627 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



628 



place in the House of Peers the thanks of that Home, and on the let 

 of July he received likewise the thanks of the House of Commons, 

 through the Speaker. 



Peace of 1814. After the establishment of peace by the treaty of 

 Paris, May 30, 1814, the Duko of Wellington was sent in July as 

 ambassador to the court of France. The Congress of Vienna assem- 

 bled Nov. 1, 1814, and Lord Castlereagh having returned to England 

 at the beginning of 1815, in order to resume his place in parliament, 

 the Duke of Wellington was appointed to succeed him as the repre- 

 sentative of Great Britain. In the month of January 1815 the Duke 

 of Wellington repaired to Vienna to attend the general Congress of 

 the European Powers. In the beginning of March, Napoleon, having 

 escaped from Elba, landed at Cannes, on the French coast, and thence 

 marched to Paris, without meeting any obstacle, Louis XVIII. having 

 withdrawn to Ghent. On the 13th of March the ministers of the 

 eii;ht Powers assembled at Vienna, including the ministers of the 

 King of France, signed a paper, by which they declared Bonaparte 

 an outlaw, a violator of treaties, and a disturber of the pence of the 

 world, and delivering him over to public justice. (' Dispatched,' xii., 

 269, 352.) At the same time they declared that they would maintain 

 inviolate the treaty of Paris. On the llth of April the Duke of Wel- 

 lington was appointed to the command of the army to be assembled 

 in the Netherlands. 



Campaign of Waterloo, 1815. In the middle of April the Duke of 

 Wellington repaired to Brussels to prepare for the impending military 

 contest. An English army was assembled in Flanders, -including the 

 Hanoverian Legion, and was joined by the troops of the King of the 

 Netherlands, of the Duke of Brunswick, and of the Prince of Nassau. 

 In all he had about 76,000 men under him, of whom 43,000 were 

 British, or Hanoverians in British pay. Of these, deducting sick, 

 detached, &c., there remained present in the field about 37,000 British 

 and Hanoverians. The head-quarters were fixed at Brussels. Marshal 

 Bliicher, with the Prussian army, estimated at about 80,000 men, was 

 on the left of the British ; his head-quarters were at Namur. 



During the month of May, Napoleon by great exertions collected 

 an army of about 120,000 men, chiefly composed of veterans, on the 

 frontiers of Flanders; and on the llth of June he left Paris to take 

 the command. On the 15th the French crossed the Sambre, and 

 marched to Charleroi, tho Prussian corps of General Ziethen retiring 

 to Fleurus. Marshal Blucher concentrated his army upon Sombref, 

 holding the villages of St. Amand and Ligny in front of his position. 

 The Duke of Wellington marched his army upon Quatre Bras, on the 

 road from Charleroi to Brussels. Napoleon attacked Bliicher on the 

 1 6th, with superior numbers, carried the village of Ligny, and penetrated 

 to the centra of the Prussian position ; but the Prussians fought with 

 great gallantry until night, when Bliicher withdrew his army in good 

 order to Wavre. In the mean time the Duke of Wellington, with part 

 of his army, was attacked at Quatre Bras by the 1st and 2nd corps of 

 the French army, commanded by Ney, and a corps of cavalry under 

 Kellermaun, which however made no impression upon the British 

 position. 



On the 17th the Duke of Wellington made a retrograde movement 

 upon Waterloo, corresponding to that of Marshal Bliicher. He took 

 up a position in front of the village of Waterloo, across the high roads 

 from Charleroi and Nivelles his right thrown back to a ravine near 

 Merke Braine, and his left extended to a height above the hamlet of 

 Ter la Haye ; and he occupied the house and gardens of Housoumont, 

 near the Nivelles road, in front of his right centre, and the farm 

 of La Haye Sainte in front of his left centre. The French collected 

 their araiy, with the exception of the 3rd corps, which had been sent 

 to observe the Prussians, on a range of heights in front of the British 

 position. 



About ten o'clock on the morning on the 18th of June the French 

 began a furious attack on the post of Hougoumont, which was 

 occupied by a detachment of the Guards, who maintained their ground 

 against all the efforts of the enemy throughout the day. There was 

 no manoeuvring on the part of Napoleon on that day. He made 

 repeated attacks on the British position with heavy columns of infantry, 

 supported by a numerous cavalry, and by a deadly fire from his 

 numerous artillery. His attacks were repulsed with great loss on both 

 sides. In one of these attacks the French carried the post of La 

 Haye Sainte, which was occupied by a detachment of Hanoverians, 

 who, having expended all their ammunition, were cut to pieces. 

 Napoleon then ordered his cavalry to attack the British infantry, 

 which formed in squares to receive them, but all the efforts of the 

 French cavalry could make no impression on the British infantry, by 

 whose steady fire they were brought down in great numbers. The 

 French cavalry was nearly destroyed in these attacks, as well as by a 

 charge from Lord E. Somerset's brigade of heavy cavalry, consisting 

 of the Life Guards, the Royal Horse Guards, and the 1st Dragoon 

 Guards, in which the French cuirassiers were completely cut up. At 

 last, about 7 o'clock in the evening, when General Bulow's Prussian 

 corps began to be engaged upon the French right, Napoleon moved 

 forwards his guard, which he had kept in reserve, to make a last 

 desperate effort on the British left centre near La Haye Saiute, of 

 which the French had already possession. The French guard marched 

 resolutely on in column, with supported arms, under a destructive 

 fire from the British position. They halted at the distance of about 



fifty yards from tho British line, and attempted to deploy, but they 

 became mixed together, whilst uninterrupted discharges of musketry 

 from the British infantry made fearful havoc in their dense mass. 

 They were broken, and gave way down the slope of tho hill in irre- 

 trievable confusion. On this the Duke of Wellington moved forward 

 his whole line, which he led in person, sweeping away all before him. 

 The French were forced from their position on the heights, and fled 

 in confused masses, leaving all their artillery and baggage on the field 

 of battle. Marshal Bliicher now came up with two Prussian corps, 

 and took charge of the pursuit, whilst the British troops rested on 

 the field which they had won at such a fearful cost. The British and 

 German Legion had on that day 2432 killed, 9528 wounded, and 

 1875 missing; many of the last however joined afterwards. In the 

 preceding battle of Quatre Bras, on the 16th, they had 350 killed, and 

 2380 wounded, making altogether nearly 35,000 killed and wounded, 

 in an army of about 37,000 British and Hanoverians, of whom how- 

 ever about 5000 were not present on the field of Waterloo, being 

 posted near Braine le Comte, or stationed at Brussels, Antwerp, 

 Ostend, and other places. (Official Returns, ' Dispatches,' xii. 485-87.) 

 More than 600 officers were either killed or wounded at the battle of 

 Waterloo. The gallant General Picton was killed while leading his 

 division to a charge with bayonets. General Sir William Ponsonby, 

 who commanded a brigade of heavy cavalry, was killed by a party of 

 Polish lancers. Colonel De Lancey, quartermaster-general, was also 

 killed. The Earl of Uxbridge, General Cooke, General Halkett, 

 General Barnes, General Baron Alton, the Prince of Orange, and 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Fitzroy Somerset, were among the wounded. 

 Lieutenant-Colonel the Hon. Sir Alexander Gordon died of his wounda 

 soon after the battle. In the battle of Quatre Bras the Duke of 

 Brunswick Oels was killed, fighting at the head of his corps. Such 

 was the termination of the great continental war, which had lasted for 

 twelve years from the rupture of the peace of Amiens in 1803. 



After the last charge by his guard Napoleon rode off, in the dusk of 

 the evening, from the field of Waterloo, and returned to Paris, which 

 be was soon afterwards obliged to leave for Rochefort, being deserted 

 by the nation at large. A provisional government was formed by the 

 legislative chambers. The British and Prussian armies marched upon 

 Paris, meeting with little or no resistance ; and on the 3rd of July a 

 convention was agreed upon between Marshal Davout, who com- 

 manded the French army at Paris, on one side, and the Duke of Wel- 

 lington and Marshal Bliicher on the other, by which the French army 

 withdrew from the capital, and retired beyond the Loire, and the allied 

 armies occupied Paris. Soon afterwards Louis XVIII. was again 

 restored to the throne of France, and peace was concluded between 

 France and the Allied Powers. 



After the return of the Duke of Wellington to England, the House 

 of Commons voted a sum of 200,000^., in addition to the sums pre- 

 viously granted to him ; and with this sum the estate and mansion of 

 Strathfieldsaye in Hampshire were purchased, to be held by the Duke of 

 Wellington and his heirs on the condition of presenting a tri-coloured 

 flag to the sovereign at Windsor Castle on the 18th of June every year. 

 The King of the Netherlands conferred on him the title of Prince of 

 Waterloo, and the King of France created him a Marshal of France and 

 Duke of Brunoy. 



Peace of 1815. The battle of Waterloo was succeeded by a peace in 

 Europe which has not since been materially interrupted, except by 

 the short but terrible contest with Russia in 1854-5. To prevent any 

 recurrence of those desolating wars which had just terminated, it was 

 resolved by the Allied Powers that Napoleon should be detained in 

 custody in the island of St. Helena, and that France should be con- 

 trolled by an armed occupation. The Duke of Wellington was by 

 unanimous choice appointed to the command in chief of the allied 

 forces retained in France for this latter purpose ; and it was chiefly 

 owiog to his mediation and influence with the allied sovereigns that no 

 penalty of confiscation was enforced upon France, and that the armed 

 occupation of the country was so soon terminated. In September 

 1818, the King of Prussia and the Emperors of Austria and Russia 

 met at Aix-la-Chapelle, in order to hold a political conference, which 

 was attended by the Duke of Wellington and Lord Castlereagh on the 

 part of the British Crown. At this conference an agreement was con- 

 cluded for the evacuation of France by the allied armies, and for the 

 restoration of that kingdom to its independent dignity among the 

 European governments. The allied armies began to evacuate France 

 on the 1st of November 1818. A week previously the Emperors of 

 Austria and Russia and the King of Prussia created the Duke of 

 Wellington a Field-Marshal of their respective armies. He returned 

 to England early in November. 



When the allied artmes were withdrawn from France the military 

 life of the Duke of Wellington may be said to have terminated. He 

 shortly afterwards commenced that life of political and administrative 

 activity in which he attained an influence at home and a reputation 

 abroad greater perhaps than that of any other public character of 

 modern times. On the 1st of January, 1819, he was appointed to the 

 office of Master-General of the Ordnance, and took his seat in the 

 Cabinet as a member of the administration of Lord Liverpool. Though 

 he did not at first take a prominent part in political affairs, he had 

 to bear his share of the unpopularity which was the necessary result of 

 the attempt of Lord Liverpool's government to put down disaffection. 



