks at the Battle of Waterloo, quoted in Roberts, Andrew (2010); Napoleon and Wellington; Hachette, UK; ISBN 0297865269.
