The Duke of Wellington was born Arthur Wesley in May 1769 (though the exact date is disputed) into an aristocratic family in Dublin, Ireland. His family was part of the governing Anglo-Irish elite.

He was educated at a school in Trim and then at Eton, but he did not like it much. He enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, becoming a fine horseman there. After this, he settled for a military career, which was a common choice for men of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy.

His initial military service saw him serve in Dublin, but with the onset of the French Revolutionary Wars, he was dispatched on an expedition to Flanders in 1793. The campaign was a disaster, with British forces defeated in battle and suffering from logistical problems. The campaign taught Wesley much about how to conduct operations.

After Flanders, he changed his name to Wellesley (which he thought a more modern version of Wesley) and was dispatched to India where he fought in both the Fourth Anglo-Mysore conflict and the Second Anglo-Maratha War. He later said that the victory at Assaye was the greatest battle he ever fought. In India, he was promoted to Major General. Upon his return to Britain, he found that his victories had brought him both fame, and political influence, both of which would prove vital over the following years.

In 1808, Wellesley was sent to Portugal to command a British contingent defending the country. For the next five years, from the Portuguese coast to the Pyrenees, he would fight one of the most difficult and arduous campaigns in British military history. There would be many setbacks, but he repeatedly inflicted defeats on the French, including at the battles of Vimeiro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, and Vitoria. In 1809, Wellesley was elevated to the peerage and became Viscount Wellington. By the end of 1813, Spain had been liberated from French forces and Wellington led the British army into France itself. Napoleon capitulated in April 1814.

Wellington was appointed ambassador to the restored Bourbon court. Then, in February 1815, he was sent to Vienna to help negotiate the peace settlement. This did not last long, because Napoleon escaped from Elba and a new coalition was constructed by the allies to defeat him. Wellington was appointed commander-in-chief. On 18 June Wellington decisively defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, on the only occasion the two men commanded armies in the same battle. He would spend three years in Paris, running the occupying army.

Wellington was now a hero, feted as Britain’s greatest living soldier. Lord Liverpool sought to take advantage of this reputation and appointed Wellington to become Master General of the Ordnance in 1818. He took up his place in the House of Lords, and soon earned a reputation as a highly conservative member. Wellington was always a political figure and was MP for the ‘rotten borough’ seat of Trim during the 1790s, before his military career took precedence. Wellington brought a prestige to the Cabinet that nobody else in Britain could match.

When Canning was appointed Prime Minister after Liverpool’s departure, Wellington resigned, along with several other ministers. Canning died to be replaced by Goderich, who himself fell soon afterwards. George IV wanted a Tory government, and asked Wellington to lead it.

Wellington became Prime Minister on 22 January 1828. There were problems immediately. The Cabinet had to force him to give up the position of Commander in Chief of the Army, that he had wanted to retain. Wellington was, at heart, the military officer, and he expected his wishes to be obeyed and not discussed. He was ill suited to the sort of bargaining, charming, and compromising that high politics often required.

The political system that Wellington inherited, so long sustained by the Pittites, was nearing its end by the late 1820s. Loud voices were calling for political reform. There were also divisions within the government itself. In May 1828, five ‘Canningite’ members of the government, including War and Colonies secretary William Huskisson resigned.

Wellington also became convinced of the necessity of Catholic Emancipation, repealing discriminatory Stuart era laws, and allowing Catholic MPs to sit in the House of Commons. The Irish lawyer, Daniel O’Connell had won County Clare in a by-election in 1828, Wellington understood that denying him a place in Parliament would lead to problems in Ireland.

After persuading the increasingly unwell and delusional King George IV, Wellington’s government put the Catholic Relief Bill before Parliament. It passed with a large majority, but deeply alienated the Tories who had, up to this point, considered Wellington one of their own.  One, Lord Winchilsea libelled Wellington, and Wellington challenged him to a duel. When the moment arrived, Winchilsea did not raise his arm, and Wellington fired wide.

By 1830, Wellington was thinking of retirement, and the death of George IV triggered a general election in which political reform was a major issue. On 2 November 1830, Wellington spoke in the Lords, indicating that he would not consent to reform at all. A few days later, the government lost a vote in the House of Commons on the Civil List, and Wellington decided to resign.

Wellington continued to have a political career and would lead the resistance to the Reform Act. It was at this time that he supposedly earned his nickname ‘the Iron Duke’ from the iron shutters he installed at Apsley House to prevent his windows being smashed by protesters.

In 1834, Wellington briefly became Prime Minister again. In November, Lord Melbourne resigned and his successor, Peel, was returning from a holiday Sardinia. William IV needed somebody to take over, and Wellington stepped in as caretaker for three weeks, running a government without a Cabinet until Peel arrived.

Wellington married Catherine (‘Kitty’) Pakenham in 1806, more out of stubbornness than affection (her family had initially refused when he had first proposed in the 1793). They had two children. It was not a happy marriage and the Duke pursued many other sexual and romantic relationships. Kitty died in 1831.

To date, Wellington is the only British military leader to have become Prime Minister. The city of Wellington in New Zealand, amongst many other places, is named after him.

Wellington died aged 83 in 1852 and received a state funeral.