Life

Imprisoned at Seringapatam by Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan

Tipu Sultan , also known as the Tiger of Mysore, was the de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. He was the son of Hyder Ali, at that time an officer in the Mysorean army, and his second wife, Fatima or Fakhr-un-Nissa...

 on charges of plundering, he escaped during the storming

Battle of Seringapatam

The Siege of Seringapatam was the final confrontation of the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore. The British achieved a decisive victory after breaching the walls of the fortress at Seringapatam and storming the citadel. Tippu Sultan, Mysore's...

 of that town. He set himself up in the Bednore district of north-western Mysore and as early as July 1799 become sufficient threat to Company interests that a Company force was sent against him. However, by spring 1800 he had entitled himself King of the Two Worlds and gathered a new force - estimated by some at 40,000 - around Dharwa. In May 1800 colonel Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

 was given his first independent command, and the following month he gathered a force made up of the 25th Light Dragoons, 73rd Foot, 77th Foot and native troops.

Sources

• The story of the Duke of Cambridge's own (Middlesex regiment), 1916 - public domain text