To a large extent Lord Horatio Nelson was the early 19th century version of a celebrity due to his naval exploits and his unusual private life.
Early Naval Career
Lord Horatio Nelson was born in 1758 and he was educated to a good standard. Whilst he was growing up the world was dominated by the struggle between Britain and France to gain economic, military, naval, political, not to mention territorial supremacy over each other. The battles between the French Navy and the Royal Navy were a central strand of that global competition. Horatio Nelson was to have a significant impact over the outcome of those conflicts.
Nelson rose quickly through the ranks of the Royal Navy even if he did not always do as he was ordered. He had an unrivalled capacity to analyse every strategic and tactical situation. He gained ample opportunity to demonstrate his skills in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars against the French. These wars made his naval reputation yet also led to his affair with Lady Hamilton that caused widespread scandal. His wife was left alone in Britain whilst he visited Lady Hamilton at every given opportunity.
Britain's Best Admiral
By the late 1790s it appeared that the French were close to beating the British. However the way in which Nelson followed and then utterly destroyed the French fleet at Aboukir Bay in Egypt completely altered the strategic balance between Britain and France to the formers advantage. Nelson had in fact followed the French ships to the Nile without the orders of the Royal Navy because he assumed that was their final destination. His gamble paid off handsomely and also showed the superior abilities of the Royal Navy's sailors. Getting behind the French ships was the key to such a resounding victory.
He again dented France's strategic plans by wiping out the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in 1801 with a deadly bombardment of their ships whilst they were at anchor. The Royal Navy was concerned that the combined fleets of France and Spain could allow the French army to invade Britain. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger entrusted Nelson with the task of destroying the French and Spanish fleets and thus leaving the French invasion army stranded in the Low countries.
Nelson's finest hours ironically proved to be his last when he masterminded the stunning Royal Navy victory off Trafalgar in October 1805. His gamble that the French gunners were inaccurate was spot on but unfortunately for him their snipers did shoot him fatally.
By that time his daring strategy had paid off as the French and Spanish fleets were incapable of escorting the French army across the English Channel. His body was sent back to Britain and he was one of the few commoners to be given a state funeral. It also meant that the Royal Navy was the world's strongest navy until the end of the First World War.
Bibliography
Crystal D (1998) Chambers’ Biographical Encyclopedia, 2nd edition, Edinburgh
Fraser R (2002) A Popular History of Britain, Penguin, London
Lenman B, (2004) Chambers Dictionary of World History, Edinburgh
Roberts R M (1996) Penguin History of Europe, Penguin, London
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