Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson was Britain's greatest naval hero. He was famed for his dash and glory heroics. He was also a prolific letter writer. The letters reveal that Nelson was a very different and more complex man than the hero that Britain created after his death.
Using these letters, this drama documentary exposes Nelson's expert and manipulative use of PR to advance his career and shows how he was careful in his praise of his rivals - in case they threatened his own prospects. The letters also reveal how his passionate love affair with Emma Hamilton changed his life forever.
Playlist - World History Documentaries https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8qyee
Using these letters, this drama documentary exposes Nelson's expert and manipulative use of PR to advance his career and shows how he was careful in his praise of his rivals - in case they threatened his own prospects. The letters also reveal how his passionate love affair with Emma Hamilton changed his life forever.
Playlist - World History Documentaries https://dailymotion.com/playlist/x8qyee
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TVTranscript
00:0031st October, 1805, Battle of Trafalgar,
00:05dispatched from Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood.
00:09It is my duty to inform the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty
00:13of the ever-to-be-lamented death of Vice-Admiral Nelson,
00:18who, in the late conflict with the enemy, fell in the hour of victory.
00:30I wish to be an Admiral, and in command of the English fleet.
00:51I should very soon either do much, or be ruined.
01:00If it be a sin to cover glory, I am the most offending soul alive.
01:15I am now perfectly the great man.
01:31No separation, no time.
01:34My only beloved Emma can alter my love and affection for you.
02:0525th May, fresh breeze northeast, squalls with rain,
02:10exercise party of men with great guns.
02:16In the early summer of 1798, Horatio Nelson and his fleet of 13 men of war
02:23left Gibraltar, heading east into the Mediterranean.
02:36I am as ignorant of the situation of the enemy as I was 27 days ago.
02:41We have been off Malta, Syria into Asia, without success.
02:49Yet no person will say it is for want of activity.
02:54His quest was to find Napoleon Bonaparte,
03:00who had left France with an invasion force of more than 40,000 men.
03:05The problem was, no-one knew where he'd gone.
03:10Is he going to Portugal? Is he going to Egypt? Is he going to Ireland?
03:14If they can get an army into Ireland, they can open the back door to invade England.
03:20Britain is finished.
03:25You must hate the French like the devil.
03:29My mother told me that.
03:33Nelson's rise to such a prestigious command had been rapid.
03:39But if he failed to find the French fleet, his career would be finished.
03:49God forbid it should so happen that the enemy escaped me.
03:54People had taken risks for him. They'd chosen him.
03:58He needed to deliver the goods.
04:02I only beg that your lordship will always believe I shall endeavour to prove myself worthy of your selection of me
04:10for this highly honourable command.
04:14Not a moment shall be lost in pursuing the enemy.
04:22Failure would put at risk all that he had strived for since he was a boy.
04:33WHISTLING
04:36Horace Nelson was born in a small village in the North Norfolk Marshes in 1758.
04:43One of 11 children of an impoverished country parson.
04:49He came from what in those days was called the middling class.
04:53This was a landless, propertyless family in an age when property mattered.
05:00You needed what was called interest. That is, influence.
05:08When Nelson was nine, his mother died.
05:11His father, Edmund, was left to raise the large family.
05:19His father was a bit distant, an austere, difficult man as far as young children were concerned.
05:26All we can say is that throughout his life, Nelson felt a need for human warmth.
05:33He felt a need to be loved, a need to be cared for, and a need to be recognised.
05:40And that was a powerful mortar for him.
05:46Escape from his emotionally distant father came in the form of his uncle, Morris Suckling, a captain in the navy.
05:56Nelson joined his uncle's ship of the line as a midshipman.
06:00He was just 12 years old.
06:07The navy was a brilliant way to actually get ahead in life, and everyone knew that.
06:12It wasn't like the army where you had to be wealthy, you had to buy a commission to become an officer.
06:17You could become an officer, you could gain very, very high levels within the Royal Navy just by being very good at your job.
06:27At 19, Nelson dispensed with the name Horace.
06:31From now on, he called himself Horatio.
06:36Two years later, he was made one of the youngest captains in the fleet.
06:42And marriage to Frances Nisbet, the daughter of well-to-do colonials, was another step up the social ladder.
06:56My dearest Fanny, I wish to be an admiral and in command of the English fleet.
07:07I should very soon either do much or be ruined.
07:17War with France offered ambitious young officers like Nelson the opportunity to make their names.
07:24Against an enemy that had struck terror into the hearts of Britain's ruling class.
07:32For the first time, a great European country is being run by a radical republican regime.
07:38They're inspired by a rhetoric, by an agenda.
07:41They're not fighting for their king and their country, they're fighting for liberty, equality and freedom.
07:46All of those things that a son of the church believed in, constitution, king, country, were threatened by the French Revolution.
07:59Nelson quickly gained a reputation for throwing himself into battle and having an unquenchable thirst for fame.
08:08I am envious only of glory.
08:19For if it be a sin to cover glory, I am the most offending soul alive.
08:38In February 1797, Nelson had grabbed the chance to shine.
08:45Off the southwest corner of Portugal, at Cape St. Vincent, the British fleet confronted France's greatest ally, Spain.
08:58This was the ultimate opportunity as far as Nelson was concerned and at Cape St. Vincent he excelled himself.
09:07He attacked a Spanish 80-gun ship. His ship was much, much smaller.
09:14Nevertheless, Nelson brought his own ship alongside and he boarded that ship.
09:20Then from that ship he boarded another, even bigger Spanish ship, a huge three-decker.
09:26In person and as a flag officer leading such a charge was a unique event in naval history.
09:32No one had done it before.
09:35Sir, the hopes of falling in with the Spanish fleet expressed in my letter to you...
09:40Immediately after the victory, Nelson had been handed the battle report that his commander, Admiral John Jervis, had written for his superiors back in London.
09:49...which had the good fortune, good fortune, to arrive up with the enemy by the larb attack.
09:57Jervis wrote a very prosaic, uncomplicated dispatch and didn't do justice to Nelson at all in it.
10:05The ships were captured and the action ceased at five o'clock.
10:11This upset Nelson greatly. He's not relying any more upon his superiors to do him justice. He'll do himself justice.
10:20A few remarks relative to myself.
10:25In The Captain, in which my pendant was flying on that most glorious Valentine's Day, 1797.
10:39A soldier of the 61st Regiment having broke the upper quarter gallery window, I jumped in myself.
10:45I pushed onwards to the quarter deck where I found Captain Berry in possession of a poop.
10:52A fire of pistols opening from the Admiral's stern gallery, I directed the soldiers to fire upon her stern.
11:04And on the quarter deck of a Spanish first rate, extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive the sword of victory.
11:13And on the quarter deck of a Spanish first rate, extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive the sword of the vanquished Spaniards.
11:29Nelson's report was published in full in a national newspaper.
11:34His reputation for dash and glory heroics fed a war weary public eager for good news.
11:44He knew that that PR was critical to get him to the status of hero.
12:02Glory is my object, and that alone.
12:07Six months later, he was forced to write to Admiral Jervis with the news of the high price that came with chasing glory.
12:21Sir, I am under the painful necessity of acquainting you that we have not been able to succeed in our attack.
12:31Leading the assault on Santa Cruz in Tenerife, Nelson's forces were beaten back by the heavily armed Spaniards.
12:39Nelson was shot in the right arm, which was amputated shortly afterwards.
12:49When I leave your command, I become dead to the world.
12:54I go from Hansen, I'm no more seen.
12:58It's a very interesting letter that, because it reveals two sides of Nelson's character.
13:03Yes, he could be courageous and he could lead people in battle, but he was also quite sly and cunning and manipulative.
13:11You will excuse my scrawl.
13:14You will excuse my scrawl.
13:18Considering it is my first...
13:27...attempt.
13:29It's almost like a child saying, I'm terrible, I can't do this anymore, waiting for someone to reassure them,
13:35saying, no, it's absolutely fine, you're still competent, we still want you in the Navy, we'll go and give you a command.
13:40Having one arm is not a problem.
13:44Britain was equally fragile.
13:48Her European allies had deserted her.
13:51At home, the war was increasingly unpopular.
14:01In December 1797, Nelson, still in agony from his amputation,
14:06attended a thanksgiving service at St Paul's,
14:09that the government hoped would boost the nation's flagging morale.
14:14Spanish, French and Dutch emblems are brought in,
14:19and they're laid up in honour and glory in this great cathedral that belongs to the city of London.
14:26And that's what these wars are about, it's about power and money.
14:33If Britain doesn't have an empire and doesn't have connections of trade with the rest of the world,
14:38it is not going to be a very powerful country.
14:44Nelson understands that connection.
14:47The city, the sea, the Navy, British Empire, these all fit together.
14:59Standing close to Nelson was William Pitt, the Prime Minister.
15:04Pitt had recently learned that Napoleon was assembling a massive invasion force in the Mediterranean,
15:09that threatened Britain and its empire.
15:14We can't talk to these people, we can't negotiate with them, we're going to have to destroy them.
15:20They are a virus and they threaten everything that we stand for.
15:28Pitt sent Nelson south with one mission, to hunt the French down and destroy them.
15:4040,000 troops.
15:43280 transports.
15:47Many hundred pieces of artillery, wagons, draft horses, cavalry, artificers, naturalists, astronomers, mathematicians.
15:55After six weeks searching the Mediterranean, there was still no sign of Napoleon's fleet.
16:01But Nelson had a hunch as to where the French had gone.
16:05This season.
16:07The westerly winds so strongly prevailed before him,
16:11that the French had no idea where they were going.
16:14They had no idea where they were going.
16:17They had no idea where they were going.
16:19This season.
16:21The westerly winds so strongly prevailed between Sicily and the coast of Barbary,
16:26that I conceive it almost impossible to get a fleet of ships to the westward.
16:32He summoned his captains onto his flagship.
16:35They were the cream of the British Navy.
16:38Among them were the Welshman, Thomas Foley,
16:41the outspoken and energetic Benjamin Halliwell,
16:44and his most senior captain, the aristocratic James Samaras.
16:50Nelson dubbed them his band of brothers.
16:55He invited them to his table and talked about the tactics he was going to employ,
17:01the mission that was before them.
17:03He asked for their opinions and ideas, and they loved that.
17:07A lot of these officers really loved being part of a closely knit team like this.
17:13It really is what you call a Nelson touch.
17:16He told them he believed Napoleon's goal wasn't Britain, but India.
17:21That meant the French would have to put ashore in Egypt.
17:27I therefore determine, with the opinion of those captains in whom I place great confidence,
17:35to go up to Alexandria.
17:46He was right.
17:48But by the time Nelson reached Alexandria, the French army had already disembarked.
17:54What remained, however, was Napoleon's fleet, harboured at Aboukir Bay.
18:05He wasn't taking any chances. He didn't even wait for daylight.
18:09He just went in to do the business.
18:16The Battle of Aboukir
18:35They fought until the French flagship, the Lorient, blew up.
18:45Everyone was in shock.
18:50It was a terrible demonstration of what British gunnery could do.
19:035,000 Frenchmen died that night.
19:06All but two of their ships were destroyed.
19:09The British lost 900 men.
19:12Nelson, too, was wounded when a piece of shrapnel opened up a deep wound in his skull.
19:23My Lord, Almighty God has blessed His Majesty's arms in the late battle
19:29with a great victory over the fleet of the enemy.
19:33Nelson had transformed the balance of power.
19:36He'd re-energised the British war effort.
19:40The Nile is the greatest naval victory in the 18th century.
19:46Nothing could withstand the scorn that Your Lordship did me the honour to place under my command.
19:52Their high state of discipline, together with their valour, was absolutely irresistible.
20:01Could anything from my pen add to the character of my captains, I would write it with pleasure.
20:07But that is impossible.
20:10In fact, Nelson's letter to Earl St Vincent was careful in how much praise he gave to his band of brothers.
20:22It was traditional to name and to thank your second-in-command, who was James Somares, during the battle.
20:29Nelson deliberately doesn't mention Somares because he sees him as a threat, I think.
20:35He sees him as another ambitious man.
20:38And he knows that after the Battle of the Nile, he has just made a huge leap forward.
20:45He then abuses that new position by further stamping down on those who might genuinely expect to receive laurels and rewards and honour and glory.
21:05Two months later, Nelson's battle-scarred fleet limped into the Bay of Naples to report the news of the victory and that Napoleon had been left stranded in Egypt.
21:26The whole of Naples, particularly the English residents who have been terrified because nobody knows where the French are, were absolutely thrilled.
21:43On board his flagship, Nelson received a letter from the wife of Britain's ambassador to Naples, Lady Emma Hamilton.
22:03How shall I begin? What shall I say to you? I am delirious with joy and I assure you I have a fervour caused by agitation and pleasure. God, what a victory!
22:34The Hamiltons were the first aboard Nelson's flagship.
22:41William Hamilton said to Nelson, you know, you are now an immortal, you will live forever.
22:48Naples opened its arms to Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, Knight-Bachelor, Neapolitan Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit, Turkish Order of the Crescent.
23:06My dearest Fanny, I must endeavour to convey to you something of what passed.
23:26Sir William and Lady Hamilton had really been laid up, seriously ill, first from anxiety and then from joy.
23:41It was imprudently told Lady Hamilton in a moment of our victory and the effect was like a shot.
23:49The scene in the boat was terribly affecting, up flew her ladyship and exclaiming, oh God, is it possible, she fell into my arm, more dead than alive.
24:05Nelson is absolutely thrilled with this response.
24:14She's responding as he'd really like the world to do.
24:28The Hamilton's invited Nelson to stay with them at their villa.
24:34Lady Hamilton made Nelson bathe in ass's milk to soothe his wounds.
24:47It's balm to this man who has just not felt appreciated,
24:55which is unfair because his wife has done her duty by him all these years,
25:04but she has tended to write letters on the lines of, it's very cold here in Bernthorpe and I'm wearing two sets of flannel drawers.
25:15Emma Hamilton could not have been more different.
25:19Born into rural poverty in Cheshire, she had risen from West End courtesan to being the toast of Neapolitan society.
25:28As Sir William's much younger wife, she was famous in Naples for entertaining guests with her flamboyant classical poses.
25:36She was a knockout beauty.
25:39Although her figure, which was the talk of Europe, is now an ample but well-shaped figure.
25:48She is this angelic creature who just wants to look after him.
25:55I trust you will not think that one spark of vanity induces me to mention
26:01the most distinguished reception that ever, I believe, felt of a lot of a human being.
26:07Eighty people dined at Sir William's.
26:10One thousand people.
26:13And one of them was Sir William's wife.
26:16The most distinguished reception that ever, I believe, felt of a lot of a human being.
26:21Eighty people dined at Sir William's.
26:25One thousand seven hundred and forty came to a ball.
26:29Eight hundred supped.
26:32Conducted in such a style that I neither asked nor solicited for such an honour.
26:41One of the things about Naples was it took Nelson at his own estimation of his worth.
26:49And he loved that.
26:52The tiny kingdom of Naples and Sicily was Britain's only ally in the Mediterranean.
26:58Nelson was ordered by his commanding officer, Lord St Vincent, to remain in Naples and given a new role.
27:05To deepen Britain's links with the Neapolitan monarchy.
27:08The Hamiltons would help, particularly Emma, who was close to the Queen.
27:13It's a very small circle and at the core of it is Maria Carolina, the Queen of Naples,
27:21who's a rather sort of Cruella de Vil character in a way.
27:27But she charms Nelson into this extraordinary submission
27:33and you feel that in Nelson's submission there's a sort of anger against the British establishment who haven't recognised him.
27:49I've not received a line from England since the first of October.
27:54Lord St Vincent is in no hurry to oblige me now.
27:59I am got, he fancies, too near him in reputation.
28:05In short, I am the envied man.
28:12There's this continuing emotional vulnerability which required careful handling.
28:20He brooded over every fancied slight.
28:24Nelson soon began to find that managing Neapolitan politics was more complicated than running a quarterdeck of a British man of war.
28:35Politically, it was corrupt, it was inefficient, it was ramshackle.
28:45This country, by its system of procrastination, will ruin itself.
28:50By its system of procrastination will ruin itself.
28:55The strong language of an English admiral telling them plain truths of their miserable system may do good.
29:03To help him navigate, Nelson relied on Emma Hamilton, who was fluent both in the language and the ways of the court.
29:13Emma Hamilton is in a very particular position.
29:16She is a confidante of the Queen of Naples. The King is a buffoon.
29:21This means that for a late 18th century woman, she's in an enormously powerful position.
29:27I hope someday to have the pleasure of introducing you to Lady Hamilton.
29:31She is one of the very best women in this world.
29:35She is an honour to her sex.
29:38Their relationship deepened as Nelson began to share the burdens of command with Emma.
29:49Vanguard.
29:52May 19th, 1799.
29:55Eight o'clock.
29:58Calm.
30:02My dear Lady Hamilton.
30:07To tell you how dreary, to tell you how dreary and uncomfortable the Vanguard appears,
30:25is only telling you what it is to go from friends, what it is to go from the dearest of friends, to no friends.
30:38This change in Nelson allowed him a kind of release of pressure,
30:45and it gave space for private feelings that then developed or exploded.
30:54Nelson was in love with the idea of himself as a hero.
31:04And Emma was in love with him, the hero.
31:09That's where they met, in a field of glory and love.
31:15And Emma was in love with him, the hero.
31:19That's where they met, in a field of glory and love.
31:24And she couldn't do enough to feed him admiration.
31:34And he, there was this sort of starvation within him, he couldn't get enough of it.
31:45As Nelson and Emma's love affair intensified, civil war broke out in Naples,
31:51between republicans and forces loyal to the monarchy.
31:56The Queen of Naples requested Nelson help put down the republican revolt.
32:04The Queen sees it, and thinks as we do.
32:07War, at this moment, can alone save these kingdoms.
32:14Nelson was furious to discover that a peace agreement had been signed
32:19allowing defeated republicans to leave the city as free men.
32:23He arrested dozens, incarcerating some on British ships,
32:28and ordered the court-martial of one of the rebel leaders.
32:34I hate rebels. I hate traitors.
32:44Two of Nelson's captains, members of his band of brothers,
32:48protested that Nelson was honour-bound to abide by the agreement.
32:53Nelson was adamant. His decision was in keeping with what the Queen wanted.
32:59I see you're all against me.
33:05I am determined to obey my orders, right or wrong.
33:12It shall be done.
33:16I will be obeyed.
33:20With Emma at his side, Nelson convened the court-martial on his flagship,
33:25certain that he was doing the Queen's bidding.
33:30Within the day, the republican leader was found guilty and hanged.
33:36She would have been pressing Nelson to support the royal family's position to the hilt.
33:45Nelson fell into a trap where his feeling for Emma incorporated Emma's feeling for the Queen.
34:00I mean, it was quite crazy.
34:06Nelson's loyalty to the King and Queen of Naples was rewarded with a title,
34:13the Duke of Bronte and a Sicilian estate.
34:28Last night, I did nothing but dream of you.
34:32I thought I was at a large table, you was not present,
34:37sitting between a princess who I detest and another.
34:43They both tried to seduce me,
34:46and the first wanted to take those liberties with me, which no woman but yourself ever did.
34:54Consequence was, I knocked her down, and in the moment of bustle, you came in.
35:08And taking me into your embrace, whispered,
35:12I love no one but you, my Nelson.
35:15I kissed you fervently, and we enjoyed the height of love.
35:33No separation, no time.
35:37My only beloved Emma can alter my love and affection for you.
35:44You are my guide.
35:48I submit to you.
36:07Nelson became disobedient,
36:09refusing an order from his commander-in-chief to move his fleet to Menorca.
36:14The Admiralty's patience snapped, and he was ordered home.
36:20He took it all personally, he rejected it all.
36:24And that illustrated the beginnings of a serious criticism of Nelson's leadership
36:32that was beginning to develop in the British High Command.
36:37The Hamiltons were also recalled.
36:41They all left together, a scene described by the British general, Sir John Moore.
36:49He is covered with stars, ribbons and medals,
36:53more like the Prince of the Opera than the Conqueror of the Nile.
36:57It is really melancholy to see a brave and good man
37:01who has deserved well of his country, cutting so pitiful a figure.
37:20Back in Britain, Nelson's affair with Emma Hamilton was openly ridiculed.
37:27He was an outsider among the upper classes.
37:31And he felt that.
37:33Particularly in Britain, of course, he felt his social inferiority.
37:40Feeling society's cold reproach,
37:42Nelson struggled over what to do with his failing marriage.
37:48I don't think he knew how to handle the relationship he'd left behind.
37:53He seems to have thought that somehow he and Fanny
37:58could become a foursome with the Hamiltons
38:02and that somehow they could avoid a separation, which is a ridiculous notion.
38:11He tried to hide the affair by burning Emma's letters.
38:16But it was pointless.
38:18Emma was pregnant with their child.
38:22He had always wanted a child.
38:25She'd given him the one thing that he wanted.
38:28So there was no looking back, there was no going back on that relationship.
38:34In January 1801, Nelson informed Fanny that their marriage was over.
38:41I don't think there's ever been a more public humiliation.
38:46It just treats her with absolute...
38:52..well, cruelty.
38:56Nelson's career was also in the balance.
39:00He'd become a problem for the Admiralty.
39:04They don't know what to do with him, there's a war on,
39:06they can't do without him, but they don't want to give him independent command.
39:11It was as if they dare not let him off the leash on his own.
39:17MUSIC PLAYS
39:32Nelson was ordered back to sea to join the Baltic fleet.
39:36Not in command, but under a less experienced admiral.
39:43He'd been overlooked.
39:44These fears of failure and the desire to prove himself to his superiors had all come back.
39:56I literally feel as a fish out of water.
40:04It now snows and rains and nearly calm.
40:15Despite Emma's pregnancy, Nelson had left England uncertain
40:19if she would risk society's disapproval to be with him.
40:25He was insecure in his position in the Navy,
40:28and so the elements of insecurity in his relationship to Lady Hamilton
40:34became even worse for him.
40:37I am sure my love and desires are all to you.
40:43And if any woman, naked, were to come to me,
40:48I hope it might rot off that I might touch her, even with my hand.
41:01Nelson had been at sea for months.
41:04Nelson had been at sea for a month
41:06when Emma wrote that she had been visited by the Prince of Wales,
41:10a man known for his philandering and string of mistresses.
41:18I knew he would visit you.
41:25His words are so charming that I am told no person can withstand them.
41:33Hush. Hush.
41:37My poor heart, keep in my breast. Be calm.
41:44Emma is true.
41:49Yet no one, not even Emma, could resist the serpent's flattering tone.
41:59Do not sit long at the table.
42:02Good God, he will be next to you and telling you soft things.
42:08Oh God, that I were dead.
42:12I am gone almost mad.
42:16He shall put his foot near you.
42:25Do not say a word you can to him.
42:32He wishes, I dare say, to have you alone.
42:39Don't let him touch.
42:52Nor yet sit next to you.
42:55If he comes, get up.
42:57God strike him blind if he looks at you.
43:05This is high treason.
43:07You may get me hanged for revealing it.
43:10Oh God,
43:14that I were dead.
43:18Oh God.
43:23Why do I live?
43:28MUSIC PLAYS
43:39The fleet was ordered to Copenhagen
43:42to put a stop to the Danes shipping French merchandise.
43:49Powerless in his personal life,
43:51Nelson focused instead on what he could control.
43:57Copenhagen is a unique battle in Nelson's career.
44:00It's the one battle where he completely controls
44:03everything that happens by signal
44:05and ensures that nobody is using their initiative.
44:13His tactics of surprise and overwhelming firepower
44:16were classic Nelson.
44:19And in less than three hours, the Danes were routed.
44:27Exhausted and still depressed, Nelson asked to be relieved.
44:33But with the French still posing a threat,
44:36the Admiralty kept him at sea.
44:42I've never known happiness...
44:46beyond moments.
44:48MUSIC PLAYS
44:56I am tired to death.
45:04MUSIC PLAYS
45:13But that winter, Nelson's life changed forever.
45:18MUSIC PLAYS
45:22Emma had given birth to a baby girl.
45:25She named her Horatia.
45:34He couldn't marry her because of their situation,
45:37but that was the cement for the relationship,
45:40and it gave him, as he said,
45:42you gave me what I always wanted and what no-one else had ever done.
45:48MUSIC PLAYS
45:56Kiss my dear, dear child for me.
46:01And be assured that I am forever,
46:04ever,
46:06ever yours.
46:09Yours.
46:12Yours.
46:15More than ever yours, yours.
46:18Your own.
46:20Only your, Nelson.
46:22And Bronte.
46:28Emma wrote to Nelson that she had found him a home.
46:35Merton Place, a large Georgian property close to the centre of London.
46:41He put one very telling phrase in one of his letters to Emma,
46:46and he said,
46:48we shall have none of the great here.
46:51In other words, we don't want any of these big people here.
46:55We will invite the people we like and who like us.
46:59It will be our place.
47:02Have we a nice church at Merton?
47:10We will set an example of goodness to the underprivileged.
47:18I admire the pigs and poultry.
47:23Sheep are certainly most beneficial to the poor.
47:28Sheep are certainly most beneficial to eat off the grass.
47:41Nelson arrived at Merton in the summer of 1801.
47:47It was his first real home since going to sea 30 years earlier.
47:53Emma had filled it with paintings of Nelson
47:57and paintings of his battles
47:59and bits and pieces from all the battles he had fought.
48:03We know that there was a lightning conductor
48:05from the French flagship Lorient, the big ship that exploded at the Nile.
48:09He kept that by the front door,
48:11and it was a piece that everyone wanted to talk about,
48:14or he wanted everyone to talk about.
48:18I think in Merton he was satisfied.
48:21He had found a place and a community of people that he loved,
48:26and he really had something to live for.
48:33After Sir William Hamilton died,
48:35Merton became the refuge that both Nelson and Emma had longed for.
48:46I think I have not lost my heart
48:50since I with truth can swear
48:54at every moment of my life I feel my Nelson there.
49:01If from thine Emma's breast her heart was stolen or flown away,
49:07where, where should she my Nelson's love
49:13record each happy day?
49:17Then do not rob me of my heart
49:21unless you first forsake it.
49:25And then so wretched it will be,
49:29despair alone will take it.
49:47Nelson and Emma had been at Merton for a year
49:50when the call of duty came again.
49:56In the summer of 1803,
49:58Nelson was given the command he had always wanted...
50:03..commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean fleet.
50:09It's his theatre, and he is the admiral who has both the skills
50:13and the reputation for finding and fighting the enemy.
50:19My dearest Emma,
50:23I believe my arrival was most welcome.
50:27The Nelson touch was like an electric shock.
50:35Some shed tears.
50:38All approved.
50:44He knew that the British Empire could never rest safe
50:49until the French and Spanish navies had been dealt with.
50:56We are moving slowly, direct for Toulon.
51:01What force they have I know not.
51:05I did not think it would be a long war.
51:09But it was a long war.
51:14Nelson would stay at sea for two years,
51:16waiting for the French to leave port.
51:24The promise of getting home fuelled a constant stream of letters.
51:30My dearest Emma,
51:32I would not have you lay out more than is necessary at Merton.
51:35The rooms and the new entrance will take a good deal of money.
51:40I also beg that as my dear Horatio is to be at Merton,
51:45that a strong netting about three feet high be placed around the river.
51:50That the little thing may not tumble in.
51:53Then you may have ducks in it again.
51:56I shall be very anxious till I know this is done.
52:10After two years, the French fleet finally left port.
52:15In the autumn of 1805,
52:17Nelson cornered them off the south-west coast of Spain.
52:39At Cape Trafalgar, before battle commenced,
52:42Nelson wrote to Emma.
52:48The thoughts of such happiness, my dearest only beloved,
52:52makes the blood fly into my head.
52:59But the call of our country
53:03is a duty which you would deservedly,
53:06in the cool moments of reflection, reprobate were I to abandon.
53:11And I should feel so disgraced by seeing you ashamed of me,
53:15no longer saying, this is the man who has saved his country.
53:22I shall, my best beloved, if it please God, return a victor.
53:29And it will be my study to transmit an unsullied name.
53:34Ever, forever, I am yours.
53:39Only yours.
53:41Even beyond this world.
53:45Nelson and Bronte.
53:58Ten minutes before the first gunfire,
54:00Nelson issued his final signal to the fleet.
54:05Engage the enemy more closely.
54:31Of Vice-Admiral Nelson.
54:35Who, in the late conflict with the enemy,
54:37fell in the hour of victory.
54:42His Lordship received a musket ball in his left breast
54:45about the middle of the action.
54:48I have to lament, in common with the British Navy
54:51and the British nation,
54:54the fall of the Commander-in-Chief,
54:56the loss of a hero
54:58whose name will be immortal
55:00and his memory ever dear to his country.
55:13It was said that all of London watched Nelson's funeral cortege
55:17make its journey to St Paul's.
55:229,000 people were waiting inside the cathedral.
55:28In death, Nelson provided Britain's leaders
55:31with a powerful message
55:33as they set about the final defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte.
55:38Nelson is the hero of the British state.
55:40He is the only thing in the British state that people can look up to.
55:44This one man is giving you the confidence to carry on.
55:48So you have to mythologise him.
55:52It was a good death in the sense that the country's hopes were on him,
55:56his audience was out there rooting for him.
55:59He had to deliver the goods, and he delivered them.
56:05But in a personal sense, of course, it was a great tragedy.
56:10He had this woman who was fulfilling him in every way,
56:13he had this child.
56:15It was all there.
56:17He's only got one big obstacle left, this battle.
56:22Which he said, I'm going to fight this battle
56:25and then I'm going home.
56:29And he never went home.
56:33But in 1814, Nelson's image was severely tarnished
56:37when letters he had written to Emma Hamilton were published.
56:42Society was appalled that their hero's image
56:45should be muddied by revelations of infidelity,
56:48a secret love child and sexual jealousy.
56:53There was a tremendous outcry.
56:57Nobody wanted those letters to be published.
57:02It was a can of worms, that's what it really was.
57:05It was a can of worms.
57:08Society washed its hands of Nelson's former mistress.
57:12Ostracised and penniless, Merton long sold.
57:16She died a year later in a bedsit in Calais.
57:22Horatio moved to Norfolk, where she married a country parson.
57:29Over the course of the next century,
57:31Britain carefully constructed an image of Nelson as unimpeachable hero.
57:37A solid edifice for future generations to look up to.
57:45Horatio Nelson made his name as a brilliant leader
57:48and a reckless glory hunter.
57:53But his love for Emma Hamilton had changed him.
58:00In the hours before his final, greatest battle,
58:04his thoughts were of home, family, children.
58:12My dearest angel,
58:14I was made happy by the receiving of your letter of September 19th.
58:20And I rejoiced to hear that you are so very good a girl.
58:26I shall be sure of your prayers for my safety,
58:29conquest and speedy return to dear Merton
58:32and our dear, good Lady Hamilton.
58:36Be a good girl.
58:39And receive, my dearest Horatio,
58:41the affectionate parental blessing of your father.
58:49THE END
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