Wellington The Iron Duke Episode 3 From Soldier to Statesman
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00:00Waterloo is the battle by which the Duke of Wellington is defined. His victory there sealed
00:21his place in history. It gave him wealth, influence and prestige, and soon propelled
00:30him into a new career in politics. But there he would find new battles to fight, political
00:38battles in which even his good name would be at stake. I must have visited the battlefield
00:57of Waterloo 30 times, and it never ceases to move me. On the morning of the 18th of June 1815,
01:14huge French and Allied armies had drawn up and faced each other across these fields just south
01:21of Brussels. 140,000 men were crammed into these three square miles. For the Duke of Wellington,
01:34this battle was to be the culmination of his military career. Months before, the war had
01:41seemed to be over and Napoleon defeated, the result partly of Wellington's victories in Spain
01:47and Portugal. But Napoleon had escaped, gathered a vast army around him and was now marching on
01:53Brussels. Wellington had to stop him. It was a battle that would decide the fate of Europe.
02:01Wellington knew that he was at a disadvantage but characteristically he gave no sign of it.
02:10He'd been cut off from his Prussian allies by the French. He'd taken up a good defensive
02:17position on this low ridge but his army of British, Germans, Dutch and Belgians contained
02:24many inexperienced units and was badly outgunned by the French just across the valley. Napoleon
02:33had won the campaign's opening round but Wellington was a canny defensive general. He waited to see
02:40how Napoleon would launch his attack. Wellington regarded the Emperor as an opportunist. He was
02:50definitely no gentleman. He was a demagogue who'd risen out of the anarchy of the French Revolution,
02:56a time of chaos and bloodshed. But he'd masterminded France's conquest of Europe and the
03:09Duke had a high regard for Napoleon's military skills. He once said, I would at any time rather
03:17have heard that the French army had received a reinforcement of 40,000 men than that he had
03:23arrived to take command. And now for the first time the Duke and the Emperor were to meet in battle.
03:39At 11.30 Napoleon began the battle with a violent cannonade. This was followed by an attack on a
03:51small farm complex which was in a key position on Wellington's right. It was vital that Wellington
03:57didn't lose it. The enemy commenced a furious attack upon our post at Ougmont. I had occupied
04:05it with a detachment of guards and it was maintained throughout the day with the utmost
04:10gallantry. This was notwithstanding the repeated efforts of large bodies of the enemy.
04:35The British held Ougmont. Napoleon had wasted the morning. It was not until 1.30 that Wellington
04:51had to face the Emperor's main attack. 16,000 infantry advanced against Wellington's centre
05:01and the farmhouse, La Haye Sainte, that dominated this part of the field.
05:05Although the French failed to take the farm, they surrounded it,
05:13broke some Allied troops on the ridge behind and continued to advance.
05:18The situation was critical. Wellington ordered in the reserves he'd been keeping for just such a
05:35moment. His heavy cavalry. They launched themselves into the greatest cavalry attack in British history.
05:48The French infantry were caught in the open and as the front ranks were hacked down,
05:53the survivors fled. Those terrible grey horses, how they fight, exclaimed Napoleon.
06:00However, flushed with success, the British cavalry went out of control,
06:08galloping right into the French lines where they were dashed to pieces.
06:18All the while, hundreds of Allied soldiers were being lost to the steady pounding of the
06:33French cannon. The battle was reaching crisis point. The Duke relied on the support of the
06:42Prussian army, led by Prince Blücher, with whom he had a good working relationship. He watched
06:49for signs of the Prussian arrival all afternoon. Wellington faced certain defeat without his
06:55allies. Napoleon had detached troops to delay the Prussians and by four o'clock, Wellington was
07:03desperate for Blücher to arrive. His men were already very tired and now they faced attack
07:10from wave after wave of French horsemen. They formed squares, blocks of men bristling
07:22with bayonets and stood like rocks beneath the torrent.
07:26The French swirled round them trying to break through, but volley after volley of musket fire
07:44cut them down. The French were helpless in the face of such discipline and determination.
07:54Wellington looked out towards Napoleon almost in disappointment and exclaimed,
08:02damn the fellow, he is a mere pounder after all. The Duke was everywhere. Mounted on his
08:11favourite charge of Copenhagen, he rode around encouraging his men, giving meticulous direction
08:16to the officers and taking refuge in the squares when necessary. But the battle was far from over.
08:24At about six o'clock, the French once again seemed to gain the upper hand. The enemy made
08:32a desperate effort to force our centre near the farm of Les Saintes, the farm after a severe
08:38contest was defeated. Only 42 men from the garrison survived. Losses were appalling. In
08:51one regiment of more than 700 men, over two-thirds were killed or wounded. The Duke murmured,
08:58night or the Prussians must come. Then there was an unexpected lull. The Prussians had finally
09:06arrived. Napoleon hesitated over his next move. Half an hour's doubt was undoing a lifetime's
09:16achievement. The Duke used the time to reinforce his hard-pressed centre and rally wavering troops.
09:26Hard-pounding this gentleman, stand fast, we must not be beat. At 7.30, Napoleon finally
09:38decided to order France's crack troops to advance. The Allies could hear the drums and yells of
09:45vive l'Empereur as Napoleon's Imperial Guard, his last reserve, came up this slope over the
09:52debris of previous attacks. Wellington himself was on hand at this crucial spot. His staff had
10:00already been killed and wounded around him, and Lord Uxbridge had advised him to take fewer risks.
10:05I will, he said, directly I see those fellows driven off. He gave the vital orders himself,
10:13stand up guards, make ready, fire. At exactly this moment, the Prussian attack was also biting
10:23deep, and as the Imperial Guard fell back, the French army broke. Wellington stood up in his
10:30stirrups and waved his hat to signal a general advance. Napoleon's army was routed.
10:44Wellington's victory was absolute. It's true that Wellington was fighting an ailing Napoleon,
10:56whose genius was never fully displayed. It's also true that without the Prussians,
11:01there'd have been no victory. But this was always a coalition campaign, and Wellington
11:08fought here in the correct assumption that Blucher would support him. The Duke's real skill,
11:14and that wonderful quiet tenacity that contemporaries called bottom, was displayed
11:20up here that day. Cajoling, encouraging, gripping, directing, keeping that oh-so-thin red line steady
11:30until the weight of the alliance could crush Napoleon. Waterloo was enshrined in British
11:38history. There was nothing quite on the scale of Trafalgar Square, but this great triumphal arch
11:44was built at Hyde Park Corner, and in due course Waterloo Station, Waterloo Bridge,
11:50and scores of Waterloo Road celebrated the victory. Wellington himself was an international hero,
11:57loaded with honours. Parliament voted him a huge sum to buy a 20,000 acre estate at
12:03Stratfield Say. He also purchased Apsley House here. The gratitude of the relieved
12:17monarchs and leaders of Europe knew no bounds. Wellington gets loaded with gifts by
12:27all sorts of states and individuals, and you've got quite a lot of them here. We've got an enormous
12:32number here at Apsley House. He was showered with porcelain services, with silver, with silver gilt.
12:38The sovereigns across Europe were so relieved that Napoleon had been defeated. And this is one of a
12:44pair of modest little candlesticks. Yes, these very splendid candelabra were presented to the
12:49Duke by the merchants and bankers of the City of London. Terrific detail. Extraordinary workmanship,
12:56huge scale, and wonderful iconography. And over here we've got these Field Marshal's batons. That's
13:03right. And I think I've ever seen as many in the same place. The rank of Field Marshal is the highest
13:09military rank an individual can attain, and he's got so many batons. It is an incredible thought
13:15that all these states have given him the highest rank in their armed forces. It's remarkable.
13:20It's an extraordinary statement. I think that just the quantity, this display, speaks for itself.
13:24And then, of course, there were the pictures. That's right. The Spanish invited the Duke to
13:30keep 200 masterpieces, really wonderful works of art, from their Royal Collection. Laskers,
13:35Rubens, Bruegels, they're really household names. Of course, I'm particularly attracted by a picture
13:41which isn't part of the Spanish Royal Collection at all. I like this painting of one of the annual
13:46Waterloo banquets because it's got everybody who was anybody at Waterloo and has managed to survive
13:52since. In the centre is the Duke, on his right the King of England, and on his left the King of
13:58Holland. And people queued outside Apsley House to see who was coming. It excited great national
14:03interest. The guest lists were published in the papers and so on. It does seem to me to sum up the
14:08sheer opulence of all that Wellington had got hold of by this time. Honours, decorations, and this sort
14:17of adulation. Wellington's wife Kitty did not share in the Duke's public adulation. She was a shy
14:27insular person who lived at home at Stratfield Say. Wellington had little interest in her.
14:36He was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the occupying forces in France and was now at the
14:42centre of a glittering social world. The Duke was a charismatic man and there were many opportunities
14:49for affairs. It was said that he even slept with two of Napoleon's mistresses, one of whom thought
14:56him a more vigorous lover than the Emperor. But eventually Wellington decided to limit his
15:02relations to the platonic. It was important to behave with decorum and he would announce,
15:09I am the Duke of Wellington and must do as the Duke of Wellington doth.
15:14Wellington started to see himself as a statesman. He spent three years working to establish a secure
15:35and stable Europe, free from the horrors of war. The Duke returned to England in 1818. He could
15:45have settled down to a very comfortable life, enjoying fame, glory and wealth. But he was a
15:52patrician with a powerful sense of duty and wanted to serve his country in peace as he had in war.
15:59And also perhaps he'd got so used to living in the limelight that he couldn't do without it now.
16:06Politics beckoned and rightly or wrongly he believed that he knew just what the country
16:13needed. But how well would the triumphant general transform into a political tactician? While
16:23travelling with his friend the MP John Croker, the two men used to try to guess what kind of
16:29terrain lay on the other side of the hill. The Duke himself said, all the business of war and
16:36indeed all the business of life is to endeavour to find out what you do not know by what you do.
16:41That is what I call guessing what is on the other side of the hill. Wellington confidently presumed
16:49that he could guess what was on the other side of the hill for Britain and for British politics.
16:54And when he was offered a place in the Tory cabinet, he accepted. At his country estate at
17:06Stratfield Say, Wellington was able to consider his future political career. Living in the closed
17:14and comfortable world of the aristocracy, it must have been easy to be indifferent to the abject
17:20poverty not far from the gates of his mansion. But Britain was in the throes of an industrial
17:25revolution and elegant sites like this were increasingly set against a backcloth of upheaval
17:32and inexorable change. In the new, squalid, smoke-belching cities like Manchester, a working
17:42day was often 18 hours and half of all children were dying of illness or malnutrition before the
17:49age of 10. Discontent turned into agitation and visions of the French Revolution loomed large.
18:06The Tory government in particular declared its determination to avoid the horrors of
18:13revolution by clamping down firmly on any unrest. The Whig opposition was prepared to
18:21countenance moderate political change, not because it really believed in it, but as a
18:26way of avoiding something far worse. Wellington was a natural Tory and was not ready for change.
18:35Not long after he took up his post, the authorities in Manchester sent in the cavalry to put down a
18:42demonstration in St. Peter's Fields, demanding political reform. A dozen people were killed in
18:48what was known in parody of Waterloo as the Peterloo Massacre. Wellington was one of the
18:5513 ministers who wrote an official letter supporting the magistrate's action. He had
19:01always believed in harsh punishment to maintain discipline amongst his troops. Likewise,
19:06he believed in the harshest repression of any public disorder. He feared the mob and the
19:15anarchy that would follow. He would announce to his friends, it is very clear to me that the
19:23radicals won't be quiet till a large number of them bite the dust. We are the nation in Europe,
19:30the least to be trusted, when we are not controlled by the strong arm of the law.
19:35Give the people a strong, a just and, if possible, a good government, but above all, a strong one.
19:44Wellington's priority was to maintain stability. It was perfectly natural for Wellington,
19:51a general, to see politics as simply the defence of the realm in another guise.
19:57Over the following years, Wellington acquitted himself well as a cabinet minister.
20:08He won favour with the right of the Tory party and King George IV was fond,
20:19even in awe, of the victorious general. Early on the 9th of January 1828, a note was delivered to
20:28Apsley House from the Lord Chancellor. While the Duke was still dressing, the Lord Chancellor
20:33himself arrived to sweep him off to Windsor. The King wanted him to form a government.
20:39The Duke accepted the office of Prime Minister. He turned up here at number 10 Downing Street
20:48on Copenhagen, the horse he'd ridden at Waterloo. The Duke is unique in being the only professional
20:56soldier in modern British history to become Prime Minister, but he admitted,
21:00it is an office for the performance of the duties of which I am not qualified and they
21:07are very disagreeable to me. But responsibility had never, for one moment, frightened him.
21:14I feel that I am capable of doing or acquiring anything I choose. I must work for myself and
21:21by myself and, please God, I shall succeed in establishing in the country a strong government
21:29and then I may retire with honour. His arrogance would make cabinet government difficult, especially
21:38when he had to deal with the infighting of his political colleagues. Although his ministers
21:43had been scrupulously polite at a dinner Wellington had hosted at Apsley House, it was the courtesy,
21:49as one of them put it, of men who had just fought a duel. What's more, most of them already
21:56felt that the Duke was domineering.
21:58Wellington found the task of leading a cabinet infuriating.
22:10All my time is employed in assuaging what gentlemen call their feelings. One man wants
22:17one thing and one another. They agree to what I say in the morning and in the evening up they
22:24start with something which deranges the whole plan. I used to be accustomed to carry on
22:29things in a quite different manner. I assembled my officers, laid down my plan and it was
22:36carried into effect.
22:38The Duke threw himself into his new job with fervour and confidence. His great strengths
22:44were his legendary attention to detail and his administrative ability. When an official
22:50at the Treasury told him that a certain change in his department's accounting methods was
22:54impossible, the Duke said, never mind. If you cannot accomplish it, I will send you
22:59half a dozen pay sergeants who will. But his years as a military commander, surrounded
23:05by officers who simply obeyed orders, had made him dangerously authoritarian.
23:13In May 1828, William Huskisson, colonial secretary in the Duke's cabinet, publicly stepped out
23:20of line and voted against the party. Now the Duke's autocratic nature was to show itself.
23:27When confronted by the whip, Huskisson wrote to the Duke, I owe it to you to lose no time
23:33in affording you an opportunity of placing my office in other hands. In the convoluted
23:39etiquette of the time, Huskisson was offering an apology rather than a resignation. Wellington
23:46responded with the inflexibility of an officer facing insubordination.
23:53Your letter of two this morning, which I received at ten, has surprised me and has given me
23:58great concern. I have considered it my duty to lay it before the King.
24:06A friend of Huskisson's called round to number ten to explain that the letter had been a
24:11mistake. Wellington snapped, there is no mistake, there can be no mistake, there shall be no
24:17mistake. And he stepped out for a stroll along Birdcage Walk, just in case Huskisson should
24:23call in person. Within a few days, other members of the cabinet
24:28had walked out in sympathy with Huskisson. Wellington had made a crucial mistake. He
24:35had failed to read what lay on the other side of the hill. He should have been uniting
24:39his party instead of dividing it. Ahead lay one of the most explosive issues of his day.
24:51Since the establishment of the Protestant Church in Britain, profound fear and hatred
24:55of Roman Catholics was widespread, and discrimination was institutionalised in law.
25:03This Catholic Church in London was allowed to exist simply because it was an embassy
25:07chapel. The demand to repeal these laws came largely from Ireland, where 90% of the population
25:14was Catholic, and the issue fuelled violent nationalism. The Duke had heard that he couldn't
25:20even rely on the partly Catholic army. Wellington himself came from an Anglo-Irish Protestant
25:27family, but his years of campaigning on the continent meant that he wasn't unduly concerned
25:33by papism. He recognised that concession was expedient to avoid the risk of civil war in
25:40Ireland. He was desperate to avoid the anarchy and
25:44chaos that he so much dreaded. But in much of Britain, anti-Catholicism was
25:52seen as patriotic. If Wellington was to improve the lot of Roman Catholics, he would have
25:59to do battle with the King, most of the Cabinet, the Church of England, the House of Lords
26:05and the mass of British public opinion. Handling many of the negotiations with the
26:14individual parties in secret, Wellington took on the challenge like a military operation.
26:19His biggest obstacle was King George IV, whose opposition could block any reform of
26:26the anti-Catholic laws. Wellington would need all his diplomatic skills
26:34to handle the King's hysterical fury whenever the subject was mentioned.
26:39I verily believed he would go mad, said one courtier.
26:45I verily believed he would go mad, said one courtier.
26:49The Duke persisted, listening endlessly to threats of abdication and watching tears slip
26:55down the royal cheeks. By March 1829, Wellington and his ministers
27:03were prepared to resign if the King would not back down and allow him to introduce the
27:08reforms. A friend of the Duke's gives an account of
27:12the final meeting. It lasted for five tense hours.
27:19The King talked the whole time of his conscience. He would not support the measures.
27:25The Duke said he'd go to Parliament and state that, having not been allowed to bring forward
27:30the measures, he only waited until a successor was appointed.
27:34The King replied he must then try to find other ministers.
27:42Wellington left with his political career apparently in pieces.
27:47But less than two hours later, the King sent a messenger after the Duke.
27:52He'd backed down.
27:56Wellington had forced the King's hand. It was a masterful piece of brinkmanship.
28:02He felt that the scale of the challenge had been comparable to Waterloo.
28:09In the House of Lords, the Duke made a simple plea, speaking slowly, with no notes,
28:16and his arms folded.
28:19I have passed a longer period of my life engaged in war than most men.
28:25And if I could avoid even one month of civil war, I would sacrifice my life in order to do it.
28:35Getting the Bill passed was his supreme political achievement.
28:40But the issue split his party.
28:43And soon the extreme ultra-Tories were attacking him publicly.
28:48It would lead to one of the most extraordinary and brash acts of any Prime Minister.
28:54When the Earl of Winchelsea suggested that Wellington had...
28:58an insidious design for the introduction of potpourri into every department of the state,
29:03Wellington demanded an apology.
29:06Winchelsea refused.
29:08Despite being Prime Minister, Wellington called upon him to give...
29:13that satisfaction for his conduct, which a gentleman has a right to require,
29:18and which a gentleman never refuses to give.
29:22These were the rules of his class.
29:29WHISTLE BLOWS
29:34Wellington met Winchelsea at dawn on Battersea Fields.
29:39Are you ready?
29:41Yes.
29:44Fire!
29:51But Winchelsea's arm remained by his side.
29:55So Wellington fired wide.
30:00Honour was assuaged.
30:03A suitable apology was then accepted.
30:08The Duke had to clear his name.
30:11The duel worked, and public opinion swung in his favour.
30:15Even the London mob, which a few days before had been hooting him, was now cheering.
30:25But he'd destroyed his party.
30:28The ultra-Tories could not forgive him over Catholic emancipation.
30:32Huskisson and his friends still seethed over the resignation letter.
30:37The Duke felt besieged.
30:40If I had known one-tenth of what I discovered within one month in office,
30:45I should never have been the King's Minister.
30:49I believe there never was a man suffered so much, and for so little purpose.
30:55But Wellington's suffering wasn't over yet.
31:02He now faced the growing clamour for political reform.
31:06Few men had the vote,
31:08and the reformers demanded that the franchise should be widened.
31:12But Wellington feared that this would open the door to mob rule.
31:17On the 2nd of November, 1830, in the House of Lords,
31:21Earl Grey made a mild speech calling for reform.
31:25Wellington gave a shockingly uncompromising reply on this sensitive issue.
31:31I am not prepared to bring forward any measure of the description alluded to by the noble Lord.
31:37And I am not only not prepared to bring forward any measure,
31:41but I will at once declare that I shall always feel it my duty to resist such measures.
31:47There was a stunned silence.
31:50The Duke noticed, and turned to a colleague.
31:53I have not said too much, have I?
31:56It was probably an unpremeditated speech,
31:59made by a man with extraordinary respect for the British Constitution,
32:03and evidence of his unvarnished honesty.
32:07But it was a fatal mistake.
32:10All hope of compromise with the middle ground had been lost.
32:15A public outcry soon followed.
32:18A contemporary account relates how events unfolded.
32:23The 4th of November.
32:25Parliament was opened by the King.
32:27The people were very disorderly, and hissed the Duke wherever they could see him.
32:33The 7th of November.
32:35We hear the radicals are determined to make a riot.
32:40The King gets quantities of letters every day telling him he will be murdered.
32:45The King is very much frightened, and the Queen cries half the day.
32:50The Duke is greatly affected by all this.
32:53He feels that beginning reform is beginning revolution.
32:58By the 8th of November, Wellington himself was receiving death threats.
33:11A few days later,
33:13the Duke was entertaining the Prince of Orange to dinner at Apsley House,
33:17when a note was sent up to him.
33:20Several members of his cabinet were waiting downstairs.
33:24He discreetly made his apologies.
33:27They informed him that large sections of his party, eager for revenge, had turned against him.
33:34Reluctantly, the Duke agreed with them that he should resign immediately.
33:39And the next morning, he and his ministers went to St. James's Palace,
33:43where the King accepted his resignation with tears.
33:48The King was in tears.
33:51Charles Greville, clerk of the Privy Council, kept a journal.
33:56The Duke of Wellington's violent and uncalled-for declaration against reform
34:00has without doubt sealed his fate.
34:03Never was there an act of more egregious folly
34:06or one so universally condemned by friends and foes.
34:12The Duke of Wellington's letter to the Prince of Orange
34:15or one so universally condemned by friends and foes.
34:22Wellington and the Tories were now in opposition,
34:25blocking all attempts to introduce reform.
34:28After an unusually disorderly meeting of the Lords, a general election was called.
34:34The Duke himself was not in the Lords that day.
34:38He was here, at Apsley House, with his ailing wife, Kitty.
34:46Kitty and the Duke had never been close.
34:49They had been tragically unsuited.
34:52Wellington, a proud man of action,
34:55Kitty, a retiring woman with simple interests.
34:59Perhaps in her last hours, a bond was formed between them.
35:05The Duke reflected, sadly, how strange it was
35:08that two people could live together for half a lifetime
35:11and only understand one another at the end.
35:15As his wife was dying, so too was the old order.
35:20There was scarcely time to mourn.
35:25The news of the election brought a storm of rioting to London.
35:29Wellington wrote...
35:3128th April, 1831.
35:34I learned from my servant John that the mob attacked my house
35:38and broke about 30 windows.
35:41He fired two blunderbusses in the air from the top of the house
35:45and the mob went off.
35:47They did not care one pin for the poor Duchess being dead in the house.
35:53Matters appear to be going as badly as possible.
35:56It may be relied upon that we shall have a revolution.
35:59I have never doubted the inclination of the lower orders.
36:03They are rotten to the core.
36:05They will plunder and annihilate.
36:07And we shall witness scenes such as have never occurred
36:10in any part of the world.
36:14The election was a foregone conclusion.
36:17The Whigs won a huge majority,
36:19overwhelming the Tories in the House of Commons.
36:22So Wellington now blocked the bill in the Lords.
36:29When the news hit the streets,
36:31the rioting spread to Nottingham, Derby and Bristol,
36:34where half the city centre was destroyed and hundreds killed or wounded.
36:44Wellington was burned in effigy by a hooting mob
36:47here at what's now Marble Arch, but was then Tyburn,
36:51the traditional site of public executions.
36:54The country was in chaos and the King begged Wellington to give way.
36:59Eventually, risking accusations of hypocrisy,
37:03the Duke agreed to let the bill through.
37:06It was probably the most remarkable decision of his career.
37:10In the end, I think, the Duke was driven by his powerful sense of duty.
37:15The harmony of King, Lords and Commons was breaking down.
37:19It was his duty to restore order.
37:25If I had been capable of refusing my assistance to His Majesty,
37:29I do not think that I could have shown my face in the streets
37:33for shame of having done it.
37:35Backed by around 100 other Tories,
37:38Wellington abstained and did not attend the debates.
37:42The Great Reform Act was passed in June 1832, doubling the electorate.
37:48It was a first step towards parliamentary democracy.
37:54But Wellington gained no credit for backing down.
37:58It was too little, too late.
38:01One Whig MP wrote in delight,
38:04the Duke of Wellington has destroyed himself forever.
38:10The derision and even hatred now felt for Wellington
38:14was reflected in the caricatures of the day.
38:17Many of them have been collected by Sir Edward Dukhan.
38:20Sir Edward, this is a fantastic collection of Wellington caricatures.
38:24What do you like about them?
38:26They're very kind. They excite me.
38:28They're amusing, they're sardonic, they're strong.
38:31But why were caricatures like this so important?
38:34It's interesting from the point of view of it being a popular opinion poll of the day.
38:39Many of the newspapers then, from time to time at any rate,
38:42were in the pay of the government.
38:44So satire or criticism or the deflation of the pompous,
38:48in those days it was something that appealed mightily.
38:52The English, you know, like to pull down their heroes.
38:55I'll show you one of my favourite caricatures which exactly exemplifies the point.
39:00Here, this caricature here.
39:02That's not at all nice.
39:04It's a caricature showing him being in league with the devil.
39:07The process of Catholic emancipation had been long drawn out
39:11and was bitterly fought.
39:13And in those days when religion meant so much more to people
39:16than alas, perhaps it does today,
39:19that was a filthy insult.
39:21Extremely cruel.
39:23This is one of my favourites.
39:25The grey figure there is Grey, who was Prime Minister after Wellington.
39:29And here he is addressing a troop of recalcitrant Tories.
39:33Wellington shown prominent in Duncy's cab.
39:36And Grey teaching them the verb to reform.
39:39I will reform, you will reform, etc.
39:42The Victor of Waterloo converted to naughty schoolboy.
39:45Yes, and he'd saved England.
39:47He'd saved our country.
39:49This great hero.
39:51As soon as he went into politics,
39:53he begins to be depicted in a light that is thoroughly unfavourable.
39:57But would Wellington's reputation ever recover?
40:02In October 1834, the Houses of Parliament burnt down.
40:06The construction of these magnificent new buildings
40:09marked the changing face of British politics.
40:12The roles of the House of Lords and the monarchy were diminishing.
40:16Power had shifted to the House of Commons
40:19and modern party politics was taking root.
40:22Wellington and his age were being left behind.
40:38After nearly 20 years in politics,
40:40Wellington had learnt from his experiences.
40:43In opposition, he took the moderate line.
40:47Together, he and Robert Peel, Tory leader in the House of Commons,
40:51avoided any confrontation with the Whigs
40:54that might drive the government further into the arms of the radicals.
40:58Respect for Wellington was returning.
41:01In the end, the achievement of Waterloo
41:04stood for far more than his political mistakes.
41:10As the Duke travelled through London,
41:12his riding companion, Charles Greville, noted a new reaction.
41:17It is not popularity, but reverence.
41:20The feeling of the people for him
41:22seems to be the liveliest of all popular sentiments.
41:25Yet he does nothing to excite it and hardly seems to notice it.
41:31One morning in 1834, Wellington was about to go hunting
41:35when he received a royal summons.
41:38He left immediately for Brighton Pavilion, the royal seaside retreat.
41:44The King greeted him in his apartments here
41:47and asked him once again to form a ministry.
41:50The Whig government, riven by internal wranglings, had fallen.
41:54But the 65-year-old Duke declared that Peel must be Prime Minister.
42:00Wellington had learnt much.
42:02Perhaps he believed that the changed political climate
42:05demanded a leader in the House of Commons, not the House of Lords.
42:10But perhaps he knew that he wasn't up to the job.
42:27Wellington was becoming less involved in politics
42:30and spending more time here at Woolmer Castle,
42:33where, as Lord Warden of the Sink Ports, he had an official residence.
42:38The Spartan atmosphere and sea air suited him better
42:41than the luxury of Apsley House or Stratfield Say.
42:44He kept busy, entertaining constantly, writing up to 50 letters a day
42:49and sitting regularly in the House of Lords,
42:52where, with a hand cupped behind his ear to follow the debate,
42:56he was a familiar figure.
42:58Like all old soldiers, he was rather deaf.
43:02He was a pillar of the establishment
43:04and took on numerous responsibilities.
43:07He was Chancellor of Oxford University,
43:10Constable of the Tower, Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire
43:14and became a father figure to the young Queen Victoria.
43:20In 1842, Wellington was also appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army.
43:29He was still a significant political figure
43:32and, by now, he'd learnt to bend with the wind.
43:37The pressure of popular unrest was once again building.
43:41This time, the target was the tax on corn,
43:44which kept bread prices artificially high.
43:49Despite his own belief in this unpopular tax,
43:52Wellington led the House of Lords in throwing it out.
43:59When he was once asked what was the best test of a great general,
44:03he replied,
44:05to know when to retreat and to dare to do it.
44:10The tax was abolished after the Duke made a highly effective speech
44:14late one night in the Lords.
44:17When Wellington left the House in the early hours of the morning,
44:20he was cheered.
44:22One workman shouted,
44:24God bless you, Duke.
44:26Typically, Wellington brushed the adulation aside.
44:29For heaven's sake, people, let me get on my horse.
44:33After this, Wellington gradually faded away from public life.
44:38He was still having his portrait painted
44:41and even sat for one of the early photographers.
44:44But Wellington had had enough of the adulation.
44:50I am really tired out
44:52and must request to be allowed to seek some repose.
44:56All that I desire is to be left alone in peace.
45:04In 1852, he died in the bedroom of his beloved Walmer Castle.
45:10He was 83.
45:16The Duke had wanted a simple, private burial,
45:19but it was not to be.
45:26Instead, he was given a lavish funeral here at St Paul's.
45:31His coffin was borne on an enormous 18-ton funeral carriage,
45:36pulled by eight horses.
45:41A million people lined the streets.
45:46When the carriage got stuck on a hill on the bouton,
45:49sailors were quickly summoned to help push it the rest of the way.
45:53Sailors have been in attendance to the funeral carriage
45:56at state funerals ever since.
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