London - Britain reveres the Duke of Wellington for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo 200 years ago, but he proved an unpopular prime minister once he shed his army uniform.
The lesser-known part of Arthur Wellesley's public life, eclipsed by his achievements on the battlefield, is being rediscovered through the numerous exhibitions and commemorations marking the Waterloo bicentenary.
Wellesley, who lived from 1769 to 1852, became prime minister in 1828, 13 years after defeating French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo outside Brussels.
A staunch conservative, he incurred the wrath of public opinion by opposing the proposed reform of grossly outdated parliamentary constituencies.
Vilified even by some of his Tory party colleagues, his government only lasted two years.
Napoleon's conqueror became the subject of ridicule, as seen in a series of cartoons recently displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in London.
In one such satirical cartoon from 1830, the year his government fell, artist John Phillips portrayed John Bull, the personification of Britain, sweeping Wellington away with a broomstick.
"I'm determined to have a clean house," says the stout Bull, while a humbled Wellington, on his knees with the broom on his backside, cries, "What! treat your Waterloo Idol in this way, Johnny?"
"It is clear that the heroic status he had acquired after Waterloo had by this time virtually disappeared," reads the gallery's description panel.
AFP
