#freemasons

in every third work of conspiracy fiction, the Freemasons are this globespanning organization that has deep pockets and deeper intrigues.

(Duke of Wellington)

Oooh, this is fun! Thank you! I'm always happy to yap about Wellington. I'm going to limit it to five, or I will go on forever. These are in no particular order and entirely based on what I can think of off the top of my head and what my notes can remind me of, so I reserve the right to claim another favorite if later reminded of something good.

He valued being a gentleman.

It was actually something in Waterloo (1970) that put me onto this, and I've been gathering evidence for it ever since. You can see it in a few places. Ideally, all his officers were gentlemen; learned at university and through traveling. (Longford, 356-57.) I think his "anemoic feeling" about university plays into this as well. (Longford, 356) Longford mentions that Wellington wrote to Kitty's nephew, "I would give more than I can mention that I had had a university education.” (Longford, 356) Wellington himself was denied the opportunity to go, but perhaps he felt it would have made him more of a gentleman to have gone. You can see this later in life too; when the Count d'Orsay painted him in evening dress, Wellington quite liked the painting, claiming d'Orsay was the only person who'd managed to paint him like a gentleman.

2. He felt, deeply.

Hibbert infuriates me at times, but one of the stupidest things he's ever written was that Wellington was "without the supreme gift of sympathy for others." Because if you look at his reactions, that's simply not true.

Longford says the death of Somers-Cocks "seems to have knocked the heart out of Wellington." (Longford, 294) The Intelligence officer was Wellington's beau ideal of a soldier (nobly born, dedicated to his profession, and fond of field experience), and probably the person Wellington thought would rise up to replace some of his less competent generals. (Longford, 294) At the man's funeral, Wellington's "look of sheer despair prevented his friends from speaking to him." (Longford, 295)

So too can you see this in his reaction to Waterloo. Not merely in crying while being read the list of casualties, but in his response to others in the months to come. (Holmes, 250)

“Oh, do not congratulate me,” he begged his brother William’s wife, putting his hands to his face to hide the tears, “I have lost all my dearest friends." (Holmes, 254)

He had a similar reaction to the aftermath of the third siege of Badajoz, when, visiting the dead on the glacis, he broke down and wept. (Longford, 273)

When Alexander Gordon was injured at Waterloo, Wellington had him moved to his own bed. (Holmes, 250) Similarly, when informed that there were wounded soldiers enduring bitterly cold bivouacs during the Peninsular campaign, he visited them, then ordered they be taken inside the officer's quarters. When he found they had not been, he had those disobeying his orders punished, and the men taken inside. (Hibbert, 130)

These aren't the emotions of a man without sympathy. Was he unsympathetic at times? Yes, especially when people were being stupid (or when they wanted leave for fanciful reasons). But he wasn't an ice block and I wish people would stop treating him like one.

3. He was a Freemason (sort of) but hated them.

As a very young man, Wellington was inducted as a Freemason at Trim Lodge. Yet he never went near that lodge nor any other ever again. In Portugal, it actually caused quite a bit of political trouble that they thought he was a Mason, and he ended up having to issue a general order requiring his officers to refrain from staging their customary masonic activities, as it nearly got a bunch of them stoned. The Portuguese associated Masonry with the French; they really didn't like it. Then Wellington became a great man, and the Freemasons tried attaching his name to their cause. He rebuffed them every time, as he'd grown to have a hatred of secret societies. (Longford, 242-43.)

4. He had a dramatic streak.

Wellington enjoyed the theater. Although Hibbert says only that he enjoyed the mess's amateur theatricals, enough that he sent for the texts of plays suitable for officers and their ladies to perform when in India, Longford mentions in a footnote that he was "an enthusiastic amateur actor in India." (Hibbert, 39; Longford, 307.) I'm quite pleased I'm stumbled across that last bit because the last time I went looking for the evidence to back up that he'd actually acted, I couldn't find it.

More often, however, you see it in these occasional flourishes. For instance, Sir Thomas Picton told General Donkin that, in 1813, when Wellington led his troops out of Portugal for the last time, Wellington turned his horse around and waved his hat, crying, "Farewell, Portugal! I shall never see you again!" (Longford, 307.) Almost a year later, in Toulouse, when given the news that Napoleon had abdicated in the middle of dressing for dinner, he spun round on his heel snapping his fingers like a schoolboy. (Longford, 344) And then, at the end of dinner the night of Waterloo, he raised both hands in an imploring attitude and said, "The hand of almighty God has been upon me this day.” (Holmes, 250) Whether he gave a single toast in memory of the Peninsular War before or after this is disputed (Hibbert says after (181), Holmes says it came before (250)). Most portrayals lean into the stoicism and imperturbability that he showed, particularly on the battlefield, but he was so much more than that.

5. Wellington loved gossip.

I'm currently working through Hibbert's Personal History and this is one of the facts I picked up on; apparently, Wellington could not hide his love of gossip. (Hibbert, 39.) It just amuses me to think about him in a ballroom, whispering with a woman, being told all the latest on dits and letting out his whooping laugh.

Okay this may, technically, be more than five facts. Oh, well. Who doesn't enjoy writing 1000 word essays on a Sunday, just because? Enjoy!

And I thought to myself. Damn. The Freemasons were better at keeping their secrets 😂