William Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford
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The Viscount Beresford | |
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Other work | Governor of Jersey Governor of Royal Military Academy |
Early life
William Beresford was born on 2 October 1768, the illegitimate son of George Beresford, 2nd Earl of Tyrone. Beresford received his early education in Yorkshire before in 1785 he was sent to Strasbourg, where he attended a French military academy.[1]
Early campaign experience
Having spent several months at the military academy, on 27 August the same year Beresford joined the
Beresford was then promoted to
Subsequent to this Beresford was promoted to
Beresford's regiment was sent to Egypt in 1801 to fight in the
From there crossed the South Atlantic to South America to invade the
Peninsular War
Commander in Chief of the Portuguese Army
In that same year Beresford was sent to
On campaign
On 22 April 1809 Sir
The Second French Invasion of Portugal was defeated and the allied armies moved back to the South, the British concentrating at
In the same year (1809), and the one following he made tours of inspection of the corps that were found quartered in the various provinces and he corrected any defects he noticed and established rules for the functioning of the different branches of the military service. In this way he improved the functioning of the Portuguese Army so that they might face the forces of
The most notable action in which Beresford held independent command occurred in 1811 when a combined Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish army under his command, intercepted a French army commanded by Marshal Soult, who had been ordered by Marshal
At the beginning of July 1811, Beresford was again in Lisbon, but he was subjected to fits of "nervous breakdowns", as described by Brigadier Benjamin D'Urban, Quartermaster-general of the Portuguese Army. He recuperated in February 1812 and then joined Wellington in his investment of Ciudad Rodrigo. Once the fortified town had fallen, he went with the army to Alentejo, and participated in the Anglo-Portuguese Siege of Badajoz. After Badajoz had been stormed, along with Wellington he once again took up position on the Águeda, and from there launched the Salamanca campaign. On 22 July 1812, the important Battle of Salamanca was fought, giving the Anglo-Portuguese forces a decisive victory over the French under Marshal Marmont. In the battle Beresford was badly wounded under his left breast while ordering the advance of one of the Portuguese brigades.
He retired to Lisbon, had bouts of fever and was half incapacitated for several months until May of the next year (1813). Meanwhile, he was also created Marquis of Campo Maior in Portugal by Prince Regent John on 17 December 1812. In March he was confirmed as second in command of the Allied Army and re-joined the campaigning army before assisting in the liberation of Spain by the British and Portuguese armies.
In the invasion of France, he assisted Wellington at the command of a corps and was hailed as the liberator of
Later career
After peace was declared he went to England on leave and came back again to Lisbon to reassume the command of the Portuguese Army. He did not limit himself, however, to that role, and intended to intervene in the general politics of the country, from this he came into conflict with the Regency. He then determined to go to the Court in Rio de Janeiro. He departed there in August 1815 and returned in September 1816, invested with wider powers than the ones which he had previously enjoyed. Beresford took a high hand in his dealings with Gomes Freire de Andrade (1817) and, put into a difficult situation, he returned to Brazil, obtaining from John VI the confirmation of the powers he had already attained, which he desired to see amplified.
When he returned to Portugal, the Liberal Revolution of 1820 intervened; the British officers, for the most part, had been discharged, and the government would not even consent that Beresford could disembark. He was made Governor of Jersey in 1821 and held the position till 1854, the last titular Governor of Jersey; since his death the Crown has been represented in Jersey by the Lieutenant Governor of Jersey.
He was given the colonelcy of three regiments in succession. He was Colonel of the 69th (South Lincolnshire) Regiment of Foot from 1807 to 1819, the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) from 1819 to 1823 and the 16th (Bedfordshire) Regiment from 1823 until his death. Briefly returning to Portugal in November 1826 at the request of the Regent, Infanta Isabel Maria of Braganza, he gave up his ambitions because of the resistance he encountered among the new Portuguese elite and returned to Britain in February 1827.[5]
In the 1840s, Beresford expanded the Bedgebury Estate near Goudhurst, Kent. He built the hamlet of Kilndown to the north west of Bedgebury.[6]
Legacy
Napier, in his History of the Peninsular War, severely criticized the tactics of Beresford at the Battle of Albuera, which gave origin to a heated correspondence between the Marshal and the historian. The published letters of Beresford which are mentioned below refer to this controversy. Wellington himself had no illusions over Beresford's ability as a General, but he appreciated his abilities as a military organizer, and recommended that Beresford should take command if he himself were disabled. He published: Strictures on Certain Passages of L. Col. Napier's History of Peninsular War; Further Strictures; Refutation of Col. Napier's Justification, London, 1831–1834, 3 Vol.; Letter to Charles Edward Long, Esq. on the Extracts Recently Published from the Ms. Journal and Private Correspondence of the Late Lieut-Gen. R. B. Long, London, John Murray, 1833; A Second Letter to Charles Edward Long, Esq. on the Ms. Journal and Private Correspondence of the Late Lieut. General R. B. Long (1834). Also of interest is the Colecção das Ordens do Dia (Collection of Orders of the Day) produced by Beresford's general headquarters nos Anos de 1809 a 1823 (for the years 1809 to 1823), Lisbon, 13 Vol. (at the Library of the English Institute of the University of Coimbra).
As a reward for his services in the fight against the French he was raised to the peerage as
He is the namesake of Beresford, New Brunswick.[11][12]
Parliament
Beresford was Member of Parliament (MP) for County Waterford from a by-election on 28 June 1811 to 25 April 1814, just before being raised to his peerage.[13]
He was sworn of the
Family
In Portugal, Beresford had a romantic involvement with his military secretary António Lemos Pereira de Lacerda and his wife Dona Maria da Luz Willoughby da Silveira. The three lived together in Palácio da Ega, nowadays housing the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino. Beresford recognised two of Maria's children, Guilherme (1812) and Maria Effigenia (1816). He also had a child with an unknown mother, Maria (1818).[14]
Lord Beresford married his first cousin the Honourable Louisa, widow of
Arms
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See also
- List of Marquesses in Portugal
- List of Countships in Portugal
- Beresford Gate
- Beresford Square
References
- ^ a b c d Heathcote (2010), p. 12.
- ^ a b Heathcote (2010), p. 13.
- ^ Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Bob Burnham: The British Army Against Napoleon, p259
- ^ de la Poer Beresford 2020, p. 80-81.
- ^ "Summary of the Bedgebury Forest archaeological survey". Forestry Commission. Retrieved 12 November 2010.
- ^ "No. 16894". The London Gazette. 3 May 1814. p. 936.
- ^ "No. 16895". The London Gazette. 7 May 1814. p. 956.
- ^ "No. 17909". The London Gazette. 29 March 1823. p. 498.
- ^ "Beresford". Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
- ^ Rayburn, Alan (1975) Geographical names of New Brunswick, p. 52, Ottawa: Survey and Mapping Branch, Department of Energy, Mines and Resources.
- ISBN 9780665125119.
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
- ^ de la Poer Beresford 2020, p. 76.
- ^ "Grants and Confirmations of Arms Vol. F". National Library of Ireland. p. 309. Retrieved 27 June 2022.
Sources
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Beresford, William Carr Beresford, Viscount". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- The Fatal Hill: The Allied Campaign under Beresford in Southern Spain in 1811, Mark Sunderland, Thompson Publishing, London 2002, Long Review, ISBN 0-9522930-7-2
- Heathcote, T. A. (2010). Wellington's Peninsular War Generals & Their Battles. Barnsley, South Yorkshire: Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-184884-061-4.
- Henriques, Mendo Castro, Salamanca – 1812 Companheiros de Honra, Lisboa, 2006, 2nd edition,
- Zúquete, Afonso Eduardo Martins, Nobreza de Portugal e do Brasil (3 Volumes), Volume Second, p. 474-7, Lisbon, 1960.
- A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: M. H. Gill & son.
- de la Poer Beresford, Marcus (2020). "Marshal William Carr Beresford and the Return to Portugal of the Portuguese Royal Family (1814-1830)" (PDF). Journal of Anglo-Portuguese Studies (29): 67–87, 248. ISSN 0871-682X. Retrieved 29 February 2024.