Duke of Wellington Coat of Arms

Today is the 224th birthday of one of the greatest heroes in British Military History. The great Anglo-Irish soldier and statesman, Field Marshal His Grace, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS,  better known as the Duke of Wellington. The man who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, rose to commander and chief of the British Army, and was twice Prime Minister who's terms often saw various ground breaking reforms and inventions, such as Catholic Emancipation and the steam locomotive. So to reflect the day someone said I should make a post about his coat of arms so here they are:

Blazon: Quarterly, I and IV gules, a cross argent, in each quarter five plates; II and III, Or, a lion rampant gules. For augmentation, an inescutcheon charged with the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew, and St. Patrick combined, being the union badge of the United Kingdom.

Crest: Out of a Ducal Coronet Or a demi Lion rampant Gules holding in the paws a Forked Pennon Argent flowing to the sinister charged with the Cross of St George the Ends Gules.

Supporters: On either side a Lion Gules gorged with an Eastern Coronet and chained Or.

Motto: Virtutis Fortuna Comes (Fortune is the companion of valour).

In modern English, the shield is divided into quarters, with the first and fourth having a cross on a red background, with five plates in each corner. The third and fourth quarters have a red lion rampant, and in the middle of the charge is a Union Flag in the form of a shield (Union Badge of the United Kingdom) What is not mentioned in the Order of the Garter. 

The crest has the cornet or crown of a duke, ontop of which is the helmet with another cornet ontop of which is a red lion with a pennant with St Georges Cross in the hoist. This crest was the design of the Duke of Wellington's Regiment, later amalgamated into the Yorkshire Regiment:

 

Left: Duke of Wellington's Regiment badge. Right: badge of the modern Yorkshire Regiment

The Supporters are two red lions with cornets and chains. 

I also belive that the se arms are/were also used under the titles Prince of Waterloo (Dutch title for Dukes of Welington) and Earl of Cowley (Wellington's paternal grandfather Richard Colley, a landlord who lived at Rahin near Carbury, County Kildare, changed his surname to Wesley.)