Wellesley was born in 1760 in Dangan Castle in County Meath, Ireland, where his family was part of the Ascendancy, the old Anglo-Irish aristocracy.

Mangled and mutilated by the modifications and amendments of Pitt, the Earl of Mornington, Edward James Eliot and the Attorney General, it lay for years in the House of Lords.

That both had consciously formed the design of expanding their influence in the Indian subcontinent to compensate for the loss of the American colonies is not proven; but the rivalry with France, which in Europe placed Britain at the head of coalition after coalition against the French, made Mornington aware of the necessity of ensuring French power did not reign supreme in India.

He proved to be a skilled administrator, and picked two of his talented brothers for his staff: Arthur was his military adviser, and Henry was his personal secretary.

Both the commercial policy of Wellesley and his educational projects brought him into hostility with the court of directors, and he more than once tendered his resignation, which, however, public necessities led him to postpone till the autumn of 1805.

[10] A motion by James Paull (MP) to impeach Wellesley due to his expulsion of British traders from Oudh was defeated in the House of Commons by 182 votes to 31 in 1808.

The few years back in Parliament were quite uneventful, despite the overwhelming crisis the British government faced with the war in Europe and its domination by Napoleon Bonaparte.

While the crisis abroad wasn’t enough, the British government had been led by weak and unsuited men from 1806-1809 with two short-lived ministries under Lord Grenville and the Duke of Portland respectively.

But when on the fall of the Ministry of All the Talents in 1807, Wellesley was invited by George III to join the Duke of Portland's cabinet, he declined, pending the discussion in parliament of certain charges brought against him in respect of his tenure as governor-general and because of criticism of his administration.

He landed at Cádiz just after the Allies victory at the Battle of Talavera, and he tried to bring the Spanish government into an effective co-operative agreement to support the campaign against the French with his brother, Sir Arthur Wellesley who was commander-in-chief of the British Forces.

He held this office until February 1812, when he retired, partly from dissatisfaction at the inadequate support given to Wellington by the ministry, but also because he had become convinced that the question of Catholic emancipation could no longer be kept in the background.

Upon Perceval's assassination he, along with Canning, refused to join Lord Liverpool's administration, and he remained out of office until 1821, severely criticising the proceedings of the Congress of Vienna and the European settlement of 1814, which, while it reduced France to its ancient limits, left to the other great powers the territory that they had acquired by the Partitions of Poland and the destruction of the Republic of Venice.

His reputation never fully recovered from a fiasco in 1812 when he was expected to make a crucial speech denouncing the new government, but suffered one of his notorious "black-outs" and sat motionless in his place.

Wellesley also had at least two other illegitimate sons by his teenage mistress, Elizabeth Johnston, including Edward (later his father's secretary), born in Middlesex (1796-1877).

Wellesley's children were seen by Richard's other relatives, including his brother Arthur, as greedy, unattractive and cunning, and as exercising an unhealthy influence over their father; in the family circle they were nicknamed "The Parasites".

Wellington, who was very fond of Marianne (rumour had it that they were lovers) and was then on rather bad terms with his brother, pleaded with her not to marry him, warning her in particular that "The Parasites" would see her as an enemy.

In 1833, he resumed the office of Lord Lieutenant under Earl Grey, but the ministry soon fell, and, with one short exception, Wellesley did not take any further part in official life.

[citation needed] On his death, he had no successor in the marquessate, but the earldom of Mornington and minor honours devolved on his brother William, Lord Maryborough, on the failure of whose issue in 1863 they fell to Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington.

It was ceded to the British East India Company by Sultan Dziaddin Mukarram Shah II of Kedah in 1798, and has been part of the settlement and state of Penang ever since.