Prince of Waterloo

Prince of Waterloo Prins van Waterloo Prince de Waterloo
Arms of the Dukes of Wellington as Prince of Waterloo.
Creation date	8 July 1815
Created by	King William I
Peerage	Dutch and Belgian nobility
First holder	Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Present holder	Charles Wellesley, 9th Duke of Wellington
Heir apparent	Arthur Wellesley, Earl of Mornington
Remainder to	the 1st Duke's heirs male of the body lawfully begotten
Motto	Virtutis Fortuna Comes

Prince of Waterloo (Dutch: Prins van Waterloo, French: Prince de Waterloo) is a title in the Dutch and Belgian nobility, held by the Duke of Wellington. The title was created by King William I of the Netherlands for Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington as a victory title in recognition of defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The Duke of Wellington and all his descendants along the male line belong to Dutch and Belgian nobility, in which all the descendant dukes carry the title of "Prince of Waterloo" with the style "Serene Highness" (Dutch: Doorluchtigheid). The rest of his family retain the Dutch honorific Jonkheer or Jonkvrouw.

Estate of the prince

In addition to this title, the Dutch king also granted Wellington 1,050 hectares (2,600 acres) of land and a yearly endowment of 20,000 guilders. To this day the Dukes of Wellington retain the title Prince of Waterloo,^[1] and enjoy an annual income of around £100,000 from the longstanding tenants occupying the land.

Owing to the establishment of the separate Kingdom of Belgium in 1831, the title (being Dutch) and the land (located in Belgium) became separated.^[vague] After the Belgian independence the endowment was by the Treaty of London included in the public debt to be assumed by the new Kingdom of Belgium.

The land held by the Prince of Waterloo came under pressure from retired Belgian senator Jean-Emile Humblet in 2001.^[2] In 1817, the government in what is now Belgium struck a deal to pay the duke £1,600 a year in return for the proceeds of sales of timber which the duke wanted to clear from the forested land. Until 1988, successive dukes enjoyed this annual payment, but the then Prince of Waterloo, Valerian Wellesley, 8th Duke of Wellington, agreed to forgo the payment in exchange for outright ownership of 24 ha (60 acres) of the 1,050 ha (2,600 acres) to which he has rights. But some Belgian taxpayers, led by Humblet, claimed the deal did not reflect the value of the land and drew attention to the wider issues surrounding the original agreement, contending that Belgium was effectively coerced into accepting the terms of the original agreement, because it could not afford to offend Britain.^[3][4]

In 2009 a Member of Parliament from Vlaams Belang questioned the Minister of Finance, Didier Reynders about the grant. Reynders replied that this grant is part of the international obligations of Belgium under the Treaty of London and that he had no intention of reneging on the obligation, as all the Dukes have faithfully fulfilled their obligations.^[5]

List of princes of Waterloo (1815–present)

• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Prince of Waterloo (1769–1852) from 1815
• Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Prince of Waterloo (1807–1884) from 1852
• Henry Wellesley, 3rd Prince of Waterloo (1846–1900) from 1884
• Arthur Wellesley, 4th Prince of Waterloo (1849–1934) from 1900
• Arthur (Charlie) Wellesley, 5th Prince of Waterloo (1876–1941) from 1934
• Henry (Morney) Wellesley, 6th Prince of Waterloo (1912–1943) from 1941
• Gerald (Gerry) Wellesley, 7th Prince of Waterloo (1885–1972) from 1943
• Arthur Valerian Wellesley, 8th Prince of Waterloo (1915–2014) from 1972
• Arthur Charles Wellesley, 9th Prince of Waterloo (b. 1945) from 2014

The heir apparent is the present holder's son Jonkheer Arthur Gerald Wellesley (b. 1978).

Family tree

v t e Wellesley family tree: Dukes of Wellington, Victoria, and Ciudad Rodrigo, and Princes of Waterloo

Baron Mornington of Mornington, 1746 Richard Colley Wesley 1690–1758 1st Baron Mornington Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, of Dangan Castle in the County of Meath, 1760 Richard Colley Wesley 1735–1781 1st Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, 2nd Baron Mornington Baron Wellesley of Wellesley in the County of Somerset, 1797 Marquess Wellesley of Norragh, 1799 Baron Maryborough of Maryborough in the Queen's County, 1821 Viscount Wellington (UK), 1809 Count of Vimeiro (Portugal), 1811 Marquess of Wellington (UK), 1812 Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo (Spain), 1812 Duke of Victoria and Marquess of Torres Vedras (Portugal), 1812 Duke of Wellington (UK) and Marquess Douro and Baron Douro (Portugal), 1814 Prince of Waterloo (Netherlands), 1815 Richard Wellesley 1760–1842 Marquess Wellesley, 2nd Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, 3rd Baron Mornington, Baron Wellesley William Wellesley-Pole 1763–1845 3rd Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, 4th Baron Mornington, 1st Baron Maryborough Arthur Wellesley 1769–1852 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro Marquessate Wellesley and Barony Wellesley extinct, 1842 William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley 1788–1857 4th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, 5th Baron Mornington, 2nd Baron Maryborough Arthur Richard Wellesley 1807–1884 2nd Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 6th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Lord Charles Wellesley 1808–1858 William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley 1813–1863 5th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley, 6th Baron Mornington, 3rd Baron Maryborough Henry Wellesley 1846–1900 3rd Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 7th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Arthur Charles Wellesley 1849–1934 4th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 8th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Barony Maryborough extinct, 1863 Arthur Charles Wellesley 1876–1941 5th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 9th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Gerald Wellesley 1885–1972 7th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 8th Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, 10th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Anne Rhys 1910–1998 7th Duchess of Ciudad Rodrigo Henry Valerian George Wellesley 1912–1943 6th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 11th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Arthur Valerian Wellesley 1915–2014 8th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 9th Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, 12th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Arthur Charles Valerian Wellesley b. 1945 9th Duke of Wellington, Duke of Victoria, Prince of Waterloo, Marquess of Wellington, Marquess of Torres Vedras, Marquess Douro, Viscount Wellington, and Baron Douro, 10th Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, 13th Earl of Mornington and Viscount Wellesley Arthur Gerald Wellesley styled Marquess of Douro b. 1978 Arthur Darcy Wellesley b. 2010 styled Earl of Mornington

References

1. Cash Talk – TIME
2. The Mediadrome – News – Waterloo Rents Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine
3. Battle lines drawn at Waterloo
4. Battle over legacy of Waterloo
5. Bulletin of the Chamber of Representatives 22 June 2009, p97 (in Dutch and French)

See also

• Duque de Ciudad Rodrigo
• Duque da Vitória