Transcript of 611. Nelson: Bonaparte Prepares to Strike (Part 4)

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Paris. A lovely morning in the spring of 1801. The trees heavy with cherry blossom, the sunlight dancing on the River Seine, the soldiers exercising their horses in the palace courtyard. From a first floor window, a man was watching the horseman. He wore a long red silk coat, white stockings, and black shoes, and he had tucked his left hand inside his jacket. His lank dark hair was cut short Roman style, and his gray eyes were narrowed in thought. At 31, Napoleon Bonaparte, first Consul of France, had come a long way from the back streets of Corsica. Yet despite his victories, One country still defied him. Britain, a nation of shopkeepers, he thought scornfully, who cared more for mills and the manufactories than for blood and battles. He crossed to his dressing table and picked up a little marble bust. There was just one Englishman who made a worthy opponent, their great hero, their supposed savior, this fellow Nelson. But one day, when the banners of France flew over London, this little sailor would kneel before him, just like all the rest. Dominic, I think that final sentence is possibly the most chilling that we've ever read out on the rest of history.

It is, of course, from your adventures in time, Nelson Hero of the Sees, which came out in paperback a week ago. It is a reminder if any were needed, of just how high the stakes are for Britain during what are now called the Napoleonic Wars. We ended last time in the summer of 1801. Nelson has redeemed himself. He's once again enshrined as the great hero of England after his victory at the Battle of Copenhagen. And we described him coming back to England, being greeted at Yamoth, lots of hasars and cheers and all of that. But Britain is a miserable, exhausted, depressed, overtaxed country. So obviously, nothing like Britain now.

Oh, you're gone there. Unbelievable. Yes. Yeah, most people are sick of the war by now. So the war has been going on for eight years. Napoleon, of course, across the channel. His eyes are fixed on Britain. But war weariness rather than war enthusiasm is the order of the day in London and beyond. So there's a new Prime Minister, Henry Addington, who has replaced William Pitt, the younger, after a big row about Catholic emancipation. And one of Addington's defining characteristics is that he's seen as more moderate, so more likely actually to reach a compromise with the new dictator of France. The question is whether Napoleon wants a compromise at all. He's been first Consul since 1799. Military victory, military glory is his calling card. And has he given up on the idea of defeating Britain by land and sea? No. Because when Nelson reaches the admirality at the beginning of July, his very disturbing news while he's been away in the Baltic, Bonaparte has been mustering his invasion force. The official French government newspaper, Le Moniteur, has published an appeal for men to join this gigantic army. There have been reports that in the northern ports of France, there are huge press gangs enlisting people for the invasion.

And the British newspapers are full of stories about what Bonaparte and his fellow revolutionary enthusiasts will do when they get to London.

Yeah, what So they're in a massive flap. And I guess that the salient fact that everyone is aware of in Paris and in London is the fact that a successful French crossing of the channel, the transportation of an army from France to English soil, is really the one operation that could end the war in a single day. Because all Napoleon needs to do is to get a force onto English soil. Britain's military forces are puny compared to those under Napoleon's command. And then if he can seize control of the naval bases directly in their path above all the bases at the North, so on the Thames Estuary, and Chatham, epic theme of a recent episode.

Right. Listeners will remember.

These dockyards are the great smithies of British independence and status as a superpower. If they can be knocked out, then Britain effectively is knocked out as a rival to France, and it's game over. It's understandable that the people in Britain would be in a panic, and it's understandable that Napoleon, who, of course, had a massive run in with the Royal Navy at the Battle of the Nile, caused him all kinds of problems. It's understandable that Napoleon would be keen to seize this opportunity to end the war in a day.

I think something for listeners to get into their minds is that, especially British listeners, if you think about the spirit of 1940, Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, and the possibility that Hitler will strike at any moment, and the Chillean spirit. If you imagine that, but not just in one summer, but in year after year during the Napoleonic Wars, with peaks. And this is one of those peaks.

Yeah, invasion scares.

Invasion scares. So adding to this, government has already put in place preparations for the invasion. They've called up volunteers. They've driven loads of livestock inland away from the Coast. They've barricaded the main roads from the channel ports. But actually, to go back to the 1940 parallel, as in 1940, there is a sense that the political establishment wants to find a figurehead to inspire the people, to fill the people with confidence in this darkest hour.

Who could that person be?

It's only one candidate, isn't there? And that's the person who won the Battle of the Nile and the Battle of Copenhagen, Horacio Nelson, who has returned exhausted. But straight away, he's offered this job that's created, especially for him by his old boss, Lord St. Vincent, formerly Sir John Jervis. They say, We will make you commander of the defenses of the mouths of the River Thames and the River Medway, as well as the coasts of Sussex, Kemp, and Essex. So it's a new What job for Nelson, this.

It's defensive, isn't it?

Right, exactly. He's on the attack. There's a land element. He's never good on land, as we will discover. So it sounds quite Churchillian, but there are definitely downsides. So one downside is that the men they give him for the job are absolutely useless.

Well, they have a ludicrous name, don't they? The sea fenceables. It's like a nursery rhyme. Went to sea in a pea green boat or something.

Well, that's basically the vibe. So they give him the sea fenceibles. So basically, the way it works is if all your navy is at sea and you're about to be invaded by the French, they call for the sea fenceibles. And these are basically oistermen.

It's dad's navy.

It's dad's navy, exactly. They're like old watermen, fishermen, and whatnot, none of whom want to be there at all. They hate being called up. They hate the discipline of the Royal Navy. And some of them, my favorite fact about them is that there was one of Nelson's officers complained, he I said, A very large proportion of the sea fenceibles under my command have got only one leg, so they have wooden legs. And basically, whenever we put to sea, they all fall over. So they have to stay below decks because they're lurching around the deck.

I suppose if they're firing cannon, they could just be plunked down next to the cannon.

Theo is saying, are they press-ganged into it? Yes, they're basically, they don't really get any choice. They're very disgruntled because they're taken away from making their livelihood. So they're not really making much money from this. They're paid as pittance.

Meanwhile, you talked about people without legs and stuff. Nelson, of course, hasn't got his arm, hasn't got his eye. And as we heard at the end of the last episode, his hyperchondria, or is it hyperchondria, is absolute peak. I mean, is he actually ill? I mean, is he in any fit state to take up this position?

No, he's in no fit state. He's got eye infection constantly. He's got these night sweats. He's constantly dripping with sweat because he's got a fever. He's also seasick. I mean, this This is one of the weird things about Nelson. Nelson suffered very badly from ceasing this, and he's dosing himself bizarrely with rhubarb and pepperment in an attempt to combat all these various ailments. I don't really think it works. But the bigger issue, I guess, is the thing that you alluded to. He's just not very good on the defensive. Attack is his instinct.

But, I mean, attack is the best form of defense, isn't it? So he has the French forces on the other side of the channel. And as he has shown at Copenhagen, he's quite good at attacking the land defenses with a naval task force. So options there, right?

Yeah. And at the beginning of August, he gets some bomb vessels. He goes on a daring intrepid raid at Boulogne, and he damages seven of the French ships. Actually, he comes back from that and he says to London, I don't think that Napoleon is coming. I think he hasn't got anything like the invasion force, especially the sea power necessary necessary to win control of the channel and to transport his army. And he's right.

He is right. Because actually, the invasion scare is massively overblown. There's no prospect of the French coming.

But the problem with this is that Nelson then succumbs to complete overconfidence. He thinks, well, Bonaparte is obviously not coming, so I might have a little crack at him myself. And he goes back to Boulogne, two weeks later, 15th of August, a surprise night attack. Now, people who've been listening from the very beginning will know if there's one thing that Nelson is terrible at, it's making surprise attacks at positions on land like Tenerife. The difference this time is he's not leading it, is he? He's not standing in the boat having his arm shot off.

No, he's not. And I mean, spoiler alert, it goes catastrophically wrong. It's a disaster. And Nelson says, If only I'd been there, it would have been completely different, ignoring the evidence of the fact that he very much led from the front of Tenerife, and that had been a disaster, and he'd lost his arm there.

On this occasion, 900 of them go. Of the, 945 are killed and 128 wounded, and they don't inflict any damage, really, on the French at all. They come back. One of the men who dies is this young lieutenant called Edward Thornbrough- Parker, who had... Nelson had a massive Almost like a crush on this guy. He was a massive favorite for Nelson, like a son to him.

Yeah, I think it's the filial dimension of it. Because Nelson is now older. He had his stepson, Josiah, who was hopeless and who he over promoted.

But Josiah did save his life, to be fair to Josiah.

He did, but he proves to be a hopeless captain. I think that's clearly one of the problems with Fanny is that she hasn't given him a son. This boy, he thinks, Yeah, I think he's wonderful, and then he dies.

And then he dies. It's Nelson's fault. Nelson absolutely sobs at his funeral, makes a great spectacle of himself, and orders that a lock of Parker's hair is cut off and says, I want this hair to be buried with me. I think it actually was buried with him. So quite extreme.

But just to stick up for Nelson's term of command as a Guardian of the channel, so just to quote John Sugdon, Despite Beloin, the end had been creditable. During his watch as the Guardian, no hostile foot had stepped on English soil, nor had a single British vessel been captured within the limits of his station. So unglamorous, but it achieves his goal. There's no French invasion. So hooray for Nelson.

This is the last action of the campaign, because actually what happens at the end of September, this new addington government signs a provisional deal with the French, which will evolve six months later into the Treaty of Amiens. To simplify this, it's a massive simplification, but basically, both sides will give up quite a lot of their conquests. So the British promise that they will give up Minorca and Malta, and the French will withdraw their troops from Central and Southern Italy. Now, at the time, there are people, particularly what are then called Tauris, who say, Well, this is a terrible mistake. First of all, the French have been allowed to effectively keep their satellite, their puppet republics in Holland, in Switzerland, and in Northern Italy, and they can use these as a launch pad for future attacks. And more seriously, they say, This isn't going to last. Bonaparte is a monster. He'll never honor the deal. All he thinks about is conquest and all of this. He's just buying time to prepare for the next round fighting.

The interesting thing is Nelson's reaction to this, because you would suspect that he would be very hostile to it. And he is very hostile to the idea of surrendering Walter, that he had spent so much time blockading and everything. But in general, he's actually quite positive about it. So he says, not a bad piece, all things considered. I think we talked about this in the last episode, that despite the excitement that he finds in war, he's not a warmonger. He doesn't revel in bloodshed.

I think that's true. I think there's that. I think the fact that he is exhausted and he's got his eye infections and he just wants to have a rest.

And he wants to spend time with Emma.

And the Emma issue, right? Because, of course, it's only a few weeks since he was having nightmares about her and their Prince of Wales.

Yeah, that's all calmed down, I'm glad to say.

It has calmed down. So peace has come. He's allowed to go home. And so it is that on the 23rd of October, his carriage crosses the River Wendell, and he turns down the lane to his new house, Merton Place in Surrey. This is the house with which he and Emma are always associated.

Yeah. And so today, Merton is on the northern line in zone 4 or 5 or whatever, very much part of Greater London. But back then, it's very leafy. The River Wendell is a river that joins the Thames. There is industrial development along it, but there are fish in the river. It's quite a bucolic scene.

Yeah, it is.

And Emma has been house hunting, hasn't she?

She had found the house.

The estate agent had said, It's a terrible buy, don't touch it. But Emma had ignored this. And they spend, I think, the equivalent of something like £12 million on it today.

Yeah, it's an expensive house, and it will be very expensive to run.

And to renovate and improve, because that is something that they do with great gusto. Because basically, there are two houses. They knock them together, and then they have to buy up various additional plots of land to get rid of the roads that are running through them, because otherwise, people be gawping at them.

They're popular with the neighbors, aren't they? There's about 800 people in Merton, and most of them are farmers or work at farm laborers. They're delighted to have a celebrity, a national hero, as their neighbor. And most people say that he's a nice man. He keeps himself to himself. What's the quote? Strongly tinged with melancholy, retired and domestic in his habits. So he doesn't come the Lord of the Manor with them.

Well, throughout this period, he's still haunted by his ambition to do an advertising executive retiring to Provence equivalent, which would be going to Bronte in Sicily. He has this dream of going there. But actually, he finds this country retreat. He loves it. There's fishing for Sir William in the River Wendell, in the canal. Nelson obviously can't do that because he hasn't got an arm. There's a farm. He enjoys that. He loves the house, which Emma has very tastefully decorated with loads and loads of pictures, portraits, and busts of himself.

Yeah, we'll come to this. This is controversial with his naval colleagues.

He adores it. Again, he has this fantasy of what he wants it to be, and I think the fantasy comes true. He says, We will eat plain. We'll have good wine, good fires, and a hearty welcome for our friends, but none of the great shall enter our peaceful abode. I hate them all. So this sense of he's withdrawing from his critiques, he's withdrawing from all the rouse he's been having with his superiors at the admirality, this is going to be where he's going to settle down. And I think it's a happy household. Nelson and Emma are very benign and generous employers. They have a vast domestic staff, among whom the most exotic is Fatima. Yeah, we talked about that, didn't we? Yes, who had been rescued from a slave ship off the Nile and serves Emma as her personal maid. In 1802, she's baptized at Merton Church. Also, they're all the farmhands, and they're friends who come, and they have lots of children, and Nelson adores children. So again, this makes him happy. But Dominic, there are complications as well, aren't there? It's not absolute paradise.

Yeah. Now, listeners can always rely on you, Tom, to present the sunmiest possible portrait of the Nelson Meynage. But they can also rely on me to be this shower of-Yes, the serpent in the garden. Thanks. So first of all, there's money. There's a big money issue. So Nelson, you may recall, was only made a baron by George III and not a viscount because he wasn't rich enough. George III said he won't be able to sustain a viscount's lifestyle. George III was not wrong. So merely to raise the deposit for this 12 million pound house, he has had to sell lots of stock and he's had to take out the diamonds from the various jewels that have been given to him as of presents from foreign rulers and replace them with paste. So there's a slight sense of being hard done by, I think, when he moves in. He shouldn't have had to do this because the government should have looked after him.

And I think that's what's feeding into his, we're not going to have the great and the good, come and stay with us because they're screwing me out of my diamonds and not giving me the money I deserve.

I'm sorry to say that I think the Hamiltons do rather feed this, as we shall see. In fact, a theme of the next few years is anxiety about money. So to give people a sense, in the Money in terms of the day, Nelson made about £4,000 a year. But of that, he has to give £1,800 to Fanny as her allowance. This is basically the financial deal he's offered her to go away. At the same time, Merton is very expensive to run. So he spends more than £3,000 on food and wine alone at Merton. The upside is that Sir William Hamilton has said, Well, I will pay half. That brings us to the Sir William Hamilton issue.

There's a problem there, isn't there? There is. He's been dismissed from his post in Naples and come back slightly under a cloud and hasn't been given a pension. I think actually quite a lot of the Nelson worrying about the Emma going off the Prince of Wales stuff. I think Emma basically is approaching the Prince of Wales to try and get William a pension, and it doesn't work.

Completely. When Nelson says, he effectively says, Sir William is pimping you out. That is what is happening. That is exactly Sir William Hamilton's plan, I think. So Sir William Hamilton is now at 71. He's visibly in decline. He spends a lot of time at the Royal Society and other learning in its societies in London.

He loves his fishing.

He does. So he comes back to the house and fishes. But for form's sake, he has to maintain a house in Piccadilly because the government basically haven't given him a decent pension. He's running out of money as well. Now, what exacerbates all this- It's the fact he has a wife who loves spending money.

I guess in the way that someone who has had no money, who knows what it is to live on the streets and have not a penny, it's difficult, I guess, if you've had that upbringing to behave abstemiously.

Well, if your identity, I suppose, and your sense of self-worth, it's not an unfamiliar story. If your self-worth and identity are based on spectacle, on show, on fashion, on all of kinds of things. She's always running up massive debts. In today's money, in 1802 alone, she spent more than a quarter of a million pounds on jewelry, for example. The other thing she has done, which, of course, Fanny didn't do enough, which is one of the things that did for her, was, as you said, she's basically turned the house into a Nelson Shrine. So there's an awful lot of Nelson merch at this point, and a lot of it has been bought by Emma. And so wherever you look in the house, there are prints of Nelson, his battles, the dinner service, the tea service, the coffee service have all been engraved to celebrate his battles.

I think she's also buying memorabila associated with herself as well.

She is indeed, yeah.

There are quite a lot of prints and paintings of Emma.

So there's a slight I hope some of our American listeners will not be offended when I say it's a slightly Mar-a-Lago scene. And even at the time, some visitors are absolutely appalled by it. So there's a mate of Nelson's called Lord Minto, who we quoted before.

Yeah, we met him in Vienna, didn't we? Where he was comparing Emma to a bar maid.

He had first met Nelson in Corsica in the 1790s. When he comes to Merton place, he's horrified by it. And it's interesting, he doesn't just blame Emma. He does blame her, but he blames Nelson as well. The whole establishment and way of life is such as to make me angry as well as melancholy. She's in high looks, but more immense than ever. She goes on cramming Nelson with trowels of flattery, which she goes on taking as quietly as a child does pap. The love she makes to him is not only ridiculous, but disgusting. Not only the rooms, but the whole house, staircase and all, are covered with nothing but pictures of her and him, of all sizes and sorts. An excessive vanity which counteracts its own purpose. If it was Lady Hamilton's house, there might be a pretense for it to make his own a mere looking glass to view himself all day. His bad taste. I mean, that's the inimitable voice of the British visitor to an American house, isn't it?

Well, it's the inimitable voice of the British upper classes towards new money, basically. Yes, it is. Exactly. I mean, that's what it is. And also, he comments And I can believe this, that Nelson, away from a theater of war, is actually quite boring.

Yeah, because he only talks about himself and his battles, I imagine. It's a bit like Napoleon in exile on Saint Helena. Napoleon just talked about his own battles and how he'd been hard done by. I think Nelson is very similar.

Yeah. I think also maybe that trend in Nelson is shown up by the fact that Sir William, of course, has lots of radical friends, intellectual friends, scholarly friends. They're all coming and talking about pots and vases and classical literature and stuff like that. I can imagine that Nelson in that company, he wouldn't have much to contribute and would shrink into his shell.

Actually, some of Nelson's friends pointedly do not visit him at his house. The most obvious This is Cuthbert Collingwood, who famously appears at Trafalgar.

And his great friend from his early years of service.

Roger Knight points out in his book, When Collingwood went to visit friends nearby, he very pointedly didn't go to visit Nelson and Merton, which you think he should have done. And probably that's because he finds the set up. It's just not to his taste. It's basically a Nelson shrine with Emma talking 19 to the dozen. Of course, the terror is that she might start doing some of her and no one wants that.

I think in Naples, Emma was a star. She was the friend of Queens and of aristocrats. And that simply hasn't happened in Britain because there she offends, I think, both the taste and the social mores of the upper classes. And I think that's a real problem for Emma, but also, therefore, for Nelson, and particularly because they've made such a scandal of their relationship.

Yeah. And because they've made a scandal of the relationship, she and Sir William are shunned by their very high society. They are not welcome at court. They're being mocked all the time in cartoons.

I think, Dominic, it's a reminder that obviously, Nelson has sacrificed things for their relationship. He sacrificed his marriage. But Emma has sacrificed things as well. I think she would have socially been much better off if she had not embarked on the affair with Nelson.

Yeah, I think that's probably fair.

People might have been prepared to cut her some slack as a lady Hamilton who is not committing an adulterous affair.

I think she'd have always found it difficult, wouldn't she, back in London? I think there would always have been people who looked down their noses at her.

But she might have been cut more slack, I think.

A little bit, yeah. But she makes it worse. She's very bad at her own PR. So whenever she does go out in London, she says to people very loudly, Sir William has been so hard done by. He's such a brilliant man. He should be in the palace at Lambeth. Nelson should be a Duke greater than Marbra. And so people say, God, these Hamilton's that were costly people. Just massive sponges and winges. Here, Sir William said to the government, I've run out of money. Can you settle my debts, please? And the government said, No, sell your art collection. Why should we settle your debts? And I think what happens is that they, in this period, they do feed a trait that Nelson already had, which is this neediness and this self-pity. This is, I think, one of his least attractive traits, that he's always moaning, moaning at his superior, saying that he's not being taken seriously enough, that he should have better rewards, this thing. It's a bit like, do you remember when... It wasn't David Beckham. It was a leaked message.

Yes, he wanted a night hood.

He wanted a night hood, and he was absolutely furious. What more do I have to do?

But to be fair to him, he got it in the end. He did. I think if you nag hard enough, maybe you get there. That's the lesson.

There's a lesson for you there, Tom. So some listeners may well say, Well, this is all just garsty snobbery from the establishment. And poor old Emma, poor old Nelson.

Well, I think it is.

Well, I think there's an element of truth that it is snobbery, but they're not saints. Even Nelson's not a saint, Tom. I hate to break it to you. And Emma does let herself down in this regard. She is waging as long campaign against Fanny still, and she is writing to Nelson's relatives and saying to them, Fanny is a wicked, bad, artful woman with a cold heart and infamous soul, and all of this. I mean, this shows her at her worst, I think. She's also got As an animus, she a little bit against Edmund, Edmund Nelson, who she knows doesn't approve of her because she says to the relatives, Edmund is just Fanny's dupe. Edmund is Fanny's puppet, all this thing. Now, actually, we know Edmund was incredibly close to Fanny. He saw her as a second daughter. He adored her. When Nelson kicked her out, Edmund said to her, I would happily come and live with you in Bath. Actually, Fanny said no because she said, I don't want to drive Horatio against you. This will drive a wedge between you and Horatio, which is poor old Fanny. I think Fanny is brilliant.

Brilliant, but quite boring.

Well, yeah, but maybe I like a boring person. I'm more tolerant than you are, Tom. I mean, everyone always says that about me. I'm such a tolerant.

They do.

Such a tolerant and kind person. So a funny make is one last attempt to win Nelson back in Christmas 1801. Another heartrending letter. 'Do, my dear husband, let us live together. I assure you I have but one wish in the world to please you. Let everything be buried in oblivion. It will pass away like a dream. ' And Tom, how does Nelson reply to this?

He completely ignores it. And the comment on the letter is, opened by a mistake by Lord Nelson, but not read. ' That's harsh, isn't it?

So a few months after that, Edmund finally died. He died in Bath. He had his funeral in Burnham Thorpe. Everybody, all the other Nelsons went, but Horacio Nelson did not go. He said he was ill. Roger Knight in his biography says, Come on, we all know what's going on here. Basically, Nelson feels really guilty and embarrassed about his father and their relationship and how the turn his private life has made.

But also the classic, you don't want to take your new partner. She doesn't want to go. Yeah. Yeah.

So he doesn't go. Edmund's death is pretty bad news for Fanny, actually, because the rest of the family then cuts her off. Some of Nelson's fellow officers, though, did keep in touch with her, didn't they? So Thomas Hardy, who in many ways is actually quite an unattractive man with his enthusiasm for the lash, he made a great effort to keep in touch with Fanny. He used to have breakfast with her. And there's a letter he writes to his brother and said, I've just had breakfast with Fanny Nelson. She's one of the best women in the world, he said.

High praise. And I think it's interesting that in the wake of all this, you can tell that Nelson is feeling bad about himself because he then arranges to go on a a publicity tour in which loads of people will turn out and give him huzzars and say how brilliant he is. He goes in the summer of 1802, he and the Hamilton's go on a trip to Wales. Actually, it's prompted by a Greville who is Emma's old, she'd been mistress to him eons before, and he wants to develop a port in Wales. That's the ostensible reason that they go. But actually, it's like a rock star on tour. And I think that it plays a crucial role in establishing Nelson as a genuinely national hero, because no one has ever done this before. I mean, maybe royals have on occasion, but it is like a royal progress. He's the first commoner to do this. And it has this... It seals the relationship between him and the people of Britain, I think.

Yeah. I think there's a slight melancholy to Nelson, though. Do you not have this? Of course. During these years, when people went to dinner, they would say, Emma does all the talking, and he sits there very quietly staring out of the window. And he was always wearing black. That's not because he's in the morning. It's just because he often... He dressed in a very conservative style, ironically, given who he's What are you living with?

Well, I think actually that when he comes back to Merton, I think he is happy with Emma there. I think, particularly after what happens in April 1803, which is when Sir William Hamilton dies. I mean, Emma mourns him. Nelson mourns him. He dies in Emma's arms. Nelson is holding his hands. Emma's terribly upset about it, partly emotionally, but partly also because it unleashes additional money problems because she'd been hoping to be left lots of money in his will. But actually, Hamilton has left his estate to a relative, and she just gets this income of £700 a year. I think that's because Hamilton is assuming that Nelson will be able to look look after her. It's a problem. And Hardy, who doesn't like her at all, basically gloats over it, how her leadership will manage to live with the hero of the Nile now. I'm at a loss to know, at least in an honorable in a terrible way. It's very, very Jane Austin again, this sense in which it's never just about your personal emotions. It's always about your income. However, money problems aside, it does now mean that essentially, Emma and Nelson can live together as a married couple in all but name.

I think that this makes both of them as happy as either of them have ever been in the course of their lives. For both of them, there is a novelty in being a happily married, inverted commas, domestic couple, because Andrew Lambert in his biography quotes this amazing fact, which I'd never have thought of before. He says that when Nelson returned ashore from abroad in October 1801. It was the first time that he had ever slept in his own house. He'd never done that before.

Yeah, because he'd be living with his father or been in hotels or whatever.

Or on ships most of the time. So a real novelty. For Emma to live with Nelson. I mean, it's the first time she is living with a man who she hasn't been pimped to. I think there is real happiness there. However, Dominic, the problem is that even when the sun is shining, there are always clouds massing in the background to block out the rays.

What's really frightening is if those clouds turn out to be the storm clouds of war. And you know what? Over the winter of 1802, 1803, there have been growing fears that the peace of Amia, as its critics claimed, was just a shame after all. So both Britain and France have basically spent the piece rearming, the French, in particular, spending a lot of money on their navy. Now, Napoleon has shown no sign of curbing his appetite for conquest. In September 1802, he annexed Piedmont, and he declared himself the President of the Sissalpine Republic in Northern Italy. And then he sent troops to intervene in Switzerland. So it's clear that he is gearing up for another go.

I suppose, just to put it in the balance, the British have not given up Malta.

But would you, Tom? Would you give up Malta in the face of such a threat?

No, I wouldn't. But It's just setting that in the balance.

Yes, that's fair. Our French listener will appreciate that. So by the turn of 1803, the mood in Britain feels very summer of 1939. We've given Bonaparte every chance to prove himself a man of peace, but he can't be trusted. And you quoted Andrew Lambert, great naval historian earlier. Lambert, who is very much a Bonaparte skeptic, if not a Bonaparte phobe.

He's actually got a book out just now on how Britain organizes things after Napoleon's defeat to ensure that a Bonaparte will never arise again.

Right. Well, he says basically, Bonaparte's long term aims were such that no British government could ever have accepted them. He wanted to reduce his neighbors to client states. His long term aims were Southern Italy, Greece, Egypt, and so on. There could be no lasting peace with the regime that did not accept the rules of the state system, and this would require a total war. So on the 10th of May, 1803, Britain's ambassador So Addington's ambassador in Paris, hands over an ultimatum. They want the French to pull out of Holland and Switzerland. They want Britain, particularly, to keep this naval base in Malta. They get no reply, and a week later, Britain declares war on France. And everybody knows that this will be, it's not going to be like the seven years war. Beating France will be a total national mobilization. The Napoleon Wars have been eclipsed, I think, in our popular imagination by the World Wars. As an existential challenge. But an existential challenge is exactly what they are. To give you a flavor, two months into the war, William Pitt, who's been ill, comes back to the comments and he gives an incredible speech to stiffen the nerves of his old colleagues.

Chachillian speech. He says, This is not just another war. It's a war against a dictator who's broken all his promises and will stop at nothing. We are called to struggle for the destiny, not of this country alone, but of the civilized world. This is a war for our It is for our liberty. It is for our independence, ney for our existence as a nation. It is for our character. It is for our very name as Englishmen. It is for everything dear and valuable to man on this side of the grave.

I think But just as Churchill was summing Britain in 1940 to a total war, Pitt is doing the same. It's a great mustering of finance and manpower. The focus of that effort is the Royal Navy. The maintaining of the Royal Navy in this war is, I think, probably the greatest project undertaken by any state in history up until that point. It is a precursor of the total wars of the 20th century. It is a massive, massive moment.

And of all the Royal Navy's weapons, I suppose two stand out. So one of them we're very familiar with, Nelson himself. He's given his orders on the day war breaks out. Take command of the Mediterranean fleet, proceed to Malta, and then head to Toulon, ideally to destroy the French fleet. And that same day, the 18th of May, he arrives in Portsmouth to take control of the other great weapon. And this is his new flagship, one of the greatest ships that Britain has ever built She is almost 50 years old, but she's been in the dock yards for repairs for three years. She's a first-rate ship of the line with three decks, 850 sailors, and 104 guns, the Supreme Fighting Machine, the great weapon to defy the dictator. And her name, of course, Tom, is the victory.

Well, do you know, Dominic, I feel so overwhelmed by patriotism that I need to have a break. I'm sure everyone else does as well. So let's do that. And when we come back, the war begins.

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Hello. Welcome back to The Rest is History and to Total War, Napoleonic style. We're in the late summer of 1803. Nelson has arrived in Malta. He's taken over as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean, and he has established himself in command of a blockade outside the French base at Toulon. Dominic, I'm guessing this is a very sweet moment for him because he'd been acting Commander-in-Chief before, but then he'd been replaced by Lord Keith. The fact that the admiralty are happy to give him command of the Mediterranean theater reflects the rise in his reputation, the degree of trust that government is now prepared to place in him.

Yeah, I think that's right. I think he's completely He redeemed himself from the low point a couple of years earlier, and he is seen as the only man for the hour. Now, his task might sound a bit dull. Basically, he has to destroy the French fleet, but everyone knows the French fleet is very unlikely to come out to be destroyed. So it's going to be a question of bottling them up in too long or blockading them. But it's so important because as you said before the break, this is a war that for Britain will be won and lost on the seas, not on land. Because if the French were to win win control of the seas, that's it. If they get control of the channel.

Well, that's the key, isn't it? Because basically, they don't need to win control of all the seas. They just need to win control of the straits of Dover for what, 24 hours? Obviously, Obviously, the focus of of guarding against that prospect for the British is the channel command. But the fleet in Toulon is crucial as well, because if they do manage to break out, to slip past the blockade, go out through the straits of Gibraltar, then they could join in the invasion of Britain or of Ireland or of Britain's holdings in the Caribbean, which would then act as a possible distraction. Fleets might be sent from the channel. So there's all kinds of jeopardy in play for Nelson.

There is indeed. And the blockade, I mean, a blockade sounds not as exciting as a battle. But a blockade is really, really important, both as a defensive weapon and as an attacking one. Because actually, for the next 12 years, Britain's strategy will basically be to blockade France's ports, to suffocate its trade, to squeeze its economy, and really to persuade France's satellites that they'd be better off if they broke with Napoleon. And we know now that this strategy works. It takes a long time, but it pushes Napoleon to construct his continental system. When the Russians break with the continental system, he invades Russia, and he makes the terrible mistake, the retreat from Moscow, all of this thing. All of this you can trace back to that British strategy of basically squeezing him by sea. The downside, though, of course, nobody knows it then, That is going to work. And it's really, really hard work, isn't it? Because Nelson has 11 ships to the line, 15 frigates, 7 support ships, and he has to keep them in play far from home The whole time has to keep them healthy, well-fed, watered, all of this.

Well, the thing is that in the long run, Nelson and the crew on the victory will not set foot on dry land for two years. Those ships are permanently out there. Yeah. There's no break. There's no leave.

And he spent, so that's two years for him in the cabin or on the quarter deck of the victory, working beneath his portraits of Emma and Horatia. The victory itself is run by his old mate, Hardy. And Hardy is... You don't want to get on the wrong side of Hardy. Hardy ordered 204 floggings in 12 months.

And he had this reputation that if you were doing something wrong, that was flogable offense, he would glide up unheard behind you and apprehend you. And so his nickname was the Ghost.

He's like a terrifying headmaster, basically, isn't he? Misbehaving again, Holland. You'll see me afterwards for a flogging. And so I guess the upside for Nelson is it allows him to play the benevolence.

I don't think he's playing it, is he? I mean, I think that's his natural instinct. I think he loves his crew in a manly way, obviously. Parts of Oak and all that. But to quote Andrew Lambert again, who's so good on this, To work with Nelson was to love him. Even the most hard-bitten veterans were unable to resist his courage, commitment, and charisma. His colleagues were his friends, and he expected their love and loyalty, not mere service. I worry that listeners may be thinking that we're overregging the Nelson adulation. But I think there is clearly qualities of charisma that you have to keep harping upon because Because otherwise, his achievements don't make sense. If he was just a strict disciplinarian, he wouldn't be able to carry this off. It's the fact that he is able to inspire people to do what otherwise they might not have done.

Well, he does it by... There We're at sea for a heck of a long time. He helps them to organize. I mean, it sounds petty, but they have these little plays and musical reviews, and he will go to watch them. He'll tour the decks and chat to the men. And a lot of captains and admirals do not do this. There is a distance. There is not so much of a distance with Nelson.

And also, of course, if you're on board a ship for two years at a time, you need to be supplied. And Nelson isn't all about dash and charisma. He is also a very, very good organizer of things. I mean, he knows that his ships have to be supplied. So you've written that in a year, they will need 1,881 tons of bread. I mean, just millions of stuff. The gallons of beer, tons of beef, pork, peas, oatmeal, butter, cheese, vinegar. And although a lot of this is supplied by the Vittling Board back in Depford in England, not all of it is. Nelson has to source a lot of material, obviously fruit in particular, which keeps scurvy at bay. So oranges and lemons and the notorious limes that gives Americans the nickname for Englishmen, limies. And this is something that he's picked up from St. Vincent, his great father figure, the importance of maintaining his men in a condition of health. And so Nelson says to a physician that comes on board the victory that the great thing in all military service is health, and it is easier for an officer to keep men healthy than for a physician to cure them.

His own Vittler on board the ship, who's serving him directly on board the ship, he ends up sourcing food from as far away as Russia. And N. A. M. Roger, the great historian of the Royal Navy, says of Nelson sailors, in this period, that they must have been the healthiest body of British subjects in the world. Because even though there isn't any germ theory, to be on board the ship, they understand that going aboard, one of the reasons that they don't allow leave is because there you might pick up infections. They don't understand how or why, but they know that it's bad. And therefore, in a sense, you're kept healthy by being on board the ship. And basically, people on board victory do not fall sick.

Well, it's a reminder that Nelson's not just a great warrior. He's actually a great bureaucrat. Because to do all this, you're messing around with ledgers, and you're sending out staff, and all of this thing. He's a good manager. He's good at all these kinds of things. And to emphasize the point, they're waiting off too long for 22 months without a break. Now, this is not what Nelson enjoys doing. He doesn't like blockades. Blockades are very boring. He would much rather lure the enemy out and destroy them completely.

And that's ultimately his plan, isn't it? That's his battle plan. So even while he's maintaining the blockade, he has to give the French a sniff of the possibility that they might be able to slip past, because otherwise, he will never be able to have the battle of anihalation that is his great ambition.

Undouefully, it will not surprise listeners to hear that Nelson spends a lot of time brooding about his health. He's got all his night sweats and his heart palpitations. He's writing to Emma to say, My eyesight is failing. I'm so thin that the rings are slipping from my fingers. My love for you is as unbounded as the ocean. It's very profound and original.

And he's writing to Horatia as well, isn't he?

Yes, he is. So this is lovely, actually. This is really lovely. He writes his first letter to Horatia in October 1803. He says, My dear child, receive this first letter from your most affection of father.

So he's up front there. Yes. He's acknowledging her.

And then a few months later, January 1804, he sends... How old is she at this point? She's three, I think. He sends her a lock of his hair and a watch, which I give you permission to wear on Sundays and on very particular days when you're dressed and have behaved exceedingly well. I've kissed it and send it with the affectionate blessing of your Nelson and Bronte.

Boasting about his titles to his own daughter.

Still boasting about his titles, exactly. But all the time, he is brooding, straining at the leash, waiting for this chance, for this showdown with the French fleet, because he knows one more victory is probably all that it will take to crush them at sea for good, completely. Now, they can't have another battle of the Nile. They can maybe have one more go, but that's it.

I think he thinks it's going to happen because he genuinely, I think, sees himself as the agent of divine purpose. When he writes letters to the admiralty, he frames his mission in these terms again and again in a way that has no comparison with letters written by other figures in the Navy. Just to reiterate, This does require him, even as he's maintaining the blockade, to give the French the sniff of a chance that they might be able to get past him.

We get to the late summer of 1804. Addington's government back home has fallen. Pitt is back as Prime Minister. There are more reports of Napoleon building up an invasion force on the channel Coast. Nobody knows what Napoleon is planning. Nelson, in September that year, turned 46. He said to friends that he felt like a man lost in the dark. He's actually thinking this point of going on leave because he's so tired from the work of maintaining the blockade. You can sense on the victory, after 22 months, morale is really beginning to fray. This is boring, grueling work. The logbooks and whatnot show that there are more floggings for bad behavior. There are more incidents of drunkenness and insulence and insubordination because people are bored. They're sick of being there. They're sick of each other at this stage.

So a lot more gliding for the ghost.

Yes, the Ghost Summit. Brilliant time. And then a bombshell. The British learn that Bonaparte has struck a secret deal with Spain. The Spanish have agreed they will hand over a subsidy of tens of millions of francs a year, and the only way for them to get out of it is if they actually join the war on the French side. William Pitt orders basically a preemptive strike against the South American treasure fleet. It goes horribly wrong. A ship, the Mercedes, doesn't surrender. They fire warning shots at it. They hit the magazine. The Mercedes explodes. 200 people are killed. Spain then declares war on Britain, a catastrophe for the British war plan. Because although the Spanish are not the power that they once were, When you combine the French and Spanish fleets, they outnumber the Royal Navy by 102 ships of the line to 83 ships of the line.

And also this is why Nelson's Bittler has to start going to Russia and other such places because all the fruit in Spain is now embargoed.

Exactly. Then Tom, you were saying, Nelson wants to lure them out, so he's always left them the little sniff of a chance, hasn't he? The French. Now, in January 1805, a shattering development He is off the Coast of Sardinia taking on provisions. It's a rainy, windy day. Then through the gale, he sees two frigates that he'd left watching the French at Toulon coming towards him. They have sensational news. While he's been getting provisions, The French have finally left Toulon and nobody knows where they have gone. And this is the firing of the gun for the most celebrated chase in naval history.

And the only one that would rival it, of course, is Nelson's pursuit of Napoleon back in the campaign that culminates in the Battle of the Nile.

And he doesn't know, as with the Nile, we know that they were going to Egypt. Nelson didn't know it then. Now, this time, once again, he has no idea where the French could be going. And in fact, he thinks, They're probably going to Egypt again. So off he goes, rushes off to Alexandria. Seven days it takes him to get there. They're not there. He goes back across the Mediterranean, back to Sardinia, and there he hears that they have doubled back the French to Toulon. So then he sets another trap for them. He feints towards Barcelona so that the French will think he's guarding the Western route. But then he sneaks back east, hoping that they will go east, you see. And he waits for them off the Coast of Sardinia. And then on the fourth of April, 1805, another frigate comes towards him through the rain again, the Phoebe. And they say, Yeah, the French have left Toulon again. But they knew what you were planning. They found out about your scheme. They have gone south and west past Majorca, and then they vanished. So now, Nelson, he spreads out his fleet towards the Coast of North Africa, like a net, trying to catch them, but there's no sign of them.

And he's exhausted. He's depressed. He tells friends he feels half dead. Very, very miserable, he says. And then on the 19th of April, they pass a merchant captain who says, 10 days earlier, I saw a French fleet passing through the straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic. And for Nelson, this is an unbelievably heavy blow. He has been completely outthought and outmaneuvered, and the French have escaped into the Atlantic.

And who knows where they're then going? Is it to Britain? Is it to Ireland? Or is it to the great holdings in the Caribbean?

Well, because also, having now gone into the Atlantic, they can link up with the Spanish. So they can fulfill this dream of having a combined fleet. And this brings us to what we know and Nelson doesn't know. So what are the French planning? The The commander of the French fleet is this aristocratic officer called Pierre Charles Villeneuve, who came from an old naval family. The Tsar, Paul I, would not have liked him. Or maybe he would because Villeneuve was, by ancient rite, a night of Malta.

Yeah. And so the fact that the British now control Malta, Villeneuve has skin in the game.

Well, he has skin in the game as well, because Vilnev himself is actually, in some ways, quite an attractive man. He's very polite and sophisticated, and he's quite a reserved man and cautious. He had commanded French rear at the Battle of the Nile. And if you listen to season one, you'll remember that he actually got away. And rather than saying, Oh, well done, you got away, French public opinion says, look at you, you dreadful coward. Everybody else was killed were captured and you ran away.

And also he's of aristocratic background, which again, isn't entirely a help.

Exactly. Now, Villeneuve is following a plan that was devised in Paris by Napoleon Bonaparte, who is now, of course, crowned himself Emperor of the French. What What Napoleon exactly wanted from this plan is really unclear. So he kept changing his mind. Actually, one estimate I saw in one of these Nelson books is Napoleon had eight different plans in 12 months after September 1804.

And one of them was the the old fantasy of taking Egypt and marching on India.

And the thing is, Napoleon doesn't really know much about the sea and naval affairs. So his admirals, when they see his latest plan, often their hearts rather sinks because they think, Oh, this is This is just not possible.

Well, that obviously includes Vilnyv himself, who thinks these plans are mad. Also the Minister of the Navy, who's a guy called Denis Dekre, who also thought it was mad. He, too, like Vilnev, had fought at the Nile. He had then been captured after trying to break Nelson's blockade of Malta. After his capture, he had dined with Nelson himself. He really understands what the French are up in Nelson and the Royal Navy, to a degree, I think, that Napoleon just doesn't understand at all.

I don't think Napoleon does understand. Now, what's Napoleon's ultimate goal? His ultimate goal is obviously what thing you were talking about before, Tom, which is getting across the channel, getting an army across the channel, and launching an invasion of Britain. A lot of historians now say, he never had the transports, he never had the control of the channel, this was never a realistic prospect. However, what Napoleon seems to be saying to Vilner is, Look, I I want you to get out of the Mediterranean into the Atlantic. I want you to link up with the Spanish. I want you to strike West towards the Caribbean, towards Britain's Caribbean colonies, lay waste to them or whatever. That will terrify the British. That will draw the Royal Navy out of the channel, possibly, ideally, in pursuit. As soon as the British have come out, race back to Europe, across the Atlantic, link up with the other big French fleet at breast, win control of the channel, I will have my invasion force ready at Berlijn. We can bring them across. Bang, job done. And he tells one of his generals, All I need is a favorable wind in order to plant the Imperial Eagle on the Tower of London.

And that is a very complicated scheme, isn't it? Involving vast distances, communications across an immense ocean. And you can see why both the minister and Vilnerv himself thought this was impractical. What are you going to do when you got an Emperor telling you to do things?

Yeah, Vilnerv said, not only is it a mad plan, but even if the British are a third weaker than we are, they'll still beat us because they're much better than us. We'll be the laughing stock of Europe.

That's the fighting spirit you want.

But obviously, you can't say that's the Emperor, can you?

No, of course not.

So on the ninth of April, Vilnerv, as instructed, had linked up at Cadiz with the Spanish fleet under Federico Carlos Gravina. So Gravina was actually a Sicilian by birth, wasn't he? Born in Palermo, a place close to Nelson's heart. And he had actually I didn't, I didn't recently discovered this fact. It's a great fact. He had actually served alongside Nelson's mentor, Admiral hood, in the siege of Toulon, when the Spanish were on the other side.

Well, the Spanish keep changing sides, don't they? And in due course, they will change sides again. And team up with Wellington. So that's right. Very much in play.

And Gravina is... I mean, the thing with Trafalgar, which we'll be getting to, is both Gravina and Vilner, for in their way, they're quite likable characters, I think. Gravina is a very courtly man, experienced sailor. He's good at his job. They have joined up their fleets. They're going to go West across the Atlantic. They're going to hit at the Sugar Islands, on which Britain's prosperity partly depends. By the time Nelson realizes what's going on, he is shattered. Of course, he's been scouring the Mediterranean for months. He hasn't been sleeping. He's been alone on the quarter deck, staring out into the night in driving rain. His steward and all his staff are very worried about him. But But he can't stop. He has to keep going because the Caribbean trade depends upon him now. So he races through the Pillars of Hercules. He picks up the Atlantic Tradewinds, and he rushes West. And by the fourth of June, an extraordinary feat, he has reached Barbados. And there he hears that Vilnyv had reached Martinique three weeks earlier. But Vilnerve has not launched a major operation against the British islands. Why not? Obviously, because Neolipoleon's orders are, you should scare the British, lure them out, but then double back.

In other words, he's not going to begin any big operations. So now the focus has moved to the Caribbean, the islands of the Caribbean, and Nelson is wandering through these islands. He tracks Villeneuve to Trinidad, to Port of Spain, and he's convinced he's going to find him in Trinidad. In fact, Nelson was so convinced that he ordered the ships cleared for action, thinking, This will be the showdown. But when he gets to Port of Spain, the French and Spanish are not there.

I mean, just imagine in London, we might have had Port of Spain Square rather than Trafalgar Square.

That would be a good name, though, no?

Yeah, I like it. It has a ring.

Now, what's been going on in the combined fleet? Actually, Vilner and Gravina get on quite well for two rival commanders of the same fleet, but they don't have a clear plan that they believe in because they both think Napoleon's plan is mad.

And has our old friend yellow fever started spreading.

Yes, it has. So the Spanish are riddled with yellow fever.

It says, Chuckling.

Yeah. Well, they already think they're going to lose, don't they? I mean, that's the other thing. Vilner has already publicly stated, If we meet the British, they're bound to defeat us. Moral is not tip top.

No.

So on the 10th of June, which is only six days after Nelson had first reached Barbados, Vilnyv decided to abandon the Caribbean and to head back east.

But that was what the orders had been given by Napoleon.

It was the orders, but I think the orders were that they would turn back east in the spirit of martial vigor.

London, here we come.

Rather than limp miserably back in yellow fever.

Everyone dying. Yeah.

And Nelson, of course, gaining on them all the time. So three days later, Nelson followed suit sailing east from Antigua. It was an incredible job by Nelson to have pulled off this chase and to be so close behind them. I mean, he has been at sea for months, racing, pushing his men to their absolute limit. And he has, in his own mind, saved the Caribbean colonies because they haven't really been able to launch any serious operations against them. The French and Spanish threat has been dispelled. And he's done an incredible job. And in fact, the Caribbean sugar planters are suffused with gratitude to Nelson, aren't they? Sure.

However, against that, he hasn't actually caught up with Vilner, has he?

No. I mean, that's the I think Nelson has very high standards for himself. He thinks he should have caught up with them. And he writes in his journal that he feels very, very low, that he hasn't caught up with Vilner.

Well, because what if they are heading up the channel? What does the channel fleet, the British channel fleet, been doing? He doesn't know. He's operating blind here. And of course, you fear the worst, don't you?

You do. So now he's heading back east, across the Atlantic, towards Gibraltar. Who knows where the French and Spanish have gone? He and his men are absolutely completely shattered. They have not had time to stop for supplies or fresh water. So he has had to, for example, cut the water rations to less than half the norm. And this is the hottest time of the year in midsummer in the Caribbean, they must be so sunburned and hungry and thirsty that, again, the punishment records show that there are lots of cases of people being drunk or fighting or insubordination because basically their morale is... I mean, they're frayed almost to breaking points, I think, the bonds between them. They finally reach Gibraltar, having made incredible time on the 19th of July. And for the first time in two years, Nelson sets foot on dry land. And here he hears reports that Vilneuve has taken refuge in the port of Férol, which is in Galicia in northern Spain. And so with Vilnev back in port, Nelson thinks, Well, finally, I can take the chance for a break.

Because he can set the blockade up, bottle them up, and rely on his men to maintain the blockade while he goes back to England.

To England, exactly. So on the month later, on the 19th of August, 1805, Nelson steps ashore at Portsmouth for the first time since he left England to begin this whole operation, and he picks up a coach bound for Merton and for Emma and for home. And ahead him, there is just one more voyage and one more battle, the Day of Destiny at Trafalgar. And although Nelson could hardly have known it, he has just two months and two days to live.

And Dominic, we will be telling the story of those two months and two days, the story of Nelson's last two months, the greatest drama, possibly in all naval history I would say in all British history next week. If you just can't wait, well, if you're a member of the Restless History Club, you don't have to wait. If you'd like to be a member of the Restless History Club, you can go and sign up at therestlish history. Com. If you do that, then tomorrow you will get an additional super soar away bonus in the form of Mary Beard talking to me about Julius Caesar. But either way, we will be back with the final two episodes of this epic series coming up, The Battle of Trafalgar. Goodbye. Bye-bye.