Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley

Wellesley in officer's uniform with star and sash of the Order of St Patrick. Portrait by Robert Home

Mornington seems to have caught Pitt's large political spirit in the period 1798 to 1805. That both had consciously formed the design of expanding their influence in the Indian subcontinent to compensate for the loss of the American colonies is not proven; but the rivalry with France, which in Europe placed Britain at the head of coalition after coalition against the French, made Mornington aware of the necessity of ensuring French power did not reign supreme in India.[6]

On the voyage out, he formed the design of curbing French influence in the Deccan. Soon after his arrival, in April 1798, he learned that an alliance was being negotiated between Tipu Sultan and France. He soon after was appointed Governor-General of India on May 12, replacing the Lord Cornwallis. Mornington resolved to anticipate the action of the Sultan and ordered preparations for war. The first step was to order the disbandment of the French troops entertained by the Nizam of Hyderabad.[7]

The capture of Mysore followed in February 1799, and the campaign was brought to a swift conclusion by the capture of Seringapatam on 4 May 1799 and the death of Tipu Sultan, who was killed in action. In 1803, the restoration of the Peshwa proved the prelude to the war against Sindhia and the raja of Berar, in which his brother Arthur took a leading role.

The result of these wars and of the treaties which followed them was that French influence in India was reduced to Pondicherry, and that Britain acquired increased influence in the heartlands of central India. He proved to be a skilled administrator, and picked two of his talented brothers for his staff: Arthur was his military adviser, and Henry was his personal secretary. He founded Fort William College, a training centre intended for those who would be involved in governing India. In connection with this college, he established the governor-general's office, to which civilians who had shown talent at the college were transferred, in order that they might learn something of the highest statesmanship in the immediate service of their chief. He endeavoured to remove some of the restrictions on the trade between Europe and Asia.[8] He took the time to publish an appreciation of British composer Harriet Wainwright's opera Comala in the Calcutta Post on 27 April 1804.

Both the commercial policy of Wellesley and his educational projects brought him into hostility with the court of directors, and he more than once tendered his resignation, which, however, public necessities led him to postpone till the autumn of 1805. He reached England just in time to see Pitt before his death.

He had been created a Peer of Great Britain in 1797 as Baron Wellesley, and in 1799 became Marquess Wellesley in the Peerage of Ireland.[lower-alpha 1][9] He formed an enormous collection of over 2,500 painted miniatures in the Company style of Indian natural history.

He founded short-lived 'The Institution for Promoting the Natural History ' in 1801 at Barrackpore near Calcutta. The institution was supervised by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton.As a part of this endeavor 'Barrackpore Menagerie' was founded which survived till 1878 when animals and birds were transferred to Alipore which later became Calcutta Zoo. [10]

A motion by James Paull (MP) to impeach Wellesley due to his expulsion of British traders from Oudh was defeated in the House of Commons by 182 votes to 31 in 1808.[11] Mornington also disapproved of liaisons between Company officials and soldiers and locals, seeing them as improper.[12]

After his governorship ended in 1808, he returned to Britain and began to join British politics yet again. The few years back in Parliament were quite uneventful, despite the overwhelming crisis the British government faced with the war in Europe and the domination of Europe by Napoleon Bonaparte. The growing French influence threatened Britain and its empire to the extent of causing high tensions in the country. While the crisis abroad wasn’t enough, the British government had been led by weak and unsuited men from 1806-1809 with two short-lived ministries under Lord Grenville and the Duke of Portland respectively.

But when on the fall of the coalition ministry in 1807, Wellesley was invited by George III to join the Duke of Portland's cabinet, he declined, pending the discussion in parliament of certain charges brought against him in respect of his tenure as governor-general and because of criticism of his administration. Resolutions condemning him for the abuse of power were moved in both the Lords and Commons but defeated by large majorities.

In 1809, Wellesley was soon appointed as the British ambassador to Spain by Perceval. He landed at Cádiz just after the Allies victory at the Battle of Talavera, and he tried to bring the exiled Spanish government into an effective co-operative agreement to support the campaign against the French in country with his brother, Duke of Wellington who was commander-in-chief of the British Forces, through the failure of his allies failed to cooperate with the Spanish unsuccessfully. Soon the British and Spanish forces had been forced to retreat into Portugal after French counter-attacks.

A few months later, after a dispute between George Canning and Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh led to a duel and soon led to the resignation of both ministers, Perceval offered a new position in the cabinet and Wellesley accepted the post of Foreign Secretary in Spencer Perceval's cabinet. Unlike his brother Arthur, he was an eloquent speaker, but was subject to inexplicable "black-outs" when he was apparently unaware of his surroundings.

He held this office until February 1812, when he retired, partly from dissatisfaction at the inadequate support given to Wellington by the ministry, but also because he had become convinced that the question of Catholic emancipation could no longer be kept in the background. From early life, Wellesley had, like his brother Arthur, been an advocate of Catholic emancipation, and with the claim of the Irish Catholics to justice, he henceforward identified himself.

Twice Viceroy of Ireland, and one of the original Knights of St Patrick, he surrendered that order on being made a Knight of the Garter on 31 March 1812.

Upon Perceval's assassination he, along with Canning, refused to join Lord Liverpool's administration, and he remained out of office until 1821, criticising with severity the proceedings of the Congress of Vienna and the European settlement of 1814, which, while it reduced France to its ancient limits, left to the other great powers the territory that they had acquired by the Partitions of Poland and the destruction of the Republic of Venice.

He was one of the peers who signed the protest against the enactment of the Corn Laws in 1815. His reputation never fully recovered from a fiasco in 1812 when he was expected to make a crucial speech denouncing the new Government, but suffered one of his notorious "black-outs" and sat motionless in his place.

Lord Wellesley in Garter Robes, with the badge of the Grand Master of the Order of St Patrick around his neck and carrying the white staff of office as Lord Steward, presumably dressed for the coronation of King William IV on 8 September 1831. Westminster Abbey in the background. Portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1833

In 1821, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Catholic emancipation had now become an open question in the cabinet, and Wellesley's acceptance of the viceroyalty was believed in Ireland to herald the immediate settlement of the Catholic claims but they would remain unfulfilled. Some efforts were made to placate Catholic opinion, notably the dismissal of the long-serving Attorney-General for Ireland, William Saurin, whose anti-Catholic views had made him bitterly unpopular. Lord Liverpool died without having grappled with the problem. His successor, Canning, died only a few months after taking up office as Prime Minister, to be succeeded briefly by Lord Goderich.

On the assumption of office by Wellington, his brother resigned the lord-lieutenancy. He is said to have been deeply hurt by his brother's failure to find a Cabinet position for him (Arthur made the usual excuse that one cannot give a Cabinet seat to everyone who wants one).[18]

He had, however, the satisfaction of seeing the Catholic claims settled in the next year by the very statesmen who had declared against them. In 1833, he resumed the office of Lord Lieutenant under Earl Grey, but the ministry soon fell, and, with one short exception, Wellesley did not take any further part in official life.

On his death, he had no successor in the marquessate, but the earldom of Mornington and minor honours devolved on his brother William, Lord Maryborough, on the failure of whose issue in 1863 they fell to the 2nd Duke of Wellington.

He and Arthur, after a long estrangement, had been once more on friendly terms for some years: Arthur wept at the funeral and said that he knew of no honour greater than being Lord Wellesley's brother.[19]

Wellesley was buried in Eton College Chapel, at his old school.[20] Wellesley's library was sold at auction in London by R. H. Evans on 17 January 1843 (and three following days); a copy of the catalogue, annotated with prices and buyers' names, is held at Cambridge University Library (shelfmark Munby.c.149(1)).