In the wake of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, Horatio Nelson, though a much acclaimed public hero for his bravery during the battle, is in the doldrums. Having led a harebrained attack on Tenerife, Nelson must now contend with the loss of his arm. Upon returning to England, famous and lauded, Nelson declared his intention to retire to a cottage in the countryside to recover. However, carrying on the tide from France came murmurings that that the French were amassing an enormous force of soldiers and ships. The supreme commander of this formidable host: a Corsican by the name of Napoleon Bonaparte. It seemed that at last, the monumental struggle for which Britain had been grimly preparing up for so long - a total struggle of apocalyptic proportions - was in the offing. And with it, Nelson, the man of the hour, was given command of the squadron charged with finding the vast French fleet and hunting down the formidable Napoleon. Nelson’s hour of glory had finally arrived. Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the aftermath of the Battle of St. Vincent, Nelson’s burgeoning legend and emotional turmoil, and his thrilling hunt for Napoleon Bonaparte. _______ LIVE SHOWS *The Rest Is History LIVE in the U.S.A.* If you live in the States, we've got some great news: Tom and Dominic will be performing throughout America in November, with shows in San Francisco, L.A., Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston and New York. Tickets on sale now at TheRestIsHistory.com _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is the aftermath of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent?
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Chapter 2: How did Nelson's injury impact his career?
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The Rest Is History Returns, available now in all good bookshops. Nelson glanced up at the sky. In the east, black clouds were gathering. In ancient times, he thought, people would have considered that a disturbing omen. But was it bad news for him or for the French? Upon this mission depended the fate of the war, perhaps even the survival of Britain.
But he felt no fear, just a quiet, calm resolve. He nodded to his lieutenants. It was time to leave, to face his destiny. As darkness fell across the Mediterranean, they sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar, east into the unknown. So it is the 8th of May, 1798, and Dominic, as the storm clouds of war gather, a brilliant metaphor there that we've never had on The Rest is History before,
Horatio Nelson is preparing to sail into the Mediterranean in search of Britain's greatest foe, Napoleon Bonaparte. And people wondering where they can find This masterly prose and this excellent analysis of naval warfare in the age of Napoleon. Why? It's a new book from a leading naval scholar, one Dominic Sandbrook, Nelson, hero of the seas.
And Dominic, I believe it's available from all good bookshops now, right?
It is, Tom. And it's aimed at readers of all ages. So younger readers, especially, I think it's fair to say. But if you're an older reader, don't feel inhibited. Pile in. Yeah. Yeah. Buy multiple copies for friends and family, I would say. Yeah, Christmas is coming. And Tom, do you know what? We're recording this on Trafalgar Day.
I know.
On the 21st of October. I've been aglow with patriotic fervour since I leapt out of bed. Have you? Oh, that's great news. It's the best day of the year. It is the best day of the year. It's Christmas for a historian, isn't it? Absolutely it is. Oh, not all historians. No, no. Certainly for us. If you're an academic historian, I think it's... It's a day like any other.
But for those of us who apply our trade in the public eye, it's a great moment, isn't it? Trafalgar Day.
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Chapter 3: What role did public perception play in Nelson's return to England?
Vincent has arrived in the town and he's going to be strolling around the spas and going to the theatre and stuff and we can all see him. And isn't that wonderful?
Because actually, it's all about St. Vincent, isn't it? They don't really mention Tenerife. No. Even the newspapers that do say that was a bit cack-handed. Yeah. I mean, they still say, well, he was very brave. So he's not overly criticised for Tenerife. He is still the hero of the hour. Absolutely. Do you want to read a little bit of poetry? Would you like to read the poem from the Bath Herald?
I would love to, because I'm actually very interested in the topic of Nelson as a theme for poetry. So we've already mentioned Byron, who called him Britannia's god of war. Coleridge and Southey, they were very keen. William Blake, who we'll probably come to, did an extraordinary painting of Nelson.
But this is maybe not entirely up there with Byron and Coneridge and Blake, but it was dedicated to that intrepid Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson on his arrival from scenes of danger and glory to the arms of his family in this city. And there are a lot of capital letters in that sentence.
O Nelson, subject of our praise, while conscious worth shall gild thy future days, soothed with the blessings of domestic life, a reverend father and a faithful wife. Oh dear, Tom.
The irony. Yeah, that will soon have a bitterly ironic meaning. Of course, Fanny is always a very faithful wife, isn't she? Yeah, it's a question of whether Nelson will be a faithful husband. Exactly, exactly. So he's come home. Later that autumn, he goes off to London and he's given the freedom of the city in a ceremonial sword by the Lord Mayor. He goes to St. James's Palace with the Earl of St.
Vincent, formerly Sir John Jervis. And there's George III, who's in one of the intervals between being mad and talking to trees. gives him the silver star and crimson ribbon of a knight of the Order of the Bath.
Because Dominic, George III had been quite down on Nelson, hadn't he? Because Nelson had been given responsibility for looking after his son, William. Yes. Who's become the Duke of Clarence and felt that he'd done it poorly. He had done it poorly. But now George III has forgiven Nelson.
That's right. Yes, because people will remember that Nelson was looking after, he was called William Henry at the time, wasn't he? The future William IV. And when he's the king, when he's William IV, everybody thinks of him as a jolly bluff. Yeah. Bluff is the word. You're legally required to use that word when describing him.
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Chapter 4: What were the conditions leading to the campaign against Napoleon?
He can't dress himself properly in the morning, even to do up his britches to fasten his coat, put his stockings on and all this kind of thing. It's like a real effort. So it's lucky he's got a faithful wife, isn't it? To help him. Well, Fanny is amazing for him. She's so uncomplaining and patient and stuff. So he does have some things that are specially done for him.
He has specially made shirts, like you, Tom. Yeah, like me. Handmade shirts. He has a special fork. I don't know if you have a fork like this. It's a fork that a friend makes. It's like an ancestor of the spork, kind of half fork, half knife. So he could take it camping. It's a brilliant, it's a camping fork, basically.
I mean, he finds the effort of cutting up food in public very humiliating, doesn't he? Because he's kind of chasing bits of meat around his plate and things.
Yeah. For somebody who fancies himself as a bit of a kind of, you know, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great. It's not the image, is it? No, not quite the look.
No, it's not the look. But I think, I mean, more than anything, it's just unbelievably painful, isn't it? I don't entirely understand the medicine of it, but there's a strand of silk that hasn't dropped off. And this is causing him immense pain and it means that the wound can't heal. Is that right? I think I've got that right.
Yeah, that's exactly it. So the wound is still open at the end of his arm because this silk thread has not fallen away. And he goes to see a surgeon in London. The surgeon says, look, it will eventually. There's nothing we can do. But you can't go to see really while this is the case because this could get infected.
Well, also, he's necking vast quantities of laudanum, isn't he?
Yeah, he is.
So he's off his face on opium.
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Chapter 5: How did the British government respond to the threat of Napoleon?
But what's amazing about this is that Nelson is very sympathetic to the spithead mutineers who he feel have been badly done by. This is very much his kind of noblesse oblige, that those in the higher ranks owe a duty of care to those low down. And so he said of the Spithead Mutiny, I was amazed to read this, the most manly thing I ever heard of. And does the British sailor infinite honour?
And that's what he says to the Duke of Clarence. Hang them all. And he says, no, no, we have a duty to them. He does view the ringleaders of the Norm mutiny, though, as Jacobins, who are kind of misleading the honest British tar. And he'd be all in favour of hanging them from the yardarm, which I think actually is what happens to them. I think they do all get hanged, don't they?
Yes, they are hanged. The ringleaders are hanged. I think because there's a couple of different things happening at once. One is understandable anxiety and resentment at the kind of low pay, the fact they've been at sea for ages, the war is dragged on, bad food, all of that stuff. And then among some people, there's a radical sentiment and those two things have become mixed up. That's at the gnaw.
Yeah. Anyway, for people in Britain, the news of the mutinies on top of everything else is really shocking. And then in October 1797, Britain's last major ally, Austria, signs a separate peace with France. And wouldn't you know it, not for the last time, Britain stands alone. And there's an amazing scene, actually, William Pitt, the Prime Minister, gets up in the Commons.
And of course, Pitt is largely forgotten today, but it's a very Churchillian moment. He says, better to face danger accompanied with honour. That's not how he speaks. He says, danger accompanied with honour. Ha! Because he's about 10. You've got to do it in Churchill's voice, otherwise it doesn't work. And to accept indelible shame and disgrace. Indelible shame and disgrace.
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Chapter 6: What challenges did Nelson face before his mission?
And listeners can decide who's more accurate there. Well, I mean, he's a very impressive man, William Pitt, so I don't think he sounded like Tom's version. Tom's version is from Blackadder, let's be honest. Anyway, Pitt says, we need to fight on. We can't surrender everything that constitutes the pride, the safety, and happiness of England.
And he says, all free-born Britons must join hand and heart in a solemn pledge to fight for the laws, liberties, and religion of our country. This is very stirring stuff, but actually, this is the pretext for him to massively increase taxes. Yeah, so it's kind of Rachel Reeves' fiscal black hole, isn't it? Exactly. He trebles taxes and announces the first income tax.
So if you're a high earner, you will pay a tenth of your income over £200. And also notoriously, he triples the window tax. He does indeed. So all the bricked up windows that you sometimes see are from this moment. Tax evasion. Exactly. So morale is pretty low, I think it's fair to say. And Nelson at this point gets a letter. He gets an invitation to go to a parade to bolster morale.
The king wants to celebrate the three great victories they've had at sea. So that's Capes and Vincent and Nelson was involved against the Spanish. They won a tremendous victory at Camperdown against the Dutch.
And that's amazing, isn't it? Because that's for only a few weeks after the mutinies. Yes. I think it's Admiral Duncan. As in the gay pub in Soho. I think that's right, yes. Shall I tell you what NAM Roger said of that?
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Chapter 7: How did Nelson prepare for his journey into the Mediterranean?
I'd love to hear it.
Of Camperdown. It bestowed for the first time on the Royal Navy something of the aura of invincibility which now hung about the French armies on land. I mean, he'd know about that. Yeah. And this presumably is why they're having this parade. That's right. Because essentially it's the only good news story they have. Well, they have won three Titanic naval battles.
Yeah. The third one was called a battle with a brilliant name of the glorious 1st of June. Yeah. Because it's fought in the middle of nowhere in the Atlantic. And that was against the French a year earlier. So they've had three victories against the Spanish, the Dutch, and the French. And previously, victories had not been greeted by parades because they were seen as kind of populist. Vulgar.
The kind of thing people do, actually, in revolutionary France. Jacobin behavior. But the government feels they really need this parade. So they have it on the 19th of December. It's freezing cold, but tens of thousands of people turn out. Nelson wears his order of the bath, and he's in charge of handing the Spanish flags to the dean of St.
Paul's Cathedral, which is a kind of tribute to his newfound celebrity, but also, as John Sugden says in his biography... this is a moment kind of shadowed with irony because it's on this very spot in just eight years' time that his own body will rest in the most famous state funeral in British history.
And this is why his story has such a quality of epic. I mean, it's full of these kind of ironies and foreshadowings and echoes. It's amazing. Exactly.
So the weeks after this great parade are quite bleak. Everybody is very anxious about the taxes and about... The fact that Britain is now isolated in Europe. And there's a real sense, I think, about Britain gearing up, you know, almost reluctantly for this kind of total struggle. You know, it is clearly now a different kind of war from even the Seven Years' War, I think.
It is a much more financially demanding and kind of emotionally demanding war, a genuinely national campaign. And it's about this point that some of William Pitt's spies start to bring whispers that on the other side of the channel, the French are massing troops and preparing ships.
And they eventually discover that as the supreme commander of this new army, the Directory, who are running France, have appointed the man who had carried all before him in Italy. And this, of course, is the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte. And what nobody knows is, are they planning an attack on the dockyards across the Channel? Chatham, Tom. Chatham and Portsmouth.
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Chapter 8: What were the stakes for Britain as Nelson set sail?
Yeah, if you destroy the dockyards and win control of the channel, you could then land troops. You don't necessarily need to. If you can control the channel, starve Britain out, starve Britain of supplies... They'd be reduced to terms. Yeah, then Britain would have no choice but to come to terms. So no one really knows what their plan is.
But by the early spring, there are more rumors reaching London and spy reports and things than the south of France in Toulon, which, of course, had been retaken by Napoleon. You remember that?
Yes.
That forensically researched scene of Napoleon looking out across the smoking harbor of Toulon. A cruel smile, I think, was playing on his lips, wasn't it, Tom? But presumably because he had scabies, which he'd got from picking up the glove, wasn't it? That's well remembered. In the course of that siege. Yeah. He's like a Bond villain.
He's not just cruel and despotic, but he's physically malformed with scabies. Right. So from Toulon, there are reports that this guy, Admiral François-Paul Bruez, is assembling a fleet with more than a dozen warships and hundreds of transports. And the question which people in London are debating for week after week is, why? Where is the armament, as they call it, where is it heading?
So there are rumors that they're going to Greece, that Bonaparte has his eye set on Naples or Sicily, Constantinople, maybe even Egypt, but nobody knows for certain. And eventually the Admiralty decides, right, we will send a new squadron back to the Mediterranean to find out what on earth is going on with this enormous force being assembled in Toulon.
but also because we want to fly the flag to try and persuade the Austrians somehow to get back into the war.
But it's a gamble, isn't it? Of course. Because the ships that will go into the Mediterranean have to come from St. Vincent's fleet, which are busy blocking Cadiz and patrolling the Atlantic seaboard of Iberia. That's right. So his fleet, in turn, has to be reinforced by ships from the Channel.
So essentially, for as long as the British fleet is in the Mediterranean, the Channel fleet will have no strategic reserve. So it is a gamble.
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