The years that made him - including the Battle of Assaye
2024 ж. 22 Мам.
18 250 Рет қаралды
In this episode of the Redcoat History Podcast, myself and Joshua Provan (adventuresinhistoryland.com) discuss The Duke of Wellington's early life when he was still known as Sir Arthur Wellesley.
Where did he go to school? Was he a good junior officer? How did he perform in India? Josh answers all of these questions and many, many more.
To read my blog and sign up for my mailing list please visit www.redcoathistory.com
Im proud to of served in the Duke of Wellingtons regiment (previously 33rd of foot) as an infantryman and sadly the regiment no longer exists as they amalgamated a number of regiments.
I think the best account of Assaye I ever read was in Sharpe's Triumph. I know that a fictional novel is probably not a very good suggestion, but honestly, the account of the battle is epic and hearing Joshua's account of it was very easy to my mind to place the whole series of events into their proper context. I would actually recommend all three of the India Trilogy, Sharpe's Tiger, Sharpe's Triumph and Sharpe's Fortress.
We here in Portugal, owe him a lot, although he is a bit forgotten around here, me thinks, but nevertheless a great hero.
Battle of Assaye was fought in 1803 between Maratha confederation Army of Daulat rao Scindia ( Maharaja of Gwalior) represented by his European commander Gen Anthony Pohlmann and Wellsley's Madras Army - the location was in present Maharashtra state Central India
Yaswant rao holkar's army fought mainly Gen Lake's army in North India.
Wellington's experience of bad management was probably another reason he disliked Horse Guards. I'm reminded of a very funny incident in a Formula 1 race when a mechanic is broadcast on the Team Radio advising the driver Kevin Magnusson and the tart reply was 'Leave me alone! I know what I'm doing!' Wellington probably felt the same.
There is a fictional scene in Sharpe's Company just before Badajoz when Sharpe says he'd been serving in Wellington's command since Flanders (I think Boxtel was mentioned) and Wellington commented 'Good God! I was a Lieutenant Colonel then!'
My father was in his thirties when he became Lt.Col., and then Colonel at 39. Mind you, it was after 6 years of war, which he began as a Major.
Some commentators on this and other episodes complain about the guests. They are not professional presenters. They are on because of their knowledge. That’s the beauty of the medium, it gives a opportunity to hear from a wide variety of people. There are plenty of exclusively professional channels if that’s your preference.
This points out the degree of talent that's actually required to present information in an orderly, connected way in real time. The people who have in depth information are usually writers who spend time revising their sentences again and again until they comes out right. The information is there, but when they have to present live, they hem and haw and back up a lot to remember things. A presenter has the skills of an actor. They have good memory and are fast on their feet with words. Completely different skill set.
I’m all for varied methods of depicting history but really ! Please let me believe that the guest participants know what they are talking about and are worth listening to .
The trick is not only knowledge BUT also good talent . Otherwise we’d all have successful KZhead channels !
The sacking of fortresses when they collapsed was common in those days. Defenders knew that if they did not surrender they knew what the consequences were disasterous for the garison and often its population. This encouraged defenders to surrender and avoid the terrible casualties on both sides. Charging through a breach was seen to be extremely dangerous and heroic. Officers that survived the assault of the walls were highly reguarded. These sackings were done by all sides. Winning a seige is often very costly. Commanders wanted a besieged fortress to know what brutality would be unleashed. Soldiers were often angry about the heavy losses of fellow soldiers. And poorly paid soldiers were keen on finding loot and alcohol.
Assaye is 1000 kms north of Madras in centre india
Waterloo is a great film 👍
The hills of Portugal were mastered by Viriatus and Wellington. The Iron Duke (or The Douro as he was lovinglly nicknamed by the portuguese after his river crossing at Oporto in 1809) will forever be a part of portuguese history. There should be a statue of the man here in Portugal, along with those of Sir John Moore and Sir Robert Craufurd.
Black Bob pity he diead after Cuidad Rodrigo, in 1812.
Do that and we will stick one of Christiano Ronaldo up in Manchester .
Great interview, many thanks to Joshua Provan. Just one minor clarification regarding the Battle of Assaye. According to my research Wellesley himself conducted the reconnaissance of the Ford across the river and the village in question where the ford was located was actually on both sides of the river.
Fantastic! Thank you Christian, and Josh. As you know I've been wanting a KZhead expert to cover Wellesley in India. I'd love to see the battles Google Earthed or mapped.
On the subject of cities or fortresses being sacked… it had been custom and the accepted rules of war for millennia. The rationale was that during the assault on a fortified position, the advantage was almost all with the defenders. The assaulters would take horrific casualties in storming the breach, so it was considered reasonable that the defenders be given some incentive to negotiate and potentially save a lot of lives. The parley often occurred at the point when the breaches were considered sufficient for an assault to succeed, and the the argument being made by the attackers would be, “We believe that we can take your fortress/city. If you surrender it now, we will both save a lot of lives , but if you make us fight for it, you will suffer , too.” Terms of surrender might include the whole garrison being permitted to march out with their personal weapons, and the civilian population who wished to leave, might or might not be permitted to carry their possessions with them.” Keep in mind that this was still a time of transition toward uniformed national armies, and in many parts of the world there was little distinction between military and civilian. It was nowhere near as formal and distinct as we rules of war to which we are accustomed.
In south india we still remember Thomas Munro, Wellesley and other British Officers as Respectable and Fair men who had done a lot of good for governance and administration
I wonder if being a 'dreamy' child Arthur was more imaginative than his peers who mostly followed set patterns, and like we sometimes see shapes in clouds, he could - for example - imagine an army laid out on the terrain so knew in advance how best to use it. Also he might imagine / know in advance where his enemy was liable to deploy so used /that/ to his advantage.
Perhaps the mention of level playing at Eaton fields related to the class system within Eaton?
Playing fields could hardly be used as a comparison if playing fields did not exist….
Very interesting discussion. Thank you for organsing and broadcasting this.
Nice a crucial battle for wellesley and india !
Provan has proved his Provenance! Parkinson excelled in brilliant questions
Great Video. Keep it up !
Great intro Duke of Wellington. Was Lord Welsey. Many channels do not state this.
Thank's for this, very interesting. I am an ex Duke ( 4th Btn DWR ) and our dog is called Wellesley!
I think you and I would clearly get along over a pint!
@@redcoathistory I am sure so, I could let you play with my Baker Rifle (original)! I am a pal of Rob Deans and a Victorian Rifleman.........................
@@duncanandrews1940 That's fantastic - would love to see your Baker - maybe one day!
Wellington landed first in Madras ,where his brother was Governor.
great video
Thanks!
It's such a shame Richard Holmes isn't around to do little historian cameos. He was brilliant. I'd recommend Bernard Cornwell's appearance at the Wellington lecture called a storied life.
Irish English like the Vandeleur family (far related family from the Netherlands). Would Irish English officers be more , how can I say it , 'closer' to each other ?
(53:08) Princes is a common collective term for ruling nobility.
You guys slay. You must do the British in China up to the destruction of the forbidden city. Quite a few badass commanders and characters in that bit of Imperialism.
Provan should read up more of Geography of India to be more impressive in such educational History Videos.
Pls do a session on Duke of Marlborough
Chat to Ian Fletcher , best battle guide ever
The Sack of Seringapatnam makes a great fortune for. Lot of East India company officers
Madras sappers were Awarded the Assaye ( Elephant 🐘) battle honor which was removed from the regiment after Indian independence
Oh ! Forgotten the name of the village.! What happened to preparation ? Really ?
Maybe Wellington knew the men were aware of officers who led from the front and that's why as a full colonel he went to India even though a Lieutenant Colonel should have. Plus he may not have trusted another man to follow his radical ideas of line v column.
really enjoying these podcast no nationalistic BS just pure history keep the good work up
Thanks a lot. I'm glad you are enjoying it.
@@redcoathistory very much listing to you interview with James Mace now fascinating
Is the saying true " The Battle of Waterloo was won in the playing fields of Eton" ??
I have heard both yes and no on that one
Napoleon preffered lucky generals. But lucky generals often take advantage of good situations. So generals can make their own luck by using initiative. Wellington mates good use of circumstances. Often by choosing good ground. As Wellington was often outnumbered he often fought a more deffensive battle if the enemy was dumb enough to collapse. When circumstances changed at Waterloo he immediately attacked the French. But due to heavy losses and exhaustion he did not rapidly pursue. So the Prussians pursued the retreating French. Wellington fought the Battle of Waterloo as he knew the Prussians were coming to fight. Wellingtons units came from a number of countries and many fought very well. 400 of the Kings German Legion defended the vital farm of La Haye Sainte that was the central position of the battle. Hampering French attacks on the main allied line. Suffering very heavy casualties before retreating with no more ammunition. After many hours of heavy fighting.
He was English in Ireland he was Irish
God this interview was like pulling teeth.
Worse! I would sue my dentist and let him be stripped of his license if he would perform like this.
Sadly yes. The guest is a terrible communicator
But this man (Provan) really does know his onions 🧅 here! He is very knowledgeable on these topics, at least!! He’s probably an effective writer, but not a natural communicator!
The expert is better suited to written work
Mr Redcoat, your videos are fact-wise really interesting, but in comparison with, say, King and Generals and others, they heavily lacked such things as the site of youtube maps, battle plans (best animated) and so. It really could improve your work.
Comment from XII.2021 after I saw about ten of your videos.
Many thanks. I have tried more in more latest videos but also please be aware they are big channels with a budget - I am one man with kids and a full time job trying my best,
Wellington was a great Irish Man
So when an irish family have a child in another country they aren't Irish? Might want to bring that up with Americans as a child of a US citizen is also American regardless of country of birth or residents, more importantly "Being born in a stable does not make one a horse" wellington himself didn't consider himself irish and nor did any of his family we have records for.
@@Delogros oh god. His family had been in Ireland for GENERATIONS. Literally some 200 years. he was a plastic englishman. Born and raised Irish, wasn't born in the united kingdom as it didn't even exist yet. A citizen of ireland. stood for the irish parliament.
@@irresistiblle irealnd also didn't exist in a way where it could have citizens at the time, he was a citizen of the British Empire not Ireland, He was elected to the Irish parliment for 2 years He became the prime minister of England, He was elected as the MP for Newport which the Isle of wight for goodness sake are we going to be pretend he's an islander now?... Now he was appointed to be the cheif secretaryt for ireland but The irish parliment was abolished in 1800, he spent far more time in the British parliment and British governmental position and his time in the Irish parliment seems more like just finding something to do then anything else. Fact is and will always remain that he was Anglo-Irish and his family held onto the Anglo part more dearly the nthe irish bit of their heritage, sorry/not sorry
His first action was with Mysore
Irelands greatest Genral 🇮🇪
The battle of assaye is harder than the battle of Waterloo
Mysore is in South India
Mysore is in Karnataka, india. I don't know any state or country names "south india".
"Mysuru" it is. There's no longer any mysore
To whom did paying for commissions go???
It was paid to the army, but one could also buy it off an existing officer.
Love the Redcoat history and presenter but really , the invited expert. “ ???? “
Well there's your posh officer voice.
A very interesting account and an impressive knowledge I do though, wish your friend would learn to speak in public. Far to many err's umm's spoil his dialogue and other errors that make listening harder work than it needs to be and less inspiring than the subject deserves.. What ever, I wish you both strength ad success.
The history was very informative, but I found the herky-jerkiness of the presentation quite annoying.
I'm often accused of herky-jerkiness!
@@redcoathistory a sarcastic quip rather than an objective understanding that the show was one of your worst and hardest to watch due exclusively to the guest. A redo of this would be more well received were an expert who is a more effective communicator is engaged.
@@redcoathistory Despite, some of the audience here being impatient, & in my own view, overly critical with your guest’s personal, idiosyncratic tendencies, to carefully reflect upon , deliberate & then best choose his words, in order to explicitly expound & elucidate some of his answers or opinions. Joshua Provan was/is nevertheless a highly-knowledgeable guest, whose responses are informative & essentially articulated in an accurate, authoritative & edifying manner! I would be surprised, if his expertise was not again included or consulted on, in subsequent occasions on your show!
Criticising style over content?
This comes across like a couple of students who have read some books and drawn conclusions without doing much research. Provan seems uncertain of many of the “facts” and with regard to anachronisms refers to rugby scrums - rugby didn’t even exist at that time.
Great, glad you liked it. I look forward to your feedback on future videos.
For goodness sake . If you have an “expert “ please make sure that they at least know how many siblings he had . And please have eloquent talent that doesn’t stutter about . Not wishing to be rude but if an expert- please come over as one .
Doesn't know much about this after all...
I’m sorry ! What does this guy know about warfare and the military? As a viewer who lead a final attack on The Falklands War . Leading a UK Platoon that was awarded 2 Military Medals, 1 Mention in dispatches and as their commander I was awarded a Military Cross , I wouldn’t follow this expert into the NAAFI !!
Hi Robert. Thanks for the message. I must take full responsability for any issues with this interview. This was the early days of the podcast and I didn't brief guests properly or edit the interviews to a sufficient standard. As I'm sure you have seen we have upped our game in recent months and I hope you like the content. For the record Josh is an incredible knowledgable guy and has been back on the show a number of times and continued to do a terrific job. I now know how to better brief guests better and hence recent episodes look and feel much slicker. All the best.
In regards to Seringapatam, you mention British troops going mad after the walls were breached. Which British troops? Do you mean ALL of them? The white officers, the Indian rank and file? Further, it’s my understanding that it was common for soldiers to loot, rape, and burn if a city refused to surrender. By modern standards that’s repulsive and horrifying, but the standards of the day saw it as common practice.
This guest is an awful communicator. He clearly knows the subject well but his storytelling is incoherent, omits facts he then mentions later when is out of chronological order, and has a generally monotone and nasally delivery that’s hard to understand via video. Interesting subject but disappointing show.
I did not find it so. The content mattters most