Duke of Wellington

Un dandy su misura Massimiliano Mocchia di Coggiola Naturale, ovvio e assolutamente banale è il considerare che l'uomo, dacché perse i peli che molto probabilmente gli ricoprivano il corpo per intero, si sia dato la pena di coprirsi per sane esigenze climatiche, igieniche e (un po' più tardi) di pudicizia. Meno naturale, ovvia o banale è l'idea che tali esigenze possano essere state anche estetiche; se fin dagli esordi dell'umanità è esistita una coabitazione planetaria più o meno pacifica tra uomini e bestie, è indubbio che la scelta della materia prima adatta a produrre abiti con cui coprirsi sia caduta sulle seconde, sebbene le bestie detenessero ufficialmente (così almeno si dice) il primato in ordine cronologico di apparizione terrena rispetto all'uomo. Ora, di bestie ne esistono una quantità ragguardevole, ciascuna ben diversa dall'altra per razza, e quindi per vello, colori, dimensioni, e così via: questo, forse, fu il fattore che scatenò la vanità nell'uomo, una qualità che pare essere tipicamente umana, poiché dipende in gran parte dall'artificio. Insomma, i pollici opponibili aiutano. Che la vanità sia cosa femminile, ossia tipica del gentil sesso, è un'idea di conio recente e suscettibile di parecchie confutazioni, che non staremo a indagare in queste pagine. Ma che la vanità tocchi anche gli uomini, ossia il sesso un po' meno gentile, è comunque un dato certo. Dopo aver constatato che una pelle di leopardo è assai più bella di una pelle di talpa (senza considerare che quest'ultima necessita di battute di caccia meno perigliose, ma di sicuro più frequenti, volendo coprirsene dal collo in giù), gli esseri umani hanno capito che il leopardo non è roba che chiunque può permettersi d'indossare. Dubitiamo che nel paleolitico l'incarnato, il colore degli occhi e dei capelli godessero di una qualche considerazione in rapporto al colore delle pellicce animali; tuttavia, è certo che fu suppergiù in tale periodo (non me ne vogliano gli archeologi, è chiaro che sto pietosamente inventando una giustificazione) che la vanità fece la sua comparsa nell'umano consorzio. Il dandismo, diversamente da ciò che molti possono pensare, non si basa esclusivamente sulla vanità, anche se di certo quest'ultima ne costituisce un solido pilastro (oseremmo dire) filosofico. Accanto a essa troviamo il culto della personalità e dell'individualità esercitato senza i condizionamenti della moda, degli ideali e della politica. Il dandy, quest'essere dalle mille sfaccettature e dalle mille morali, nel suo disperato tentativo di situare un Sé autentico tra eros e thanatos, di conciliare anima e corpo anziché dividerli manicheisticamente, è anche esteta, e trae linfa per la sua dottrina dall'amore per l'Arte, una passione

An edition (with introduction, notes and illustrations) of the letters sent by the young 3rd Marquess of Downshire and the elderly Sir Philip Francis during their travels to and in Ireland between July and November 1810, mainly addressed to Mary Marchioness of Downshire and Baroness Sandys

Jeremiah Fitzhenry, Wexford rebel and commander of the 2nd Battalion of the Irish Legion/Regiment, was captured by Spanish irregulars in 1811. Later it was discovered he had defected to Wellington. Accorded a free pardon by the British Crown, for the second time in his life, he retired to his family lands in County Wexford.

Quatre ans de recherches palpitantes pour faire revivre Enghien depuis la fin de la période autrichienne jusqu'en 1815. Découvrons ensemble le duc Louis-Engelbert d'Arenberg, seigneur d'Enghien, aveugle à 20 ans, spolié de ses avoirs en Germanie lors de la Confédération du Rhin et finalement, nommé sénateur impérial par Napoléon. Pourquoi est-il devenu franc-maçon et comment la franc-maçonnerie s'est-elle établie dans nos régions au XVIIIe siècle ? Que dire du fils du duc, le prince Prosper-Louis qui leva le régiment des chevau-légers du duc d'Arenberg à l'origine du 27e régiment belge des chasseurs à cheval ? Le canton d'Enghien, pris dans les serres de l'Aigle impérial, livra 475 conscrits qui, intégrés dans la Grande Armée, se sacrifièrent aux quatre coins de l'Europe.

José I organizó una operación gubernamental de requisa de pinturas para un hipotético Museo de Pinturas,  que utilizó políticamente. Regaló varios cuadros a generales franceses, y una colección de 50 pinturas de escuela española a Napoleón, para su Museo de París. Desde la comisión establecida para formar la colección de Napoleón, en la que participó Goya, hasta  la recuperación de lo expoliado en el Museo de Napoleón, con la ayuda de Wellington, este expolio artístico tuvo un largo viaje, no finalizado

EDITED BY GARETH GLOVER
272pp., 21 contemporary illustrations of the battlefield in June-July 1815, 3 maps. 2020.
Gareth continues to find more and more unpublished material. This is the third volume we have published in the Waterloo Archives series. It includes significant material relating to the Guards & the 52nd, the 33rd & the 92nd.
https://kentrotman.co.uk/featured/the-waterloo-archive-volume-ix-british-sources/

EDITED BY GARETH GLOVER
272pp., 19 contemporary illustrations of the battlefield in June-July 1815, 3 maps. 2020.
Gareth continues to find more and more unpublished material. Alongside individual accounts, there is a wealth of other source material available, which contains just as much if not more invaluable information for those interested in the organisation of the Army of this time. These are the letter books of various commanding officers, containing a mass of letters sent by a myriad of correspondents on an astounding variety of subjects.
https://kentrotman.co.uk/featured/the-waterloo-archive-volume-x-british-sources/

Os exércitos aliados, português e britânico, que participaram na designada Guerra Peninsular, entre 1809 e 1814, eram autónomos mas interdependentes, atingindo um nível de proficiência e trabalho em conjunto absolutamente ímpar até então. A unidade de comando, potenciada pela interoperabilidade ao nível de língua e terminologia militar, foi conseguida, por um lado, através da presença de oficiais portugueses no Quartel-General de Wellington e no Corpo de Guias do Exército Aliado, e, por outro, pela presença de oficiais britânicos no quartel-general de Beresford e nos diversos escalões tácticos do Exercito Português, Brigada e Regimento.

https://www.principia.pt/livro/o-exercito-aliado-anglo-portugues-outlet/
https://www.revistamilitar.pt/artigo/761

This article explores the service of a number of Black soldiers who served in British Army regiments at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815.
The article discusses the Battle of Waterloo and David Wilkie’s painting Chelsea Pensioners (1822), (the most prominent depiction of a Black soldier in the British Army in the nineteenth century), the presence of Black soldiers in the British Army in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and provides biographies of the Black Waterloo veterans. (The latter starts on page 4).

Volumes VII (07) to XIV (14) have been published by Ken Trotman 2019-2022.

Many readers will know that I published a series of six volumes entitled
The Waterloo Archive, between 2010 and 2014. When I commenced the
series I had no idea that I would discover so much material on the Battle
of Waterloo and indeed the final volume was crammed with material as
the publishers, Frontline Books had deemed that they could not support
any further volumes, following the standard publishing mantra of ‘the law
of diminishing returns’ by which each volume sells less.

At the time, I was not overly concerned, as I had published all I had and I
had no idea that there was any further mass of material to be discovered,
but how wrong I was. Over the succeeding five years I have accumulated
another huge mass of material on Waterloo, but with all attempts to
persuade the original publishers to carry on the series failing, I turned to
Richard Brown and his Ken Trotman Publishing, whom I am very pleased
to say, has agreed to proceed and this is the first new volume of this
revived series.

Design and Layout by Dr Stephen Summerfield

The staircase of the London residence of the painter (1828)
Painted by Pieter Christoffel Wonder
Centraal Museum Utrecht, The Netherlands
Researcher: M. Oderwald

ENGLISH SUMMARY
On the side table is a hare with a white label. The painter left a message on this label. This message was misread for a long time, and the meaning was unclear and misinterpreted. When I examined the painting closely in 2014, I discovered the word "Sudbourne". It took several month to unravel the story behind the picture and the identities of Frederick John Robinson (Lord Goderich), King George IV and Sir Henry Frederick Cooke.

The year is 1828. Sudbourne is an estate nearby Ipswich, belonging to Lord Hertford (member of the Tory-party). In January some Tories gathered here for a hunting party. A shooting accident takes place. Three are wounded, Sir Henry Frederick Cooke and two boys. (note the hare and the two (smaller) partridges from "Sudbourne" on the table in the picture).

Political background 1828: The Tory-party is heavily divided. On request of King George IV, Frederick John Robinson has just formed a new government and is Prime Minister. He is to be considered a moderate Tory. Some ultra-Tories are plotting against him. Moderate Tory colleagues (cabinet members) betray him by leaving his cabinet. The government falls in 144 days. It is the second shortest cabinet in British history (after PM Canning).

This painting is an indictment. It is about dishonesty and betrayal. There are victims, symbolized by the spoils of hunt, pointing to the Tory hunting party in Sudbourne. Robinson is the main victim and the only human in the painting. Depicted is the moment that he acknowledges defeat and offers his resignation to King George IV, painted as a little barking King Charles cavalier. Note the blue collar (wich refers to the Garter riband). Robinson has no other choice. There is only one exit. Down and out.

All sources used for my research are mentioned in my paper.
Thanks for reading.
Meinte Oderwald

This second volume deals with the final preparations for war, including the arrival of the Duke of Wellington. The operations, particularly of the Second Division during the whirlwind campaign of Waterloo and the consequent march to Paris are described in great detail as are the details of the Army of Occupation which lasted until 1818, concluding with their embarkation.

As well as his correspondence, Henry Clinton also kept a personal diary that was completed each evening. All of this various material has been put into date order and each day’s diary entry precedes the correspondence for the day (inserted by date of writing rather than of receipt) and the letters have been put in sequential order wherever it is possible or a time of day is indicated.

The appendix gives extracts recorded by an officer in Adam’s Brigade of his Brigade orders that  dovetail with the correspondence between Sir Henry Clinton and his brigade

This research presents the results of the archaeological campaign survey taken at Vimeiro during 2014. This was the first great victory for the future Duke of Wellington during the Peninsular War.
Battlefield archeology methodology, the study of the artifacts recovered, the topography and the study of written sources are the essence of this work.
The archaelogical campaign was able to locate the position of the British troops at the Hill of Vimeiro and the story of its clash with the well organized French Columns.

An account of the life of the characterful second son of Mary née Sandys and her husband the 2nd Marquess of Downshire: he served as one of Wellington's ADCs at Waterloo and as MP for co. Down before inheriting his mother’s title, becoming 2nd Baron Sandys of Ombersley of the second creation: drawn mainly from previously unpublished letters and other archive material, with copious illustrations: Sandys of Ombersley: fragments of nine lives, no. 4

Historians need to understand the nature of historical agency and how animals relate to this central if contested historiographical concern. Focusing on the specific context of the Napoleonic Wars and in particular the Duke of Wellington and his horse Copenhagen, I show why agency is a complex continuum, not limited to the highly rationalized acts of a strategizing general but extending to basic actions, group actions, and fluid actors. Agency can include animals. The nature of their agency is affected by the fact that any action must be placed into a context of reasons or understandings, the “pertinent context.” The place of animals as agents will naturally vary across historical time in great part depending on prevalent contemporary cultural assumptions. In some periods animals have operated as difficult to discern “secret agents.” Stress is laid on more variable and fluid notions of agency that have emerged in posthumanistic and actor network theoretical contexts. I develop the idea of special associations—unities—in which especially close, disciplined actors are produced, such as the skilled horse-and-rider of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, historical agency is likely to involve human beings but there is also space for animals as agents.

For many generations British historians have decried the conduct of the Dutch troops at the battle of Waterloo as cowardly, an accusation which Dutch and Belgian historians, in their turn, have tried time and again to refute. This accusation of cowardice results from the exclusive and uncritical use a chauvinistic British historiography made of compatriotic eyewitness accounts. The slighting assessments of the Dutch military they contain, in most cases, derive from misinterpretation: the smoke and noise, the chaos and danger of battle precluded an objective appraisal of each other’s combat performance. Miscommunication further enhanced this negative opinion. Since the occasional allies of Waterloo were not allowed time to get to know and appreciate one another, they were unfamiliar with each other’s language, uniforms, and command structure. Nonetheless, the British were certainly acquainted with fighting side by side with foreign troops, and they were more than willing, if applicable, to appraise their professionalism. As this common battle experience was lacking at Waterloo, historical prejudices could easily prevail.

Este artículo estudia los dos eventos principales relacionados con el castillo de la ciudad de Burgos durante la Guerra de Independencia española (1808-1814), que el asedio por parte de lord Wellington en el otoño de 1812 y su voladura por parte de los franceses el 13 de junio de 1813.

On 18th of June 1822, after three hundred years of operation of the famous Hyde Park in London, the first statue was set up there. It is a colossal bronze statue depicting the Homeric hero Achilles, naked but armed, according to an ancient iconographic type, known from the “Dioskouroi” ("Horse-tamers”) statues on Quirinale Hill in Rome. The statue was created by Sir Richard Westmacott, by the command of King George III himself, and was donated by a club of women of the aristocratic society of Britain under the name Ladies of England. The time-honored Homeric hero, Achilles, was chosen to be portrayed to symbolize Arthur Wellesley, the top hero of the Napoleonic War, the first Duke of Wellington. The Duke was the greatest triumphant against Napoleon, whom he crushed in the battle of Waterloo. The entire British society bows to the one who considers her highest hero and savior and depicts him as the timeless hero, Achilles. Wellington's memorial to Hyde Park, for over two hundred years, is yet another glimpse of the enormous power and catalytic influence of Homeric Achilles in the world culture from antiquity to our days.
In this paper, we will follow the workings of the statue of Achilles in the British capital, his iconographic type and its parallels, as well as his multiple symbolisms.

Contribution to the study of buttons of the modern period,
at the time of King João VI, Portugal (1769-1826), taking
into account patriotic, monarchic and political types
of buttons.
Being used in military uniforms, Court service uniforms
or civilian clothing, these buttons had a practical function;
however, they also represented a propagandistic expression
and showed loyalty to the king at times of political unrest.
Based on a set of examples from museum and private
collections, this study describes the historic context,
chronology, models and varieties of buttons.

An brief introduction to a much longer project based on my Honours thesis on the Battle Tactics of Alexander the Great. The original work concentrated on the combat capabilities of Alexander's units and the major battles. I'll be publishing the original work here in instalments, with revisions and extensions to follow as I find the time to address them.
The introduction just gives an overview of the issues in my mind when I began work on the thesis.

By the spring of 1835 the Basque Country was the seat of a brutal and cruel conflict known as the First Carlist War or the Seven Years War (1833-1839). The Queen Regent announced, through a proclamation, that those who took up arms for Carlos would be declared guilty of rebellion and thus treated as rebels. This situation would have continued for months if no third party had intervened as a mediator between the belligerents. In 1835 the British Cabinet, headed by Sir Robert Peel, considered “the necessity of making some arrangement which should put an end to the mode of carrying on the war, which had excited the most painful sensations throughout Europe.”

The Duke of Wellington became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Peel's first cabinet (1834–1835) and in the spring of 1835 he entrusted Eliot with the mission to set an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners and for the preservation of the lives of captive soldiers. The present book is a collection of papers related to Eliot’s mission. The instructions that he received from the Duke of Wellington help elucidate the nature and purpose of his undertaking and Eliot’s dispatches and letters give an account of what he accomplished. The journal of Colonel John Gurwood, who accompanied Eliot on his journey, and his letters addressed to Lord Fitzroy Somerset, add important information to this interesting story.

A high proportion of Wellington's troops, especially the infantry, during the during the Peninsular War (1808-14) and the Waterloo Campaign. Among his most active and effective battalions were specifically Irish including the celebrated 88th Connaught Rangers. The Irish battalions suffered heavier casualties than Highland/Scots, English or Welsh battalions. In addition, many non-Irish battalions had a proportion of Irish recruits out of proportion to Ireland's share of the UK population.  The Irish contribution was critical.

The diaries of British soldiers during the Peninsular War (1808-1814) provide some insight views about the use of coins in these troubled times (the following have been used: Gronow, Kincaid, Ross-Lewin, Rice, Simmojns, Verner, Lawrence and Wheeler). Payments systematically arrived with great delay. And when they are paid, soldiers used to spend all what they have very quickly (see the quotation by the grenadier W. Lawrence) at a high price. What kind of coins soldiers had really in their pockets and counterfeiting money are other topics dealt with in this paper.

Historians need to understand the nature of historical agency and how animals relate to this central if contested historiographical concern. Focusing on the specific context of the Napoleonic Wars and in particular the Duke of Wellington and his horse Copenhagen, I show why agency is a continuum, not limited to the complex and intentional acts of a rational man, for instance a field marshal, but extending to basic actions, group actions, and less self-conscious actors, for instance a horse. Therefore, agency can include animals. Any action, however, must be placed into a context of reasons or understandings, the “pertinent context.” The place of animals as agents will naturally vary across historical time in great part depending on prevalent contemporary cultural assumptions. In some periods animals have operated as difficult-to-discern “secret agents.” I stress the variable and fluid notions of agency that have emerged in posthumanistic and actor network theoretical contexts. And I develop the idea of special associations—what I call unities—in which especially close, disciplined actors are produced, such as the skilled horse-and-rider of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, historical agency is likely always to involve human beings, but there is also space for animals to act with people.

On June 18, 1815, Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by a coalition of British, German, Dutch-Belgian and Prussian forces led by the Duke of Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher. As a result of this defeat, Napoleon was removed from the throne of France and spent the rest of his life in exile on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. There he had plenty of time to reflect on the last battle he ever fought.

The Duke of Wellington had an unmatched career as soldier, politician and statesman, and is lauded as the man who defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. This biography charts the life of a man whose reputation as the aloof 'Iron Duke' masked a complex man of strong passions and with a keen awareness of his public persona.

O livro trata da evolução da organização do exército português durante a guerra peninsular, apresentando um breve desenvolvimento desde 1640 até às reformas do fim do Séc. XVIII e, mais detalhadamente, a organização desde a campanha do Russilhão até ao fim da 2ª Invasão, ano no qual se funde com o exército britânico no exército de operações.
Este seria o embrião do exército Anglo-Português que seria superiormente comandado pelo futuro duque de Wellington, vencedor de Napoleão em Waterloo.

https://www.napoleon-series.org/reviews/military/c_Exercito.html
Reviewed by Anthony Gray
Placed on the Napoleon Series: August 2008
https://www.napoleon-series.org/reviews/military/c_Exercito.html