Nelson: Britannia's God of War

by Andrew Lambert

  30 Vincent is a distinguished exception here, pp. 325–33. His defence is realistic, well founded and robust.

  31 Southey is the chief culprit, although more because of the literary success of his text that the sophistication of his argument. For his treatment of these events, and an effective demonstration of his many errors of fact and interpretation, see Callender’s 1922 edition, at p. 166. The entire chapter on Naples repays close reading.

  32 Herbert Butterfield’s short book of this title, published in 1931, examines the mindset of this school with elegance and insight.

  33 Southey, Callender edn., pp. 165–6

  List of Source

  ARCHIVES

  The National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office):

  Admiralty Papers (ADM)

  Foreign Office Papers (FO)

  War Office papers (WO)

  Pitt/Chatham Correspondence PRO/30/8/-

  National Maritime Museum, Greenwich:

  Croker, Phillips, Monserrat, Girdlestone, Nelson, Keats, Hood, Yorke

  British Library:

  Nelson, Bridport, Liverpool, Davison, Vansittart, Nicolas, Pettigrew,

  Althorp, St Vincent, Lord Aberdeen.

  Additional (Add.) and Egerton (Eg.) manuscripts

  Nelson Museum, Monmouth:

  Nelson Papers

  Duke University Library, North Carolina:

  Admiral Sir Graham Hamond

  John Wilson Croker

  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor:

  John Wilson Croker

  PRINTED DOCUMENTARY COLLECTIONS

  (Place of publication is London unless otherwise stated.)

  Anon. The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton; with a supplement of Interesting letters by Distinguished Characters. 1814

  Aspinall, A. ed. Later Correspondence of George III. Cambridge, 1962 – The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales. Cambridge, 1963–71

  Baring, Mrs. ed. The Diary of the Rt. Hon. William Windham MP 1794–1811, 1866.

  Battaglini, M. & Placanica, A. Leggi, Atti, Proclami ed altri Documenti Della Repubblica Napoletana, 1798–1799. 4 vols. Naples, 2000–2

  Bickley, F. ed. The Diareis of Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glenbervie. 1928

  Buckingham, Duke of. Courts and Cabinets of George III. 2 vols. 1855

  Churchill, R. S. ed. Churchill. Companion Volume II, Parts II and III. 1965

  Corbett, J. S. and Richmond, H. The Private Papers of George, Second Earl Spencer. 4 vols. Navy Records Society 1913–14, 1923–4

  Manuscripts of Cornwallis Wykeham Martin. Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1909

  Coupland, R. ed. The War Speeches of William Pitt the Younger. Oxford, 1915 The Cumloden Papers. nd.

  Curry, K. ed. New Letters of Robert Southey. 1965

  Desbrière, Colonel E. Projets et tentatives de débarquement aux Iles Britanniques 1792–1805 5 vols. Paris 1900–2

  Duffy, M. ed. The Naval Miscellany VI. Navy Records Society, 2003

  Fortescue Manuscripts (at Dropmore; Lord Grenville’s Correspondence) 10 vols. Historical Manuscripts Commission, 1892–1927

  Fox, C. J. Speeches During the French Revolution. 1924

  Gilbert, M. ed. The Churchill War Tapers I: The Admiralty. 1993

  Granville, Countess. Lord Granville Leveson Gower, Private Correspondence 1781–1821. 2 vols. 1916.

  Greig, J. ed. The Farington Diary. 1922–3

  Gutteridge, H. C. Nelson and the Neapolitan Jacobins: Documents relating to the Suppression of the Jacobin Revolution at Naples, June 1799. Navy Records Society, 1903

  Hamilton, Sir R. V. ed. Journals and Letters of Sir Thomas Byam Martin. Vol. III Navy Records Society, 1901

  Hannay, D. ed. Letters Written by Sir Samuel Hood (Viscount Hood) in 1781–2–3. Navy Records Society, 1895

  Harcourt, Rev. L. V. ed. Diaries and Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. George Rose. 2 vols. 1860

  Hughes, E. ed. The Private Correspondence of Admiral Lord Collingwood. Navy Records Society, 1952

  Lambert, A. ed. Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton: 1830–1915. Navy Records Society, Aldershot, 2002

  Lang, C. Y. and Shannon, E. F. The Letters of Alfred, Lord Tennyson Volume III. Oxford, 1990

  Laughton, J. K. ed The Naval Miscellany Vols. I and II. Navy Records Society, London, 1901

  – Letters of Lord Barham. II–III. Navy Records Society, 1909–10

  Leyland, J. ed. The Blockade of Brest 1803–1805. 2 vols. Navy Records Society, 1900 and 1901

  Lloyd, C. ed. The Naval Miscellany Vol. IV. Navy Records Society, 1952

  – The Keith Papers, selected from the Papers of Admiral Viscount Keith. Vol. II. Navy Records Society, 1950

  Londonderry, Lord. Correspondence, Dispatches etc, of Lord Castlereagh. 12 vols. 1851–3

  Marder, A. J. ed. Fear God and Dreadnought: The Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone. Vol. II 1904–1914. 1956

  Morrison, A. ed. The Hamilton and Nelson Papers. 2 vols. 1893–4

  Morriss, R., ed. The Channel Fleet and the Blockade of Brest 1793–1801. Navy Records Society, Aldershot, 2001

  Naish, G. P. B. Nelson’s Letters to his Wife and other Documents. Navy Records Society, 1958

  Nicol, J. The Life and Adventures of John Nicol. Edinburgh, 1822

  Nicolas, Sir H. N. The Dispatches and Letters of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson. 7 vols. 1844–6

  Pool, B. ed. The Croker Papers. 1967

  Rawson G. ed. Nelson’s Letters from the Leeward Islands. 1953

  Smith, D. B. Letters of Admiral of the Fleet the Earl St Vincent; 1801–1804. Navy Records Society, 1922 and 1927

  Steffan, T. G. and Pratt, W. W. Byron’s Don Juan, 2 Vols. Austin, Texas, 1957

  The Windham Papers. 2 vols. 1913

  BOOKS

  Acton, H. The Bourbons of Naples. 1956

  Albion, R. G. Forests and Seapower: The Timber Problem of the Royal Navy. Cambridge, Mass., 1926

  Arthur, C. B. The Remaking of the English Navy by Admiral St Vincent, Key to Victory over Napoleon. Lanham MD, 1986

  Auerbach, J. A. The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display. Yale, 1999

  Barker, J. Wordsworth: A Life. 2000

  Battesti, M. La Battaille d’Aboukir: Nelson contrarie la Stratégie de Napoleon. Paris, 1998

  Beatty, W. The Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson. 1807

  Behrman, C. F. Victorian Myths of the Sea. Athens, Ohio, 1977

  Bennett, G. Nelson the Commander. 1972

  Berckman, E. Nelson’s Dear Lord: A Portrait of St Vincent. 1962

  Beresford, Lord C. and Wilson, H. W. Nelson and his Times. 1897

  Beresford, Lord C. Memoirs. 1916

  Berry, Sir E. An Authentic Narrative, drawn up by an Officer of Rank. 1798

  Billing, V. The Panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar: Painted by WL Wyllie RA. Portsmouth, 2002

  Boase, T. S. R. English Art, 1800–1870. Oxford, 1959

  Bold, J. Greenwich Hospital. Yale, 2000

  Bolger, W. and Share, B. And Nelson on his Pillar, 1808–1966. Dublin, 1976

  Bourchier, Lady. Memoir of Sir Edward Codrington. 2 vols. 1873

  Brenton, E. P. The Naval History of Great Britain. 2 vols. 1837

  Brewer, J. The Sinews of Power: War, Money and the English State 1688–1783. 1988

  British Maritime Doctrine BR 1806. 1999

  Burrows, E. H. Captain Owen of the African Survey, 1774–1857. Rotterdam, 1979

  Butlin, M. and Joll, E. The Paintings of J. M. W. Turner. 2 vols. Yale, 1977

  Butterfield, H. The Whig Interpretation of History. 1931

  Carlyle, T. Heroes and Hero Worship. Everyman edition, 1908

  – ‘Nelson’, in Montaigne and other Essays. 1898

  Cavanagh, T. Public Sculpture of Liverpool. Liverpool, 1997

  Chancellor, V. E. History for Their Masters; Opinion in English History Textbook, 1800–1914. Bath, 1970

  Chandler, D
. The Campaigns of Napoleon. 1967

  Charnock, J. Life of Nelson. 1802

  Clarke, J. S. and McArthur, J. The Life of Admiral Lord Nelson, KB, from His Lordship’s manuscripts. 1809; 2nd edn, 1840

  Clarke, W. K. L. A History of the SPCK. 1959

  Clausewitz, C. von. On War, transl. Paret, P. and Howard, M. Princeton, 1970

  Coleridge, S. T. The Friend I, ed. Rooke, B. 1969

  Colley, L. Britons: Forging the Nation 1707–1837. 1992

  Conrad, J. The Mirror of the Sea. Collected edn, 1923

  Cook, R. The Palace of Westminster. 1987

  Cookson, J. E. The British Armed Nation, 1793–1815. Oxford, 1997

  Corbett, J. S. The Campaign of Trafalgar. 1910

  – Some Principles of Maritime Strategy. 1911

  Cordingly, D. Nicholas Pocock, 1740–1821. 1986

  Corlett, E. The Iron Ship. Bradford-upon-Avon, 1975

  Cornwallis-West, G. The Life and Letters of Admiral Cornwallis. 1927

  Crook, M. Toulon in War and Revolution. Manchester, 1991

  Crook, J. M. and Port, M. H. The History of the King’s Works VI 1782–1851 1973

  Darby, E. and Smith, N. The Cult of the Prince Consort. Yale, 1983

  Deane, A. Nelson’s Favourite: HMS Agamemnon at War, 1781–1809. 1996

  De la Gravière, Capt. E. Jurien, Sketches of the Late Naval War. transl. Capt. Plunkett RN. 2 vols. London, 1848

  Desbrière, Col. E. The Campaign of Trafalgar, transl C. Eastwick. 2 vols. Oxford, 1933.

  Dupin, C. Voyages dans la Grand-Bretagne. Vol. IV. Paris, 1821

  Eardley-Wilmot, S. Life of Vice Admiral Lord Lyons. 1898

  Edgerton, J. Making and Meaning: Turner, The Fighting Temeraire. 1995

  Ehrman, J. The Younger Pitt. 3 vols. 1969, 1983, 1996

  Erdman, D. V. Blake: Prophet Against Empire. 3rd edn. Princeton, 1977

  Eyre-Matcham, M. The Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe. 1911

  Feldbaek, O. The Battle of Copenhagen, 1801: Nelson and the Danes. Copenhagen, 1985; English edn transl. Wedgewood, T. 2002

  – Denmark and the Armed Neutrality:1800–1801. Small Power Policy in a World War. Copenhagen, 1990

  Fenwick, K. HMS Victory. 1959

  Foote, E. J. Vindication of his Conduct when Captain of HMS Seahorse etc. 1799. 1807; 2nd edn, 1810

  Foreman, A. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. 1998

  Fortescue, J. W. A History of the British Army, Vol. IV. 1906

  Fraser, J. L. John Constable. 1976

  Frost, A. The Precarious Life of James Mario Matra. Melbourne, 1995

  Fry, M. The Dundas Despotism. Edinburgh, 1992

  Gardiner, R. ed. Fleet Battle and Blockade. 1996

  – Nelson against Napoleon: From the Nile to Copenhagen. 1997

  – The Campaign of Trafalgar 1803–1805. 1997

  Gash, N. Lord Liverpool. 1984

  Gatty A. and Gatty, M. Recollections of the Life of the Rev. A. J. Scott DD. 1842, reprinted as Nelson’s Spy? Bridgenorth, 2003

  George, D. English Political Caricature: 1793–1832. Oxford, 1959

  Geyl, P. Napoleon: For and Against. English edn. 1949

  Gilbert, M. Churchill Vol. III. 1971

  Gill, E. Nelson and the Hamiltons on Tour. Monmouth, 1987

  Girouard, M. The Return to Camelot: Chivalry and the English Gentleman. 1981

  Gooch, G. P. History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century. 1913

  Goodwin, P. Nelson’s Ships: A History of the Vessels in Which he Served, 1771–1805. 2002

  Gordon, G. A. H. The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command. 1996

  Gore, J. Nelson’s Hardy and his Wife. 1935

  Guerin, W. Horatia Nelson. Oxford, 1981

  Harbron, J. Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy. 1988

  Hardman, W. A History of Malta during the Period of French and British Occupation, 1798–1815. 1909

  Harrison, J. The Life of Horatio, Lord Viscount Nelson of the Nile. 2 vols. 1806

  Hemmings, F. J. W. The King of Romance: A Portrait of Alexandre Dumas. 1979

  Heuser, B. Reading Clausewitz. 2002

  Hill, D. Mr Gillray: The Caricaturist. 1965

  Hill, Adm. J. R. The Prizes of War: The Naval Prize System in the Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815. Stroud, 1998

  Hobhouse, H. Prince Albert; His Life and Work. 1983

  Hoffman, F. A Sailor of King George: Journals of Captain Frederick Hoffman RN 1793–1814. 1901

  Holland, Lord, ed. Memoirs of the Whig Party. 2 vols. 1854

  Holmes, R. Coleridge, Darker Visions. 1998

  Hood, D. The Admirals Hood. 1940

  Hornsby, C. ed. The Impact of Italy: The Grand Tour and Beyond. 2000

  Howard, M. The Causes of Wars. 1983.

  Imbruglia, G. ed. Naples in the Eighteenth Century: The Birth and Death of a Nation State. Cambridge, 2000

  James, W. The Naval History of Great Britain. 6 vols. 1836

  James, Admiral Sir W. The Portsmouth Letters. 1946

  – The Durable Monument: Horatio Nelson. 1948

  – Old Oak: The Life of John Jervis, Earl St Vincent. 1950

  Jupp, P. Lord Grenville, 1759–1834. Oxford, 1985

  Kennedy, L. Nelson’s Band of Brothers. 1951

  Kennedy, P. M. The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery. 1976

  Lambert, A. D. The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia 1853–1856. Manchester, 1990

  – The Foundations of Naval History: John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession. 1998

  Laughton, J. K. Nelson. 1895

  Lavery, B. Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1793–1815. 1989

  – Nelson and the Nile: The Naval War against Bonaparte, 1798. 1998.

  Le Donne, J. The Russian Empire and the World 1700–1917: The Geopolitics of Expansion and Containment. Oxford, 1997

  LeFevre, P. and Harding R. eds. Precursors of Nelson: British Admirals in the Eighteenth Century. 2000

  LeFevre, P. and Harding, R. eds. Contemporaries of Nelson. 2004

  Levy, J. The Royal Navy’s Home Fleet in World War II. 2003

  Littlewood, K. and Butler, B. Of Ships and Stars: Maritime Heritage and the Founding of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. 1998

  Lucas, J. ed. William Blake. 1998

  Lukacs, J. The Hitler of History: Hitler’s Biographers on Trial. London, 1997

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  Mackay, R. Fisher of Kilverstone. Oxford, 1973

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  – From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. Vol. I 1904–1914. Oxford, 1961

  Martin, T. Life of the Prince Consort. 5 vols. 1875–80

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  – The Insatiable Earl: A life of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. 1993

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  – Nelson and the Hamiltons. 1969

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