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Widely regarded as the most successful soldier in British history with the possible exception of Marlborough, the Duke of Wellington played instrumental roles towards the downfall of Napoleon's power. He was born Arthur Wesley (the family name was changed in 1798) in late April 1769; the exact date and place of his birth are disputed, but his family's property at Merrion Street, Dublin, is the most likely place. He was the fifth son of Garret Wesley, first Earl of Mornington, an improvident Anglo-Irish peer who left his estates weighed down by debts on his death twelve years later. Arthur was educated at Eton and at a French military academy at Angers; he showed little early promise and was regarded as the dullard of the family. He obtained a commission in the 73rd Foot in 1787, in accordance with the then-prevalent view of the army as the last refuge of well-born idiots in straitened circumstances. He saw only a few days of regimental service during the next year, which he spent purchasing promotions in a number of regiments. These purchases were made with borrowed funds; throughout his early life he was bedevilled by humiliating debt, and was forced to take full advantage of the military and parliamentary patronage which decided so many appointments in his day. There has never been any serious suggestion that he himself was ever corrupt, however. In November 1787 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and spent the next six years as an ornament of the Dublin Castle staff in a round of social trivialty and debauchery. In 1793, when further purchased promotions saw him installed as lieutenant-colonel of the 33rd Foot at the age of twenty-four, he reached a turning points his life. Disappointed in love and sickening of his wastrel life, he seems to have made a conscious decision to apply himself seriously to his military carrer as being the only field left to him in which he might lead a worthwhile life.

His first taste of active service came in 1794 when he was posted to the Duke of York's army in Flanders. One of the few British officers to distinguish themselves in this campaign, he was subsequently given command of the rearguard brigade during the dreary retreat through Holland. The inefficiency of the command, the staff and the services of this expedition, and the unnecessary suffering and loss of life, made a bitter and lasting impression on him. He attempted to resign and secure a post in the Irish civil administration, but in the event was obliged to remain in the Army, and in 1796 sailed for India with his regiment. Here, too, there was much to offend his increasingly piercing professional eye; he broke himself of his taste for wine and cards, and applied himself to his duties with dedication. Fortunately his elder brother was appointed Governor-General of India in 1798 -- Lord Wellesley paid attention to his military advice, and secured various advantageous commands for him. If his appointments were obtained by blatant jobbery, however, his performance in them was exemplary. In 1799 he commanded a division in the campaign against Tipoo, Sultan of Mysore, and after the capture of Tipoo's capital Seringapatam he was made Governor. After further action against powerful local bandit forces he was promoted major-general in April 1802. His first major victory with an independent command came in September 1803 during the Second Mahratta War. With 7,000 men and twenty-two guns, of which force only 1,800 were British, he dfeated 40,000 Mahrattas with a hundred guns at Assaye. One third of his British infantry were casualties, a circumstance which made a deep impression on him. He won another victory at Argaon, and in 1804 was knighted. He returned to England in 1805, financially secure for the time being and the richer for much useful experience. He had faced at first hand the problems of a general who is oliged to take the field at a great numerical disadvantage; he had held political responsibility in an environment of furious factional intrigue; and he had learnt a great deal about the capabilities and weaknesses of officers and men in the field. His professional reputation and immediate prospects were not assured, however. He was a very junior unemployed major-general whose only regular income came from his regimental colonelcy; and there was a general attitude in England that the exploits of 'sepoy generals' were not to be taken seriously in a European context. Sir Arthur took part in an abortive expedition to Hanover in December 1805, seeing no action, but the next two years were militarily uneventful for him. In 1807 he was given command of the excellent Reserve Division (43rd and 52nd Light Infantry, 92nd Highlanders, and 95th Rifles -- all regiments which were later to serve under him with great distinction in the Peninsula) for the expedition to Copenhagen. His formation was the only part of the force to be seriously engaged by the Danes, and he won an easy victory at Kioge on 29 August.

Promoted lieutenant-general in April 1808, Sir Arthur sailed in July for Portugal in command of some 17,500 troops, with vague and discretionary orders for operations against the French armies which occupied both Portugal and Spain. When, however, it was discovered that Junot's Army of Portugal was much stronger than had hitherto been imagined, strong British reinforcements were sent after him, and more senior generals were instructed to supersede him. Meanwhile, Wellesley won a brisk action against weak French blocking units at Rolica on 17 August. The first reinforcements, his superior officers, and Junot with 13,000 troops all arrived at Vimiero on 20 and 21 August; but it was Wellesley who commanded the strengthened British army in the battle of Vimiero. He disposed his 17,000 men skillfully on the hills around the village, and decisively defeated Junot's attacks. But his superior, Burrard, took over immediately after the action, and refused to allow the pursuit which common sense demanded. Instead Burrard and Sir Hew Dalrymple negotiated the Convention of Cintra, which Wellesley was asked to sign on 31 August; under the terms of this document Junot's army, with arms and such plunder as it could carry, was shipped home in British ships. For this all three officers were much vilified in England, and a court of inquiry ended the careers of Dalrymple and Burrard. Wellesley spent a year 'in the wilderness' while Moore conducted his unlucky campaign in Spain, but in April 1809 he was sent out again to command the expeditionary force ordered to expel the second French invasion of Portugal under Soult.