THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON: The Man Who Beat Napoleon

Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, is the only professional soldier in English history to have served also as Prime Minister.

Indeed, his political career was longer than his military one.

He won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, when he was only forty-six. He continued to serve his country until he was eighty-three, and enjoyed a unique place in the esteem of both people and royalty.

Yet, when he was in his teens, his mother had not faintest idea what to do with her ‘blockhead of a son’.

Part of the ‘Talking of History’ series by the same author. See ‘The End of the Monasteries’ and ‘Cardinal Wolsey’