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 quotation which is often attributed to him. Moreover, Eton had no playing fields at the time. In 1785, a lack of success at Eton, combined with a shortage of family funds due to his father's death, forced the young Wellesley and his mother to move to Brussels. Until his early twenties, Arthur showed little sign of distinction and his mother grew increasingly concerned at his idleness, stating, "I don't know what I shall do with my awkward son Arthur." A year later, Arthur enrolled in the French Royal Academy of Equitation in Angers, where he progressed significantly, becoming a good