The Duke of Wellington is one of the more successful and brilliant military commanders in history, and deserves our acclaim. Wellington also had the luck of a great commander. I have pondered this quality for decades and can only conclude that great commanders make their own luck. This is rather a vapid statement, I know, but it must be true.

His crowning glory, of course, is the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815.

Wellington was also a ladies' man and went through a large stable of willing women. One lass of whom the Duke eventually tired went to Wellington, and demanded money for her silence about their affair and threatened to write a tell all memoir if he refused.

The Duke drew himself up and replied: "Madam. Publish and be damned!"

High on the list of the greatest defensive tacticians in military history, Wellington's eye for ground and terrain was unmatched in his lifetime.

His campaigns in the Peninsular war were masterpieces of diplomacy, strategy and logistics.

During the Waterloo campaign his melding of a disparate army, dealing with a troublesome and half mad ally (Prussian commander Blucher insisted that he was pregnant with an elephant by one of Napoleon's Grenadiers)eye for ground, and sense of timing and psychology resulted in one of the most memorable and important victories in history.