Wellington Pillar of State

London England: Panther. Very Good. 1975. 1st Paperback Edition. Paperback. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall 0586041559 Softcover Paperback prev owners name insideWellington's 'Years of the Sword' ended abruptly while he was still in his prime. Weeping for the dead of Waterloo, he prayed he had fought his last battle. So he had: and it might be supposed that the rest of his career would prove on long aftermath. Yet such was the power of this extraordinary man to propel himself into the path of great events, that the second half of his active life was hardly less exciting than the first, and, as a subjective story that rocketed between the zenith and nadir of fortune, it was unique. If he was indeed an Iron Duke - it was iron which had been returned again and again to the fire. The Prince of Waterloo was in one sense a ready-made 'Pillar of State' for the new Europe. During the first years after Waterloo he was ruler of occupied France in all but name. Then Wellington arrived back in his native land full of good resolutions to be a public servant rather than a party politican. He found himself at the head of a divided Tory Party and Prime Minister of a country loudly demanding every variety of reform. Lady Longford's first volume of this biography Wellington: The Years of the Sword, was greeted by enormous acclaim and this second and final volume is a pleasure to read, always lucid, full of new material, sympathetic but balanced, intelligent, rich in personal details but solid and scholarly too. 24 pages of black and white illustrations. .