Cultural depictions of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Portrait of the Duke of WellingtonbyFrancisco Goya(1812-1814)

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, commanding theBritish Armyduring theNapoleonic Warsand serving twice asprime minister.He has frequently been depicted in various cultural media.

Art

Equestrian Portrait of the 1st Duke of WellingtonbyFrancisco Goya(1812)

The central section ofThe Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo,in a print of 1879

See also:List of monuments to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

• Equestrian Portrait of the 1st Duke of WellingtonbyFrancisco Goya(1812).
• Portrait of the Duke of WellingtonbyFrancisco Goya(1812-1814).
• The Battle of WaterloobyWilliam Sadler II(1815).
• Portrait of the Duke of WellingtonbyThomas Lawrence(c.1815)
• Allegory of WaterloobyJames Ward(1821).
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of WellingtonbyThomas Lawrence(1829).
• The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of WaterloobyDaniel Maclise(1861).
• Pubs named after the Duke of Wellington sometimes display a signboard with a portrait of the Duke.

Literature

Literary works Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, appears in:

• The Vision of Don Roderickby SirWalter Scott(1811).
• The Trumpet-MajorbyThomas Hardy(1880).
• The Great ShadowbySir Arthur Conan Doyle(1892).
• Death to the FrenchbyC.S. Forester(1932).
• An Infamous ArmybyGeorgette Heyer(1937).
• Horatio Hornblowerseries byC.S. Forester(1937-1967).
• He Walked Around the HorsesbyH. Beam Piper(1948).
• Sharpeseries byBernard Cornwell(1981-2021).
• Jonathan Strange and Mr NorrellbySusanna Clarke(2004).
• World GamebyTerrance Dicks(2005).
• Wellington and Napoleon Quartetseries bySimon Scarrow(2006-2010).
• Victory of EaglesbyNaomi Novik(2008).

Film

Waterloo (1970)poster showingChristopher PlummerasWellington

• The Battle of Waterloo(1913), portrayed by Jack Brighton.
• Waterloo(1929), portrayed byHumberston Wright.
• Napoleon at Saint Helena(1929), portrayed byGünther Hadank.
• Congress Dances(1932), portrayed byHumberston Wright.
• The Iron Duke(1934), portrayed byGeorge Arliss.
• The House of Rothschild(1934), portrayed byC. Aubrey Smith.
• Victoria the Great(1937), portrayed by James Dale.
• The Firefly(1937), portrayed byMatthew Boulton.
• Sixty Glorious Years(1938), portrayed by C. Aubrey Smith.
• The Rothschilds(1940), portrayed byWaldemar Leitgeb.
• Waterloo(1970), portrayed byChristopher Plummer.
• The Adventures of Gerard(1970), portrayed byJohn Neville.
• Lady Caroline Lamb(1972), portrayed byLaurence Olivier.
• Blackadder: Back and Forth(1999), portrayed byStephen Fry.
• The Young Victoria(2009), portrayed byJulian Glover.
• Lines of Wellington(2012), portrayed byJohn Malkovich.
• Napoleon(2023), portrayed byRupert Everett.
• Untitled Napoleon film byNippon Animation(TBA) played by unknown.

Radio

• Portrayed byRichard Durdenin theBBC Radio 4dramasThe Hanoverian Handicap(1986) andThe King's Wife(1988)
• Portrayed byJohn Roweas an adult and Alistair White as a boy in the 1990 BBC Radio 4 dramaNosey!,produced to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo
• Portrayed byMichael Penningtonin the two-part 1993 BBC Radio 4 dramaThe Other Side of the Hill
• Portrayed bySimon Paisley Dayin the 2015 BBC Radio 4 dramaWaterloo - The Ball at Brussels

Television

Arthur Wellesley,painted by
Sir Thomas Lawrence

• Portrayed byJohn le Mesurierin a 1972 episode ofDad's Army,entitledA Soldier's Farewell.
• Portrayed byJohn Welshin the first episode of the seriesEdward the Seventh,released in 1975.
• Portrayed byBernard Archardin the 1983 seriesNumber 10.
• Portrayed byStephen Fryin a 1987 episode ofBlackadder the Third,entitledDuel and Duality.
• Portrayed byJeremy Youngin the 1993 seriesScarlet and Black.
• Portrayed byDavid TroughtonandHugh Fraserbetween 1993 and 1997 in the seriesSharpe.
• Portrayed byPeter Davisonin an episode of the 1999 seriesThe Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything.
• Portrayed byRonan Vibertin the 2015 seriesJonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
• Portrayed byPeter BowlesinVictoriabetween 2016 and 2019.

Music

• Wellington's VictorybyLudwig van Beethoven(1813).

Video games

Video games Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, appears in:

• Waterloo(1989).
• Risk II(2000).
• Empire Earth(2001).

Miscellaneous

• Wellington is played byGranville SaxtoninThe Curse of Davros,aBig Finish Productionsaudio dramabased on the long-running Britishscience fiction televisionseriesDoctor Who,released in 2012.
• The Duke of Wellington's war horseCopenhagenis played byDaniel RigbyinBBC Radio 4'sWarhorses of Letters,"the world's first epistolary equine love story", a comic exchange of letters between Copenhagen and Napoleon's horseMarengo(played byStephen Fry).The comedy ran for three series.
• The story of the theft of the GoyaPortrait of the Duke of Wellingtonby bus driverKempton Buntonin 1962 and the following trial of Bunton was dramatised in the filmThe Duke,released in 2022,and the 2015 BBC Radio 4 dramaKempton and the Duke.
• Wellington also features in the 1976 board wargameNapoleon's Last Battles.

See also

• Arms, titles, honours and styles of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• Batons of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• List of monuments to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington