The Duke of Wellington: Difference between revisions

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* [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]: Part of the reason Wellington made Colonel so quickly was that he bought his way up the ranks. This was [[Values Dissonance|completely normal at the time]], and obviously he turned out to suit the position.

** Bribery is the wrong word. He wasn't paying someone off to promote him when he didn't deserve it. The normal and legal way of gaining a commission in the British army was to purchase it, In fact, the only other way to get a promotion was to inherit it from a dead superior or do something so suicidally brave that they had no choice but to promote you.

** Purchased ranks were a fossil of the time when standing armies were simply mercenary units that happened to have a permanent contract. The system though it is well gone did have some weird benefits from time to time as the noble who bought into a regiment was often likely to do well by it and if he was also a professional soldier - and as a world war was going on at the time quite a few were - it would likely mean paying for gimmicks that would improve performance.

** Purchased ranks were a fossil of the time when standing armies were simply mercenary units that happened to have a permanent contract. The system though it is well gone did have some weird benefits from time to time as the noble who bought into a regiment was often likely to do well by it and if he was also a professional soldier - and as a world war was going on at the time quite a few were - it would likely mean paying for gimmicks that would improve performance. There were of course not many really unusual "gimmicks" in the opening; once in a while someone would come up with something but for the most part a musket was just a musket. However there were ways to promote better health, morale, etc.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Showed shades of this on occasion such as when he was looking over a list of officers being shipped over from Britain to fight underneath him, the Duke commented "I have no idea what impact they'll have on the enemy but by God they scare the life out of me."

* [[He Also Did]]: Well known for his battlefield career, but his later political career is much less well known. Partly because any recounting of his political career casts him in a less-than-positive light by modern standards, what with his staunch opposition to parliamentary reform, whereas his exemplary career as a commander is much less contentious.