Duke Of Wellington Created Furniture, Right?

My grt grt grandfather’s was in the Coldstream Guards, at the Tower of London in 1851, and he was a pallbearers at the Duke of Wellingtons funeral. He and other NCIs had dinner with Queen Victoria. I have a pen and ink drawing of the ncos and Victoria. He and his wife died at the ages of 28 a few days later, from tb . It was terrible weather for the funeral. His son was orphaned and adopted.

My wife’s 3x great grandfather, James Kendall, was the Duke of Wellington’s valet for approx 25 years. He married my wife’s 3x great grandmother, Rachel, in 1846 when he’d have been employed by the Duke for over 20 years so would make sense that he received a wedding gift like this. James and Rachel died in the mid 1870s and my theory is that their daughter Frances inherited the table from her parents. Sadly, France’s husband died in 1889 while training to be a lawyer and that left her and their children in a poor financial state. I wonder if Frances had to sell the table in order bolster the family finances. Just a theory but the dates and events stack up. Amazing to see something connected to the family though.

1:25 – Chapter 1 – Formative Years 3:50 – Chapter 2 – Indian Proving Ground 6:50 – Chapter 3 – The sepoy general 11:20 – Mid roll ads 12:45 – Chapter 4 – The peninsular war 16:35 – Chapter 5 – War for iberia 20:25 – Chapter 6 – Storming fortresses 23:35 – Chapter 7 – Conquering hero 26:30 – Chapter 8 – The 100 days 29:40 – Chapter 9 – Mister minister 33:00 – Chapter 10 – End of the campaign

Excellent presentation. You get the impression that he was fundamentally a good man, although clearly a man of his time. Fun fact – after he became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in January 1827, he further became Constable of the Tower of London in February, a position only open to field marshals or generals. While in this role there was apparently an incident of a serviceman being bitten by a monkey or a lion. You might not think the Tower of London would be the site of a lion biting but it housed the Royal Menagerie, which was kick started in 1235 when Henry III got given 3 of them by the Holy Roman Emperor. Don’t ask me how they kept them warm in the winter. Nonetheless they fared much better than the elephant from the King of France and other animals that couldn’t handle the cramped conditions. Visitors and keepers alike were also mauled or killed through the years but this final nibble coincided with the opening of London Zoo at Regents Park and the decision to get the bloody animals out of the Tower, sorry, donate them to the finest zoological establishment in Europe, wasn’t a difficult one for the Duke.

You missed the fact that Almeida was blown up and that it was probably the worlds largest explosion at that time. A lucky shot from the French besiegers hitting an unlucky trail of black powder. The point where the article showed an Arial shot of Almeida – look in the top left of the screen. You can see the outline of the cathedral which was vaporised by the explosion and it also demolished the medieval castle too.

Anyone looking for a good biography of Wellington should look at the two-volumes by Elizabeth Longford. As a relative of Wellington she had access to source material that others didn’t. One thing that Wellington did that was reflective of modern warfare methods was to insist his armies pay for supplies taken locally, even in France. It was the opposite of Napoleon’s live-off-the-land approach that created so much additional opposition to the French army.

I have made this comment before but I think that given the relatively short length of your articles, the script writing really is excellent in what it manages to cover. There are, however, just a couple of points to be raised here. Whilst the Napoleonic Wars might be seen in folklore as a time of two mighty military minds clashing on the battlefield, with Wellington ending up bathed in glory and Napoleon himself still much admired, the social impact on those in the lower ranks of their armies in terms of death, injury and abject poverty despite fighting for their country was appalling. But, to be fair, this would maybe something better covered in the broader context of the Napoleonic Wars on, perhaps, your history website. Also, and this is regarding a tiny part of the article that isn’t relevant to the main theme but, as a history buff is a bugbear of mine – William III did NOT take over the throne from James II. William’s wife Mary II did and they became joint monarchs, without Mary’s claim to the throne as James’ daughter, William would have had no claim.

One of Wellington’s chief advantages in the Peninsular Campaign was an officer who was also a commoner, George Scoville. Stop me if this seems familiar, but Scoville who had organized a force of Portuguese and Spanish irregulars to intercept French message riders and capturing their enciphered messages. The French thought their cypher unbreakable but Scoville broke it. Every morning Wellington received a briefing on French positions and plans. In fact, since the 3 French Marshalls in Spain did not trust each other and share information, Wellington had a more complete picture of the French plans than the French did.

Slight clerical error: Napoleon Bonaparte was never “Emperor of France”, but rather “Emperor of the French”. This was deliberate as Napoleon had such a love and devotion for France, that he always believed no one man could never “own” it. Another reason why the French people loved him. Great article though!

What is new? The US Army also was a refuge for the lowest drgs of society, and so it has been. The unemployanle have seeked the ranks for centuries. Free Medical, Room & Board, plus pay, all for a few hours of work after basic training. It is only recently that the racists in government required a High School education.

Oliver Cromwell fleetingly portrayed as a commoner just makes me laugh, he was from middle-class landed gentry, married into more money and became decidedly upper-middle class by the time his name came to be known. He was an MP in a time when only those with money or financial backers could become MPs. To paint him as a commoner is just farce, come on Simon, you should know better

Since you’ve done so many of the famous leaders of in the Napoleonic wars you may have come across the name Blucher? And maybe something about him being preggers with a pachyderm?!? So I got it know, do you think he was crazy, Wellington was just that much of a buffoon, or was it one of the most embarrassing games of PR telephone to go down in history?

The reason Arthur Wellesley’s brother was made Governor General of India by the British East India Company is because the previous Governor General had been recalled for being too respectful of the Indian Princes and as a result returning an enormous profit to the company. The history of the British East India Company was one of constantly swinging back and forth between paying enormous stock dividends and standing on the edge of bankruptcy depending directly on whether its agents in India were treating the “heretic” natives with respect or disgust.

Wellington drained the foul moat at the Tower of London, when he was put in charge, after his time in political office. The political turmoil that oushed him lead to the first voting reform act in 1832. The older Wellington was very keen on new inventions, he was one of the first people to own a Waterman’s fountain pen and used steam trains to travel to Windsor to see Queen Victoria.

What strikes me that for an aristocrat blue blood army commander of 19th Century, he was more preoccupied and concern with needs and welfare of the men serving and operating under his command more than any of his peers in same era. Always taking care of a good functional logistics service first so the British-Portuguise-Spanisah-Dutch etc forces he commanded, did not feed off the land, arrange necessary transport, supply baggage first then started active operations and tried to win goodwill of civilian population even at he cost of purchasing necessary supplies from them with hard cash. As a result he was never worried about guerilla war at his rear lines and always put up a good dicipline among his troops.

Here are some suggestions for another article – all interesting people though the first two are lesser known. April Ellison/William Ellison Jr. (1790-1861) – a freed slave from South Carolina who became a successful slaveowner and planter himself before the civil war. Anthony Johnson (1600-1670) – a former indentured servant who became one of the first African American property owners in America and a successful tobacco farmer. Lord Mountbatten (1900-1979) – Prince Philip’s uncle and Queen Elizabeth’s second cousin once removed who was assassinated by the IRA Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) – Japanese poet, author, playwright, actor and nationalist who committed seppuku after a failed attempt to overthrow Japan’s 1947 constitution. Robert Walpole (1676-1745) – British politician who was the first prime minister of Great Britain from 1721 until 1742 under King George I and King George II. Eamon DeValera (1882-1975) – prominent political leader in 20th century Ireland who, after the Irish war of independence from 1919 to 1921, was in the public eye for over forty years from 1922 until his death were he served as head of government (Taoiseach/prime minister) and head of state (president). He was nearly executed in the Easter Rising in 1916 and was key in putting into place the new constitution on 1937. A very prominent Irish figure and one of the most important in Irish history. George Eastman (1854-1932) – American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak company. He was a pioneer of photography and a major philanthropist.