Catherine Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington

Catherine Sarah Dorothea Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington (née Pakenham; 1773 – 24 April 1831) was the wife of the 1st Duke of Wellington. She is commonly known as Kitty Pakenham.

The daughter of Edward Pakenham and the former Catherine Rowley, she was born Catherine Pakenham in 1773. She became "The Honourable Catherine Pakenham" when her father succeeded as the 2nd Baron Longford in 1776. She had met Wellesley in Ireland when they were both young, and Wellesley, after numerous visits to the Longford's Dublin home, made his feelings towards her clear. At the time her family disapproved of the match: Wellesley was the third son of a large family and looked to have little in the way of prospects. After the rejection by the Pakenhams, Wellesley became serious about his military career, was posted to the Netherlands and India, enjoyed a spectacular rise, and seemingly forgot Kitty. Although she remained hopeful that they would be reunited, she admitted to a friend, Olivia Sparrow, after many years that she thought the "business over". She became engaged to Gilbrath Lowry Cole, the second son of the Earl of Enniskillen, but Sparrow, who was in contact with him, revealed that Wellesley still considered himself attached to her. After much soul-searching, Pakenham broke off the engagement to Cole, although she believed the stress of the affair damaged her health.

Pakenham had been a pretty, vivacious girl when Wellesley had met her ten years before, but she was thin, pale and in poor health by the time he informed Sparrow that he was returning to England and that she should "renew the proposition he had made some years ago" on his behalf. Pakenham feared that Wellesley felt bound by promises he had made ten years earlier and was in two minds as to whether to accept the proposal. Despite his more formal proposal after he had obtained her brother's permission, she insisted that he should see her in person before committing himself. Wellesley travelled to Ireland to meet her, and although he was obviously disappointed in the change in her (he said to his brother "She has grown ugly, by Jove!"), went ahead with the marriage. The couple were married on 10 April 1806, by Wellesley's clergyman brother Gerald, and after a brief honeymoon, Wellesley returned to England. Kitty followed him and after a stay with his brother while Wellesley continued to inhabit his bachelor's lodging, they set up home together in Harley Street.

The two did not get on well together. Wellesley was frugal and reserved; Kitty was not an efficient housekeeper and was an easy touch for a hard luck story. She was jealous and fussed around him. With little in common, Wellesley soon began to give the impression he found her company intolerable and although she bore him two sons, Arthur, in 1807, and Charles, in 1808, they lived apart for much of the time and occupied separate rooms in the house when they were together. During the entire Peninsular War, Wellesley remained in Portugal and Spain, not returning to England until 1814. Kitty aged quickly, becoming dumpy and extremely short-sighted. Wellesley found her vain and stupid. It appears that she loved him, but she contented herself by doting on her sons and four adopted children. Wellesley confided to Harriet Arbuthnot that he had "repeatedly tried to live in a friendly manner with her...but it was impossible...& it drove him to seek that comfort & happiness abroad that was denied him at home";

She became the Duchess of Wellington on Wellesley's creation as the Duke of Wellington on 3 May 1814 and eventually joined him in France when he was appointed Ambassador after Napoleon's exile to Elba. Lady Elizabeth Yorke commented that "her appearance, unfortunately, does not correspond with one's notion of an ambassadress or the wife of a hero, but she succeeds uncommonly well in her part."

Maria Edgeworth found her "delightful" and "amiable" and commented that "After comparison with crowds of other beaux spirits, fine ladies and fashionable scramblers for notoriety, her graceful simplicity rises in our opinion, and we feel it with more conviction of its superiority"."

She died in 1831 after a short illness. She had seemed to be recovering but then relapsed.

References

*cite book|title=Wellington: A Personal History|author=Christopher Hibbert|publisher=Da Capo|date=2001|pages=480|id=ISBN 0738201480
*cite web|url=http://www.thepeerage.com/p10379.htm|publisher=thePeerage.com|title=Hon. Catherine Sarah Dorothea Pakenham|accessdaymonth=17 May|accessyear=2007
*cite book|title=The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth|author=Maria Edgeworth|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|pages=260|date=2004|id=ISBN 1419169378