How, and why, would Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellimgton, lead a coup d'état against the British monarchy, installing himself as head of state, whether it is a monarchy or other thing. How would his Britain evolve? His coup must be after 1815.
AHC: Coup d'état by Wellington
- Thread starter Baconheimer
- Start date
Pretty unlikely for Wellington to betray King and Country himself in such a manner. The most you could do is something like this:
PoD: After the Second Reform Bill fails and the resignation of Lord Grey, Wellington finds enough support to return to become Prime Minister at the King's appointment. (IOTL, the King and Wellington tried, but Wellington didn't have enough support to do so.) Both of their reputations sink to an all-time low, and England simmers on the edge, with rioting and threats of revolution.
Then, a group of radicals manage to assassinate most of the royal family, including King William IV. Shocked by the disaster, Wellington takes control immediately with military lockdowns and restrictions to stymie the threat of revolution, civil war and anarchy. With no one else to lead, he takes on the mantle of head of state himself (a temporary measure, or so he says.)
PoD: After the Second Reform Bill fails and the resignation of Lord Grey, Wellington finds enough support to return to become Prime Minister at the King's appointment. (IOTL, the King and Wellington tried, but Wellington didn't have enough support to do so.) Both of their reputations sink to an all-time low, and England simmers on the edge, with rioting and threats of revolution.
Then, a group of radicals manage to assassinate most of the royal family, including King William IV. Shocked by the disaster, Wellington takes control immediately with military lockdowns and restrictions to stymie the threat of revolution, civil war and anarchy. With no one else to lead, he takes on the mantle of head of state himself (a temporary measure, or so he says.)
As someone with some knowledge of British history, let me tell you that is simply not how it works...
Ya. Wellington in a position called "Prime Minister" or "Regent" acting as a Shogun-type figure for a powerless (e.g. minor or possibly foreign) monarch is ... possible. Not very likely, but certainly possible. Him being formal head of state? Not going to happen,
Arthur, King of the Britons...
In all seriousness, I don't see how it is plausible for Wellington, being a loyal British soldier, to do something like this.
CthulhuFhtagn
Banned
You'd need an all-out Britscrew. Maybe a nuke gets ISOTed to Buckingham Palace.
I have asked this question previously here were the responses
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=288933
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=288933
This sounds like the plot to an alt-history book by Bernard Cornwell involving Richard Sharpe in some way...if Cornwell did alt-history...
Faeelin
Banned
This sounds like the plot to an alt-history book by Bernard Cornwell involving Richard Sharpe in some way...if Cornwell did alt-history...
Would Sharpe support liberty, or the tory despots?
The moral conflict which would arise in the London-born officer's heart as a result of this question would undoubtedly serve as a key plot point of the story.
The arch-conservative Wellington deposing the monarchy? Perhaps at the same time as Karl Marx leads an insurrection denouncing socialism and claiming that libertarianism is the way to go, or as the Pope announces from the Vatican that he's converted to Islam.
The reason this is so unlikely is because Britain had already had a military dictatorship in the seventeenth century and they didn't like it. You could say that the interplay between politics and the military since then was designed to prevent Wellington or someone like him from staging a Coup d'état.
Derek Pullem
Donor
It's cheating a bit and relies on a even more meglomaniacal Napoleon than usual:
Nelson loses Trafalgar and Napoleon crosses the channel and deposes George III replacing him with - Joseph.
Ten years later Arthur Wellesley is the leader of the British Army faction which rebels aginst the puppet King and deposes him after Napoleon has been defeated in Russia
Only problem is that he wouldn't be the Duke of Wellington (excepting some very odd going ons in between)
The Hannoverian line is dispersed and cowering in Hannover and refuses to get involved in the chaos and so Wellington is Lord Protector until a Hannoverian claimant can be found.
I'll take your word for it. I was just picking ASB examples as they occurred to me.
I do agree with the general idea (that Wellington would never have deposed the legitimate monarchy so the OP needs some other connivance to be achieved), but…
(a) The British ships of the line that fought at Trafalgar weren't the only ships of the line in the Royal Navy, and not all naval victories in history (indeed, few of them) are as decisive as OTL's Battle of Trafalgar. France wins at Trafalgar =/= Napoleon successfully invades Great Britain. The latter is much more difficult than the former.
(b) So Napoleon is clearly on the road to defeat (thank you Russia), the Hanoverians have the opportunity to take the throne of a country clearly destined for resurgence (simply as a function of Napoleon's defeat), and instead, unlike OTL where almost every monarch in Europe jumped at the chance to join in against Napoleon and see what they could get, they choose to cower in Hanover, which is far more vulnerable to Napoleon than Great Britain is anyway. Right.
A perceptive point in regard to Cromwell, and I agree, with one caveat: Wellington was absolutely not the sort to launch a coup d'état. He was a staunch traditionalist, a man of strong principles and a man with a strong respect for the rule of law and a willingness to let it limit his own ambition. He was the last person on Earth who might be expected to overthrow the established government, especially out of any personal ambition. The way certain TLs describe Wellington, one might think that their authors are confusing him with Napoleon, perhaps because they were both famous, skilled Napoleonic-era generals with nice coats…