Arthur Wellesley

General Sir Arthur Wellesley is the Commander in Chief of the British forces in the Iberian Peninsular. He is played by Latin.

Family
Father: Garret Wesley, Earl of Mornington

Mother: Anne Wesley, Countess of Mornington

Wife: Catherine 'Kitty' nee Pakenham

Background
Born on 1st May 1769, Arthur Wellesley is the third of five sons born to Garret Wesley, Earl of Mornington, and his wife Anne. Largely ignored and dismissed as a child as the ‘dullard of the family’, Wellesley’s youth was largely spent dreaming with him showing no particular talent for academia or anything else save music, and there were perhaps hopes of his studying as a musician. His father died, however, when he was thirteen, leaving his widow and children nothing but debts and ending any possibility of a musical career. Now head of the family his eldest brother, Richard, sent him to Eton for further schooling, but when he failed to make any improvement in his academic studies it was decided that he should be withdrawn and be set up as a soldier, the army at that point being the last resort career-wise for the sons of gentry, as he was considered “food for powder and nothing more!” He entered the Academy of Equitation in Angers, France, where over the next year he learnt swordsmanship, riding, French and a little military theory.

Returning to Britain he was for a short time an ensign in the 73rd Highland Regiment before being found a place on the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland’s staff at Dublin Castle. Here he remained, gambling, whoring and drinking until he managed to purchase a lieutenant-colonelcy in 33rd Regiment of Foot, which he commanded on the Duke of York’s failed campaign in Flanders against the new French Republic. It was on this campaign that he saw the squalor inflicted on the men by the harsh elements and the corruption of the army system, and he learnt ‘what not to do’ when leading troops.

Back from Flanders he went to India where (under the service of his brother Richard as Governor-General he was promoted to Major-General) and appointed Governor of Mysore after the successful siege of Seringapatam. He won famous victories, namely the Battle of Assaye, and was knighted for his services. He left India in 1804, having secured British interests on the subcontinent and made himself a tidy fortune. In April 1806 he married his old Dublin sweetheart, Kitty Pakenham, and had two sons with her. The marriage, however, does not prove to be a happy one and domestic unrest made Sir Arthur all too eager to receive another foreign posting.

He played a supporting role in the Copenhagen campaign of 1807, then won two great victories over the French in Portugal at the battles of Roliça and Vimeiro in 1808, but was hampered by ineffectual superiors and made to sign the Convention of Cintra; a humiliating document which repatriated the defeated French army in British warships, complete with all the plunder of Lisbon. Sir Arthur was summoned, along with his two superiors, to face an inquiry over the Convention, and now having been cleared of all charges is eager to continue the Iberian campaign where he left off – this time as Commander-in-Chief of the British and Portuguese forces, and with no incompetent superior officers to halt his progress.