Arthur Wesley

"'The French army is composed very differently from ours. Conscription calls a share of every class, no matter your son or mine, all must march; but our friends, I may say it in this very room, are the scum of the earth. People talk of enlisting due to their fine patriotic feeling, they feel no such thing. Some of our men enlist having begotten bastard children, others for minor offences & many more for drink; you can hardly conceive of such a set brought together. But it really is wonderful that we've made them the fine fellows they are.' - Arthur Wesley, Duke of Wellington" Field Marshall Prince Arthur Wesley of Waterloo, Duke of Wellington FRS GCB GCRG KG PC (1, May, 1769 - 14, September, 1852) was a British diplomat, military officer, politician, statesman and veteran of the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the First Anglo-Mysore War & the European Coalition Wars. During his career, Wesley served as the Commander In Chief of the British Army, twentieth Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, twenty-fourth Lord of the Treasury, seventeenth Secretary of State for the Interior Affairs and sixteenth Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Wesley's administration abrogated penalties on practicing Catholics within the British Army, deployed forces during the Mysore Insurgency of 1800 in service of King George III, prohibited the participation of Jews in the civil service, managed the relief effort in Ireland during the famine from 1835 to 1836, repealed tariffs on produce imports and rescinded restrictions on Catholic participation in the civil service.

Wesley's army conquered the territories of the Mysore Samrajya and the Maratha Samrajya, defeated the forces of the French Empire at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium, expelled occupying French forces from Portugal and Spain, oversaw the occupation of France following the European Coalition Wars and repelled the French invasion of Belgium.

Wesley personally commanded the armies of the British Empire during the Third Anglo-Maratha War and First Anglo-Mysore War and the armies of the British Empire, Russian Imperium, the Kingdoms of the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the Austrian, Hanoverian & Prussian Reichs during the Third Anglo-Maratha War, the First Anglo-Mysore War and the campaigns of the European Coalition against the French Empire, founded the King's College in London, introduced the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 to the House of Lords, lead the delegation for the United Kingdom at the Allied-French Convention in 1808 at Cintra, the European Coalition Congress of 1818 in Aachen and the European Coalition Congress of 1822 at Verona, opposed electoral and parliamentary reform, signed the European Coalition Treaty of 1808 and voted in favour of repealing tariffs on produce imports and the colonization efforts of the New Zealand Company.

Trivia

 * In addition to his position in the House of Lords as Duke of Wellington, Wesley was also appointed Prince of Waterloo by King William I of the Netherlands.
 * Wesley was multilingual and fluent in English, French, Persian and Spanish.