Wellington the Beau

Book excerpt: The military achievements of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, have been well documented and deservedly so. Inevitably his fame and success made him attractive, nay irresistible, to the opposite sex and over the many years of his campaigning away from home he came into contact with a great number of beautiful and powerful ladies. Patrick Delaforce focuses in a tasteful way on these relationships which often had an important influence on the Great Man ' and occasionally on the shape of history. Many of his encounters were undoubtedly platonic, others certainly not.