Questão 97030

The following text is a dense paragraph from a historical analysis of the Napoleonic Wars, filled with names, dates, and locations. Your task is to apply the scanning technique to isolate one specific piece of information: the name of the British commander at the Battle of Vitoria.

'The Peninsular War, a protracted and brutal conflict, reached a pivotal moment in the spring of 1813. After years of attritional warfare, the French forces in Spain, nominally under the command of King Joseph Bonaparte but often subject to the conflicting orders of marshals like Suchet in the east and Soult in the south, were overstretched and demoralized. The Allied army, a multinational force of British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops, had undergone significant reorganization under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the Marquess of Wellington. Seizing the strategic initiative, Wellington launched a multi-pronged offensive, abandoning his sea-linked supply lines from Lisbon and shifting his base of operations to the northern Spanish coast, supplied by the Royal Navy via Santander. This audacious maneuver outflanked the French defensive lines along the Douro River. The decisive confrontation occurred on June 21, 1813, near the city of Vitoria, where the Allied army decisively defeated the French, leading to the capture of a vast amount of plunder and effectively ending French control over Spain. The battle was a tactical masterpiece, though the pursuit of the routed French army was less successful, a point of contention later analyzed by military historians like Sir Charles Oman. The French retreat was further harried by Spanish guerrilla forces, ensuring that their expulsion from the peninsula was complete by the year's end, with the exception of a few besieged garrisons.'

Who was the commander of the Allied forces at the Battle of Vitoria?