In February, 1805, having resolved on returning to England, he resigned the political and military powers that had been entrusted to him in the Deccan.  On the 5th of March, a grand entertainment was given him at the Pantheon at Madras, by the officers of the Presidency, civil and military.  On the 10th of September following, he arrived in the Downs; and, in the following month, he was appointed to the Staff, for the Kent District.

In the November following, Sir Arthur Wellesley, as he had now become, commanded the brigade in the expedition to Hanover under Lord Cathcart, which was withdrawn immediately after the battle of Austerlitz.  In January, 1800, on the death of the Marquis Cornwallis, he was appointed colonel of the 33rd regiment; and on the 12th of April, in the same year, he was returned to the House of Commons as member for Newport, Isle of Wight.

In this year, Sir Arthur Wellesley married the Honourable Catherine Pakenham, third daughter of the second Earl of Longford.

On the 8th of April, 1807, he was made a privy councillor; and on the 19th of the same month, appointed chief secretary for Ireland, under the lord lieutenancy of the Duke of Richmond.  On the 22nd, he was presented by the corporation of the city of Dublin with the freedom of that city.  The address in which it was conveyed was most complimentary, and shows the high estimation in which he was already held on account of his brilliant military and civil services in India.  In June of the same year, he accompanied Lord Cathcart in the expedition against Copenhagen; and in the only important action which took place at the affair at Kioge—­he commanded, and obtained distinction.  The result of the action was a capitulation, which Sir Arthur Wellesley was appointed to arrange.  On his return home, he received the thanks of parliament for his services.  Alluding to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the speaker said:—­“But I should indeed be wanting in the full expression of those sentiments which animate this house and the whole country, if I forebore to notice, that we are on this day crowning with our thanks one gallant officer, long since known to the gratitude of this house, who has long trodden the paths of glory,—­whose genius and valour have already extended our fame and empire,—­whose sword has been the terror of our distant enemies, and will not now be drawn in vain to defend the seat of empire itself, and the throne of his sovereign.”

A new and wider field of operations was now preparing for the rising hero.  Napoleon, the unquestioned despot of the rest of continental Europe, had also grasped at the Peninsula.  Both Spain and Portugal were in his possession, as far as military occupation and nominal sovereignty could ensure them to him.  The hostile efforts of England were suspended as far as regarded Europe; but an expedition had been fitted out at Cork against part of Spanish America, and Sir Arthur Wellesley was appointed to the command.