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Having never done one of these before, I decided to have a go now time has been freed up from school work.

A rough idea of this timeline came into my heard recently, however I'm not as knowledgable as most people on this forum, and it'll be a bit hap-hazard at times, and they'll be a lot research as I go along, and I think this will be quite a bit of learning process, but arn't all these things really?

I've been reading Look to the West by Thande recently, and I really liked the style that was written in, so I've taken ideas from that. This will be a sequence of academic study, although I'll try to deviate from just entrys in history books as he did it.

And please, if you see anything wrong, or that isn't true or seems implausible, then don't be afraid to criticise me endlessly, although it's not like AH.com has a bad track record for that.


Part one; "Give it some Welly"
A-Level British History 1800-2000
Britain Under Wellington

Question A: For what reasons did Wellington perform the 'Grand Constitutional Reforms' of the later 1820s' and how was he able to?

When Canning died in 1827, King George IV pondered over whether to choose a successor more inclined to Canning's own views, speculators have pondered Goderich [1]. However, he had seen Canning's fragile government lack crucial members of the loose Tory party, and thus was the first monarch in history to choose a First Lord of the Treasury based on their party situation. He sent for Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington in August 1827, and Wellington quickly accepted. Wellington looked at the possible men he had to form and government, and was greatly disconcerted. Wellington, as a military man, never could understand the party bickering in politics, and didn't like how men pursued their own careers at the expense the of greater good, ignoring the blatant fortune and fame chasing of the army. Wellesley chose against constructing a Cabinet of Torys and Whigs, and instead asked the King to disolve Parliament so he could call a General Election.

This was quite a revolutionary tactic, in the distant future it would be used by Governments to attempt to increase majorities when needed, but when the government was backed by the crown there was no need really. Wellington clearly felt differently, beleiving he needed a strong loyal government now, just as he needed strong, loyal staff in the Napoleanic Wars. So he fought the General Election with the hope of creating a force in Parliament united enough, and powerful enough to form an effective government. He consulted his protegé Robert Peel in how best to fight the election. Peel told Wellington to concentrate on a number of issues, but to make sure that voters up and down the country were reached effectively, to this end, he set up a network of Tory Clubs for party organisation purposes. For this purpose he recruited F.R. Bonham, a keen organiser, who was instrumental in quickly organising grassroots Toryism in key parts of the country within the two months between the dissolution of Parliament, and the Election as Peel said to him "Thanks to you and your indefatigueable Industry no party out of office ever possessed such sources of intelligence and such means for an active war". [2]

The election campaign by the Tories, was based on five issues; Resistance to Catholic Emancipation, Protectionism (though with an amendment to the Corn Laws to make it more flexible), Resistance to Extension of the Franchise, A commitment to Law and Order and Maintenance of the Status Quo in Parliament. Wellington had echoes of a modern parliamentary leader, travelling to 'difficult' constituencies himself, and showing his personality as a strong leader. He personally endorsed single Candidates with his signature, and used his propaganda agents at the local clubs to paint the Whigs as weak, Catholic loving and spineless. A popular cartoon involved Earl Grey in bed with the Pope. Wellington had called upon Non-conformist and Anglican tradition alike, along with the Landed classes.
As such, the results shocked even Wellington, causing him to fall off his chair, reportably saying "Good god, the people have sense". Wellington's Tory party had won 262 of the seats in England, all 45 of the Scottish seats, 15 Welsh seats, and the 20 or so seats in Ulster in Ireland. 343 of the 658 seats in Britain, a majority of 28. Though this seems modest in modern terms, one has to look at the state of both sides of Parliament. Wellington's Tory figures do not include all Tories, only those who passed his idealogical test and received his endorsement, these were almost exclusively High Church anglicans, or staunch Presbyterians in Scottish and Welsh constituencies. The tories who sat in opposition were 'Liberal' or 'Enlightened Tories' mainly of the Canningite tradition, there were about 80 of them. These were accompanied by 150 or so Whigs, and around 50-60 Radical Whigs, with the rest being sketchy in affliation. The numbers of the opposition affliation was always sketchy compared to Wellingtons rigid, military-like party structure, and especially in light of the events of 1830-onwards.

This extremely powerful parliamentary position gave Wellington the dominance to enact almost programme in Parliament, the Prime Minister Matthew Swift wrote of Wellington's position many years later "He could have enacted a Socialist programme had he wanted to, such was his control". However, many question his motives for his monumental reforms.
As was written before, Wellington was quite annoyed at the state of party politics in Britain, and despised the power-hungry politicians whom he had to work with at times. He also disliked how men pursued their own interests in Parliament over the greater interest of the country. As he remarked to Peel in 1834 "Had I pursued Glory at Waterloo, we should all speak French now." He clearly wanted a more moderated, more controlled and less partisan political process. This is what guided his hand in turning Parliament Tricamural in 1828. He wanted military men to have control of the affairs of the country, but he also beleived firmly in the Judiciary, and suprising received inspiration from the United States, which he visited in 1828, for his strengthening of the Appelate Committee of the House of Lords, and the office of Lord Chancellor in 1829 and 1831 respectively. He attempted a more meritocratic system in the army and the political arena, through minor reforms throughout the 1830s.

Essentially, Wellington acted with the mind of a General, not a Prime Minister, though because of him the roles would become incredibly blurred, especially in later years. It was his military mentality that, through his organisation of the Tory party, brought him into a position of great power, but also that gave him his programme to be instituted.


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[1] In OTL Goderich was Chosen by George IV

[2] OTL said by Sir James Graham in reference to Bonham
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