Cultural depictions of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Francisco 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 the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars and serving twice as prime minister. He has frequently been depicted in various cultural media.

Art[]

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

The Duke of Wellington pub, High Beach, with signboard portrait of the Duke

• Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Francisco Goya (1812-1814).
• The Battle of Waterloo by William Sadler II (1815).
• Allegory of Waterloo by James Ward (1821).
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington by Thomas Lawrence (1829).
• The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo by Daniel Maclise (1861).^[1]
• 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 Roderick by Sir Walter Scott (1811).
• The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy (1880).
• The Great Shadow by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892).
• Death to the French by C.S. Forester (1932).
• An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer (1937).
• Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester (1937-1967).
• He Walked Around the Horses by H. Beam Piper (1948).
• Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell (1981-2021).
• Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke (2004).
• World Game by Terrance Dicks (2005).
• Wellington and Napoleon Quartet series by Simon Scarrow (2006-2010).
• Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik (2008).

Film[]

Waterloo (1970) poster showing Christopher Plummer as Wellington

• The Battle of Waterloo (1913), portrayed by Jack Brighton.
• Waterloo (1929), portrayed by Humberston Wright.
• Napoleon at Saint Helena (1929), portrayed by Günther Hadank.
• Congress Dances (1932), portrayed by Humberston Wright.
• The Iron Duke (1934), portrayed by George Arliss.
• The House of Rothschild (1934), portrayed by C. Aubrey Smith.
• Victoria the Great (1937), portrayed by James Dale.
• The Firefly (1937), portrayed by Matthew Boulton.
• Sixty Glorious Years (1938), portrayed by C. Aubrey Smith.
• The Rothschilds (1940), portrayed by Waldemar Leitgeb.
• Waterloo (1970), portrayed by Christopher Plummer.
• The Adventures of Gerard (1970), portrayed by John Neville.
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), portrayed by Laurence Olivier.
• Blackadder: Back and Forth (1999), portrayed by Stephen Fry.
• Lines of Wellington (2012), portrayed by John Malkovich.

Television[]

Arthur Wellesley, painted by
Sir Thomas Lawrence

• Portrayed by John le Mesurier in a 1972 episode of Dad's Army, entitled A Soldier's Farewell.
• Portrayed by John Welsh in the first episode of the series Edward the Seventh, released in 1975.
• Portrayed by Bernard Archard in the 1983 series Number 10.
• Portrayed by Stephen Fry in a 1987 episode of Blackadder the Third, entitled Duel and Duality.
• Portrayed by Jeremy Young in the 1993 series Scarlet and Black.
• Portrayed by David Troughton and Hugh Fraser between 1993 and 1997 in the series Sharpe.
• Portrayed by Peter Davison in an episode of the 1999 series The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything.
• Portrayed by Ronan Vibert in the 2015 series Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
• Portrayed by Peter Bowles in Victoria between 2016 and 2019.

Music[]

• Wellington's Victory by Ludwig 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 by Granville Saxton in The Curse of Davros, a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, released in 2012.
• Wellington also features in the 1976 board wargame Napoleon'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

References[]