Nelson's Trafalgar (Britain’s Greatest Naval Hero) | Timeline

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[Music] [Applause] the musket ball was fired from 50 feet it pierced the Admirals guild Evolet shattered his shoulder seven his spine and flooded his lungs with blood Horatio Nelson had always wanted to die a hero and on the great column in Trafalgar Square his death in the hour of victory is Juli immortalized in bronze and stone it is all too easy to forget that this was also a man of flesh and blood for the Nelson who was a brave brilliant and humane war leader could also be vain ruthless impetuous and all too human it was the summer of 1805 years of blockade duty had trained the men and ships of the Royal Navy constantly at sea to a pitch of readiness rarely equaled in war rigs sloops schooners and frigates prowled the enemy shoreline poking their noses into every harbor on the French coast their main focus is the port of renewing here the French had assembled a fleet of landing craft and were training a great army to invade England [Music] and commanding the operation was that unrivaled master of war Napoleon Bonaparte [Music] one thing that stood between Napoleon and Britain was the channel and if he couldn't control the channel he couldn't get his armies across he knew that he knew he had to sweep aside British naval power he had to come up with a scheme that would enable him to have that stretch of water free of British ships third he could get his troops across they just need a little gap in Britain's defenses and they expect that they will be over the English Channel and they will be invading Britain Napoleon thought if I could be master of the channel for three days I would be master of the world that's how crucial it was the British public believed that one man could save them from Napoleon Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson but Nelson himself was not so sure for two years now he'd sought to bring the French fleet to battle without success as always when things went wrong Nelson became ill with worry your poor dear Nelson is my dearest Emma very very unwell after two years hard fag it has been mortifying and not being able to get at the enemy he must have been absolutely worried sick that the fleet would the French fleet would get into the channel and enable Napoleon to invade England the constant anxiety I have experienced has shook my weak frame and my rings will hardly keep upon my fingers I think he realized that the whole you know future of seed pound his country rested on his shoulders but he was very weary he'd been suffering from all sorts of aches and pains he'd been it's even awful long time literally been on board victory just ten days under two years without putting a foot on dry land I really believe that my shattered carcass is in the worst plight of the whole fleet violent pain in my side and night sweats heat in the evening quite flushed I'm so not unsurprisingly he was beginning to write letters home saying I really need some leave I really need a rest his hair was quite white he lost his teeth he lost his top teeth and as to his State of Mind well he was he was pretty sure of himself as Nelson but all this all the same he had the feeling that he might not have done the right thing it looked to some as though Nelson were guilty of an error of judgment he'd allowed the French Admiral veal nerve to escape from the Mediterranean and link up with Spanish warships with Nelson and hot pursuit this powerful fleet sailed for the West Indies before doubling back across the Atlantic and now no one knew exactly where it was [Music] on August the 19th 1805 HMS Victory anchored at Portsmouth and Nelson came ashore with nothing to show for all his efforts [Music] when Nelson arrives in England in 1805 he doesn't quite know what to expect he has not met him defeated the French fleet as he expected to do and as he knows the public expected him to do so he must have felt a sense of are they still going to love me are they still going to have mom before he didn't set foot on shore Nelson had been ordered to send his sea journals to the Admiralty to explain why he'd failed to find the French but to ordinary people on a rainy day in Portsmouth he was still the hero whose wounds made him one of the most instantly recognizable figures of his day he once scribbled this note to an autograph seeker wounds received by Lord Nelson his eye in corsica his belly off Cape San Vincente his arm at Tenerife his head in Egypt tolerable for one war Nelson was in many ways the very first pop hero and certainly come to shore with those usual tears that he's got used to every year bringing a new year so he is reassured that the public are on his side now he has to find out whether the airport is in Whitehall the 80 year old First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Baram would examine Nelson's journals and analyze his decisions orders and commands for the last two years Barham is probably one of the greatest First Lord of the Admiralty that Britain has ever had so he was a careful chess playing sorted out more who needed to weigh his options and so he asked Nelson send in his journals the journals that every abnormality was required to keep and he looked at these to see what Nelson's reasoning and thinking was he's done this extraordinary trip to the West Indies but was it the right thing to do or was it the wrong thing to do and so he reserved his judgment had this maverick man made some bad mistakes here Nelson had every reason to feel uneasy about Barham scrutiny from the very first moment that he'd come to public notice doubts had been raised about his discipline and his judgment [Music] the battle captain Vincent was the moment when Nelson first came to public attention [Music] it was 1797 Britain was at war with France and its ally Spain Commodore Nelson was serving under Admiral Gervais when they encountered a fleet of Spanish warships [Music] as the Spanish Admiral maneuvered to meet the British attack a gap opened up between the vanguard and rear of his fleet at the battle right from the start Gervais was aggressive and unorthodox he drove his fleet in a hastily formed battle line between two groups of Spanish ships separating and rather like an arrow going right to their heart and then he turned his ships in order to deal with the main body of Spanish ships but the wind shifted the Spanish altered course and the entire shape of the battle changed at this point Nelson who was right in the rear of the line realized that this Spanish could possibly get away and so he simply tacked into the Spanish fleet and attacked him personally head-on and without referring to his commanding officer from right angles which is an amazingly bold thing to do [Music] he put his ship alongside a Spanish ship for San Nicolas an ad gunship and headed a boarding party to capture he led his men through a stern window in the Spanish ship captured it and then phoned had come up against another Spanish much bigger one a first-rate Spanish ship for three decks rather like the victory in battle having forced the San Nicolas the surrender Nelson stormed across its deck and boarded the formidable sanjer said he then led his men over to that one and captured that one as well and this became known as Nelson's pit in bridge for boarding for streets that was the exploit above all that kind of image of a senior officer sword in hand charging across two Spanish decks that really caught the public imagination typically Nelson had acted according to the spirit not the letter of his orders and though Admiral Jervis privately approved the official dispatch ignored this exploit it didn't appear in the public dispatch it wasn't mentioned by the alcohol the person who made sure that it was mentioned and therefore known about was Nelson the day after the battle he carefully wrote out an account of the battle including his boarding one Spanish first rate over another he carefully had this signed by several of his own captains and then he sent it to a friend in London an old friend of his a navy captain and said that he wouldn't mind at all if this appeared in the newspapers and it did appear in the Sun it did appear in The Times ever since Nelson's place in the public affection was secure [Music] but as he took the coach from Portsmouth to his home in Woking he knew that varam would take a cool of you so there's a mixture of feelings a sense of perhaps unease about whether he's going to be carpeted for having failed to catch the French bleed but also a sense of excitement and anticipation of being reunited with those he lives after two years at sea Nelson was coming home these were to be the last 25 days he would spend with the people and in the place he loved most [Music] in 1801 he bought a house near Wimbledon where he would make a home with his mistress Emma Hamilton he was very much paradise merthin if you read his letters he can't wait to get back to dear dear Merton which he considers the prettiest place in all the world he's going to find Emma lady Hamilton his lover and their daughter illegitimate daughter Horatio ever always greeted him with oh god is it possible you know it was the fool to forward Nelson was so dependent on Emma's hyperbolic welcomes you know sometimes she'd faint but she gave him the full whack how Melissa does that we have an incredibly beautiful woman she was a woman capable of showing affection she came along at a time when Nelson needed her she was almost a mother figure for for for Nelson as well and again we come back to Nelson's early loss of his mother his need for a certain kind of female affection Nelson came from lower-middle-class dot from Norfolk his father was the parson of Berlin thought Church they lived on a nice plot with 30 acres there were eight children in the house and they had servants but life wasn't easy he was very unfortunate that his mother died when he was nine which must have been very hard indeed his father I think was a nice man very concerned about his children but probably not the best person to try and bring them up without a wife [Music] the loss of Nelson's mother when he was so young had a terrible impact on him left him with a vulnerability and he was insecure for the rest of his life and towards the end of his life even as a successful decorated hero still felt the loss of his mother and the influence that she'd had on his early days the thought of former days brings my mother to heart which shows itself in my eyes often Elsa's mother died the rector had a problem he had eight children he couldn't manage all in children and he looked to members of his family to help him find them careers he was always very keen on the sea and Burnam thought it's not very far from the sea and it said that he used to go up to wells and see the ships and acquired a tremendous taste for the sea and the Navy when Nelson decided that he would like to go to see as a career when he was 12 his father wrote to his brother-in-law his wife's brother captain Norris suckling and said would he take Horace as they called him and captain suckling wrote back and said what is Horatio done that he wants to go and rough it at sea but let him come because the first time we go into action a cannonball might take off his head and provide for him at once when he went to sea at the age of 12 his father took him to London but there wasn't really the money for father to go on to Chatham so he had to go off to Chatham on his own he found himself all alone on the dock uncle hadn't arrived somebody took pity on him and took him to the ship very tough for a twelve-year-old as a successful hero and an admiral he was to sit at a dinner as the custom was next to the youngest person on board and this battered man when his arm pinned up and his blind eye was to find himself dosed with very nervous midshipman and said what age did you join the service on the own boy nervous he looked up and said twelve milord and Nelson muttered to young much too young looking back he realized later on what a wrench it was for him to join us service at that age [Music] in the course of his naval career Nelson would see action on more than a hundred and twenty occasions by the time he was 17 Nelson had sailed in three oceans and almost died from tropical fever in the West Indies and in India from malaria Nelson was ill on his way back to England after a voyage I suppose he must have been in his teens and he suddenly had this vision that he saw a golden orb a sudden glow of patriotism was kindled within me well then I will be a hero and confiding to Providence I will brave every danger [Music] and it does seem that from then on his mind was set on trying to win all the honors that he could Nelson had become a full captain by the unusually young age of 21 by 28 he was an overall commander British naval forces in the West Indies but his private life was less successful until he met Frances Nesbit the young widow of a Jamaican plantation owner and the mother of a five year old boy Nelson appeared rather forbidding to most of the people who first met him till they found him playing under the drawing room table with Josiah Nesbit he was a five year old son of Francis Nesbit and this was what first brought them together and first sure people that Nelson could be a human being as well as a an evil commander they married when he was 28 I don't think it was really a very great success from the beginning probably not helped by the fact that when they came to England they went straight down to live in Norfolk because he was on the beach which meant he was on half pay because the war was over for the moment she was very reluctant that he was going to risk his life in any way but he was longing to get away and pursue his career at sea and was delighted in what was it 1792 when he had command of the Agamemnon and went to Chatham [Music] at times Nelson's pursuit of glory seemed almost suicidal while serving with the Mediterranean fleet he besieged the port of calvi in corsica one of the essences of Nelson's leadership was he led from the front always led from the front he left with a front of the junior officer when he was expected and he continued to lead from the front as an Admiral when it was not you could see the effects of that in his body with his battered head and missing arm and so on as Nelson attacked Calvi a vigorous artillery duel was underway [Music] sure in Corsica setting up gun mr. bombard the French position enemy cannonball landed in a sandbag Creek cluster the gravel flew up hit him in the side of the eye and damaged the red probably the retina of the eye Nelson never wore an eye patch - yet the Iowas not unsightly had not washed as I said she had lost a sight of his eye typically he writes to his wife and he says I don't think the vision is gonna come back in that eye but never mind I got another eye but Nelson was lust for glory put many more lives than his own at risk in 1797 he was sent to Tenerife to seize the town of Santa Cruz Nelson planned quite carefully tact 110 or even he sent his captain's assure with landing parties and that not filled Nelson then decided to launch a second attack two days later which he led himself that night and without the element of surprise Nelson ordered a frontal assault on the main fortress he was leading a landing party which was attempting to capture a Spanish prize ship - he was actually landing from the boat in the act of drawing his sword a musket ball shattered his arm just above the elbow an artery of a severed so blood poured everywhere which upset him and made him feel very faint his stepson katanas but was there he quickly applied a tourniquet to it and possibly saved his life it was extremely difficult to row away from the shore but they managed it and when he got to the top of the ship he went on board and he actually said tell the surgeon to make ready because I know I've got to lose my arm in the cockpit of his ship his arm was amputated without anesthetic they would have two men to hold Nelson down he appears to have been given beforehand absolutely nothing in the way of painkiller analgesic there's only about five inches of arm left and he used corded his fin I'm Lord Nelson here's my fin the rest of his life he remembered the pain as the cold knife cut into the flesh later on he issued an order that surgeons were to warm the night before amputating lumens Nelson was completely traumatized but the wounded there was no mistaking the fact that his arm wasn't there he'd gone through a terribly painful operation I'd even been also been involved in our very unsuccessful military operation he managed to lose twice as many men as were been killed at the entire Battle of San Vincente and he was somewhat blamed for this disaster and not sort of sense it was characteristic of Nelson Garcia wherever he went large numbers of people got killed in that sense you're something of a serial killer in military terms he wrote that he had launched the second attack and led the second attack because his pride had been hurt by the failure of the first attack well there were those who said that his pride would cost the lives of Agamemnon and all that contributed very much to his depression he wrote this and Vincent with his left hand you can see pain and uncertainty in every letter of that letter I am become a burden to my friends and useless to my country you will excuse my scrool considering it is my first attempt he wanted a frigate as he said to carry out a means of his carcass back to England you don't litter nobody will ever have any use for a left-handed Admiral he was quite convinced that his career was over he began to recover from that once he got home he's in lady Nelson nursed him back to health this is possibly the happiest period of the marriage the period from the lower courses together really he found out he was a popular hero and this did very much to raise his spirits and physically his health began to improve as well in 1798 Nelson's popularity increased further when a large Expeditionary Force commanded by General Napoleon Bonaparte slipped out of too long a British fleet was hastily assembled with orders to seek and destroy the fury of more senior Admirals of the command went to Nelson but this time he was the show that he not only took risks but could bring them off as well Nelson took his fleet into the dangerous waters of the Mediterranean but despite a frantic search failed to prevent the Poli on reaching Egypt and landing his army there [Music] when he did eventually catch up with the French fleet it was anchored in the bay of Abu QIR near the mouth of the Nile later life Nelson was actually known as Nelson of the Nile the Nile tactically is an example of Nelson's brilliance it shows him first of all planning the battle in advance and communicating that to some of his captains he had had them on board his ship for dinner parties and for briefings so that they knew in advance what to do and communicating to them a sense that they could do things themselves without waiting for orders from him and it was very unusual Admirals did not in those days share their ideas in advance with their captains and that more than any other thing was what made Nelson special as soon as lookouts spotted the French Nelson ordered an immediate attack it was an extraordinary decision because night was falling and the French were anchored in a strong defensive position the Nile was a very risky battle for the British the French thought that they were close up against the main Shoals in the bay and that they therefore could not be attacked on the Lambeth side but as the British closed for battle one of Nelson's captain's spotted a weakness in the French defense captain Thomas Foley of the Goliath II notices a big enough gap and deep enough water for him to seal between that ship and the shore otherwise to ground that ship to attack it on they say that they're not expecting and the captains that were there at the head of the British line made the decision without any orders from Nelson to go round inside the French line and so take it on both sides and crush it rather like a nutcracker and that risk that they took knowing that there are four would support them is one of the most fascinating aspects of the battle with consummate seamanship the first four British ships sailed round the landward side of the French line and quickly inflicted terrible damage as Nelson came in he decided to double the line to intensify the attack [Music] support to remember that the French were not duffer's as fighters and seen [Music] one of their captain's had both his legs taken off by round shot call for a brand table and had his torso placed in the round table as he bled to death still giving his order and courage of that deserved greater success and they actually had as usual Nelson was in the thick of the action and when a chunk of metal struck his forehead it struck him on the forehead and sliced a piece of flesh that fell down over his good eye and blinded him with the blood and so much said that he thought he was killed [Music] Nelson was still below when he heard that the French flagship was on fire he was helped back on deck and fire in many was the most terrifying thing to see me in those days because as well as bottoming have written knows that eventually a ship is going to blow up the explosions were so huge that they ripped the ship apart next morning Nelson surveyed a scene of utter destruction victory is not a word strong enough for such a scene only two battleships and two frigates escaped they were led by pierre de ville nerve the man destined to command the French at Trafalgar the Nile was a victory of annihilation it was the first time anybody had she had achieved that skill of victory in naval warfare the Nile was the defining battle in his career that really established him as an immortal hero over and above his contemporaries but Nelson's triumph was the prelude to the darkest episode of his life and in the summer of 1805 as the First Lord of the Admiralty was weighing the highs and lows of Nelson's career the events that followed the Nile must have made bleak reading to mend his ships and heal his wound after the Battle of the Nile Nelson sailed to Naples he arrives in Naples which is a voluptuous beautiful city with stunning buildings he is hailed as a hero now by the the Neapolitans this flotilla of boats came out scraped them with nips bands playing Rule Britannia etc [Applause] [Music] and the king and queen of naples King Ferdinand is in one boat and in another was the ambassador Sir William Hamilton and his very gorgeous and voluptuous wife Lady Emma Hamilton she was terribly thrilled to rarely meet the victor of the Nile and as supposed to have had a dress all bedecked with Nelson and all that sort of thing Lady Hamilton was at that time probably the most beautiful woman in Naples she had the face of an angel and in the body of Venus and that contrast made her extremely attractive to man and she fell at his feet you know saying oh god is it possible he comes ashore as emotionally mixed up man and he's greeted with the motherly sexuality of Lady Hamilton and I think he found it irresistible [Music] Emma had a checkered past the daughter of a blacksmith she moved to London where she became an artist's model and a rich man's mistress but her marriage to Sir William Hamilton the British ambassador to Naples gave her status and respect [Music] and there is this wonderful voluptuous woman this gorgeous woman who thinks he's absolutely wonderful who swoons into his arm with excitement at meeting him who on earth would not have fallen Nelson was not a well man his head wound was causing pain and violent mood swings he had these dreadful headaches as the result of the wound over his eye and probably fell into bed but had the good fortune to be nursed by Emma which must have helped and she was a brilliant nurse and she nursed him with I mean asses milk shades of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and so down and Naples far away from you know the seat of command and the Admiralty they embarked on this folly a dirt it was not long before Nelson and Emma became lovers [Music] last night I did nothing but dream of you you came in and taking me in your embrace whispered I love nothing but you my Nelson I kissed you fervently and we enjoyed the height of love it's quite clear from the letters that Nelson wrote down the sex with her was incredibly exciting he refers to liberties which no other woman ever taught with me and I think that's one of the things that bound him to her that they were obviously compatible lovers and it made sense to be with her made sense of his life in the way that this often can Emma was close to the king and queen of Naples in politics Nelson was always royalist and conservative thanks to Emma he was drawn into the affairs of court he's used to ordinary humble English homes the most probably the grandest places visited is in James's Palace which doesn't compare in any way to the great palaces of Naples there were a huge part it arranged in his honor unbelievable presentations you was showered with gifts and I think it wouldn't be long before this would have had an effect with all the adulation he was being shown it went to his head [Music] there were the heady days in the rich setting of the Neapolitan Court and he was soon to write st. Vincent I'm writing opposite lady Hamilton therefore you will not be surprised at the glorious jumble of this letter in a postscript nothing added these prophetic words Naples is a dangerous place and we must steer clear of it [Music] Naples was to prove more dangerous than Nelson had imagined four months after he arrived the monarchy was overthrown by a Republican revolution backed by the French the king and queen fled to Nelson's ships in the Bay of Naples on a night when Vesuvius erupted and there was a terrible storm at sea Nelson helped the royal family to escape the King beg Nelson to support a royalist counter-attack the Queen hated Republicans her sister Mary Antoinette had lost her head just five years before in the French Revolution she asked Emma to use her influence over Nelson my dear lady I recommend Lord Nelson to treat Naples as if it were an Irish town in rebellion in my opinion an example should be made of some of the leaders by the time Nelson returned to Naples the French had retreated leaving the Republican rebels to face the consequences the rebels were entrenched in the three castles two castles by the sea and one on top of the hill of San Telmo and with these three castles that the rebels could dominate the harbor but the rebels were surrounded on all sides so they agreed to surrender on terms the rebels signed the capitulation but they were allowed certain privileges and they would would go out of the castles with the Horn of war and they would be unharmed when Nelson heard of this he was furious because these were rebels they weren't not only rebels but they were sort of Republican rebels and there were not only even Republican rebels but they were Republican rebels who had supported the French it was it was a heavy indictment and he couldn't stomach any sort of a accommodation with them Nelson must his true feelings and allowed the rebels to leave the safety of the forts and board transport ships they went on board of the ships believing firmly believing convinced that they were going to sail to safety and they found themselves in a prison and immediately they got on board they are penned in by the ships of Nelson's fleets they don't go anywhere they are kept in these ships for something like a month the ships became prisons and every day and Napolitan judge and policeman would go on board and select some of the world's chiefs of the rebels and bring them to the piazza del mercato the market square anyway brought to the gallows a lot of people were executed some in bizarre and horrendous ways in one case a dwarf was seen to sit on the shoulders of the person that was actually being hung when I was still alive lots of officers were to write home they'd seen very 16 sights not only carried out on men but on on women and some of them very young the victims included the cream of Naples intellectual and artistic life they'd been received at court and Emma Hamilton knew them personally Lady Hamilton took some active parties tragic events some documents written and written by Lady Hamilton lists of what she considered the worst rebels indicated that she was not just watching passively to another treaty is one thing and that's bad enough then to rely on it to seduce people on board ships so in order to hold them prisoner and to hand them over to the King of Naples own to the executioner is a pretty bad show and there were those who said that this was not quite yet winning news gentlemen the cruelties that were visited upon the leaders of the Republic were carried out by Neapolitans not by Nelson Nelson may have enabled that situation to come when his therefore must share some of the blame but he did not actually personally order or take part in the massacres whatever role he played in this bloody counter-revolution Nelson's part in the trial of Admiral Caracciola is beyond dispute Coquihalla was a Navy man he was a real Navy man it was not an operetta sort of thing and they felt the king had betrayed Naples because he ran away from Naples much too weakly Crotty Ella was captured brought to Nelson and Nelson insisted on him being tried straightaway by court martial of Neapolitan officers though the trial was a travesty Nelson supported it's grim verdict Caracciolo was not allowed an advocate he could have no witness to defense he didn't ask to have his life saved he knew bobble there was nothing to do he only asked to be shot and not hanged because he felt that usual of better that he was not afraid I should have a more honorable death but this was refused to him Nelson hanged the man at the same afternoon at five o'clock and moreover he added an indignity to that he let him hang from from the yardarm until sunset and then he had him hacked down so he fell into the sea said he could not be given a decent Christian burial the incidence of Naples were among the most controversial incidents in Nelson's life and they were controversial at the time so much so that Robert Southey the great poet laureate who wrote a very fine biography of Nelson in 1813 actually in his biography of called Nelson's behavior stain on the national honour Nelson was not supposed to be spending all this time in neighborhoods he had disobeyed the orders of his appear off sir and finally he got a stern review which he couldn't ignore you will recover far more quickly because Nelson had been worried about his health in England than inactive at a foreign court however pleasing the respect and gratitude shown to you for your services maybe Nelson traveled back to England with Emma and her husband their celebrated menage-a-trois titillated the entire continent everywhere they went Nelson was hailed as a hero court painters painted their portraits in Vienna Hyden accompanied Emma on the piano and dedicated this master Nelson [Music] but in England their reception would be far less respectful [Music] in England Nelson I'm Emma were a national joke the Admiralty would not send them a ship so he and the Hamiltons had to use the ferry just like anybody else [Music] I think when he when he first came back to England in 1800 I think his reputation did get quite law the press tended to joke about the whole thing is that they said that Emma was the chief archaeological treasure which Sir William had discovered and his expedition to Naples that kind of thing [Music] suddenly we had the three of them going round together cutting a completely ridiculous you know picture with him covered with stars and ribbons and with Emma Hamilton huge huge lady who was you know obviously on his arm as his lover there were lots of really quite risque cartoons with lots of phallic symbols and the song which made it quite clear that everybody knew exactly what was going on in one cartoon you see Emma and Nelson together and Emma's looking at him with admiration and him smoking his pipe and underneath is his foe the old man's pipe is always out but yours burns bright with full vigour the press began to sure lady Hamilton is putting on a great deal of weight they didn't know she was carrying Nelson's child at the time of course I don't think Fanny liked the situation at all she must have seen that there was something wrong as far as she was concerned but sometime after that he made it known that he would go and live somewhere else the menage-a-trois ended in 1803 with the death of Sir William Hamilton before that the three had lived together in Merton Place which Emma transformed into a shrine to her lover Nelson's vanity and scandalous private life now led many powerful men to doubt his fitness to command Nelson's friend Lord winter said in many ways he's a great man he knows he's a complete baby Nelson was incredibly veined and whenever you saw him he'd have every decoration he could possibly hang on to his onto his uniform more like a prince of the Opera than the Conqueror of the Nile according to General Sir John Moore an admiral sent Vincent wrote poor man devoured with vanity weakness and folly strung with ribbons and medals there were serious doubts about his judgement about his judgment niphas overheard judgment and getting involved in lady Hamilton as well and certainly his old friends and Vincent no First Lord of the Admiralty did not twit him in sole command of the fleet that was sent to Copenhagen and he said Nelson will never be fit for an independent command war as ever offered Nelson the chance to salvage his reputation he was sent to fight the Danes at Copenhagen under the watchful eye of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker Copenhagen was heavily defended but Nelson was bold as ever the British had to attack a strong line of ships protected by a massive fortress a perilous shows when three of the leading ships ran aground Nelson's commanding Admiral signaled him to withdraw Nelson ever the Maverick is said to have raised his telescope to his blind eye I have a right to be blind sometimes I really do not see the signal Nelson's cannon battered the Danes into surrender and he returned home with his public reputation restored in the summer of 1805 Lord Baram the new First Sea Lord feared a French invasion was imminent it was up to him to weigh up the qualities and defects of the Royal Navy's most controversial Admiral one of the things that must have influenced anybody working in the Admiralty particularly a new First Lord was that Nelson had an uneven reputation everybody knew he was a genius he'd won the Battle of the Nile he'd won the battle Copenhagen against great odds he was a great fighting Admiral but what wasn't so well established was was he a thick careful thinker was he somebody who could weigh the strategic situation the question facing baram was stark could the fate of the nation be trusted to a maverick like Nelson while the Admiralty was deciding his future Nelson was enjoying his last 25 days at home in Merton they lived quite a social life during that time they had people to dinner and all that sort of thing people to stay one of the visitors to master at this time was Thomas Baxter the artist who caught some beautiful little pictures of the house and of Nelson's daughter Horatio one of the joys of those 25 days for Nelson must have been the time that he spent with his daughter up until then she had had to be kept out of the way as long as Emma's husband Sir William was alive Horatio had had to live with her nurse but for the 25 days she was with Nelson and Emma at Burton he was very good with children I think he enjoyed playing games with the little girl he sent her a watch once and he said this is for you to wear on Sundays when you've been good I mean Nelson just shown the search light of his love on this baby [Music] but rumors of war were never far away one morning in September news reached Nelson that the French fleet had been found in the Spanish port of Cadiz [Music] Nelson hurry to London for an interview at the Admiralty with Lord Baram by now loadbar Ahmad studied Nelson's journals and concluded that when Nelson pursued the French across the Atlantic it had not been an error of judgment but a piece of strategic brilliance once he'd had Nelson up the Admiralty had met him - he became completely convinced that he was the Admiral for the job Barham began to realize they had somebody who was not just a great fighting Apple but a great strategist as well there was never at that time any doubt of the quality of Nelson as a fighting sea officer he wore Nelson was a natural-born predator if you wanted a man to win a battle Nelson while in London Nelson visited an undertaker who was putting the finishing touches to a coffin made from the Timbers of the French flag ship which exploded at the Battle of the Nile Tennyson you see was not any an undertaker he was also an upholsterer and a supplier of bedding and he had supplied Emma at Nelson's expense with a large double featherbed on which I suppose the to the Thule so there you are the maker of feather beds and maker of coffins and Nelson did go to this man Patterson and say well get the coffin ready and put a brass place on it I may mean it [Music] Nelson & m.i apart at the end of the twenty five days in a very sad and resigned sort of way to begin with they they went through a rather odd quasi marriage service in the local church [Music] they went to Merton Church and there they took communion and having received communion they then exchanged rings so there is a strong sense of although they can't be husband and wife they regard each other as husband and wife between themselves [Music] Emma then becomes very upset and there's a vey poignant description of her in tears at dinner because she knows that Nelson is going and there it's very hard to escape the idea that there was a strong sense of premonition one of the last things he did was actually go up to her assets bedroom nearby her bed and pray for her before he stepped into the carriage that was taken to Portsmouth and the victory and bus to Trafalgar when Nelson deaf man for the last time he did so with the heavy heart Merton held all the things that he loved dear Emma was there Horatio [Music] at half-past ten drove from dear dear Merton to go and serve my king and country may the Great God whom I adore enabled me to fulfill the expectations of my country if it is his good Providence to cut short my days upon earth he will protect those so dear to me that I may leave behind his will be done amen amen amen [Music] Nelson arrived in Portsmouth at dawn on the 14th of September [Applause] as he walked he was surrounded by crowds people were pushing for sight of him they were even holding up babies for him to bless people were kneeling in the streets and calling out blessings on him as they went again there was a strong sense of destiny and as he got into the boat they gave him three cheers and he waved his hat and turned to Hardy as he waved it and said I had there his arse before I had their hearts Nelson boarded the victory and the following day set sail to join the rest of the fleet off Cadiz during his 25 days on shore he'd already begun to formulate a daring even reckless plan of attack there was a certain way of fighting a battle at sea it hadn't changed for a hundred years you've kept the ships in line you lined up against the enemy and you fired broadsides until one of the other was so damaged that they had to reel away very rarely ships were sunk the problem with that was it was a completely defensive way of fighting a battle if both sides did that both sides foreign delaying of battle and stuck to it nobody was ever going to get a decisive victory when Nelson found the fleet assembled off Cadiz he invited his captains to dinner it was his 47th birthday he talked to the captains and told them about the great plan that he had for fighting the bathroom and he explained his tactical methods to him he calls it the Nelson touch and he said the effect was electric Nelson started describing how with a great fleet there wouldn't be time to form formal lines of battle so with the fleet formed in two lines I shall go at them at once and then he explained how the two lines would divide the French fleet into three segments and that he would then crush two of those segments with superior gunfire confused the enemy made them so confused that they make mistakes that's the essence of Trafalgar when I came to explain to them the Nelson touch it was like an electric shock some shed tears all approved it was new it was singular it was simple [Music] at 6 o'clock on the morning of October the 19th 1805 the watching frigates of Cadiz made the signal of every blockading British fleet had dreamed of for over two years my dearest beloved Emma the signal has been made that the enemy's combined fleet is coming out of port may the god of battles crown my endeavors with success [Music] [Music] the morning of the 21st of October was very gentle it was a quiet tunnel day with light winds a very heavy swell was coming from the West which indicated that there was a big storm brewing out in the Atlantic eventually the whole combined French and Spanish fleet was sighted on the eastern horizon against the Rising Sun of forest of masts 33 French and Spanish battleships and a large number of smaller ships all stretching right across the visible horizon as the British began the attack that Nelson had planned with the enemy in sight the ships bands struck up and played their way into battle [Music] as they got closer to the enemy line the gun crews would be called to their own Gunners it was Stanley said the guns ready to enter into the battle the British were sailing in in two parallel columns Collingwood the second-in-command was at the head of one column on the right the other column on the left shafted off with the victory at the head of it now some of Nelson's officers such as Blackwood and Hartley they were unhappy about Nelson risking his life at the head of the column like this Blackwood said to Nelson come onboard Euryalus that was his frigate and you can control the battle I'll do all the signals you can control the battle you don't need to be on board victory Nelson to need to do that because he had already told his captains what he wanted them to do what he need to do is lead by example so the victory was right there up in the front of the line during the long tense approached the battle the ships were clear faction guns run out and sawdust scattered on the decks to soak up the blood but Nelson it's quite clear got very tense indeed one of the main reasons for that was the French and Spanish instead of trying to escape because he had expected them to actually stood and awaited his attack and he was heard to say they put a very brave face on it but by god I'll give them such a drubbing as they'll remember so he's nervous elf up as they closed on the enemy Nelson sought to calm the nerves of the ship's crew during the long approach to battle there was time for men to look at what was likely to happen and begin to get that sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach and so Nelson knew that and looked for ways to keep his men occupied he actually toured the depths of the victory speaking to the men of the guns so he was deliberately raising their morale but he also wanted to communicate to the whole fleet and that's why he decided to send the famous signal England expects that every man will do his duty he was the perfect naval commander he was fearless physically fearless whatever ship he commanded he had the love of this crew and the total devotion and loyalty of his crew he knew how to make himself love men he had the common touch as the two fleets closed for action many sailors and officers scribbled wills and farewell letters [Music] Nelson to was thinking of his loved ones naively entrusting his mistress and illegitimate daughter to the nation I leave Emma lady Hamilton a legacy to my king and country I also leave to the beneficence of my country my adopted daughter Horatio he said look after him and look after her Asia but sadly they didn't the nation didn't he also seems to have behaved as if this might have been his last moment he famously said to captain Blackwood on the quarterdeck of the victory of the first shots were flying overhead god bless you Blackwood I will never speak to you again Nelson took a huge risk at Trafalgar by a sailing straight at the French and Spanish fleet he exposed the weakest parts of his ships the bowels to the concentrated government of the French and Spanish battleships [Music] the winds were light so the approach took half an hour [Music] [Applause] so this great retreat for example suffered very badly lots of casualties lost part of her mizzenmast the aftermath and very severe damage elsewhere as well Nelson to us the victory would be the first ship of that line to cut the enemy fleet even though it meant withering fire that they couldn't return [Applause] [Music] leaving the starboard column Collingwood's flagship the Royal Sovereign cut the franco-spanish rear 15 ships from its end raking the Santa Anas she passed astern of us it was 15 minutes before the rest of Collingwood ships could come to his aid as the victory approached the enemy line Nelson was looking for Admiral bill nerves flagship the Busan tour when they spotted her Nelson ordered the victory to steer right Nelson wanted to deliver a knockout blow to the enemy commander in-chief right at the beginning of the battle and at the last minute victory did a sidestep and punched her way through a stern of the percent all and the broadside of these 50 guns absolutely shattered the stern of the French flagship and almost knocked her out with one broadside each British ship after the victory went to stern of her so that the booth center eventually was so badly damaged that veal nerve had to surrender his ship quite early on in the battle thus losing all control of the bottle creating the confusion and the pell-mell battle that Nelson wanted having attacked the booth center and driven her way forced her way through a very tightly packed French line the victory actually got tangled with the friendship radio tower [Music] the captain of the video toddler captain Lucas realized that he was not going to beat the British in a conventional battle with the great cannons he was going to fight a musketry battle in a boarding battle he's going to station extra men open the tops and the rigging to fire down in the ship and fire as much musketry he could in the ship the battle reached its peak the quarter deck and the poop of the victory were being swept and shot from all directions vast amount of lead and iron flying about in these days and what is going on is better they're exposed to calibers musty old wood Prentice wood splinters in all directions blocks and tackle ropes cups you know that captain Lucas on the redoubtable threw over 200 grenades onto the top of victory Nelson Hardy were pacing up and down on quarter net just in front of the Victory's wheel short had already passed between hardy and Nelson and had ripped the buckle off of Hardy's shoe and bruised his foot and Nelson said this is too warm work to last long rowdy and they went on looking up down again at one point Hardy went a little further in the walk to look down the hatch way that leads down into the lower gundeck so when he turned Nelson was already beginning to fall musket-ball penetrated through his gold epaulettes taking a little bit of the legal with it and down through his lungs and it hit his Spain his lungs were filling up with blood he was paralyzed from from the waist down he immediately falls forward and he attempts to support himself on his left arm and his left arm gave way and he fell onto the deck our d-rush stopped him and he heard say I believe they've done it at last hardy says I hope not and Nelson says my backbone is shot through as he was carried down below great presence of mind he took out a handkerchief and covered his face and the stars on his chest so that his men wouldn't see him and be disturbed by the fact that their outlaw have been shot must have looked like a butcher's shambles bTW the surgeon and his assistants were trying to come to terms with 40 men who were either dead on arrival dying he isn't an inordinate amount of breath of pain he actually says that he wishes he was dead and then he thinks of lady Hamiltonian he says one would like to live a little longer as he talks as he tries to make himself understood he is coughing up blood Beetee says to him what are your symptoms he says I feel every instant a gush of blood within my breasts so it is the most appalling death because he suffocates in his own blood and he knows it Nelson actually survived his wounds or three and a half hours during which time he was in severe agony but at least that meant that he lived long enough to learn that the battle had been won first of all they told him 12 or 13 ships and he'd gaff die bargain for 20 and then hardly came and told in the news that there are at least 14 or 15 so by the time he actually died he knew that this incredible decisive victory that he had planned for had actually been won dr. BT a surgeon in HMS Victory wrote of a moving account of the death of Nelson in which he records nearly all of Nelson's words and some of it rings off your truth Nelson saying for instance fan fan fan he wanted them to fan him to him this was terribly hot down on your lot and drink drink drink some water and rub rub rub because the only thing that could sue them was rubbing here and of course most movingly right at the end just before he died he asked Hardy Thomas Hardy captain of the victory to kiss him it shows that right at the moment of death that need for assurance that need for affection that he had had ever since his childhood and so I find the famous kiss are very moving and poignant part of the Nelson story at about 4:30 the last shots were fired and the end of the battle was marked with a shattering explosion as the French battleship lakeil blew up when the news of Trafalgar finally reached England in November it was a mixture of euphoria over the news that Napoleon's fleet had being destroyed and the invasion of England had also disappeared but also then the great grief that Nelson has been lost an admiralty official came in and said to Emma we have won a great victory and she said nevermind your victory what about Lord Nelson and then she knew we had set to hardly during his dying horse you won't throw me overboard will you well there was never any prospect of that of course nothin was put in a cask of brandy and taken home and he lay in state in Grange Hospital for several days the story goes that Nelson have once been told that Westminster Abbey was built on sand and likely to subside in a few centuries and so before he died it said he made it clear that he wanted to be buried in st. Paul's Cathedral the funeral itself was the biggest saying that London had ever seen there were 10,000 troops lining the route the procession was so long that the head of the procession had reached st. Paul's before the rear of the procession had left Whitehall [Music] six black plumed horses drew a funeral car shaped like the victory its figurehead the goddess of Fame the coffin was the one ordered by Nelson before he set out the Trafalgar there was a noise like a murmuring of the sea which was recorded by a witness as the men took their hats off in respect as a coffin passed [Music] the service in some polls was an occasion for national brief like few before or since they mourn the hero who had died saving his country but they also mourned the man they'd come to love who was as flawed and as human as they were themselves [Music] you

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Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 637,365

Rating: 4.7583642 out of 5

Keywords: Full Documentary, history documentary, Battle of the Nile, History, stories, Naval Battle, Nelson, documentary history, Documentary Movies - Topic, Full length Documentaries, 2017 documentary, real, BBC documentary, Documentaries, Britain’s Greatest Naval Hero, TV Shows - Topic, Channel 4 documentary, Documentary, Trafalgar

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Length: 75min 52sec (4552 seconds)

Published: Wed May 10 2017

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