0:00:04 > 0:00:10The Duke of Wellington was the most famous Briton of the first half of the 19th century.
0:00:11 > 0:00:16His victory over Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815
0:00:16 > 0:00:18altered the course of history.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21Waterloo, together with Trafalgar,
0:00:21 > 0:00:26give Britain 100 years of domination. Britain becomes THE superpower.
0:00:26 > 0:00:30Steely-eyed, lantern-jawed, for later generations
0:00:30 > 0:00:34he came to embody the very essence of Britishness.
0:00:34 > 0:00:36This one, I think, of Wellington is excellent.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39You can see the determination.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41You can see the Iron Duke.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47But real men are not made of iron.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50My heart is broken.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Next to a battle lost,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57the greatest misery is a battle gained.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00He's not just the stiff upper lip.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04He's got all the sort of characteristics of someone
0:01:04 > 0:01:07who's really quite complicated inside.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10This is an intimate portrait of a hero,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14seen through the eyes of those who knew him best -
0:01:14 > 0:01:16the women he slept with...
0:01:16 > 0:01:20"I am glad to see you are looking so beautiful," says he.
0:01:20 > 0:01:22"May I pay you a visit?"
0:01:22 > 0:01:24"When you like", say I.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29..the intelligent, insightful women he chose to spend his time with...
0:01:29 > 0:01:33He wishes to be the universal man.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37It is incredible how his pride has a share has everything that he does.
0:01:37 > 0:01:41..and through the eyes of the woman he was married to.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44For your own dear sake, for Christ's sake,
0:01:44 > 0:01:47do not use another woman as you have treated me.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52General, politician, lover, wit, outsider -
0:01:52 > 0:01:57the hero of Waterloo was far more complex than the public image,
0:01:57 > 0:02:02and there was no more brutal observer of his inner drama than Wellington himself.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06Would you believe that anybody could have been such a damned fool?
0:02:07 > 0:02:11Drawing on his own vast, private correspondence,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15as well as the diaries and memoirs of those around him,
0:02:15 > 0:02:19this is the story of the flesh-and-blood human being
0:02:19 > 0:02:21behind the iron mask.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34In September 1805, the 36-year-old Arthur Wellesley,
0:02:34 > 0:02:37as the future Duke of Wellington was then known,
0:02:37 > 0:02:40arrived back in Britain from India.
0:02:43 > 0:02:46The younger son of an Irish aristocratic family,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50he'd spent the previous nine years fighting to expand the British Empire.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58He came back from India very, very changed.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03He went out as a very junior, very inexperienced officer.
0:03:03 > 0:03:08He came back as Major General Sir Arthur Wellesley, KB -
0:03:08 > 0:03:09Knight of the Bath.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12He's become a man in India.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14He's become a real soldier.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18I think he came back from India a very confident,
0:03:18 > 0:03:20almost arrogant figure.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Arthur Wellesley's victories in India
0:03:23 > 0:03:25had established his reputation.
0:03:25 > 0:03:31They had also made his fortune in booty seized from Indian princes.
0:03:31 > 0:03:36He left behind a few debts to his tailor and that sort of thing.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40And he came back with £40,000
0:03:40 > 0:03:43which is, in those days, you know,
0:03:43 > 0:03:46quite a reasonable amount of money.
0:03:46 > 0:03:47A huge sum of money,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51and given that he was a relatively penniless younger son
0:03:51 > 0:03:53of an aristocratic family,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57all of a sudden he's got serious private means.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00Arthur Wellesley was now on a personal mission.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04When he comes back from India, he basically says that he's come back
0:04:04 > 0:04:08for one reason alone, and that is to marry - and to marry Kitty Pakenham.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Like Arthur himself,
0:04:12 > 0:04:18Kitty Pakenham was a member of the Anglo-Irish Protestant aristocracy.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22He had originally proposed to her before going to India,
0:04:22 > 0:04:25but was rejected by her family.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28He proposed not once but twice in the 1790s
0:04:28 > 0:04:31to a not particularly distinguished family,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34no more distinguished than his own family in Ireland,
0:04:34 > 0:04:37and both times he'd been turned down as effectively not good enough.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42He gets not only a wounding refusal,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45but a set of comments on his lifestyle.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48"Well, you're a young, impecunious cavalry officer,
0:04:48 > 0:04:49"you haven't got much prospects."
0:04:49 > 0:04:51That must have really hurt.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54and I think that's a major motivation in his coming back
0:04:54 > 0:04:58and of vindicating himself. "Here I am, now I'm a general.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01"Now I've got plaudits. Now I've got money. What do you think now?"
0:05:03 > 0:05:07But 12 long years had passed.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Kitty was now entering middle age,
0:05:09 > 0:05:12painfully aware she was no longer the young beauty
0:05:12 > 0:05:16Arthur Wellesley had left behind, as she wrote to a friend.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21I am very much changed
0:05:21 > 0:05:24within these last three years, and you know it.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27So much that I doubt whether it would be in my power
0:05:27 > 0:05:30to contribute to the comfort or happiness
0:05:30 > 0:05:35of anybody who has not been in the habit of loving me for years.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39I think Arthur was still in love with the Kitty that he remembered.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46He's clearly got this picture in his mind of this very pretty,
0:05:46 > 0:05:51lively young girl he last saw when she was 21, 22.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56Sensibly, Kitty had suggested they take time to become reacquainted.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58"No need," Arthur replied,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01and responded by brusquely proposing marriage.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Kitty accepted.
0:06:04 > 0:06:08He's convinced it will be as it was before.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10So, he doesn't go and see her.
0:06:10 > 0:06:12KNOCK AT DOOR
0:06:12 > 0:06:16And the first time he sees her is a few days before
0:06:16 > 0:06:20they actually get married, in April 1806.
0:06:23 > 0:06:24According to one account,
0:06:24 > 0:06:28Arthur later confided his initial reaction to his brother.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31'She's grown damned ugly, by Jove.'
0:06:31 > 0:06:35The wedding nevertheless went ahead just a few days later.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It was a dreadful situation.
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Out of perhaps pique,
0:06:40 > 0:06:44he'd married the girl he was refused a few years earlier.
0:06:44 > 0:06:48He married her, and then he found that she was, for his purposes,
0:06:48 > 0:06:52far too inadequate, far too small for him, in a way.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55He's grown in confidence enormously while he's been in India,
0:06:55 > 0:06:57and hers seems to have drained away.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00I wouldn't say that it took long for them to find out
0:07:00 > 0:07:02they didn't have much in common.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Soon afterwards, Arthur was made Chief Secretary for Ireland
0:07:14 > 0:07:15in a Tory government.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20The couple moved into the secretary's official residence
0:07:20 > 0:07:21in Phoenix Park, Dublin.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Kitty, who came from a large, affectionate family,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32was delighted to be close to home.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37Arthur's memories of childhood were very different.
0:07:37 > 0:07:43Kitty's family, the Pakenhams, were a very warm, loving family.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And I think that warmth was something that was
0:07:47 > 0:07:50entirely missing from Arthur's upbringing.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58His father died when he was very young, he was only 12.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01And his mother, left on her own with the children,
0:08:01 > 0:08:05I think, really regarded Arthur as sort of rather tiresome.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09He was the middle son, didn't seem to be good at anything.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13Arthur also felt little sentimentality
0:08:13 > 0:08:15towards the land of his birth.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21Because a man is born in a stable, that does not make him a horse.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Whether Arthur ever uttered this famous put-down is disputed,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27but it summed up his attitude.
0:08:27 > 0:08:34For him, Ireland, like India, was a colony - a volatile, unstable one.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37I think Arthur was very much an Irishman of the rather
0:08:37 > 0:08:40embattled Anglo-Irish Protestant descendancy.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Ireland had suffered a terrible civil war in 1798,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50a bloody rebellion, bloodily repressed.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53And that gives him, I think, a horror, a fear of the mob,
0:08:53 > 0:08:57and this is what makes him, I think, such a political reactionary.
0:08:59 > 0:09:04I lay it down as decided that Ireland, in a view to military operations,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08must be considered as an enemy's country.
0:09:08 > 0:09:12No political measure would alter the temper of the people of this country.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15They are disaffected to the British Government.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20Arthur's Irish aristocratic background would
0:09:20 > 0:09:24shape his political outlook throughout his life, making him
0:09:24 > 0:09:28simultaneously an outsider, and a staunch Conservative.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35And if Ireland tried his patience, so did his wife.
0:09:35 > 0:09:39Left to run the household, Kitty struggled.
0:09:39 > 0:09:43Kitty had never run a household, never lived on her own,
0:09:43 > 0:09:48never had any money of her own. She was 33.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51She didn't have any idea, really, how to be
0:09:51 > 0:09:55the counterpart in this marriage to this efficient man.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00He gave her money, gave her an allowance,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and she quite often used that allowance not for paying
0:10:03 > 0:10:07the household expenses, which is what was the intention,
0:10:07 > 0:10:13but to support impoverished members of her family or impoverished friends.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17I believe I may have given away money very injudiciously,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20perhaps sometimes, often,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24to spare myself the pain of refusing.
0:10:26 > 0:10:31When the Duke found that out, he was indeed very annoyed.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35He just felt that that was deceitful of her, and irresponsible.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39I am much concerned that you should have
0:10:39 > 0:10:42thought of concealing from me any lack of money.
0:10:43 > 0:10:47The conclusion I draw from your conduct is that you must be mad,
0:10:47 > 0:10:49and that you must consider me a brute.
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Once and for all, you require no permission to talk to me
0:10:53 > 0:10:55about any subject you please.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59All I request is that a piece of work may not be made about trifles.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And you may not go into tears, because I don't think them deserving
0:11:02 > 0:11:04of an uncommon degree of attention.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09He found out, was absolutely furious.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12It wasn't really so much that she'd bailed out her brother he minded,
0:11:12 > 0:11:16but it was the way that she'd concealed it from him.
0:11:16 > 0:11:22And this was to be a bit of a pattern in their marriage, I'm afraid.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25She was frightened of him. She was frightened of him.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31With brisk efficiency, Arthur quickly fathered two sons.
0:11:31 > 0:11:35The first, named after himself, born in 1807,
0:11:35 > 0:11:39the second, Charles, born in 1808.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43But it was soon clear he had a wandering eye.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47HORSES APPROACH
0:11:47 > 0:11:48CARRIAGE DOOR OPENS AND CLOSES
0:11:56 > 0:12:00A high-class courtesan called Harriette Wilson would later reveal
0:12:00 > 0:12:03she had an affair with Arthur during this period.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10She described his somewhat unsubtle seduction technique.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15He bowed, and said, "How do you do?" then wanted to take hold of my hand.
0:12:15 > 0:12:18"Really," said I, withdrawing my hand.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22"For such a renowned hero, you have very little to say for yourself.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26"I understood you came here to try and make yourself agreeable."
0:12:26 > 0:12:30"What, child?" said he. "Do you think that I have nothing better to do
0:12:30 > 0:12:33"than to make speeches to please ladies?"
0:12:33 > 0:12:37"This is indeed very uphill work," thought I.
0:12:37 > 0:12:39He wore a broad red ribbon
0:12:39 > 0:12:42and looked very like a rat catcher.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45I think there can be little doubt that he had visited
0:12:45 > 0:12:48Harriette Wilson in her professional capacity.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50I think there can be little doubt about that!
0:12:50 > 0:12:52He liked women.
0:12:52 > 0:12:54He liked women a lot.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58He's a bit of a Regency dandy, really.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00He was a sexually very active man,
0:13:00 > 0:13:03a man of his cast and a man of his time.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08It's likely Arthur Wellesley already had two illegitimate sons
0:13:08 > 0:13:10at the time he was married.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14And throughout his life, he would display
0:13:14 > 0:13:17an 18th-century aristocrat's attitude to sex.
0:13:20 > 0:13:25But in 1808, his real yearning was to return to the battlefield.
0:13:31 > 0:13:34Almost the whole of Europe at this point was under
0:13:34 > 0:13:37the sway of the French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43His Revolutionary Armies had driven the British from the Continent
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and defeated the other major powers.
0:13:48 > 0:13:53It was a moment of national peril, similar to 1940.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55Pretty much all the other allies,
0:13:55 > 0:13:59that is, the key allies - Russia, Austria and Prussia -
0:13:59 > 0:14:01had been knocked out of the war.
0:14:01 > 0:14:06Only Britain really is still in the ring against Napoleon.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11Then, in 1808, there was an uprising against French rule in Spain.
0:14:11 > 0:14:14For the British, it provided an opportunity.
0:14:16 > 0:14:19And for the ambitious, restless Arthur Wellesley,
0:14:19 > 0:14:22a chance to escape the desk job.
0:14:26 > 0:14:30Wellesley was dispatched with a small army to assist the Spanish.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36He would spend five years in the Iberian Peninsula
0:14:36 > 0:14:39without once returning home to see his family.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45While the cramped confines of his marriage magnified Arthur's faults,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50the vast plains of Spain and Portugal provided the stage for his greatness.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56His modest headquarters on the Spanish-Portuguese border
0:14:56 > 0:14:58presented a stark contrast
0:14:58 > 0:15:01with the grand chateaux favoured by Napoleon,
0:15:01 > 0:15:05and the two men were very different commanders.
0:15:07 > 0:15:12Napoleon tended to consider his soldiers as a dispensable item.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16Wellington was very protective towards his soldiers,
0:15:16 > 0:15:20and the principal reason for that is that he never enjoyed
0:15:20 > 0:15:24the sort of resources in men or material that Napoleon had.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Although bolstered by Spanish and Portuguese troops,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32he was often outnumbered, and never gave battle unless he had to.
0:15:32 > 0:15:36The mark of a great general is to know when to retreat,
0:15:36 > 0:15:38and have the courage to do it.
0:15:39 > 0:15:44Wellesley made sure his troops were well fed without stealing.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46He insisted on paying for everything.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48I think he'd seen what French armies did,
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and the anger and the hatred they left behind them,
0:15:51 > 0:15:57and he made sure, as far as possible, that his troops behaved well.
0:15:57 > 0:15:59Superb organisation,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01meticulous attention to detail,
0:16:01 > 0:16:03and a humane pragmatism -
0:16:03 > 0:16:06these were the hallmarks of his command.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09But for all the care he took of them, he was famously
0:16:09 > 0:16:12contemptuous of the men who served beneath him.
0:16:13 > 0:16:15The French system of conscription
0:16:15 > 0:16:18brings together a fair sample of all classes.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Ours is composed of the scum of the earth,
0:16:21 > 0:16:24the mere scum of the earth. It is only wonderful
0:16:24 > 0:16:26that we should be able to make so much of them afterwards.
0:16:26 > 0:16:32Unlike Napoleon, he had no great emotional rapport with his men.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The key word with Napoleon was glory, the wonder of being Emperor.
0:16:36 > 0:16:40"Vive L'Empereur!" And he would glow, and his troops would glow
0:16:40 > 0:16:43in this amazing relationship that they had with each other.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Wellington was quite different.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50Wellington wanted his men to fear him and respect him.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52He wanted his men to do what he told them.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54He wanted them to be disciplined,
0:16:54 > 0:16:56he wanted them to obey his orders.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00That is the difference between the French and English soldier.
0:17:00 > 0:17:03With the French, glory is the cause.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06With us, the result.
0:17:08 > 0:17:13His men may not have loved him, but they trusted him.
0:17:13 > 0:17:16Through a succession of battles, he slowly moulded them
0:17:16 > 0:17:19into an unbeatable force.
0:17:19 > 0:17:20The French met their match.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24Because these red-coated soldiers just didn't move.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27They stood rooted to the spot, and that is, of course,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30something that the Grande Armee had never encountered before.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38By the summer of 1812, the British had driven the French into northern Spain.
0:17:43 > 0:17:47On July 22nd, they confronted a French army
0:17:47 > 0:17:51led by Marshal Auguste de Marmont outside the town of Salamanca.
0:17:52 > 0:17:55In the battle that followed, Wellesley would show that,
0:17:55 > 0:17:57although a cautious general,
0:17:57 > 0:18:02when required, he could display flair, initiative and daring.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07As dawn breaks on the 22nd, Marshal Marmont is standing here
0:18:07 > 0:18:11with one of his divisional commanders, on this very spot.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14He's looking at the hills behind me.
0:18:14 > 0:18:16Wellington has actually hidden the whole of his army
0:18:16 > 0:18:18behind that hill, but Marmont doesn't know that,
0:18:18 > 0:18:23and what Marmont sees in the far distance is dust. A lot of dust.
0:18:23 > 0:18:25This is Wellington's baggage train,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27but he perceives this to be Wellington's army
0:18:27 > 0:18:32continuing their westerly movement and not wanting to give battle.
0:18:32 > 0:18:34Thinking the British were retreating,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37Marmont dispatched a division in pursuit.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Wellington's command post is on that hill
0:18:42 > 0:18:46in front of the village of Las Torres.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50And it's about 1500 hours when, purportedly,
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Wellington is watching what is going on to his front,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56when he realises that that division has over-extended itself.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00He realises this is his opportunity and in an instant,
0:19:00 > 0:19:04he reacts. Purportedly, he's chewing on a chicken bone at the time
0:19:04 > 0:19:09and he throws the chicken bone over his shoulder, shouting,
0:19:09 > 0:19:14"By God, that will do!" Marmont is dead. He's made a fatal mistake.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16He ordered his men to attack.
0:19:18 > 0:19:20The French were taken by surprise.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28In the words of one Frenchman,
0:19:28 > 0:19:3240,000 French soldiers are destroyed in 40 minutes.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Salamanca helped establish Wellesley's reputation
0:19:41 > 0:19:44as one of the greatest generals in Europe.
0:19:45 > 0:19:46He was exultant.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52I never saw an army get such a beating in so short a time.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56I am afraid to state the extent of the enemy's loss.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00What havoc in little more than four hours!
0:20:00 > 0:20:03The people of Salamanca swear that my mother is a saint,
0:20:03 > 0:20:05and the daughter of a saint,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08to which circumstance, I owe all my good fortune!
0:20:15 > 0:20:17Kitty was now living in London.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22Her life could not have been more different.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24Raising their two sons alone,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28she kept a diary that revealed the tedium of her existence.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34My time, I am conscious, is terribly dawdled away.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38So uninteresting, so unvaried is my life
0:20:38 > 0:20:42that to keep a daily journal is almost impossible.
0:20:42 > 0:20:47And yet, by not doing so, I lose the pleasure of knowing
0:20:47 > 0:20:50how he and I were employed at the same time.
0:20:51 > 0:20:54She has this idea in her journal,
0:20:54 > 0:20:57a rather lovely idea, in fact, of writing a journal
0:20:57 > 0:21:02which will have her doings down one side and his down the other.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07But the very, very sad thing is that those journals...
0:21:07 > 0:21:11pretty much all of the right side is blank,
0:21:11 > 0:21:15because she rarely got letters from him. He never confided in her.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17He never told her what was going on.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Kitty's diary has never been published.
0:21:20 > 0:21:24But it's still in the possession of the Wellington family.
0:21:24 > 0:21:29Her diaries are just really heart-breakingly sad.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33Or at least I find it heart-breaking,
0:21:33 > 0:21:37thinking of her as my great-great-great grandmother.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42At one point, she writes in her diary
0:21:42 > 0:21:44just three words, "Alone and sad".
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Alone and sad...
0:21:47 > 0:21:50I fear indolence is again creeping about me.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55I am fatigued by a regular course of insignificant operations
0:21:55 > 0:21:58and dissatisfied with myself when idle.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I have nothing to say to this languid day.
0:22:05 > 0:22:06I am tired.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12This unvaried life fatigues, but must be endured.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15So, ends a melancholy year.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18Heaven spare me from such another.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24She has the look of a woman who's battling with depression.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28The languor that seems to come over her, the very opposite of what Arthur is going through.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32The vigour that he seems to find in the field of action.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35She, left behind, just dwindles, really.
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Only in her two sons did Kitty find distraction
0:22:41 > 0:22:43from her darkest thoughts.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47My darling children,
0:22:47 > 0:22:50may no degree of suffering tempt me
0:22:50 > 0:22:51to forget my duty to you.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55I little imagined the extent of my crime
0:22:55 > 0:22:58when I so earnestly wished to die.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05Her eldest, Arthur, he didn't remember his father,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08but he was surrounded by busts or images of his father.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11And there was one particular bust,
0:23:11 > 0:23:14and he would go and rub the nose on the bust
0:23:14 > 0:23:18and then he would sort of...touch his own nose.
0:23:20 > 0:23:24And he would lament, he would say to his mother,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28"My nose is such a time growing."
0:23:28 > 0:23:30He wanted to be his father.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36On October 7th, 1813, just a few months short
0:23:36 > 0:23:39of his oldest son's seventh birthday,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Arthur Wellesley crossed the Bidasoa River into France.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51A year earlier, Napoleon had been forced into his catastrophic
0:23:51 > 0:23:52retreat from Moscow.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56With British troops on French soil,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59in the spring of 1814, he abdicated.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04Wellesley had played a key role in his downfall.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09Spain, in its way, though less spectacular,
0:24:09 > 0:24:12I would submit, is as catastrophic
0:24:12 > 0:24:14to the Napoleonic Empire as is Russia.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16Something like a quarter of a million men
0:24:16 > 0:24:19were held down in the Peninsula, who could have been fighting
0:24:19 > 0:24:21in Central Europe because of Wellington's campaigns.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23It was a vital element.
0:24:24 > 0:24:28On May 3rd, 1814, Arthur Wellesley was made
0:24:28 > 0:24:31Duke of Wellington by a grateful nation.
0:24:36 > 0:24:38He entered Paris in triumph,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41the saviour of Europe,
0:24:41 > 0:24:44and quickly set about enjoying himself.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49He was the most celebrated man, practically, in the world.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Every single woman in the land,
0:24:52 > 0:24:56practically, was throwing themselves at his feet.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Did he have affairs? Yes, he had lots of affairs.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04He was a bit naughty. I mean, he used his time in Paris
0:25:04 > 0:25:07to have quite a bit of fun.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10He rather prided himself on having a couple of mistresses
0:25:10 > 0:25:12that Napoleon had had earlier on.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16There's definitely something of the rutting stag going on here.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19"I can prove that I'm more of a man than you
0:25:19 > 0:25:22"because I'm going to take on all your old girlfriends."
0:25:24 > 0:25:27One of Napoleon's mistresses that Wellington inherited
0:25:27 > 0:25:31was the actress, Mademoiselle Georges.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36His relationship with Mademoiselle Georges gives us the pleasing news
0:25:36 > 0:25:40that when asked to compare, as lovers, Napoleon and Wellington,
0:25:40 > 0:25:45that Wellington was very much the strongest and the best.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49Wellington ran into an old acquaintance
0:25:49 > 0:25:52while riding down the Champs-Elysees one day.
0:25:52 > 0:25:55He quickly rekindled the friendship.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00"I am glad to see you are looking so beautiful," says he. "May I pay you a visit?"
0:26:00 > 0:26:05"When you like," say I. "I'll come tonight at eight o'clock."
0:26:05 > 0:26:09His Lordship was punctual and came to me in a very gay equipage.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12He was all over orders and ribbons of different colours, bows,
0:26:12 > 0:26:16and stars, and he looked pretty well.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18He kissed me by main force.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Wellington was made British ambassador and took up residence
0:26:26 > 0:26:29in a house that had once belonged to Napoleon's sister.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36He invited his wife Kitty to join him.
0:26:39 > 0:26:44But Wellington's open philandering made hers a humiliating position.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49He was perfectly prepared to almost insult his wife
0:26:49 > 0:26:55by taking her to Paris and behaving very poorly even when she was there.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Friends of Wellington said, "You really shouldn't
0:26:57 > 0:27:00"behave like that, it's a terrible thing to do to your wife."
0:27:00 > 0:27:03He was extraordinarily insensitive to that,
0:27:03 > 0:27:07more almost disdainful of his wife Kitty.
0:27:07 > 0:27:09Was he cruel to her?
0:27:09 > 0:27:13I think probably one would have to admit
0:27:13 > 0:27:15that he had on occasions
0:27:15 > 0:27:17been cruel to her.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20Maybe many husbands have been guilty of this
0:27:20 > 0:27:22over generations and centuries.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29At this time, Wellington began to gather around him
0:27:29 > 0:27:33a veritable harem of beautiful, aristocratic ladies,
0:27:33 > 0:27:35far younger than himself,
0:27:35 > 0:27:39united in their adoration of the great hero.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43One of the best known was Lady Frances Shelley.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50Wellington condescends to converse with me as a friend!
0:27:50 > 0:27:53I hope my head won't be turned.
0:27:53 > 0:27:57The other night, when the Duke was taking care of me after the opera,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01the crowd made a way for us with the greatest respect.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05The Duke turned towards me, and said in the gayest tone,
0:28:05 > 0:28:10"It's a fine thing to be a great man, is it not?"
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Equally devoted was political hostess Harriet Arbuthnot,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20the wife of a close friend of Wellington's.
0:28:23 > 0:28:25It is quite refreshing to be in constant
0:28:25 > 0:28:29and habitual intercourse with a mind so enlightened,
0:28:29 > 0:28:33so superior as his is, which is familiar with every subject
0:28:33 > 0:28:36and which, at the same time, can find amusement in the most
0:28:36 > 0:28:38ordinary occupations of life.
0:28:39 > 0:28:41May God preserve him to us!
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Intriguingly, it's likely that many of these relationships
0:28:47 > 0:28:48were not sexual.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53Curious man. A very curious man.
0:28:53 > 0:28:55This incredibly powerful character,
0:28:55 > 0:28:58who I think has an ambivalence about his relationship with women.
0:28:58 > 0:29:03Some women are just there to be made love to and chucked aside,
0:29:03 > 0:29:07and others are there to be friendly with and to be able to come out
0:29:07 > 0:29:11with your inner thoughts and share deep, emotional feelings with.
0:29:12 > 0:29:16I'm very struck by how important his friendships
0:29:16 > 0:29:19with women were to him.
0:29:19 > 0:29:24Women whose intellect he respected, he treated them
0:29:24 > 0:29:28in a sense, as his equal. And I think that is quite unusual.
0:29:28 > 0:29:31I mean, of course, the poor Kitty -
0:29:31 > 0:29:33that was one of the problems.
0:29:33 > 0:29:35She was lacking in confidence,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39she wasn't that well informed about world affairs.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42She was exactly the opposite of the sort of woman
0:29:42 > 0:29:44whose company he enjoyed.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48But Wellington's enjoyment of Paris
0:29:48 > 0:29:52and the pleasure of female company was about to be rudely interrupted.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00On February 26th, 1815,
0:30:00 > 0:30:05Napoleon escaped from captivity on the island of Elba, off Italy.
0:30:07 > 0:30:09Troops sent to arrest him,
0:30:09 > 0:30:10joined him.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13The newly restored French king fled.
0:30:14 > 0:30:16Napoleon was back in power.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21Wellington was in Vienna for the grand congress
0:30:21 > 0:30:24that had been called to discuss the terms of the peace.
0:30:26 > 0:30:28Once more, Europe turned to him
0:30:28 > 0:30:31to lead the allied forces against Napoleon.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36Wellington would now meet the French Emperor himself
0:30:36 > 0:30:39on the field of battle for the first time.
0:30:48 > 0:30:51The two armies met at Waterloo,
0:30:51 > 0:30:55just outside Brussels, on June 18th, 1815.
0:30:58 > 0:31:02For eight hours of savage hand-to-hand fighting,
0:31:02 > 0:31:05the fate of Europe hung in the balance.
0:31:08 > 0:31:11The present Duke retains an extraordinary memento
0:31:11 > 0:31:12of that historic day.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18A note, written by Wellington in the heat of the battle.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22He sends this to Colonel MacDonald
0:31:22 > 0:31:24in the Chateau d'Hougoumont,
0:31:24 > 0:31:28which was an incredibly important position.
0:31:28 > 0:31:31And he writes, sometime, I think, in the early afternoon,
0:31:31 > 0:31:35"I see that the fire has communicated
0:31:35 > 0:31:40"from the haystack to the roof of the chateau.
0:31:40 > 0:31:45"You must, however, still keep your men in those parts
0:31:45 > 0:31:49"to which the fire does not reach.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53"Take care that no men are lost
0:31:53 > 0:31:57"by the falling in of the roof or floors."
0:31:57 > 0:32:00Incredible attention to detail, he'd obviously seen
0:32:00 > 0:32:04with his telescope that roof of the chateau was on fire
0:32:04 > 0:32:09and that, to me, completely embodies
0:32:09 > 0:32:11the action during the battle.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17The British managed to hold on to the chateau at Hougoumont.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22But elsewhere on the battlefield, by early evening
0:32:22 > 0:32:24they were facing defeat.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Then, at the last moment, Prussian reinforcements arrived.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34The French were driven from the field.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Waterloo, together with Trafalgar,
0:32:38 > 0:32:41give Britain 100 years of domination,
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Britain becomes THE superpower.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47This was the moment when Europe embarked on
0:32:47 > 0:32:51100 years of virtual Continent-wide peace
0:32:51 > 0:32:55because of the finality and totality of the victory at Waterloo -
0:32:55 > 0:32:56terribly important.
0:32:58 > 0:33:01But the victory came at a price.
0:33:01 > 0:33:03The British and their allies
0:33:03 > 0:33:07lost more than 22,000 men, dead and wounded.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10Not for the first time after a battle,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12the Iron Duke was traumatised.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17While in the thick of it,
0:33:17 > 0:33:20I am too occupied to feel anything,
0:33:20 > 0:33:22but it is wretched just after.
0:33:24 > 0:33:26It is impossible to think of glory.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Both mind and feelings are exhausted.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33Next to a battle lost,
0:33:33 > 0:33:35the greatest misery
0:33:35 > 0:33:37is a battle gained.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44Wellington would never fight another battle.
0:33:50 > 0:33:54On returning to England, the Duke bought Apsley House in London
0:33:54 > 0:33:57with the money awarded to him by a grateful nation.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03In the foyer, he placed a large statue of the youthful Napoleon
0:34:03 > 0:34:06that he had acquired in Paris.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09The French were later outraged to discover
0:34:09 > 0:34:11he was using it as a hat stand.
0:34:18 > 0:34:21It would have been easy for Wellington to retire
0:34:21 > 0:34:23from public life and enjoy the wealth and acclaim
0:34:23 > 0:34:25his victories had bought him.
0:34:28 > 0:34:30But he didn't.
0:34:32 > 0:34:34I can't imagine that he would've,
0:34:34 > 0:34:37for a moment, contemplated retirement.
0:34:37 > 0:34:42He felt an overwhelming duty to perform public service.
0:34:43 > 0:34:48Not yet 50, the Duke entered the murky world of politics,
0:34:48 > 0:34:51joining the Tory government as Master of the Ordnance,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54a senior military post with Cabinet rank.
0:34:56 > 0:34:59He'd stepped down from his pedestal
0:34:59 > 0:35:03and his vigorous sexual appetite quickly became a target
0:35:03 > 0:35:07for Britain's robust tradition of satire and caricature.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11'What a spanker! I hope he won't fire it at me!'
0:35:12 > 0:35:16'It can't do any harm. He has fired it so often it is nearly worn out.'
0:35:19 > 0:35:22At this time, he acquired a new female admirer -
0:35:22 > 0:35:26Princess Lieven, the wife of the Russian Ambassador in London.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31More combative than many of his other lady friends,
0:35:31 > 0:35:35she would display a shrewd, insightful understanding
0:35:35 > 0:35:37of the Duke's complex psychology.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43He wishes to be the universal man.
0:35:43 > 0:35:47It is incredible how his pride has a share in everything that he does.
0:35:49 > 0:35:52It plunges him into despair not to be able
0:35:52 > 0:35:54to do something or to do it badly.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57It is a strange vanity.
0:35:59 > 0:36:02Like Churchill 130 years later,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Wellington now found himself fighting a very different battle,
0:36:06 > 0:36:10one for which his talents were less obviously suited.
0:36:15 > 0:36:17He was returning to a country transformed
0:36:17 > 0:36:20since his youth by the Industrial Revolution,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23presenting a profound challenge
0:36:23 > 0:36:24to his conservative outlook.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30What you have is a society which is becoming increasingly urban.
0:36:30 > 0:36:34Britain is no longer a predominantly agricultural country.
0:36:36 > 0:36:42There's a tension here for Wellington in that he continues
0:36:42 > 0:36:47to believe in the right, the duty and the obligation of landowners
0:36:47 > 0:36:51to exercise dominant political influence. That never changed.
0:36:53 > 0:36:55As Britain industrialised,
0:36:55 > 0:36:58there were growing demands for an extension of the right to vote,
0:36:58 > 0:37:02limited, at that time, to a small proportion of the population -
0:37:02 > 0:37:06demands that had been fuelled by the experience of war.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11If you can give a man arms and send him onto a battlefield,
0:37:11 > 0:37:12why can't you give him a vote
0:37:12 > 0:37:16and send him into the privacy of the ballot box?
0:37:16 > 0:37:19That's the argument. You know, if a man can die for his country,
0:37:19 > 0:37:21can't he have civil and political rights?
0:37:28 > 0:37:33On 16th August, 1819, a crowd of around 70,000 gathered
0:37:33 > 0:37:37at St Peter's Fields in Manchester to demand political reform.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45Local magistrates called on the cavalry to arrest the speakers.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49They charged the crowd, killing at least 11 people.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52Among them, a veteran of Waterloo.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01The massacre would become known as Peterloo, in ironic
0:38:01 > 0:38:05remembrance of Wellington's famous victory four years earlier.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10Wellington congratulated the magistrates in Manchester
0:38:10 > 0:38:12on their actions.
0:38:13 > 0:38:18Shaped by Ireland, scarred by memories of the French Revolution,
0:38:18 > 0:38:20he had no sympathy with the radicals,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22as he wrote to Harriet Arbuthnot.
0:38:22 > 0:38:25It is very clear to me that they won't be quiet
0:38:25 > 0:38:29till a large number of them "bite the dust", as the French say,
0:38:29 > 0:38:31or till some of their leaders are hanged,
0:38:31 > 0:38:34which would be a most fortunate result.
0:38:41 > 0:38:46The following year, in 1820, government agents thwarted a plot,
0:38:46 > 0:38:50known as the Cato Street Conspiracy, to murder the entire Cabinet.
0:38:53 > 0:38:57Wellington's female admirers were horrified.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04I have had such a fright about him and all those I love best
0:39:04 > 0:39:08in the world, that I am now in a shake when I think about it.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11How could such a plot be conceived against the Duke,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13whom every English person ought to worship?
0:39:16 > 0:39:20Wellington's own anger, though, was directed at his wife.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24Strangely,
0:39:24 > 0:39:27The Cato Street Conspiracy became
0:39:27 > 0:39:29a reason for Wellington
0:39:29 > 0:39:33finding fault with Kitty,
0:39:33 > 0:39:38because one of the reasons that they used to justify
0:39:38 > 0:39:43their actions was that he was so unkind to his wife.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49And it absolutely infuriated him.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52One thing he couldn't bear
0:39:52 > 0:39:58is her confiding to others about any aspect of their life.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03However he treated her, he expected her to be totally discreet.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Your whole family have complained of my conduct towards you
0:40:09 > 0:40:13without reason. Your whole conduct is one of watching
0:40:13 > 0:40:15and spying on me.
0:40:15 > 0:40:17It really makes my life a burden to me.
0:40:17 > 0:40:20If it goes on, I must live somewhere else.
0:40:21 > 0:40:25It is the meanest, dirtiest trick of which anyone can be guilty.
0:40:32 > 0:40:37By now, Kitty was spending most of her time at Stratfield Saye,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39the country house in Hampshire
0:40:39 > 0:40:43that Wellington had bought following the Battle of Waterloo.
0:40:45 > 0:40:50She was distraught at what she regarded as unfounded allegations.
0:40:50 > 0:40:53His letter provoked a rare outburst of anger.
0:40:56 > 0:40:58I hope that I forgive you.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01I would and I am sure I could have made you happy
0:41:01 > 0:41:04had you suffered me to try,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08but thrust from you, I was not allowed.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12For God's - for your own dear sake - for Christ's sake,
0:41:12 > 0:41:15do not use another woman as you have treated me.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18Never write to a human being such letters.
0:41:20 > 0:41:21They have destroyed me.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27The couple now effectively lived separate lives,
0:41:27 > 0:41:31Wellington staying mostly in London.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36On the rare occasions he entertained in Stratfield Saye,
0:41:36 > 0:41:40he had no hesitation in imposing his lady friends on Kitty.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46I have been obliged to promise the Duke
0:41:46 > 0:41:48to visit him in the country.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51You have no idea how much it bores me.
0:41:51 > 0:41:55So, it's always cold there and his wife is stupid.
0:41:55 > 0:41:56What's to be done?
0:41:58 > 0:42:00Homely and simple,
0:42:00 > 0:42:04Kitty could not compete with the standards of fashionable London.
0:42:06 > 0:42:09She is like the housekeeper and dresses herself
0:42:09 > 0:42:13exactly like a shepherdess, with an old hat made by herself
0:42:13 > 0:42:17stuck at the back of her head, and a dirty basket under her arm.
0:42:17 > 0:42:19The Duke says he is sure she is mad!
0:42:21 > 0:42:25She made his house so dull that nobody would go to it.
0:42:25 > 0:42:30In 1822, Harriet Arbuthnot asked the Duke why he married Kitty.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35Her diary entry for that day contains Wellington's only
0:42:35 > 0:42:40recorded comments on what remains the central mystery of his life.
0:42:40 > 0:42:44Would you believe that anybody could have been such a damned fool?
0:42:44 > 0:42:47I was not the least in love with her.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51I married her because they asked me to do it and I did not know myself.
0:42:51 > 0:42:53I thought I should never care for anybody again
0:42:53 > 0:42:56and that I should be with the Army.
0:42:56 > 0:42:58In short, I was a fool.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01I think Arthur really is rewriting history.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05The truth is, if you look back to his letters of the period,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08the letters of the time don't support the idea
0:43:08 > 0:43:11that he was bumped into marriage.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13They're all written by someone
0:43:13 > 0:43:16absolutely in love in or in love with the idea of love, perhaps.
0:43:18 > 0:43:22Observing Kitty at Stratfield Saye, Lady Shelley even mocked her
0:43:22 > 0:43:25for her devotion to her two sons.
0:43:27 > 0:43:32She was a slave of the boys when they came home for the holidays.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35I have seen her carrying their fishing nets, their stumps,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39their balls, their bats - apparently not perceiving how bad
0:43:39 > 0:43:43it was for them to regard a woman, far less their mother,
0:43:43 > 0:43:45as a simple drudge.
0:43:45 > 0:43:49In consequence, her sons pitied, without respecting her.
0:43:53 > 0:43:58It wasn't true. Kitty's two sons had always adored her.
0:43:58 > 0:44:02It was their relationship with their father that was cold and distant.
0:44:06 > 0:44:09By now the oldest, Arthur, was growing to manhood.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14He later described his relationship
0:44:14 > 0:44:17with the man whose title he would one day inherit.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24My father never showed the least affection.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27We were taught to go to his room first thing every morning
0:44:27 > 0:44:31after we were dressed, and without interrupting his correspondence,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36for we always found him writing, he would look up for a moment and say,
0:44:36 > 0:44:41"Good morning." That was positively all the loving intercourse
0:44:41 > 0:44:43that passed between us during the day.
0:44:48 > 0:44:52In 1825, it looked briefly as if the Duke's philandering
0:44:52 > 0:44:55and lack of interest in his own home and family
0:44:55 > 0:44:57were about to catch up with him.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02Wellington's old friend, the courtesan, Harriette Wilson,
0:45:02 > 0:45:05had decided it was time to cash in.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09She wrote a kiss-and-tell memoir, blackmailing a number
0:45:09 > 0:45:13of her former clients to keep their names out of the book.
0:45:14 > 0:45:18Legend has it the Duke responded with the famous words,
0:45:18 > 0:45:21"Publish and be damned."
0:45:21 > 0:45:25He was not prepared in any way to be blackmailed.
0:45:25 > 0:45:30I think he was sufficiently confident of his own position
0:45:30 > 0:45:35and probably had not done anything that was so unusual for the time.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40Once again, the caricaturists had fun with the revelations.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43But the public appeared uninterested.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47His reputation doesn't seem to suffer from it at all.
0:45:47 > 0:45:50The public accepted that a man of his type,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52a man of his cast,
0:45:52 > 0:45:54will do things like that.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57The later Victorians wouldn't have approved at all,
0:45:57 > 0:45:59but he got away with it at the time.
0:46:01 > 0:46:03So little was the damage to the Duke's reputation
0:46:03 > 0:46:08that just three years later, in 1828, he reached the pinnacle
0:46:08 > 0:46:11of any political career -
0:46:11 > 0:46:14appointed Prime Minister in a Tory government.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20The job did not come naturally to him.
0:46:22 > 0:46:25One man wants one thing and one another.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28They agree with what I say in the morning, and in the evening
0:46:28 > 0:46:32up they start with some crochet which deranges the whole plan.
0:46:32 > 0:46:36I have been accustomed to carry on things in quite a different manner.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39I assembled my officers, laid down my plan,
0:46:39 > 0:46:43and it was carried into effect without any more words.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48Wellington doesn't really ever accommodate
0:46:48 > 0:46:50to the political mind-set.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54Prime Ministers... Really, you have to manage your ministers.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58You have to use an element of carrot and stick.
0:46:58 > 0:47:00You have to work with them. He wasn't terribly good at that.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02He was quite dictatorial.
0:47:04 > 0:47:08Wellington quickly found himself confronted with the great issue
0:47:08 > 0:47:12of the day - the growing clamour for reform of the electoral system.
0:47:14 > 0:47:20It was a system which had hardly changed since the medieval period.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23In a number of cases, parliamentary boroughs
0:47:23 > 0:47:27were just owned by great landowners and could be bought and sold.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33But Wellington remained firmly opposed to any change.
0:47:35 > 0:47:39Not only do I think parliamentary reform unnecessary,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42but it would be so injurious that society,
0:47:42 > 0:47:44as now established in the Empire,
0:47:44 > 0:47:48could not survive under the system, which must be its consequence.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53I shall, therefore, at all times and under all circumstances, oppose it.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59He genuinely believed that constituencies with a small
0:47:59 > 0:48:04number of voters did actually ensure that the right people
0:48:04 > 0:48:06were elected to the House of Commons.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09He was mistaken, but I think he believed that
0:48:09 > 0:48:12for perfectly reasonable reasons.
0:48:14 > 0:48:18He sees reform as the road to revolution,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21tyranny and worst of all, of course, civil war.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24When the Duke repeated his implacable opposition
0:48:24 > 0:48:27to reform in the House of Lords, there was outrage.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31Even his friends were exasperated.
0:48:31 > 0:48:34Why has the Duke pushed things to an extremity?
0:48:35 > 0:48:38Why could he not have held his tongue?
0:48:38 > 0:48:41You cannot conceive how universally he is blamed.
0:48:41 > 0:48:45His peremptory declaration against any sort of reform
0:48:45 > 0:48:47has dissatisfied the upper class,
0:48:47 > 0:48:52aroused fear amongst the middle class and exasperated the populace.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56Wellington's stance left him isolated
0:48:56 > 0:48:59and led to the fall of his Tory government.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03When the Whigs introduced their own reform bill,
0:49:03 > 0:49:06it was rejected by the House of Lords.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11The country teetered on the brink of disaster.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14The immediate reaction was outrage
0:49:14 > 0:49:16and violence in a number of cities.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21Bristol was out of control for more than a week.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Nottingham and Derby, also.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32Britain was, I think I'd say, close to revolution.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35Wellington becomes a personal focus of hostility.
0:49:37 > 0:49:41There's no doubt that he is seen as the arch anti-reformer
0:49:41 > 0:49:42in this period.
0:49:42 > 0:49:46You see his sort of historic reputation as the victor of Waterloo
0:49:46 > 0:49:48under sustained assault.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53Crowds made for Apsley House and broke the windows,
0:49:53 > 0:49:56and they had to be defended with iron shutters.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04Wellington was a man out of tune with the times.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10And as revolutionary mobs swirled around his home,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13inside, a private tragedy
0:50:13 > 0:50:15was playing itself out.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17Kitty was dying.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26Kitty had some form of stomach cancer, we think,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29and was pretty ill for the last two years of her life.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34In those last weeks, finally,
0:50:34 > 0:50:37Wellington became the devoted husband.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45He sits with her and he holds her hand.
0:50:49 > 0:50:53She feels up his sleeve to see if the armlet she'd given him
0:50:53 > 0:50:5720 years ago is still there, and she finds it is.
0:50:59 > 0:51:01He insisted that he had always worn it,
0:51:01 > 0:51:04and that must have given her some comfort.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Kitty herself had never ceased to love the Duke,
0:51:09 > 0:51:13as she wrote a few weeks before her death.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16'With all my heart and soul, I have loved him
0:51:16 > 0:51:20'straight from the first time I knew him -
0:51:20 > 0:51:23'I was not then 15 - to the present hour.'
0:51:26 > 0:51:28He remained her hero throughout her life.
0:51:28 > 0:51:30I mean, this is the saddest...
0:51:30 > 0:51:34He was her hero from the moment she probably first met him,
0:51:34 > 0:51:36when she was quite young.
0:51:41 > 0:51:45Kitty died in April 1831, aged 58.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53At the very end, the Duke had done his duty to the woman
0:51:53 > 0:51:56he'd been married to for quarter of a century.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05But his comments about her to Harriet Arbuthnot
0:52:05 > 0:52:08shortly afterwards were harsh.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12The Duchess was one of the most foolish women that ever existed.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16She spoilt my sons by making everything give way to them
0:52:16 > 0:52:20and teaching them to have too high ideas of their own consequence.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24She was in debt £10,000 at Stratfield Saye when she died,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26and I discovered debts of another £10,000 or more.
0:52:28 > 0:52:32The debts preyed upon her mind. She was constantly wretched about them.
0:52:38 > 0:52:41Outside the iron shutters of Apsley House,
0:52:41 > 0:52:44the country, too, appeared to be moving towards terminal crisis.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Wellington's stubborn opposition to any type of reform
0:52:52 > 0:52:56looked likely to provoke what he had always most dreaded,
0:52:56 > 0:53:01ever since his earliest days in Ireland - anarchy and civil strife.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Then, finally,
0:53:06 > 0:53:09he pulled back from the brink.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He did, in the end, retreat on the point of
0:53:13 > 0:53:16the Great Reform Bill and he...
0:53:16 > 0:53:18In the end, the bill only carried
0:53:18 > 0:53:21because he advised the House of Lords
0:53:21 > 0:53:23to allow the bill to pass.
0:53:29 > 0:53:33The gut opponent of reform gives way to the man who believes
0:53:33 > 0:53:37above all else, in the sanctity of the King's government.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40How is the King's government to be carried on?
0:53:40 > 0:53:43That is the thing that wins the day for Wellington.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51Like the great general he was, in politics as in war -
0:53:51 > 0:53:53Wellington knew when to retreat.
0:53:55 > 0:53:57In the end, he had little choice.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00But over the remaining two decades of his life,
0:54:00 > 0:54:05pragmatism and moderation would be his guiding principles.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09Wellington is the living embodiment of this new idea
0:54:09 > 0:54:12of conservatism. In other words, you maintain
0:54:12 > 0:54:14the essentials of British society,
0:54:14 > 0:54:19but where necessary, you reform abuses, where they are proven.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21You don't stand in the way of change.
0:54:23 > 0:54:26He was certainly not part of the "ultras", as they were
0:54:26 > 0:54:30known in those days - the extreme right wing of the Tory Party.
0:54:32 > 0:54:36He would not have been a supporter of Ukip,
0:54:36 > 0:54:40or any of the right-wing elements of British politics today.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50The Duke lived on into the age of photography.
0:54:52 > 0:54:55A single image exists of him.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59The first Duke on his 75th birthday
0:54:59 > 0:55:02on May 1st, 1844,
0:55:02 > 0:55:06went to the studio, Monsieur Claudet.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09And his image was etched onto this plate,
0:55:09 > 0:55:13and you can see, quite clearly, his features.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17The great warrior's face is surprisingly benign.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Many of the portraits and images of the Duke
0:55:22 > 0:55:25in the later part of his life
0:55:25 > 0:55:30portrayed him as a rather gentle old man.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34He loved children, not just his own grandchildren,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36but children of friends.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41And, in a way, I think that perhaps somewhere,
0:55:41 > 0:55:42there was a real regret
0:55:42 > 0:55:47that he hadn't experienced that with his own sons.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52His heir, Arthur, continued to live in dread of the moment
0:55:52 > 0:55:55when he would have to step into his father's shoes.
0:55:58 > 0:56:01Think what it will be when the Duke of Wellington is announced,
0:56:01 > 0:56:03and only I come in.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16Wellington died in September 1852, aged 83.
0:56:21 > 0:56:26Over a million people lined the streets for his funeral.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29The traumas of the Reform Bill era were long forgotten
0:56:29 > 0:56:33and he was once more the hero of Waterloo.
0:56:35 > 0:56:36There is a massive funeral.
0:56:36 > 0:56:41It was a huge outpouring of grief that probably wasn't seen again
0:56:41 > 0:56:45for a public figure until Churchill's death in the 1960s.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52Queen Victoria says, "We've lost more than a man,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54"we've lost the very soul of this country."
0:56:54 > 0:56:57And she wasn't the only person to hold that view.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09The term the "Iron Duke" had been coined just a few years before
0:57:09 > 0:57:12and over the coming decades, this was the image that would be
0:57:12 > 0:57:13fixed in the public mind.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19I think the Victorians, in many ways,
0:57:19 > 0:57:22recast Wellington in their own self-image,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25and he becomes the vision of that steely, blue-eyed,
0:57:25 > 0:57:27lantern-jawed, unyielding hero.
0:57:29 > 0:57:32And yet, when you look at the real, flesh-and-blood Arthur Wellesley,
0:57:32 > 0:57:35was he's rather a different character. Men aren't made of iron.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Wellington remains an enigma.
0:57:40 > 0:57:46Bluff and direct, he was capable of great sensitivity and kindness.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50The sadness of his life was that these personal qualities
0:57:50 > 0:57:54were so rarely displayed to those closest to him.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58I don't think I could say that I'm proud of him as a person.
0:57:58 > 0:58:02He won all the battles and he achieved what he set out to do,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05but there were other casualties along the way.
0:58:07 > 0:58:11I judge him to have been a bad husband
0:58:11 > 0:58:14and an inadequate father.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19But I have huge respect for him
0:58:19 > 0:58:24in terms of how he conducted his public life.
0:58:25 > 0:58:29Like many great men before and since, Wellington was not
0:58:29 > 0:58:33always a great human being.
0:58:33 > 0:58:35But he remains a British hero.