The Duke [Illustrated Edition‪]‬

Includes over 100 maps of the actions, engagements and battles of the entire Peninsular War.


"Philip Guedalla wrote "The Duke" in 1931, when the exploits of the First Duke of Wellington were still generally known to his audience....In a brisk but witty narrative, Guedalla retraces the life and long career of Arthur Wesley, later Duke of Wellington. Wesley's unpromising youth provides no foreshadowing of his future greatness...Guedalla rescues Wellington's highly successful apprenticeship in arms in India from historical obscurity; only Jac Weller has covered that period better. Wellington's successes in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo have been well-documented and Guedalla does not place undue emphasis on this portion of his career. Guedalla does carry the narrative forward into Wellington's long career in government and in politics after Waterloo, where, despite long and faithful public service, he might fairly be said to have outlived his times. Wellington spent a military lifetime defeating the more rabid effects of the French Revolution; as a politician, he found himself often out of synch with the much more peaceful English Revolution that followed.


It is Guedalla's gift as an historian to place Wellington in the context of his times and especially of his social class as a member of the Anglo-Irish nobility. His extensive research into Wellington's correspondence has produced a wealth of quotes that help provide a flavor of the man. Guedalla avoids the temptation to speculate; Wellington's worlds and actions are allowed to speak for him. We come away with a sense of Wellington as a strict, disciplined, methodical, and confident military officer endowed with both an enormous amount of common sense about people and politics and with distinct pride and ambition about his own career.


This book is highly recommended to students of the life of the Duke of Wellington.-D. S. Thurlow.