Wellington’s battle against Brexit

THE Duke of Wellington led the charge as some of the highestranking members of the British aristocracy went into battle with the will of the people over Brexit.

The former Tory MEP is a direct descendent of the Iron Duke who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, leading to the collapse of his French-led European empire.

Waterloo led to the creation of his dukedom and one of Britain’s most famous dynasties.

Born Arthur Charles Valerian Wellesley on August 19 1945, the ninth Duke of Wellington inherited the title on the death of his father in 2014. Along with it came great wealth, the family seat Stratfield Saye House in Hampshire and Apsley House, London.

The Eton and Oxford-educated duke also owns land near the scenes of the Iron Duke’s greatest triumphs in Wallonia, Belgium, and Granada, Spain.

The duke, now 72, married his wife Antonia in 1977. She is the daughter of Prince Frederick of Prussia and a descendent of Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who plunged Europe into war in 1914. They have five children.

The duke lost his right to sit in the House of Lords in 1999 after a reform of the second chamber, but returned to a voting seat in 2015.

He introduced the amendment to remove the March 29 2019 Brexit date from the legislation, insisting he was not trying to “thwart the process” but wanted to give the Commons a chance to rethink including the date, which might have to be changed.

The duke said ministers should be given “a bit more flexibility” to secure and ratify the best possible deal which will “do the least damage to the economy and the national interest”.