Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley peer, and Anne, the eldest daughter of The 1st Viscount Dungannon. His younger brother, Arthur, was Field Marshal The 1st Duke of Wellington. Wellesley is an ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II, as his elder daughter, Anne, was the paternal grandmother of Cecilia Bowes-Lyon, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, maternal grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. Wellesley was born in 1760 in Ireland, where his family was part of the Ascendancy, the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy. He was educated at the Royal School, Armagh, Harrow School and Eton College, where he distinguished himself as a classical scholar, and at Christ Church, Oxford. He
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and status, Kitty Pakenham's family had consented to his marrying her. Wellesley and Kitty were married in Dublin on 10 April 1806. The marriage would prove to be unsatisfactory and the two would spend years apart while Wellesley was campaigning. Kitty grew depressed, while Wellesley pursued other sexual and romantic partners. However the marriage produced two sons, Arthur, in 1807, and Charles, in 1808. They lived apart for most of the time and occupied separate rooms in the house when they were together. Her brother, Edward "Ned" Pakenham, served under Wellesley throughout the Peninsular War and Wellesley's regard for him