35 Spencer Perceval (Prime Minister) to Charles Yorke (First Lord) 8.7.1811; YOY/14 NMM. Southey to Thomas Southey 28.8.1812; Curry, K. ed, New Letters of Robert Southey I, London, 1965, pp. 39–41
36 Fulford, T. ‘Romanticising the Empire; The Naval Heroes of Southey, Coleridge, Austen and Marryat’, pp. 171–4
37 Eastwood, D. ‘Patriotism Personified; Robert Southey’s Life of Nelson Reconsidered’
38 Southey to Mrs Southey 25.9.1813; Curry II pp. 74–5
39 But Emma did, and complained bitterly about his ‘falsehoods’ concerning Naples. Emma to James Perry 22.4.1814; Morrison II p. 369. In this she was telling the truth, although the other half of her letter about the newly published Nelson Letters is less honest.
40 Steffan and Pratt, Byron’s Don Juan; Volume II, 1st canto, 4th verse, p. 23
41 MacCarthy, Byron, 2002, p. 505
42 MacCarthy, p. 158
43 Pocock, Remember Nelson, pp. 178–9
44 ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous: The Cult of Lord Byron’: exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, January–February 2003
45 MacCarthy, p. 195
46 MacCarthy, pp. 85, 296, 349, 383
47 Bolger, W. and Share, B., And Nelson on his Pillar, 1808–1966.
48 Yarrington, A. The Commemoration of the Hero; 1800–1864. Monuments to the British Victors of the Napoleonic Wars, p. 131
49 Parker, H. Herman Melville; A Biography Volume One 1819–1851, p. 147. On a later visit Melville the celebrity saw many more sights – the gallery, paintings and preserved coat at Greenwich (p. 677), including the stump of the Victory’s mast and the Nelson bust placed at Windsor Castle by William IV – and he even passed by the Victory (p. 687). In his wanderings around London he must have seen the column and the sarcophagus in St. Paul’s, reinforcing a heightened sense of meaning. Nelson occupied a prominent place in his imagination.
50 The Norfolk Pillar.
51 Captain Alexander Milne to Admiralty 16.9.1838; Milne Papers NMM. MLN/101/12. I am indebted to Professor John Beeler for this reference.
52 Ramage and Ramage, Roman Art; Romulus to Constantine, pp. 88–90
53 The Mirror 6.7.1839; Add. 38,678. Papers of E. H. Baily, who sculpted the statue
54 Salmon, ‘The Impact of the Archaeology of Rome on British Architects and their Work c.1750–1840’, esp. pp. 230–5
55 Crook and Port, The King’s Works VI 1973, pp. 491–4
56 Taine, H. Notes on England, p. 9
57 Nicolas I, p. v
58 Ibid. p. xvii
59 Nicolas to Hood 29.8.184; HOO/29 NMM This file contains the Nicolas–Hood and Me Arthur correspondence.
60 Nicolas to Hood 10.5.1844; HOO/29. Nicolas Colonel Davison 17.12.1844; Eg. 2241 f. 5 makes the same point
61 Nicolas to Josiah French 12.6.1844; PHB/P/22
62 Storey, p. 323
63 Fenwick, HMS Victory, p. 346
64 Ibid. p. 348.
65 Weston, N. Daniel Maclise: Irish Artist in Victorian London. Dublin, 2001
66 The Spectacular Career of Clarkson Stanfield 1793–1867: Seaman, Scene Painter, Royal Academician [Stanfield] pp. 108–111, 17–18
67 Ibid. pp. 163–4
68 Edgerton, J. Making and Meaning; Turner, The Fighting Temeraire, p. 77
69 Stanfield, p. 20.
70 Russett, A. George Chambers, 1803–1840, pp. 125–7
71 Ibid. p. 126
72 Hardy had given the coat to Emma; she left it with Alderman Smith, who loaned her far more money than she ever repaid. It was bought from his widow. George Anson (the Prince’s Treasurer) to Nicolas 28.6.1845. Nicolas VII pp. 351. The blood was John Scott’s.
73 Stanfield p. 20
74 Rosenberg, Carlyle and the Burden of History, p. vii
75 Carlyle, ‘Nelson’, at p. 77
76 Ibid. pp. 89–91
77 Pettigrew, Memoirs of the Life of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, I pp. ix–xiii.
78 Hume to Aberdeen correspondence 1853–54. Add. 43,200 ff. 224–257.
79 Nelson to Rev Gaskin 4.1.1801; SPCK Archive Website page 1, accessed 12.12.2002. Nelson helped to distribute Society tracts to the fleet, a policy that continued for much of the nineteenth century. Clarke, A History of the SPCK , p. 171
80 Life of Horatio, Lord Viscount Nelson abridged form, Southey, London SPCK, 1837. Naples is covered on pp. 116–18. Comparison with Southey shows that this contentious passage has been reproduced verbatim. The sanctity and eulogy are on pp. 214–15.
81 The two large pictures are considered disturbing by Westminster security staff. Weston p. 251.
82 Weston, p. 243.
83 Boase, p. 215.
84 Ibid. p. 218.
85 Quoted in Weston at p. 249.
CHAPTER XVII
1 Tennyson to Stead, 14.3.1885; in Lang and Shannon, The Letters of Alfred, Lord Tennyson Volume III, pp. 311–12. For Tennyson and defence in the early 1850s see Thompson, N. ‘Immortal Wellington: literary tributes to the hero’, in Woolgar, ed., Wellington Studies III, p. 265
2 Mackenzie, p. 181
3 League Pamphlet cited in Marder, The Anatomy of British Sea Power: Naval Policy 1880–1905, p. 52.
4 See Marder, pp. 44–61
5 Lambert, ‘HMS Foudroyant and Trincomalee’
6 Foote, E J. Vindication of his Conduct when Captain of HMS Seahorse etc. 1799, London, 1807
7 For this issue see Lambert, The Foundations of Naval History; John Knox Laughton, the Royal Navy and the Historical Profession, pp. 173–193.
8 Davis, J A. ‘The Neapolitan Revolution: 1799 to 1999; Between History and Myth’; the quote is by Croce, p. 350.
9 Ibid.
10 Samuel Rawson Gardiner, Editor of the English Historical Review from 1890 to 1902, Laughton’s predecessor as Professor of Modern History at King’s College, a close personal friend and intellectual supporter. Gardiner’s new ‘Scientific’ German historical professionalism provided an authoritative stamp of approval for Laughton’s self-devised ‘scientific’ historical methodology.
11 Schurman, Julian S. Corbett 1854–1922.
12 Marder, A.J. From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow. Vol. I 1904–1914, p. 348.
13 Gordon, The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command addresses this question, and shows how Nelson’s legacy was frittered away.
14 William Graham-Greene (Secretary to the Admiralty) to John Laughton 18.12.1904; Lambert, A. ed., Letters and Papers of Professor Sir John Knox Laughton1830–1915. Aldershot, 2002 p. 228.
15 Beresford, Memoirs, pp. 513–14
16 Beresford and Wilson, Nelson and his Times
17 Beresford, pp. iii–vi.
18 In 1815 the new HMS Nelson was the biggest battleship afloat, and although she saw no active service, she remained on the list for four decades, latterly as a steam powered ship. Finally the old ship went out to Australia as a school ship, but the greatest name ever to grace a warship was not re-used until the late 1870s. Even then it was improperly applied to a second rate ironclad, which briefly served in Australian waters in the 1880s.
19 Mackay, R. Fisher of Kilverstone, pp. 3, 88, 140, 180, 287–9, 365, 385.
20 The records of these donations can be found in ADM 169/47–926. I am indebted to Dr Quintin Colville for this reference.
21 Fisher to Arthur Balfour (ex Prime Minister) 23.10.1910; Mackay p. 428
22 Fisher to Churchill 26.10.1911, 30.12.1911 and 31.7.1914; Churchill, Churchill. Companion Volume II, Part II pp. 1299, 1366 and Part III p. 1965. He repeated the point to opposition leader Balfour on 31.7.1914; Gilbert, M. Churchill Vol. III, p. 16.
23 Fisher to Arnold White 25.2.1913; in Marder, ed. Fear God and Dreadnought: The Correspondence of Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher of Kilverstone. Vol. II 1904–1914, pp. 483–4.
24 Bold, Greenwich, p. 204. Roberts, Eminent Churchillians, pp. 292–4
25 Ramsden, J. Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and his Legend since 1945, p. 123. It was no su
rprise to find Bryant’s account of the Napoleonic wars made very obvious links with Churchill’s wartime leadership.
26 Ramsden, pp. 57–78. Churchill to G M Young 10.9.1939; Gilbert ed. The Churchill War Papers I: The Admiralty, pp. 69–71. Young was one of the historians who drafted much of the book for Churchill.
27 Speech of 23.2.1940; Gilbert p. 794
28 ADM 239/262 quoted in Levy, The Royal Navy’s Home Fleet in World War II, p. 26
29 John Colville 10.8.1940 re destroyers; Speech of 20.8.1940; Broadcast of 11.9.1940. Gilbert II (1994) pp. 644, 691, 802.
30 Presented at a Club dinner of 3.10.1940; Gilbert II p. 846
31 Richards, J. Films and British Identity; From Dickens to Dad’s Army, p. 87
32 Churchill to Korda 15.6.194 and 1.7.194. Memoirs of Oliver Harvey and Hastings Ismay 2.8.1941; Gilbert III pp. 807, 882 1027–8.
33 Alexander; Foreword 1942 Mahan, Life of Nelson
34 Mace, Trafalgar Square
35 Admiral Leach’s father was captain of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales in 1941, when she engaged the German Bismarck, took Churchill to meet President Roosevelt and was sunk off Singapore. He was lost with his ship.
36 Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p. 179
37 Thatcher, p. 235
38 Colley, Britons, pp. 8–9 provides a clear indictment of such attitudes.
39 Colley, p. 9
40 Hood to Nelson 26.8.1805; Add. 34,930 f 250. Hood admits passing a letter to Lord Aylesbury.
41 The prominent position given to Nelson was sustained in the 1999 edition of the Doctrine. British Maritime Doctrine BR 1806. London HMSO 1999
42 Collingwood to Admiral Sir Peter Parker 1.11.1805 and Collingwood to Edward Collingwood 25.10.1805; Owen, C. H. H. ed. ‘Letters from Collingwood, 1794–1809’ in Duffy, M. ed. The Naval Miscellany VI. Aldershot Navy Records Society 2003, pp. 182–5
APPENDIX
1 Williams, H. M. Sketches of the State of Manners and Opinions in the French Republic, 2 vols. London 1801. I p. 206 and 222–3. Nelson’s own copy, suitably annotated, is Add. 34,391
2 Nelson to Alexander Stephens 10.2.1802; Nicolas V p. 43
3 Charnock, Life of Nelson, p. vii.
4 Ibid. pp. 184–6
5 Joshua White’s Professional Life of Lord Nelson, 2nd revised edn. pp. 144–5, calls Ruffo’s armistice ‘infamous’ but misunderstands Nelson’s actions. A second book by the same publisher appeared in 1813, to profit from the sales of Southey. The author was named as ‘Richard Clarke’.
6 Harrison, The Life of Horatio, Lord Viscount Nelson of the Nile
7 Harrison, II pp. 104–5. Harrison invented the nonsense that ‘Tyrolese riflemen’ were in the French fighting-tops; II p. 499
8 Harrison II p. 99
9 Foote, E. Vindication 2nd edn, London 1810. This edition is the most useful, as it reproduces his correspondence with Clarke.
10 Clarke to Foote 20.4.1807; Foote pp. 40–1
11 Clarke to Foote 31.1.1809; Foote p. 43
12 Clarke and McArthur I have used the late 1830 three-volume edition, which is at least portable. II pp. 162 and 187
13 Both Gutteridge and Russell make this point.
14 Southey, R. Life of Nelson, 1922 edition ed. G. Callendar, p. xxviii
15 Ibid, p. 183
16 Quarterly Review 1814, p. 73. The entry was unsigned, but Shine uncovers the authors, p. 41.
17 Ibid. p. 77.
18 James, W. The Naval History of Great Britain. 4, later 6 vols. London 1822–4, 2nd edn 1826. See the introduction to the 2002 edn. for a discussion of James, his methods and motives.
19 James II pp. 274–80
20 Brenton, E. P. The Naval History of Great Britain. 2 vols. London 1837 vol. I P. 484.
21 Collier to Nicolas 16.5.1845; Nicolas III p. 522
22 Harcourt, Rev. L V. Diaries and Correspondence of the Rt. Hon. George Rose, London, 1860, Vol. I, pp. 215–39
23 Alison, A., History of Europe in 19 volumes, London 1833–42 and 1852–59
24 Gooch, G. P., History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century, London, 1913, p. 435. Acton, H. The Bourbons of Naples, London, 1956 provides a critical assessment of Colletta’s position and conduct.
25 Dumas, A. Le Corricolo, Paris, 1983 edn., Chapter X pp. 110–25 comprises a detailed discussion of the capitulation of the forts and the trial and execution of Caracciolo, which is entirely hostile to Nelson and Ferdinand.
26 Hemmings, The King of Romance: A Portrait of Alexandre Dumas, pp. 189, 197–8
27 White, A. J., The Political Life of Cavour 1848–1861, Oxford, 1930, p. 442
28 Mahan Life, 2nd edn. 1899, p. v and Chapters XI and XII. Comparing those chapters to the 1st edn. reveals just how much extra work had been required.
29 Published by the Navy Records Society.
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
Index
Abbott, Lemuel 1, 2
Aboukir Bay 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Aboukir Island 1
Achille 1
Acton, Sir John 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Adair, Captain 1
Addington, Henry, Viscount Sidmouth 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Addison, Joseph 1
Admiralty 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
N visits Lord Howe 1
illegal trade issue 1
N defends his actions 1, 2
criticism of N 1, 2, 3, 4
priorities among strategic tasks of the fleet 1
N reports his arrival home 1
N’s official request for relief 1
pleased at Swedish and Danish acceptance of Convention 1
forbids fireship attack on Boulogne 1
fails to exploit symbolic power of N’s image 1
Admiralty Board 1, 2, 3, 4
Adriatic Ocean 1
Africa 1
Agamemnon 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Agincourt 1
Agincourt Sound 1
Ajaccio 1, 2, 3
Alassio 1
Albemarle, HMS 1, 2, 3
Albert, Prince Consort 1, 2
Alecto 1
Alexander 1, 2, 3, 4
Alexander, A.V. 1
Alexander I, Tsar 1, 2
Alexander the Great 1
Alexandretta 1
Alexandria 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Alison, Archibald 1
Allison, Second Lieutenant 1, 2
Althorp, Norfolk 1
Amazon, HMS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
American Revolution 1
American War of Independence 1, 2
Amiens, Peace of 1, 2, 3
Amphion (frigate) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ancona 1
Andrews, Elizabeth 1
Andrews, First Lieutenant George 1
Anglo-Japanese alliance 1
Anguilla 1
Anson, George, Baron 1
Antigua 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Antwerp 1, 2, 3
Aquilon 1, 2
Arctic 1
Ardent 1
Argentine navy 1
Armed Neutrality convention (1780) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Army of Italy 1
Art journal 1
Auckland, Lord 1
Audacious 1, 2, 3
Austen, Francis 1
Austerlitz, battle of (1805) 1, 2
Austria 1, 2, 3,
4
close to bankruptcy 1
start of French Revolutionary Wars (1792) 1
requests a fleet 1
attacks French line 1
Austrian command post captured at Genoa 1
retreat from coast 1
protestations of commitment 1
France’s main military opponent 1
retreat after large losses 1
driven back (1797) 1
leaves the war (October 1797) 1
British need to renew links with 1
opportunistic Italian policy 1, 2, 3
withdraws guarantee of Naples 1
signs an armistice 1, 2
evacuates territory 1
makes peace with Bonaparte 1
unable to make headway against French on land 1
exhausted and nervous 1
joins Anglo–Russian coalition 1
Austrian Netherlands (modern Belgium) 1
Avignon 1
Badger, HMS 1
Badham, Francis Pritchett 1
Baghdad 1
Baird, Dr Andrew 1, 2, 3
Ball, Sir Alexander 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
battle of the Nile 1, 2, 3
N’s trust in 1
and Malta 1, 2, 3, 4
at Naples 1
and N’s father’s funeral 1
Baltic fleet
Saumarez commands 1
Parker commands 1, 2
St Vincent’s role 1
choice of officers and ships 1
Baltic Sea 1, 2
Barbados 1
Barbary corsairs 1
Barbary states 1
Barbuda 1
Barcelona 1, 2
Barham, Lord 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Barrow, John 1
Basra 1
Bastia, Corsica 1, 2, 3, 4
Bath 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Nelson: Britannia's God of War Page 59