The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 14 November 1822
“Farnley, 14th Nov., 1822.
“. . . I am happy to see from the papers that
the Beau is getting upon his legs
again, and I am still more happy that he is at Verona instead of that terrible
fellow Castlereagh. It appears to me
impossible after all Wellington has said to me about the
King of Spain and his perfidy, and
with his intimacy with Alava, one of
Ferdinand’s victims, that the
Beau should be for helping him out of his difficulties. Then he
knows the Spanish nation better than anybody else here—their universal
hatred of the French—their great resources from their mountains and
guerilla warfare. In short, I rely with confidence upon him
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as the only man who, on this occasion, could keep those
Royal Imbeciles and Villains of Europe in any order, and I consider his being
there as our minister as quite a godsend. If this vapouring French ministry do
once cross the Spanish frontier, the devil take the hindmost of the Bourbons,
both French and Spanish.”
Miguel de Alava (1770-1843)
A Spanish officer and statesman who fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular
War and at Waterloo.
King Ferdinand VII of Spain (1784-1833)
The son of Charles IV, king of Spain; after his father's abdication and the defeat of the
French in the Peninsular War he ruled Spain from 1813 to 1833.
Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852)
The Dispatches of Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington, K.G. during his
various Campaigns in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France, from
1799 to 1818. (London: Murray, 1834-1838). Released in parts, with later supplements.
