Alfred the Great

Alfred the Great (Old English: Ælfrēd, Ælfrǣd, "elf counsel"; 849 – 26 October 899) was King of Wessex from 871 to 899. HP Pavilion dv7-4011el Battery

Alfred successfully defended his kingdom against the Viking attempt at conquest, and by his death had become the dominant ruler in England.^[1] He is the only English monarch to be accorded the epithet "the Great".^[2] HP Pavilion dv7-4011so Battery

Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons". Details of his life are described in a work by the 10th century Welsh scholar and bishop Asser. Alfred was a learned and merciful man who encouraged education and improved his kingdom's legal system and military structure. HP Pavilion dv7-4012eg Battery

Alfred was born in the village of Wanating, now Wantage, Oxfordshire. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, by his first wife, Osburh.^[3] HP Pavilion dv7-4012TX Battery

In 853, at the age of four, Alfred is said to have been sent to Rome where, according to theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,^[4] he was confirmed by Pope Leo IV who "anointed him as king". Victorianwriters interpreted this as an anticipatory coronation in preparation for his ultimate succession to the throne of Wessex. HP Pavilion dv7-4013eg Battery

However, his succession could not have been foreseen at the time, as Alfred had three living elder brothers. A letter of Leo IV shows that Alfred was made a "consul"; a misinterpretation of this investiture, deliberate or accidental, could explain later confusion.^[5] HP Pavilion dv7-4013el Battery

 It may also be based on Alfred's later having accompanied his father on a pilgrimage to Rome where he spent some time at the court of Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, around 854–855. HP Pavilion dv7-4013so Battery

On their return from Rome in 856, Æthelwulf was deposed by his son Æthelbald. With civil war looming, the magnates of the realm met in council to hammer out a compromise. Æthelbald would retain the western shires (i.e., traditional Wessex), and Æthelwulf would rule in the east. HP Pavilion dv7-4013tx Battery

When King Æthelwulf died in 858, Wessex was ruled by three of Alfred's brothers in succession, Æthelbald, Æthelbert and Æthelred.^[6] HP Pavilion dv7-4014eo Battery

Bishop Asser tells the story of how as a child Alfred won a prize of a volume of poetry in English, offered by his mother to the first of her children able to memorise it. Legend also has it that the young Alfred spent time in Ireland seeking healing. HP Pavilion dv7-4015ew Battery

Alfred was troubled by health problems throughout his life. It is thought that he may have suffered fromCrohn's disease. Statues of Alfred in Winchester and Wantage portray him as a great warrior. Evidence suggests he was not physically strong, and though not lacking in courage, he was more noted for his intellect than a warlike character.^[7] HP Pavilion dv7-4015ez Battery

Under Æthelred

During the short reigns of the older two of his three elder brothers, Æthelbald of Wessex and Æthelberht of Wessex, Alfred is not mentioned. However, his public life began with the accession of his third brother, Æthelred of Wessex, HP Pavilion dv7-4015sa Battery

in 866. It is during this period that Bishop Asser applied to him the unique title of "secundarius", which may indicate a position akin to that of the Celtictanist, a recognised successor closely associated with the reigning monarch. HP Pavilion dv7-4015sg Battery

It is possible that this arrangement was sanctioned by Alfred's father, or by the Witan, to guard against the danger of a disputed succession should Æthelred fall in battle. HP Pavilion dv7-4015ss Battery

The arrangement of crowning a successor as royal prince and military commander is well known among other Germanic tribes, such as theSwedes and Franks, to whom the Anglo-Saxons were closely related. HP Pavilion dv7-4015sl Battery

In 868, Alfred is recorded as fighting beside Æthelred in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the invading Danes led by Ivar the Boneless out of the adjoining Kingdom of Mercia.^[4] However, at the end of 870, the Danes arrived in his homeland. HP Pavilion dv7-4016eg Battery

The year which followed has been called "Alfred's year of battles". Nine engagements were fought with varying outcomes, though the place and date of two of these battles have not been recorded. HP Pavilion dv7-4017ez Battery

In Berkshire, a successful skirmish at the Battle of Englefield on 31 December 870 was followed by a severe defeat at the siege and Battle of Reading by Ivar's brother Halfdan Ragnarsson on 5 January 871; then, four days later, HP Pavilion dv7-4019sz Battery

Alfred won a brilliant victory at the Battle of Ashdown on the Berkshire Downs, possibly near Compton or Aldworth. Alfred is particularly credited with the success of this latter battle. However, later that month, on 22 January, HP Pavilion dv7-4020ec Battery

the English were defeated at the Battle of Basing and, on the 22 March at the Battle of Merton (perhaps Marden in Wiltshire or Martin in Dorset), in which Æthelred was killed. The two unidentified battles may have occurred in between.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4020em Battery

EARLY STRUGGLES, DEFEAT AND FLIGHT

In April 871, King Æthelred died, and Alfred succeeded to the throne of Wessex and the burden of its defence, despite the fact that Æthelred left two under-age sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. This was in accordance with the agreement that Æthelred and Alfred had made earlier that year in an assembly at Swinbeorg. HP Pavilion dv7-4020eo Battery

The brothers had agreed that whichever of them outlived the other would inherit the personal property that King Æthelwulf had left jointly to his sons in his will. HP Pavilion dv7-4020sa Battery

The deceased's sons would receive only whatever property and riches their father had settled upon them and whatever additional lands their uncle had acquired. The unstated premise was that the surviving brother would be king. HP Pavilion dv7-4021tx Battery

Given the ongoing Danish invasion and the youth of his nephews, Alfred's succession probably went uncontested. Tensions between Alfred and his nephews, however, would arise later in his reign.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4022tx Battery

While he was busy with the burial ceremonies for his brother, the Danes defeated the English in his absence at an unnamed spot, and then again in his presence at Wilton in May.^[8] The defeat at Wilton smashed any remaining hope that Alfred could drive the invaders from his kingdom. HP Pavilion dv7-4023so Battery

He was forced, instead, to ‘make peace’ with them. The sources do not tell what the terms of the peace were. Bishop Asser claimed that the 'pagans' agreed to vacate the realm and made good their promise; and, indeed, the Viking army did withdraw from Reading in the autumn of 871 to take up winter quarters in Mercian London. HP Pavilion dv7-4024so Battery

Although not mentioned by Asser or by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Alfred probably also paid the Vikings cash to leave, much as the Mercians were to do in the following year.^[9] Hoards dating to the Viking occupation of London in 871/2 have been excavated atCroydon, Gravesend, HP Pavilion dv7-4025eo Battery

and Waterloo Bridge; these finds hint at the cost involved in making peace with the Vikings. For the next five years, the Danes occupied other parts of England.^[10] HP Pavilion dv7-4024tx Battery

In 876 under their new leader, Guthrum, the Danes slipped past the English army and attacked and occupied Wareham in Dorset. Alfred blockaded them but was unable to take Wareham by assault.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4025ew Battery

Accordingly, he negotiated a peace which involved an exchange of hostages and oaths, which the Danes swore on a "holy ring" associated with the worship of Thor.^[4] The Danes, however, broke their word and, after killing all the hostages, HP Pavilion dv7-4025ss Battery

slipped away under cover of night to Exeter in Devon. There, Alfred blockaded them, and with a relief fleet having been scattered by a storm, the Danes were forced to submit. They withdrew to Mercia, but, in January 878, made a sudden attack on Chippenham, HP Pavilion dv7-4025tx Battery

a royal stronghold in which Alfred had been staying over Christmas, "and most of the people they killed, except the King Alfred, and he with a little band made his way by wood and swamp, HP Pavilion dv7-4026eo Battery

and after Easter he made a fort at Athelney in the marshes of Somerset, and from that fort kept fighting against the foe".^[4] From his fort at Athelney, an island in the marshes near North Petherton, Alfred was able to mount an effective resistance movement, rallying the local militias from Somerset, Wiltshire and Hampshire.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4026tx Battery

Alfred the Great is scolded by his subject, a neatherd's wife, for not turning the breads but readily eating them when they are baked in her cottage. HP Pavilion dv7-4027so Battery

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A popular legend, originating from 12th century chronicles,^[11] tells how when he first fled to the Somerset Levels, Alfred was given shelter by a peasant woman who, unaware of his identity, left him to watch some cakes she had left cooking on the fire. Preoccupied with the problems of his kingdom, Alfred accidentally let the cakes burn. HP Pavilion dv7-4028eo Battery

870 was the low-water mark in the history of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. With all the other kingdoms having fallen to the Vikings, Wessex alone was still resisting.^[12] HP Pavilion dv7-4028tx Battery

COUNTERTTACK AND VICTORY

In the seventh week after Easter [4–10 May 878], around Whitsuntide, Alfred rode to ‘Egbert's Stone’ east of Selwood, where he was met by "all the people of Somerset and of Wiltshire and of that part of Hampshire which is on this side of the sea [that is, HP Pavilion dv7-4029tx Battery

west of Southampton Water], and they rejoiced to see him".^[4] Alfred’s emergence from his marshland stronghold was part of a carefully planned offensive that entailed raising the fyrds of three shires. This meant not only that the king had retained the loyalty of ealdormen, HP Pavilion dv7-4030ed Battery

royal reeves and king’s thegns (who were charged with levying and leading these forces), but that they had maintained their positions of authority in these localities well enough to answer his summons to war. Alfred’s actions also suggest a finely honed system of scouts and messengers.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4030ek Battery

Alfred won a decisive victory in the ensuing Battle of Ethandun, which may have been fought nearWestbury, Wiltshire.^[8] He then pursued the Danes to their stronghold at Chippenham and starved them into submission. One of the terms of the surrender was that Guthrum convert to Christianity; HP Pavilion dv7-4030em Battery

and three weeks later the Danish king and 29 of his chief men were baptised at Alfred's court at Aller, near Athelney, with Alfred receiving Guthrum as his spiritual son.^[8] The "unbinding of the chrism" took place with great ceremony eight days later at the royal estate at Wedmore in Somerset, after which Guthrum fulfilled his promise to leave Wessex. HP Pavilion dv7-4030er Battery

There is no contemporary evidence that Alfred and Guthrum agreed upon a formal treaty at this time; the so-called Treaty of Wedmore is an invention of modern historians. The Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, preserved in Old English in Corpus Christi College, HP Pavilion dv7-4030ew Battery

Cambridge (Manuscript 383), and in a Latin compilation known as Quadripartitus, was negotiated later, perhaps in 879 or 880, when King Ceolwulf II of Mercia was deposed.^[14] That treaty divided up the kingdom of Mercia. HP Pavilion dv7-4030ss Battery

By its terms the boundary between Alfred’s and Guthrum’s kingdoms was to run up the River Thames, to the River Lea; follow the Lea to its source (near Luton); from there extend in a straight line to Bedford; and from Bedford follow the River Ouse to Watling Street. HP Pavilion dv7-4031eo Battery

In other words, Alfred succeeded to Ceolwulf’s kingdom, consisting of western Mercia; and Guthrum incorporated the eastern part of Mercia into an enlarged kingdom of East Anglia (henceforward known as the Danelaw). By terms of the treaty, moreover, HP Pavilion dv7-4031sd Battery

Alfred was to have control over the Mercian city of London and its mints — at least for the time being.^[15] The disposition of Essex, held by West Saxon kings since the days of Egbert, is unclear from the treaty, though, given Alfred’s political and military superiority, it would have been surprising if he had conceded any disputed territory to his new godson. HP Pavilion dv7-4031tx Battery

THE QUIET YEARS; RESTORATION OF LONDON

With the signing of the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum, an event most commonly held to have taken place around 880 when Guthrum’s people began settling East Anglia, Guthrum was neutralised as a threat.^[16] In conjunction with this agreement an army of Danish left the island and sailed to Ghent. HP Pavilion dv7-4032eo Battery

Alfred however was still forced to contend with a number of Danish threats. A year later in 881 Alfred fought a small sea battle against four Danish ships “On the high seas”.^[17] Two of the ships were destroyed and the others surrendered to Alfred’s forces.^[18] Similar small skirmishes with independent Viking raiders would have occurred for much of the period as they had for decades. HP Pavilion dv7-4033tx Battery

In the year 883, though there is some debate over the year, King Alfred, because of his support and his donation of alms to Rome, received a number of gifts from the Pope Marinus.^[19] HP Pavilion dv7-4034tx Battery

 Among these gifts was reputed to be a piece of the true cross, a true treasure for the devout Saxon king. According to Asser, because of Pope Marinus’ friendship with King Alfred, the pope granted an exemption to any Anglo-Saxons residing within Rome from tax or tribute.^[20] HP Pavilion dv7-4035es Battery

After the signing of the treaty with Guthrum, Alfred was spared any large-scale conflicts for some time. Despite this relative peace, the king was still forced to deal with a number of Danish raids and incursions. Among these was a raid taking place in Kent, an allied country in Southeast England, during the year 885, HP Pavilion dv7-4035sa Battery

which was quite possibly the largest raid since the battles with Guthrum. Asser’s account of the raid places the Danish raiders at the Saxon city of Rochester,^[17] where they built a temporary fortress in order to besiege the city. In response to this incursion, HP Pavilion dv7-4035so Battery

Alfred led an Anglo-Saxon force against the Danes who, instead of engaging the army of Wessex, fled to their beached ships and sailed to another part of Britain. The retreating Danish force supposedly left Britain the following summer.^[21] HP Pavilion dv7-4035tx Battery

Not long after the failed Danish raid in Kent, Alfred dispatched his fleet to East Anglia. The purpose of this expedition is debated, though Asser claims that it was for the sake of plunder.^[21] After traveling up the River Stour, HP Pavilion dv7-4036tx Battery

the fleet was met by Danish vessels that numbered 13 or 16 (sources vary on the number) and a battle ensued.^[21] The Anglo-Saxon Fleet emerged victorious and as Huntingdon accounts, “laden with spoils.”^[22] HP Pavilion dv7-4038ca Battery

The victorious fleet was then caught unaware when attempting to leave the River Stour and was attacked by a Danish force at the mouth of the river. The Danish fleet was able to defeat Alfred's fleet which may have been weakened in the previous engagement.^[23] HP Pavilion dv7-4038tx Battery

A year later, in 886, Alfred reoccupied the city of London and set out to make it habitable again.^[24] Alfred entrusted the city to the care of his son-in lawÆthelred, ealdorman of Mercia. The restoration of London progressed through the later half of the 880s and is believed to have revolved around a new street plan, HP Pavilion dv7-4039tx Battery

fortifications on the South bank of theRiver Thames.^[25] This is also the period in which almost all chroniclers agree that the Saxon people of pre-unification England submitted to Alfred.^[26] This was not, however, the point in which Alfred came to be known as King of England; HP Pavilion dv7-4040ed Battery

in fact he would never adopt the title for himself. In truth the power which Alfred wielded over the English peoples at this time seemed to stem largely from the military might of the West Saxons, Alfred’s political connections from having the ruler of Mercia as his son-in-law, and Alfred’s keen administration talents. HP Pavilion dv7-4040ek Battery

Between the restoration of London and the resumption of large scale Danish attacks in the early 890s, Alfred’s reign was rather uneventful. The relative peace of the late 880s was marred by the death of Alfred's sister, Æthelswith, who died en route to Rome in 888.^[27] HP Pavilion dv7-4040sa Battery

In the same year the Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelred also passed away. One year later Guthrum, or Athelstan by his baptised name, Alfred’s former enemy and king of East Anglia, died and was buried inHadleigh, Suffolk.^[28] HP Pavilion dv7-4040sb Battery

Guthrum’s passing marked a change in the political sphere Alfred dealt with. Guthrum’s death created a power vacuum which would stir up other power–hungry warlords eager to take his place in the following years. The quiet years of Alfred’s life were coming to a close, and war was on the horizon. HP Pavilion dv7-4040sf Battery

FURTHER VIKING ATTACKS REPELLED

After another lull, in the autumn of 892 or 893, the Danes attacked again. Finding their position in mainland Europe precarious, they crossed to England in 330 ships in two divisions. They entrenched themselves, the larger body at Appledore, HP Pavilion dv7-4040sp Battery

Kent, and the lesser, under Hastein, at Milton, also in Kent. The invaders brought their wives and children with them, indicating a meaningful attempt at conquest and colonisation. Alfred, in 893 or 894, took up a position from which he could observe both forces. HP Pavilion dv7-4040ss Battery

While he was in talks with Hastein, the Danes at Appledore broke out and struck northwestwards. They were overtaken by Alfred's oldest son, Edward, and were defeated in a general engagement at Farnham in Surrey. HP Pavilion dv7-4040tx Battery

They took refuge on an island in the Hertfordshire Colne, where they were blockaded and were ultimately forced to submit. The force fell back on Essex and, after suffering another defeat at Benfleet, coalesced with Hastein's force atShoebury.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4045ea Battery

Alfred had been on his way to relieve his son at Thorney when he heard that the Northumbrian and East Anglian Danes were besieging Exeter and an unnamed stronghold on the North Devon shore. Alfred at once hurried westward and raised the Siege of Exeter. HP Pavilion dv7-4045eb Battery

The fate of the other place is not recorded. Meanwhile, the force under Hastein set out to march up the Thames Valley, possibly with the idea of assisting their friends in the west. But they were met by a large force under the three great ealdormen of Mercia, HP Pavilion dv7-4045er Battery

Wiltshire and Somerset, and forced to head off to the northwest, being finally overtaken and blockaded at Buttington. Some identify this with Buttington Tump at the mouth of the River Wye, others with Buttington near Welshpool. HP Pavilion dv7-4047ea Battery

An attempt to break through the English lines was defeated. Those who escaped retreated to Shoebury. Then, after collecting reinforcements, they made a sudden dash across England and occupied the ruined Romanwalls of Chester. HP Pavilion dv7-4050ea Battery

The English did not attempt a winter blockade, but contented themselves with destroying all the supplies in the neighbourhood. Early in 894 (or 895), want of food obliged the Danes to retire once more to Essex. At the end of this year and early in 895 (or 896), HP Pavilion dv7-4050eb Battery

the Danes drew their ships up theRiver Thames and River Lea and fortified themselves twenty miles (32 km) north of London. A direct attack on the Danish lines failed but, later in the year, Alfred saw a means of obstructing the river so as to prevent the egress of the Danish ships. HP Pavilion dv7-4050ec Battery

The Danes realised that they were outmanoeuvred. They struck off north-westwards and wintered at Cwatbridge near Bridgnorth. The next year, 896 (or 897), they gave up the struggle. Some retired to Northumbria, some to East Anglia. Those who had no connections in England withdrew back to the continent.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4050ed Battery

Military reorganisation Wessex's history of failures preceding his success in 878 emphasised to Alfred that the traditional system of battle he had inherited played to the Danes' advantage. While both the Anglo-Saxons and the Danes attacked settlements to seize wealth and other resources, HP Pavilion dv7-4050ei Battery

they employed very different strategies. In their raids, the Anglo-Saxons traditionally preferred to attack head-on by assembling their forces in a shield wall, advancing against their target and overcoming the oncoming wall marshaled against them in defence. HP Pavilion dv7-4050em Battery

In contrast, the Danes preferred to choose easy targets, mapping cautious forays designed to avoid risking all their accumulated plunder with high-stake attacks for more. Alfred determined their strategy was to launch smaller scaled attacks from a secure and reinforced defensible base which they could retreat to should their raiders meet strong resistance. HP Pavilion dv7-4050eo Battery

These bases were prepared in advance, often by capturing an estate and augmenting its defences with surrounding ditches, ramparts and palisades. Once inside the fortification, Alfred realised, the Danes enjoyed the advantage, better situated to outlast their opponents or crush them with a counter attack as the provisions and stamina of the besieging forces waned.^[29] HP Pavilion dv7-4050er Battery

The means by which they marshaled the forces to defend against marauders also left the Anglo-Saxons vulnerable to the Vikings. It was only after the raids were underway that a call went out to landowners to gather men for battle, HP Pavilion dv7-4050ev Battery

and large regions could be devastated before the newly assembled army arrived. And although the landowners were obliged to the king to supply these men when called, during the attacks in 878, many of them opportunistically abandoned their king and collaborated with Guthrum.^[30] HP Pavilion dv7-4050ez Battery

With these lessons in mind, Alfred capitalised on the relatively peaceful years immediately following his victory at Ethandrun by focusing on an ambitious restructuring of his kingdom's military defences. When the Viking raids resumed in 892, Alfred was better prepared to confront them with a standing, mobile field army, a network of garrisons, and a small fleet of ships navigating the rivers and estuaries.^[31] HP Pavilion dv7-4050sg Battery

BURGHAL SYSTEM

At the centre of Alfred's reformed military defence system was a network of fortresses, or burhs, distributed at strategic points throughout the kingdom.^[32] There were thirty-three total spaced approximately 30 kilometres (20 mi) distant, HP Pavilion dv7-4050sy Battery

enabling the military to confront attacks anywhere in the kingdom within a single day.^[33][34] Alfred's burhs, (later termed boroughs), consisted mainly of massive earthen walls surrounded by wide ditches, probably reinforced with wooden revetments and palisades.^[35] HP Pavilion dv7-4051nr Battery

The size of the burhs ranged from tiny outposts such as Pilton to large fortifications in established towns, the largest at Winchester.^[36] Many of the burhs were twin towns that straddled a river and connected by a fortified bridge, HP Pavilion dv7-4051sg Battery

like those built by Charles the Bald a generation before. The double-burh blocked passage on the river, forcing Viking ships to navigate under a garrisoned bridge lined with men armed with stones, spears, or arrows. Other burhs were sited near fortified royal villas allowing the king better control over his strongholds.^[37] HP Pavilion dv7-4052sg Battery

This network of well-garrisoned burhs posed significant obstacles to Viking invaders, especially those laden with booty. The system threatened Viking routes and communications making it far more dangerous for the Viking raiders. HP Pavilion dv7-4053cl Battery

However the Vikings lacked both the equipment necessary to undertake a siege against the burh and a developed doctrine of siegecraft, having tailored their methods of fighting to rapid strikes and unimpeded retreats to well defended fortifications. HP Pavilion dv7-4053eg Battery

The only means left to them was to starve the burh into submission, but this allowed the king time to send assistance with his mobile field army or garrisons from neighbouring burhs. In such cases, the Vikings were extremely vulnerable to pursuit by the king's joint military forces.^[38] HP Pavilion dv7-4054ca Battery

Alfred's burh system posed such a formidable challenge against Viking attack that when the Vikings returned in 892 and successfully stormed a half-made, poorly garrisoned fortress up the Lympne estuary in Kent, the Anglo-Saxons were able to limit their penetration to the outer frontiers of Wessex and Mercia.^[39] HP Pavilion dv7-4054eg Battery

Alfred's burghal system was revolutionary in its strategic conception and potentially expensive in its execution. His contemporary biographer Asser wrote that many nobles baulked at the new demands placed upon them even though they were for "the common needs of the kingdom".^[40][41] HP Pavilion dv7-4055sf Battery

The cost of building the burhs was great in itself, but this paled before the cost of upkeep for these fortresses and the maintenance of their standing garrisons. A remarkable early tenth-century document, known as the Burghal Hidage, HP Pavilion dv7-4055sg Battery

provides a formula for determining how many men were needed to garrison a borough, based on one man for every 5.5 yards (5 meters) of wall. This calculates to a total of 27,071 soldiers needed system wide, or approximately one in four of all the free men in Wessex.^[42] HP Pavilion dv7-4057ca Battery

RECONSTITUTED FYRD

Over the last two decades of his reign, Alfred undertook a radical reorganisation of the military institutions of his kingdom, strengthened the West Saxon economy through a policy of monetary reform and urban planning and strove to win divine favour by resurrecting the literary glories of earlier generations ofAnglo-Saxons. HP Pavilion dv7-4057sf Battery

Alfred pursued these ambitious programmes to fulfill, as he saw it, his responsibility as king. This justified the heavy demands he made upon his subjects' labour and finances. It even excused the expropriation of strategically located Church lands. HP Pavilion dv7-4058ca Battery

Recreating the fyrd into a standing army, ringing Wessexwith some thirty garrisoned fortified towns, and constructing new and larger ships for the royal fleet were costly endeavours that provoked resistance from noble and peasant alike. HP Pavilion dv7-4060eb Battery

But they paid off. When the Vikings returned in force in 892 they found a kingdom defended by a standing, mobile field army and a network of garrisoned fortresses that commanded its navigable rivers and Roman roads.^[8][43] HP Pavilion dv7-4060em Battery

Alfred analysed the defects of the military system that he had inherited and implemented changes to remedy them. Alfred's military reorganisation of Wessex consisted of three elements: the building of thirty fortified and garrisoned towns (burhs) along the rivers and Roman roads of Wessex; HP Pavilion dv7-4060si Battery

the creation of a mobile (horsed) field force, consisting of his nobles and their warrior retainers, which was divided into two contingents, one of which was always in the field; and the enhancement of Wessex's seapower through the addition of larger ships to the existing royal fleet.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4060us Battery

Each element of the system was meant to remedy defects in the West Saxon military establishment exposed by the Viking invasions. If under the existing system he could not assemble forces quickly enough to intercept mobile Viking raiders, HP Pavilion dv7-4061nr Battery

the obvious answer was to have a standing field force. If this entailed transforming the West Saxon fyrd from a sporadic levy of king's men and their retinues into a mounted standing army, so be it. If his kingdom lacked strongpoints to impede the progress of an enemy army, he would build them. HP Pavilion dv7-4063ca Battery

If the enemy struck from the sea, he would counter them with his own naval power. Characteristically, all of Alfred's innovations were firmly rooted in traditional West Saxon practice, drawing as they did upon the three so-called ‘common burdens' of bridge work, HP Pavilion dv7-4065dx Battery

fortress repair and service on the king's campaigns that all holders of bookland and royal loanland owed the Crown. Where Alfred revealed his genius was in designing the field force and burhs to be parts of a coherent military system. HP Pavilion dv7-4065ei Battery

Neither Alfred's reformed fyrd nor his burhs alone would have afforded a sufficient defence against the Vikings; together, however, they robbed the Vikings of their major strategic advantages: surprise and mobility.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4065ez Battery

ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION

To obtain the needed garrison troops and workers to build and maintain the burhs' defences, Alfred regularised and vastly expanded the existing (and, one might add, quite recent) obligation of landowners to provide ‘fortress work’ on the basis of the hidage assessed upon their lands.^[44] HP Pavilion dv7-4065sf Battery

The allotments of the Burghal Hidage represent the creation of administrative districts for the support of the burhs. The landowners attached to Wallingford, for example, were responsible for producing and feeding 2,400 men, HP Pavilion dv7-4065si Battery

the number sufficient for maintaining 9,900 feet (3 km) of wall. Each of the larger burhs became the centre of a territorial district of considerable size, carved out of the neighbouring countryside in order to support the town. In one sense, HP Pavilion dv7-4066sf Battery

Alfred conceived nothing truly new here. The shires of Wessex went back at least to the reign of King Ine, who probably also imposed a hidage assessment upon each for food rents and other services owed the Crown. HP Pavilion dv7-4067sf Battery

ENGLISH NAVY

Alfred also tried his hand at naval design. In 896,^[45] he ordered the construction of a small fleet, perhaps a dozen or so longships, that, at 60 oars, were twice the size of Viking warships. This was not, as the Victorians asserted, the birth of the English Navy. Wessex possessed a royal fleet before this. HP Pavilion dv7-4069wm Battery

King Athelstan of Kent and Ealdorman Ealhhere had defeated a Viking fleet in 851, capturing nine ships,^[46] and Alfred himself had conducted naval actions in 882.^[47] HP Pavilion dv7-4070eb Battery

 But, clearly, the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and probably Alfred himself regarded 897 as marking an important development in the naval power of Wessex. The chronicler flattered his royal patron by boasting that Alfred's ships were not only larger, HP Pavilion dv7-4070eo Battery

but swifter, steadier and rode higher in the water than either Danish or Frisian ships. (It is probable that, under the classical tutelage of Asser, Alfred utilised the design of Greek and Roman warships, with high sides, designed for fighting rather than for navigation.) HP Pavilion dv7-4070er Battery

Alfred had seapower in mind: if he could intercept raiding fleets before they landed, he could spare his kingdom from ravaging. Alfred's ships may have been superior in conception. However, in practice they proved to be too large to manoeuvre well in the close waters of estuaries and rivers, HP Pavilion dv7-4070ez Battery

the only places in which a 'naval' battle could occur.^[48] (The warships of the time were not designed to be ship killers but troop carriers. A naval battle entailed a ship's coming alongside an enemy vessel, at which point the crew would lash the two ships together and board the enemy. The result was effectively a land battle involving hand-to-hand fighting on board the two lashed vessels.)^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4070sf Battery

In the one recorded naval engagement in the year 896,^[4][45] Alfred's new fleet of nine ships intercepted six Viking ships in the mouth of an unidentified river along the south of England. The Danes had beached half their ships, and gone inland,^[45] HP Pavilion dv7-4070us Battery

either to rest their rowers or to forage for food. Alfred's ships immediately moved to block their escape to the sea. The three Viking ships afloat attempted to break through the English lines.^[45] Only one made it, Alfred's ships intercepted the other two.^[45] HP Pavilion dv7-4071nr Battery

Lashing the Viking boats to their own, the English crew boarded the enemy's vessels and proceeded to kill everyone on board. The one ship that escaped managed to do so only because all of Alfred's heavy ships became mired when the tide went out. HP Pavilion dv7-4073ca Battery

what ensued was a land battle between the crews of the grounded ships. The Danes, heavily outnumbered, would have been wiped out if the tide had not risen. When that occurred, the Danes rushed back to their boats, which being lighter, HP Pavilion dv7-4073nr Battery

with shallower drafts, were freed before Alfred's ships. Helplessly, the English watched as the Vikings rowed past them.^{[citation needed]} But the pirates had suffered so many casualties (120 Danes dead against 62 Frisians and English^[45]), HP Pavilion dv7-4074ca Battery

that they had difficulties putting out to sea.^[45] All were too damaged to row around Sussex and two were driven against the Sussex coast.^[45] The shipwrecked sailors were brought before Alfred at Winchester and were hanged.^[45] HP Pavilion dv7-4075sb Battery

Legal reform

In the late 880s or early 890s, Alfred issued a long domboc or law code, consisting of his "own" laws followed by a code issued by his late seventh-century predecessor King Ine of Wessex. Together these laws are arranged into 120 chapters. HP Pavilion dv7-4075sf Battery

In his introduction, Alfred explains that he gathered together the laws he found in many 'synod-books' and "ordered to be written many of the ones that our forefathers observed—those that pleased me; and many of the ones that did not please me, HP Pavilion dv7-4077cl Battery

I rejected with the advice of my councillors, and commanded them to be observed in a different way."^[49] Alfred singled out in particular the laws that he "found in the days of Ine, my kinsman, or Offa, king of the Mercians, or King Æthelbert of Kent, HP Pavilion dv7-4078ca Battery

who first among the English people received baptism." It is difficult to know exactly what Alfred meant by this. He appended rather than integrated the laws of Ine into his code, and although he included, as had Æthelbert, a scale of payments in compensation for injuries to various body parts, HP Pavilion dv7-4080er Battery

the two injury tariffs are not aligned. And, Offa is not known to have issued a law code, leading historian Patrick Wormald to speculate that Alfred had in mind the legatine capitulary of 786 that was presented to Offa by two papal legates.^[50] HP Pavilion dv7-4080sb Battery

About a fifth of the law code is taken up by Alfred's introduction, which includes translations into English of theDecalogue, a few chapters from the Book of Exodus, and the'Apostolic Letter' from Acts of the Apostles (15:23–29). HP Pavilion dv7-4080ss Battery

The Introduction may best be understood as Alfred's meditation upon the meaning of Christian law.^[51] It traces the continuity between God's gift of Law to Moses to Alfred's own issuance of law to the West Saxon people. By doing so, it links the holy past to the historical present and represents Alfred's law-giving as a type of divine legislation.^[52] HP Pavilion dv7-4080us Battery

This is the reason that Alfred divided his code into precisely 120 chapters: 120 was the age at which Moses died and, in the number-symbolism of early medieval biblical exegetes, 120 stood for law.^[53] The link between the Mosaic Law and Alfred's code is the 'Apostolic Letter,'HP Pavilion dv7-4083cl Battery

which explained that Christ "had come not to shatter or annul the commandments but to fulfill them; and he taught mercy and meekness" (Intro, 49.1). The mercy that Christ infused into Mosaic Law underlies the injury tariffs that figure so prominently in barbarian law codes, HP Pavilion dv7-4085eb Battery

since Christian synods "established, through that mercy which Christ taught, that for almost every misdeed at the first offence secular lords might with their permission receive without sin the monetary compensation, which they then fixed."^[54] HP Pavilion dv7-4085es Battery

 The only crime that could not be compensated with a payment of money is treachery to a lord, "since Almighty God adjudged none for those who despised Him, nor did Christ, the Son of God, adjudge any for the one who betrayed Him to death; HP Pavilion dv7-4085sf Battery

and He commanded everyone to love his lord as Himself."^[54] Alfred's transformation of Christ's commandment from "Love your neighbour as yourself" (Matt. 22:39–40) to love your secular lord as you would love the Lord Christ himself underscores the importance that Alfred placed upon lordship, which he understood as a sacred bond instituted by God for the governance of man.^[55] HP Pavilion dv7-4087cl Battery

When one turns from the domboc's introduction to the laws themselves, it is difficult to uncover any logical arrangement. The impression one receives is of a hodgepodge of miscellaneous laws. The law code, as it has been preserved, HP Pavilion dv7-4090ca Battery

 is singularly unsuitable for use in lawsuits. In fact, several of Alfred's laws contradict the laws of Ine that form an integral part of the code. Patrick Wormald's explanation is that Alfred's law code should be understood not as a legal manual, HP Pavilion dv7-4090eb Battery

but as an ideological manifesto of kingship, "designed more for symbolic impact than for practical direction."^[56] In practical terms, the most important law in the code may well be the very first: "We enjoin, what is most necessary, that each man keep carefully his oath and his pledge," which expresses a fundamental tenet of Anglo-Saxon law.^[57] HP Pavilion dv7-4090es Battery

Alfred devoted considerable attention and thought to judicial matters. Asser underscores his concern for judicial fairness. Alfred, according to Asser, insisted upon reviewing contested judgments made by his ealdormen and reeves, HP Pavilion dv7-4090sf Battery

and "would carefully look into nearly all the judgements which were passed [issued] in his absence anywhere in the realm, to see whether they were just or unjust."^[58] A charter from the reign of his son Edward the Elder depicts Alfred as hearing one such appeal in his chamber, HP Pavilion dv7-4091sf Battery

while washing his hands.^[59] Asser represents Alfred as a Solomonic judge, painstaking in his own judicial investigations and critical of royal officials who rendered unjust or unwise judgments. Although Asser never mentions Alfred's law code, HP Pavilion dv7-4095eb Battery

he does say that Alfred insisted that his judges be literate, so that they could apply themselves "to the pursuit of wisdom." The failure to comply with this royal order was to be punished by loss of office.^[60] It is uncertain how seriously this should be taken; Asser was more concerned to represent Alfred as a wise ruler than to report actual royal policy.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4100 Battery

Foreign relations

Asser speaks grandiosely of Alfred's relations with foreign powers, but little definite information is available.^[8] His interest in foreign countries is shown by the insertions which he made in his translation of Orosius. HP Pavilion dv7-4105TX Battery

He certainly corresponded with Elias III, the Patriarch of Jerusalem,^[8] and possibly sent a mission to India in honour of Saint Thomas the Apostle, whose tomb was believed to lie in that country.^[61] Contact was also made with the Caliph in Baghdad.^[62] HP Pavilion dv7-4106TX Battery

Embassies to Rome conveying the English alms to the Pope were fairly frequent.^[63] Around 890, Wulfstan of Hedeby undertook a journey from Hedeby on Jutlandalong the Baltic Sea to the Prussian trading town of Truso. Alfred personally collected details of this trip.^[64] HP Pavilion dv7-4130sa Battery

Alfred's relations with the Celtic princes in the western half of Britain are clearer. Comparatively early in his reign, according to Asser, the southern Welshprinces, owing to the pressure on them from North Wales and Mercia, HP Pavilion dv7-4131sa Battery

commended themselves to Alfred. Later in the reign the North Welsh followed their example, and the latter cooperated with the English in the campaign of 893 (or 894). That Alfred sent alms to Irish and Continental monasteries may be taken on Asser's authority. HP Pavilion dv7-4140ea Battery

The visit of the three pilgrim "Scots" (i.e. Irish) to Alfred in 891 is undoubtedly authentic. The story that he himself in his childhood was sent to Ireland to be healed by Saint Modwenna, though mythical, may show Alfred's interest in that island.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4142eo Battery

Religion and culture

In the 880s, at the same time that he was "cajoling and threatening" his nobles to build and man the burhs, Alfred, perhaps inspired by the example of Charlemagne almost a century before, undertook an equally ambitious effort to revive learning.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-4150ea Battery

It entailed the recruitment of clerical scholars from Mercia, Wales and abroad to enhance the tenor of the court and of theepiscopacy; the establishment of a court school to educate his own children, the sons of his nobles, and intellectually promising boys of lesser birth; HP Pavilion dv7-4170eo Battery

an attempt to require literacy in those who held offices of authority; a series of translations into the vernacular of Latin works the king deemed "most necessary for all men to know";^{[citation needed]} the compilation of a chronicle detailing the rise of Alfred's kingdom and house; and the issuance of a law code that presented the West Saxons as a new people of Israel and their king as a just and divinely inspired law-giver.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-4180ea Battery

Very little is known of the church under Alfred. The Danish attacks had been particularly damaging to the monasteries, and though Alfred founded monasteries at Athelney and Shaftesbury, the first new monastic houses in Wessex since the beginning of the eighth century,^[65] HP Pavilion dv7-6000 Battery

and enticed foreign monks to England, monasticism did not revive significantly during his reign.^{[citation needed]} Alfred undertook no systematic reform of ecclesiastical institutions or religious practices in Wessex. For him the key to the kingdom's spiritual revival was to appoint pious, HP Pavilion dv7-6000sg Battery

learned, and trustworthy bishops and abbots. As king he saw himself as responsible for both the temporal and spiritual welfare of his subjects. Secular and spiritual authority were not distinct categories for Alfred.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6001sg Battery

He was equally comfortable distributing his translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care to his bishops so that they might better train and supervise priests, and using those same bishops as royal officials and judges. Nor did his piety prevent him from expropriating strategically sited church lands, HP Pavilion dv7-6001xx Battery

especially estates along the border with the Danelaw, and transferring them to royal thegns and officials who could better defend them against Viking attacks.^[66] HP Pavilion dv7-6002sa Battery

The Danish raids had also a devastating impact on learning in England. Alfred lamented in the preface to his translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care that "learning had declined so thoroughly in England that there were very few men on this side of the Humber who could understand their divine services in English, HP Pavilion dv7-6004ea Battery

or even translate a single letter from Latin into English: and I suppose that there were not many beyond the Humber either".^[67] Alfred undoubtedly exaggerated for dramatic effect the abysmal state of learning in England during his youth. HP Pavilion dv7-6004tx Battery

That Latin learning had not been obliterated is evidenced by the presence in his court of learned Mercian and West Saxon clerics such as Plegmund, Wæferth, and Wulfsige, but Alfred's account should not be entirely discounted.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6005sg Battery

Manuscript production in England dropped off precipitously around the 860s when the Viking invasions began in earnest, not to be revived until the end of the century.^[68] Numerous Anglo-Saxon manuscripts burnt up along with the churches that housed them. And a solemn diploma from Christ Church, HP Pavilion dv7-6005tx Battery

Canterbury dated 873 is so poorly constructed and written that historian Nicholas Brooks posited a scribe who was either so blind he could not read what he wrote or who knew little or no Latin. "It is clear," Brooks concludes, "that the metropolitan church [of Canterbury] must have been quite unable to provide any effective training in the scriptures or in Christian worship."^[69] HP Pavilion dv7-6006sg Battery

Following the example of Charlemagne, Alfred established a court school for the education of his own children, those of the nobility, and "a good many of lesser birth".^{[citation needed]} There they studied books in both English and Latin and "devoted themselves to writing, to such an extent .... HP Pavilion dv7-6007sg Battery

they were seen to be devoted and intelligent students of the liberal arts."^[70] He recruited scholars from the Continent and from Britain to aid in the revival of Christian learning in Wessex and to provide the king personal instruction. Grimbald and John the Saxon came from Francia; HP Pavilion dv7-6008eg Battery

Plegmund (whom Alfred appointed archbishop of Canterbury in 890), Bishop Werferth of Worcester, Æthelstan, and the royal chaplains Werwulf, from Mercia; and Asser, from St. David's in south-western Wales.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6008sg Battery

Alfred's educational ambitions seem to have extended beyond the establishment of a court school. Believing that without Christian wisdom there can be neither prosperity nor success in war, Alfred aimed "to set to learning (as long as they are not useful for some other employment) all the free-born young men now in England who have the means to apply themselves to it."^[71] HP Pavilion dv7-6011sg Battery

Conscious of the decay of Latin literacy in his realm, Alfred proposed that primary education be taught in English, with those wishing to advance to holy orders to continue their studies in Latin. The problem, however, was that there were few "books of wisdom" written in English. HP Pavilion dv7-6011tx Battery

Alfred sought to remedy this through an ambitious court-centred programme of translating into English the books he deemed "most necessary for all men to know."^[71] It is unknown when Alfred launched this programme, but it may have been during the 880s when Wessex was enjoying a respite from Viking attacks. HP Pavilion dv7-6012eg Battery

Apart from the lost Handboc or Encheiridion, which seems to have been a commonplace book kept by the king, the earliest work to be translated was the Dialoguesof Gregory the Great, a book greatly popular in the Middle Ages. HP Pavilion dv7-6012sg Battery

 The translation was undertaken at Alfred's command by Werferth, Bishop of Worcester, with the king merely furnishing a preface.^[8] Remarkably, Alfred, undoubtedly with the advice and aid of his court scholars, translated four works himself: HP Pavilion dv7-6012tx Battery

Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, St. Augustine's Soliloquies, and the first fifty psalms of the Psalter. One might add to this list Alfred's translation, in his law code, of excerpts from the Vulgate Book of Exodus. HP Pavilion dv7-6013eg Battery

The Old English versions of Orosius's Histories against the Pagans andBede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People are no longer accepted by scholars as Alfred's own translations because of lexical and stylistic differences.^[72] HP Pavilion dv7-6013tx Battery

Nonetheless, the consensus remains that they were part of the Alfredian programme of translation. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge suggest this also for Bald's Leechbook and the anonymous Old English Martyrology.^[73] HP Pavilion dv7-6014tx Battery

Alfred's first translation was of Pope Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, which he prefaced with an introduction explaining why he thought it necessary to translate works such as this one from Latin into English. Although he described his method as translating "sometimes word for word, HP Pavilion dv7-6015eg Battery

sometimes sense for sense," Alfred's translation actually keeps very close to his original, although through his choice of language he blurred throughout the distinction between spiritual and secular authority. Alfred meant his translation to be used and circulated it to all his bishops.^[8] HP Pavilion dv7-6015sg Battery

Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy was the most popular philosophical handbook of the Middle Ages. Unlike his translation of the Pastoral Care, Alfred here deals very freely with his original and though the late Dr. G. Schepss^[74] HP Pavilion dv7-6025eg Battery

showed that many of the additions to the text are to be traced not to Alfred himself, but to the glosses and commentaries which he used, still there is much in the work which is solely Alfred's and highly characteristic of his style. It is in the Boethius that the oft-quoted sentence occurs: HP Pavilion dv7-6055ef Battery

"My will was to live worthily as long as I lived, and after my life to leave to them that should come after, my memory in good works." The book has come down to us in two manuscripts only. In one of these^[75] the writing is prose, in the other^[76] HP Pavilion dv7-6055sf Battery

a combination of prose and alliterating verse. The latter manuscript was severely damaged in the 18th and 19th centuries,^[77] and the authorship of the verse has been much disputed; but likely it also is by Alfred. In fact, he writes in the prelude that he first created a prose work and then used it as the basis for his poem Metres of Boethius, his crowning literary achievement. HP Pavilion dv7-6065ef Battery

He spent a great deal of time working on these books, which he tells us he gradually wrote through the many stressful times of his reign to refresh his mind. Of the authenticity of the work as a whole there has never been any doubt.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6065sf Battery

The last of Alfred's works is one to which he gave the name Blostman, i.e., "Blooms" or Anthology. The first half is based mainly on the Soliloquies of StAugustine of Hippo, the remainder is drawn from various sources, and contains much that is Alfred's own and highly characteristic of him. HP Pavilion dv7-6070sf Battery

The last words of it may be quoted; they form a fitting epitaph for the noblest of English kings. "Therefore he seems to me a very foolish man, and truly wretched, who will not increase his understanding while he is in the world, and ever wish and long to reach that endless life where all shall be made clear."^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6081eg Battery

Alfred appears as a character in the twelfth- or thirteenth-century poem The Owl and the Nightingale, where his wisdom and skill with proverbs is praised. The Proverbs of Alfred, a thirteenth-century work, contains sayings that are not likely to have originated with Alfred but attest to his posthumous medieval reputation for wisdom.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6090sf Battery

The Alfred jewel, discovered in Somerset in 1693, has long been associated with King Alfred because of its Old Englishinscription "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" (Alfred ordered me to be made). The jewel is about 2½ inches (6.1 cm) long, HP Pavilion dv7-6097ef Battery

made of filigreed gold, enclosing a highly polished piece of quartz crystal beneath which is set a cloisonné enamel plaque, with an enamelled image of a man holding floriate sceptres, perhaps personifying Sight or the Wisdom of God.^[78] HP Business Notebook 2400 Battery

It was at one time attached to a thin rod or stick based on the hollow socket at its base. The jewel certainly dates from Alfred's reign. Although its function is unknown, it has been often suggested that the jewel was one of the æstels—HP Business Notebook 2510p Battery

pointers for reading—that Alfred ordered sent to every bishopric accompanying a copy of his translation of the Pastoral Care. Each æstel was worth the princely sum of 50 mancuses, which fits in well with the quality workmanship and expensive materials of the Alfred jewel.^{[citation needed]} HP Pavilion dv7-6081eg Battery

Historian Richard Abels sees Alfred's educational and military reforms as complementary. Restoring religion and learning in Wessex, Abels contends, was to Alfred's mind as essential to the defence of his realm as the building of the burhs.^[79] HP Pavilion dv7-6090sf Battery

 As Alfred observed in the preface to his English translation of Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, kings who fail to obey their divine duty to promote learning can expect earthly punishments to befall their people.^[80] The pursuit of wisdom, HP Pavilion dv7-6097ef Battery

he assured his readers of the Boethius, was the surest path to power: "Study Wisdom, then, and, when you have learned it, condemn it not, for I tell you that by its means you may without fail attain to power, yea, even though not desiring it".^[81] HP Business Notebook 2400 Battery

 The portrayal of the West-Saxon resistance to the Vikings by Asser and the chronicler as a Christian holy war was more than mere rhetoric or 'propaganda'. It reflected Alfred's own belief in a doctrine of divine rewards and punishments rooted in a vision of a hierarchical HP Business Notebook 2510p Battery

Christian world order in which God is the Lord to whom kings owe obedience and through whom they derive their authority over their followers. The need to persuade his nobles to undertake work for the 'common good' HP Business Notebook 4200 Battery

led Alfred and his court scholars to strengthen and deepen the conception of Christian kingship that he had inherited by building upon the legacy of earlier kings such as Offa as well as clerical writers such as Bede, Alcuin and the other luminaries of the Carolingian renaissance. HP Business Notebook 7400 Battery

This was not a cynical use of religion to manipulate his subjects into obedience, but an intrinsic element in Alfred's worldview. He believed, as did other kings in ninth-century England and Francia, that God had entrusted him with the spiritual as well as physical welfare of his people. HP Business Notebook 8200 Battery

If the Christian faith fell into ruin in his kingdom, if the clergy were too ignorant to understand the Latin words they butchered in their offices and liturgies, if the ancient monasteries and collegiate churches lay deserted out of indifference, he was answerable before God, as Josiah had been. Alfred's ultimate responsibility was the pastoral care of his people.^{[citation needed]} HP Business Notebook 8400 Battery

Family

In 868, Alfred married Ealhswith, daughter of a Mercian nobleman, Æthelred Mucil, Ealdorman of the Gaini. The Gaini were probably one of the tribal groups of the Mercians. Ealhswith's mother, Eadburh, was a member of the Mercian royal family.^[82] HP Business Notebook 8710p Battery

They had five or six children together, including Edward the Elder, who succeeded his father as king, Æthelflæd, who would become Queen of Mercia in her own right, and Ælfthryth who married Baldwin II the Count of Flanders. HP Business Notebook 9400 Battery

His mother was Osburga daughter of Oslac of the Isle of Wight, Chief Butler of England.Asser, in his Vita Ælfredi asserts that this shows his lineage from the Jutes of the Isle of Wight. This is unlikely as Bede tells us that they were all slaughtered by the Saxons under Cædwalla. HP Business Notebook NC2400 Battery

In 2008 the skeleton of Queen Eadgyth, granddaughter of Alfred the Great was found in Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany. It was confirmed in 2010 that these remains belong to her — one of the earliest members of the English royal family.^[83] HP Business Notebook NC4200 Battery

Death, burial and legacy

Alfred died on 26 October 899. How he died is unknown, although he suffered throughout his life with a painful and unpleasant illness – possibly Crohn's disease,^[84] which seems to have been inherited by his grandson King Edred. HP Business Notebook NC4400 Battery

He was originally buried temporarily in the Old Minster in Winchester, then moved to the New Minster (perhaps built especially to receive his body). When the New Minster moved to Hyde, a little north of the city, in 1110, the monks transferred to Hyde Abbey along with Alfred's body and those of his wife and children. HP Business Notebook NC8200 Battery

Soon after the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, during the reign of Henry VIII, the church was demolished, leaving the graves intact.^[85] The royal graves and many others were probably rediscovered by chance in 1788 when a prison was being constructed by convicts on the site. HP Business Notebook NC8230 Battery

Coffins were stripped of lead, bones were scattered and lost, and no identifiable remains of Alfred have subsequently been found. Further excavations in 1866 and 1897 were inconclusive.^[85][86] HP Business Notebook NC8430 Battery

He is regarded as a saint by some Catholics,^[87] but an attempt by king Henry VI in 1441 to get him canonized was unsuccessful.^[88][89] The Anglican Communionvenerates him as a Christian hero, with a feast day of 26 October,^[90] and he may often be found depicted in stained glass in Church of England parish churches. HP Business Notebook NX4800 Battery

A number of educational establishments are named in Alfred's honour. HP Business Notebook NX7400 Battery

HP Business Notebook NX8200 Battery

Ernest Shackleton

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, CVO, OBE, FRGS (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish polar explorer,^[1]one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. HP G42-301NR Battery

His first experience of the polar regions was as third officer on Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, from which he was sent home early on health grounds. Determined to make amends for this perceived personal failure, HP G42-303DX Battery

he returned to Antarctica in 1907 as leader of the Nimrod Expedition. In January 1909 he and three companions made a southern march which established a record Farthest South latitude at 88° 23′ S, HP G42-328CA Battery

97 geographical miles (112 statute miles, 190 km) from the South Pole, by far the closest convergence in exploration history up to that time. For this achievement, Shackleton was knighted by King Edward VII on his return home. HP G42-352TU Battery

After the race to the South Pole ended in 1912 with Roald Amundsen's conquest, Shackleton turned his attention to what he said was the one remaining great object of Antarctic journeying—the crossing of the continent from sea to sea, HP G42-352TX Battery

via the pole. To this end he made preparations for what became the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. Disaster struck this expedition when its ship, Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and was slowly crushed before the shore parties could be landed. HP G42-360TU Battery

There followed a sequence of exploits, and an ultimate escape with no lives lost, that would eventually assure Shackleton's heroic status, although this was not immediately evident.^[2] HP G42-360TX Battery

In 1921 he went back to the Antarctic with theShackleton-Rowett Expedition, intending to carry out a programme of scientific and survey activities. Before the expedition could begin this work Shackleton died of a heart attack while his ship, Quest, was moored in South Georgia. At his wife's request he was buried there. HP G42-361TU Battery

Away from his expeditions, Shackleton's life was generally restless and unfulfilled. In his search for rapid pathways to wealth and security he launched many business ventures and other money-making schemes, none of which prospered. His financial affairs were generally muddled; he died heavily in debt. On his death he was lauded in the press, HP G42-361TX Battery

but was thereafter largely forgotten, while the heroic reputation of his rival Scott was sustained for many decades. Later in the 20th century Shackleton was "rediscovered",^[3] and rapidly became a cult figure, a role model for leadership as one who, in extreme circumstances, kept his team together in a survival story described by polar historian Stephanie Barczewski as "incredible".^[4] HP G42-364TX Battery

Ernest Shackleton was born on 15 February 1874, in Kilkea near Athy, County Kildare, Ireland, about 30 miles (48 km) fromDublin. Ernest's father was Henry, and his mother was Henrietta Letitia Sophia Gavan. His father's family was Anglo-Irish, HP G42-365TX Battery

originally from Yorkshire. His mother's family was Irish, from counties Cork and Kerry.^[5] Ernest was the second of their ten children and the first of two sons; the second, Frank, would achieve notoriety as a suspect, later exonerated, in the 1907 theft of Ireland's Crown Jewels.^[6] HP G42-366TU Battery

In 1880, when Ernest was six, Henry Shackleton gave up his life as a landowner to study medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, moving his family into the city.^[7] Four years later, the family moved again, from Ireland to Sydenham in suburban London. HP G42-366TX Battery

Partly this was in search of better professional prospects for the newly qualified doctor, but another factor may have been unease about their Anglo-Irish ancestry, following the assassination by Irish nationalists of Lord Frederick Cavendish, the British Chief Secretary for Ireland, in 1882.^[7] HP G42-367CL Battery

EDUCATION

From early childhood Shackleton was a voracious reader, which sparked a passion for adventure.^[8] He was schooled by a governess until the age of eleven, when he began at Fir Lodge Preparatory School in West Hill, Dulwich, in south east London. HP G42-367TU Battery

At the age of thirteen, he entered Dulwich College.^[7] The young Shackleton did not particularly distinguish himself as a scholar, and was said to be "bored" by his studies.^[7] He was quoted later as saying: "I never learned much geography at school ... HP G42-368TX Battery

Literature, too, consisted in the dissection, the parsing, the analysing of certain passages from our great poets and prose-writers ... teachers should be very careful not to spoil [their pupils'] taste for poetry for all time by making it a task and an imposition."^[7] In his final term at the school, however, he was still able to achieve fifth place in his class of thirty-one.^[9] HP G42-369TU Battery

MERCHANT NAVY OFFICER

Shackleton's restlessness at school was such that he was allowed to leave at 16 and go to sea.^[10] The options available were a Royal Naval cadetship at HMSBritannia, which Dr Shackleton could not afford, the mercantile marine cadet ships Worcester and Conway, or an apprenticeship "before the mast" on a sailing vessel. HP G42-370TU Battery

The third option was chosen.^[10] His father was able to secure him a berth with the North Western Shipping Company, aboard the square-rigged sailing shipHoghton Tower.^[10] During the following four years at sea, Shackleton learned his trade, HP G42-370TX Battery

visiting the far corners of the earth and forming acquaintances with a variety of people from many walks of life, learning to be at home with all kinds of men.^[11] In August 1894 he passed his examination for Second Mate and accepted a post as third officer on a tramp steamer of the Welsh Shire Line.^[11] HP G42-371TU Battery

 Two years later he had obtained his First Mate's ticket, and in 1898 he was certified as a Master Mariner, which qualified him to command a British ship anywhere in the world.^[11] HP G42-372TU Battery

In 1898 Shackleton joined the Union-Castle Line, the regular mail and passenger carrier between Southampton and Cape Town. He was, as a shipmate recorded, "a departure from our usual type of young officer", content with his own company though not aloof, HP G42-372TX Battery

"spouting lines from Keats [and] Browning", a mixture of sensitivity and aggression but, withal, sympathetic.^[12] Following the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, Shackleton transferred to the troopship Tintagel Castlewhere, HP G42-375TX Battery

in March 1900, he met an army lieutenant, Cedric Longstaff, whose father Llewellyn W. Longstaff was the main financial backer of the National Antarctic Expedition, then being organised in London.^[13] Shackleton used his acquaintance with the son to obtain an interview with Longstaff senior, HP G42-378TX Battery

with a view to obtaining a place on the expedition. Longstaff, impressed by Shackleton's keenness, recommended him to Sir Clements Markham, the expedition's overlord, making it clear that he wanted Shackleton accepted.^[13] HP G42-380TX Battery

On 17 February 1901 his appointment as third officer to the expedition's ship Discovery was confirmed; shortly afterwards he was commissioned a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve.^[14] Although officially he was given leave by Union-Castle, this was in fact the end of Shackleton's Merchant Navy service.^[13] HP G42-381TX Battery

Discovery Expedition, 1901–03

The National Antarctic Expedition, known as the Discovery Expedition after the ship Discovery, was the brainchild of Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society, and had been many years in preparation. HP G42-382TX Battery

It was led by Robert Falcon Scott, a Royal Navy torpedo lieutenant lately promoted Commander,^[15] and had objectives that included scientific and geographical discovery.^[16] Although Discovery was not a Royal Navy unit, Scott required the crew, HP G42-383TX Battery

officers and scientific staff to accept voluntarily the conditions of the Naval Discipline Act, and the ship and expedition were run on Royal Navy lines.^[17] Shackleton accepted this, even though his own background and instincts favoured a different, more informal style of leadership.^[18] HP G42-384TX Battery

 Shackleton's particular duties were listed as: "In charge of seawater analysis. Ward-room caterer. In charge of holds, stores and provisions [...] He also arranges the entertainments."^[19] HP G42-385TX Battery

Discovery departed London on 31 July 1901, arriving at the Antarctic coast, via Cape Town and New Zealand, on 8 January 1902. After landing, Shackleton took part in an experimental balloon flight on 4 February.^[20] He also participated, HP G42-386TX Battery

with the scientists Edward Wilson and Hartley Ferrar, in the first sledging trip from the expedition's winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, a journey which established a safe route on to the Great Ice Barrier.^[21] During the Antarctic winter of 1902, HP G42-387TX Battery

in the confines of the iced-in Discovery, Shackleton edited the expedition's magazine The South Polar Times.^[22] According to stewardClarence Hare, he was "the most popular of the officers among the crew, being a good mixer",^[23] HP G42-388TX Battery

 though claims that this represented an unofficial rival leadership to Scott's are unsupported.^[24] Scott chose Shackleton to accompany Wilson and himself on the expedition's southern journey, a march southwards to achieve the highest possible latitude in the direction of the South Pole. HP G42-394TX Battery

This march was not a serious attempt on the Pole, although the attainment of a high latitude was of great importance to Scott, and the inclusion of Shackleton indicated a high degree of personal trust.^[24][25] HP G42-397TX Battery

The party set out on 2 November 1902. The march was, Scott wrote later, "a combination of success and failure".^[26] A record Farthest South latitude of 82° 17′ was reached, beating the previous record established in 1900 by Carsten Borchgrevink.^[a][27] HP G42-398TX Battery

The journey was marred by the poor performance of the dogs, whose food had become tainted, and who rapidly fell sick.^[28] All 22 dogs died during the march. HP G42 Battery

On the return journey Shackleton had by his own admission "broken down" and could no longer carry out his share of the work.^[29] He would later deny Scott's claim in The Voyage of the Discovery, that he had been carried on the sledge.^[30] HP G42T-200 CTO Battery

However, he was in a seriously weakened condition; Wilson's diary entry for 14 January reads: "Shackleton has been anything but up to the mark, and today he is decidedly worse, very short winded and coughing constantly, with more serious symptoms that need not be detailed here but which are of no small consequence one hundred and sixty miles from the ship".HP G42t-300 CTO Battery

On 4 February 1903 the party finally reached the ship. After a medical examination (which proved inconclusive),^[31] Scott decided to send Shackleton home on the relief ship Morning, which had arrived in McMurdo Sound in January 1903. HP G42t Battery

Scott wrote: "He ought not to risk further hardship in his present state of health."^[31] There is conjecture that Scott's motives for removing him was resentment of Shackleton's popularity, and that ill-health was used as an excuse to get rid of him.^[32] HP G42t Notebook PC Series Battery

Years after the deaths of Scott, Wilson and Shackleton, Albert Armitage, the expedition's second-in-command, claimed that there had been a falling-out on the southern journey, and that Scott had told the ship's doctor that "if he does not go back sick he will go back in disgrace."^[31] HP G56-100SA Battery

There is no corroboration of Armitage's story. Shackleton and Scott stayed on friendly terms, at least until the publication of Scott's account of the southern journey in The Voyage of the Discovery.^[30] Although in public they remained mutually respectful and cordial,^[33] HP G56-105SA Battery

 according to biographer Roland Huntford, Shackleton's attitude to Scott turned to "smouldering scorn and dislike"; salvage of wounded pride required "a return to the Antarctic and an attempt to outdo Scott".^[30] HP G56-106EA Battery

Between the Discovery and Nimrod expeditions, 1903–07

After a period of convalescence in New Zealand, Shackleton returned to England via San Francisco and New York.^[34] As the first significant person to return from the Antarctic he found that he was in demand; in particular, the Admiralty wished to consult him about their further proposals for the rescue of Discovery.^[35] HP G56-106SA Battery

With Sir Clements Markham's blessing he accepted a temporary post assisting the outfitting of the Terra Nova for the second Discovery relief operation but turned down the offer to sail with her as chief officer. He also assisted in the equipping of the Argentinean corvette Uruguay, HP G56-107SA Battery

which was being fitted out for the relief of the stranded Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Nordenskiöld.^[34] In search of more permanent employment, Shackleton applied for a regular commission in the Royal Navy, via the back-door route of the Supplementary List,^[36] HP G56-108SA Battery

 but despite the sponsorship of Markham and of the president of the Royal Society he was not successful.^[34] Instead, he became a journalist, working for the Royal Magazine, but found this unsatisfactory.^[37] He was then offered, and accepted, the secretaryship of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS), a post which he took up on 11 January 1904.^[37] HP G56-109SA Battery

In 1905 Shackleton became a shareholder in a speculative company that aimed to make a fortune transporting Russian troops home from the Far East. Despite his assurances to Emily that "we are practically sure of the contract" nothing came of this scheme.^[38] HP G56-112SA Battery

He also ventured into politics, unsuccessfully standing in the 1906 General Election as the Liberal Unionist Party's candidate for Dundee.^[b][39] In the meantime he had taken a job with wealthy Clydeside industrialist William Beardmore (later Lord Invernairn), HP G56-130SA Battery

with aroving commission which involved interviewing prospective clients and entertaining Beardmore's business friends.^[40] Shackleton by this time, however, was making no secret of his ambition to return to Antarctica at the head of his own expedition. HP G56 Battery

Beardmore was sufficiently impressed with Shackleton to offer financial support,^[c][41] but other donations proved hard to come by. Nevertheless, in February 1907 Shackleton presented his plans for an Antarctic expedition to the Royal Geographic Society, HP G62-100 Battery

the details of which, under the name British Antarctic Expedition, were published in the Royal Society's newsletter, Geographic Journal.^[9] The aim was the conquest of both the geographical South Pole and the South Magnetic Pole. HP G62-100EB Battery

Shackleton then worked hard to persuade others of his wealthy friends and acquaintances to contribute, including Sir Phillip Lee Brocklehurst, who subscribed £2,000 (2011 equivalent £157,000) to secure a place on the expedition,^[42][43] author Campbell Mackellar, and Guinness baron Lord Iveagh whose contribution was secured less than two weeks before the departure of the expedition ship Nimrod.^[44] HP G62-100EE Battery

Nimrod Expedition (1907–09)

On 1 January 1908, Nimrod sailed for the Antarctic from Lyttelton Harbour, New Zealand. Shackleton's original plans had envisaged using the old Discovery base in McMurdo Sound to launch his attempts on the South Pole and South Magnetic Pole.^[43] HP G62-100EJ Battery

However, before leaving England he had been pressured to give an undertaking to Scott that he would not base himself in the McMurdo area, which Scott was claiming as his own field of work. Shackleton reluctantly agreed to look for winter quarters either at the Barrier Inlet (which Discovery had briefly visited in 1902) or at King Edward VII Land.^[45] HP G62-100SL Battery

To conserve coal, the ship was towed 1,650 miles (2,655 km) by the steamer Koonya to the Antarctic ice, after Shackleton had persuaded the New Zealand government and the Union Steamship Company to share the cost.^[46] HP G62-101TU Battery

In accordance with Shackleton's promise to Scott the ship headed for the eastern sector of the Great Ice Barrier, arriving there on 21 January 1908. They found that the Barrier Inlet had expanded to form a large bay, in which were hundreds of whales, HP G62-101XX Battery

which led to the immediate christening of the area as the Bay of Whales.^[47] It was noted that ice conditions were unstable, precluding the establishment of a safe base there. An extended search for an anchorage at King Edward VII Land proved equally fruitless, HP G62-103XX Battery

so Shackleton was forced to break his undertaking to Scott and set sail for McMurdo Sound, a decision which, according to second officer Arthur Harbord, was "dictated by common sense" in view of the difficulties of ice pressure, coal shortage and the lack of any nearer known base.^[47] HP G62-104SA Battery

Nimrod arrived at McMurdo Sound on 29 January, but was stopped by ice 16 miles (26 km) north of Discovery's old base at Hut Point.^[48] After considerable weather delays, HP G62-105SA Battery

 Shackleton's base was eventually established at Cape Royds, about 24 miles (39 km) north of Hut Point. The party was in high spirits, despite the difficult conditions; Shackleton's ability to communicate with each man kept the party happy and focused.^[49] HP G62-106SA Battery

The "Great Southern Journey",^[50] as Frank Wild called it, began on 19 October 1908. On 9 January 1909 Shackleton and three companions (Wild, Eric Marshall andJameson Adams) reached a new Farthest South latitude of 88° 23′ S, a point only 112 miles (180 km) from the Pole.^[d] HP G62-107SA Battery

En route the South Pole party discovered the Beardmore Glacier, (named after Shackleton's patron),^[51] and became the first persons to see and travel on the South Polar Plateau.^[52] Their return journey to McMurdo Sound was a race against starvation, on half-rations for much of the way. HP G62-110ED Battery

At one point Shackleton gave his one biscuit allotted for the day to the ailing Frank Wild, who wrote in his diary: "All the money that was ever minted would not have bought that biscuit and the remembrance of that sacrifice will never leave me".^[53] They arrived at Hut Point just in time to catch the ship. HP G62-110EE Battery

The expedition's other main accomplishments included the first ascent of Mount Erebus, and the discovery of the approximate location of the South Magnetic Pole, reached on 16 January 1909 by Edgeworth David, Douglas Mawson, and Alistair Mackay.^[54] HP G62-110EO Battery

 Shackleton returned to the United Kingdom as a hero, and soon afterwards published his expedition account, Heart of the Antarctic. Emily Shackleton later recorded: "The only comment he made to me about not reaching the Pole was "a live donkey is better than a dead lion, isn't it?" and I said "Yes darling, as far as I am concerned".^[55] HP G62-110EY Battery

In 1910 Shackleton made a series of three recordings describing the expedition using an Edison Phonograph.^[56] HP G62-110SA Battery

Several mostly intact cases of whisky and brandy left behind in 1909 were recovered in 2010, for analysis by a distilling company. A revival of the vintage (and since lost) formula for the particular brands found has been offered for sale with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trustwhich discovered the lost spirits.^[57][58][59] HP G62-110SO Battery

PUBLIC HERO

On Shackleton's return home, public honours were quickly forthcoming. King Edward VII received him on 12 July and invested him asCommander of the Royal Victorian Order;^[60][61] in the king's Birthday Honours list in November he was made a knight and thus became Sir Ernest Shackleton.^[62][63] HP G62-110SS Battery

HP G62-110SW Battery

 He was honoured by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him a Gold Medal–a proposal that the medal be smaller than that earlier awarded to Captain Scott was not acted on.^[64] All the members of the Nimrod Expedition shore party received silver Polar Medals.^[62] Shackleton was also appointed a Younger Brother of Trinity House, a significant honour for British mariners.^[60] HP G62-111EE Battery

Besides the official honours, Shackleton's Antarctic feats were greeted in Britain with great enthusiasm. Proposing a toast to the explorer at a lunch given in Shackleton's honour by the Royal Societies Club, Lord Halsbury, a former Lord Chancellor, said: HP G62-112EE Battery

"When one remembers what he had gone through, one does not believe in the supposed degeneration of the British race. One does not believe that we have lost all sense of admiration for courage [and] endurance".^[65] HP G62-112SO Battery

The heroism was also claimed by Ireland: the DublinEvening Telegraph's headline read "South Pole Almost Reached By An Irishman",^[65] while the Dublin Express spoke of the "qualities that were his heritage as an Irishman".^[65] HP G62-113SO Battery

Shackleton's fellow-explorers expressed their admiration; Roald Amundsen wrote, in a letter to RGS Secretary John Scott Keltie that "the English nation has by this deed of Shackleton's won a victory that can never be surpassed".^[66] HP G62-115SE Battery

Fridtjof Nansen sent an effusive private letter to Emily Shackleton, praising the "unique expedition which has been such a complete success in every respect".^[66] The reality was, however, that the expedition had left Shackleton deeply in debt, HP G62-115SO Battery

unable to meet the financial guarantees he had given to backers. Despite his efforts, it required government action, in the form of a grant of £20,000 (2008: £1.5 million) to clear the most pressing obligations. It is likely that many debts were not pressed and were written off. HP G62-117SO Battery

BIDING TIME

In the period immediately after his return, Shackleton engaged in a strenuous schedule of public appearances, lectures and social engagements. He then sought to cash in on his celebrity by making a fortune in the business world.^[67] HP G62-118EO Battery

Among the ventures which he hoped to promote were a tobacco company,^[68] a scheme for selling to collectors postage stamps overprinted "King Edward VII Land" (based on Shackleton's appointment as Antarctic postmaster by the New Zealand authorities),^[69] HP G62-120EC Battery

and the development of a Hungarian mining concession he had acquired near the city of Nagybanya, now part of Romania.^[70] None of these enterprises prospered, and his main source of income was his earnings from lecture tours. HP G62-120EE Battery

He still harboured thoughts of returning south, even though in September 1910, having recently moved with his family to Sheringham in Norfolk, he wrote to Emily: "I am never again going South and I have thought it all out and my place is at home now".^[67] HP G62-120EG Battery

He had been in discussions with Douglas Mawson about a scientific expedition to the Antarctic coast between Cape Adare andGaussberg, and had written to the RGS about this in February 1910.^[e][71] HP G62-120EH Battery

Any future resumption by Shackleton of the quest for the South Pole depended on the results of Scott's Terra Nova Expedition, which left from Cardiff in July 1910. By the spring of 1912 the world was aware that the pole had been conquered, HP G62-120EK Battery

by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. The fate of Scott's expedition was not then known. Shackleton's mind turned to a project that had been announced, and then abandoned, by the Scottish explorer William Speirs Bruce, for a continental crossing, HP G62-120EL Battery

from a landing in the Weddell Sea, via the South Pole to McMurdo Sound. Bruce, who had failed to acquire financial backing, was happy that Shackleton should adopt his plans,^[72] which were similar to those being followed by the German explorer Wilhelm Filchner. Filchner had left Bremerhaven in May 1911; HP G62-120EP Battery

 in December 1912 the news arrived from South Georgia that his expedition had failed.^[f][72] The transcontinental journey, in Shackleton's words, was the "one great object of Antarctic journeyings" remaining, now open to him.^[73] HP G62-120EQ Battery

Shackleton published details of his new expedition, grandly titled the "Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition", early in 1914. Two ships would be employed; Endurance would carry the main party into the Weddell Sea, aiming for Vahsel Bay from where a team of six, HP G62-120ER Battery

led by Shackleton, would begin the crossing of the continent. Meanwhile a second ship, the Aurora, would take a supporting party under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh to McMurdo Sound on the opposite side of the continent. This party would then lay supply depots across the Great Ice Barrier as far as the Beardmore Glacier, HP G62-120ES Battery

these depots holding the food and fuel that would enable Shackleton's party to complete their journey of 1,800 miles (2,900 km) across the continent.^[73] HP G62-120ET Battery

Shackleton used his considerable fund-raising skills, and the expedition was financed largely by private donations, although the British government gave £10,000 (about £680,000 in 2008 terms). HP G62-120EY Battery

Scottish jute magnate Sir James Cairdgave £24,000, Midlands industrialist Frank Dudley Docker gave £10,000 and tobacco heiress Janet Stancomb-Wills gave an undisclosed but reportedly "generous" sum. HP G62-120SE Battery

 ^[75] His interviewing and selection methods sometimes seemed eccentric; believing that character and temperament were as important as technical ability,^[76] he would ask unconventional questions. Thus physicist Reginald James was asked if he could sing;^[77] HP G62-120SL Battery

others were accepted on sight because Shackleton liked the look of them, or after the briefest of interrogations.^[78] Shackleton also loosened some traditional hierarchies, expecting all men, including the scientists, to take their share of ship's chores. He ultimately selected a crew of 56, twenty eight on each ship.^[79] HP G62-120SS Battery

Despite the outbreak of the First World War on 3 August 1914, Endurance was directed by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, to "proceed",^[g] and left British waters on 8 August. Shackleton delayed his own departure until 27 September, meeting the ship in Buenos Aires.^[80] HP G62-120SW Battery

Whilst Shackleton led the expedition, the Endurance was captained by Cpt. F. Worsley DSO. Lt. J. Stenhouse DSC captained the Aurora. HP G62-121EE Battery

On the Endurance the second in command was the experienced explorer, Frank Wild. The meteorologist was Cpt. L. Hussey (also an able banjo player). Dr. McIlroy was head of the scientific staff, which included Wordie. Dr. Macklin was the vet, HP G62-125EK Battery

in charge of keeping the 70 dogs healthy. Tom Crean was in more immediate charge as head dog-handler. Other crew included James, Hussey, Greenstreet, and Clark (the biologist). Of later independent fame was the photographer Frank Hurley. HP G62-125EL Battery

The known dogs' names are Shakespeare, Samson, Hercules (the strongest), Smiler, Surly, and Sire.^[81]

LOSS OF ENDURANCE

Endurance departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on 5 December, heading for Vahsel Bay. As the ship moved southward, early ice was encountered, which slowed progress. Deep in the Weddell Sea conditions gradually grew worse until, HP G62-125EV Battery

on 19 January 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice floe.^[82] On 24 February, realising that she would be trapped until the following spring, Shackleton ordered the abandonment of ship's routine and her conversion to a winter station.^[83] HP G62-125SL Battery

 She drifted slowly northward with the ice through the following months. When spring arrived in September the breaking of the ice and its later movements put extreme pressures on the ship's hull.^[84HP G62-130 Battery

Until this point Shackleton had hoped that the ship, when she was released from the ice, could work her way back towards Vahsel Bay. On 24 October, however, water began pouring in. After a few days, with the position at 69° 5′ S, 51° 30′ W, HP G62-130EG Battery

Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, saying, "She's going down!"; and men, provisions and equipment were transferred to camps on the ice.^[85] On 21 November 1915, the wreck finally slipped beneath the surface.^[86] HP G62-130EK Battery

For almost two months Shackleton and his party camped on a large, flat floe, hoping that it would drift towards Paulet Island, approximately 250 miles (402 km) away, where it was known that stores were cached.^[87] HP G62-130ET Battery

After failed attempts to march across the ice to this island, Shackleton decided to set up another more permanent camp (Patience Camp) on another floe, and trust to the drift of the ice to take them towards a safe landing.^[88] HP G62-130EV Battery

By 17 March their ice camp was within 60 miles (97 km) of Paulet Island^[89] but, separated by impassable ice, they were unable to reach it. On 9 April their ice floe broke into two, and Shackleton ordered the crew into the lifeboats, to head for the nearest land.^[90] HP G62-130SD Battery

After five harrowing days at sea the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island, 346 miles from where the Endurance sank.^[81] This was the first time they had stood on solid ground for 497 days.^[91] HP G62-130SL Battery

Shackleton's concern for his men was such that he gave his mittens to photographer Frank Hurley, who had lost his during the boat journey. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result.^[92]
Elephant Island was an inhospitable place, HP G62-134CA Battery

far from any shipping routes. Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 800 mile distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available.^[93] The strongest of the tiny 20-foot (6.1 m) lifeboats, christened James Caird after the expedition's chief sponsor, HP G62-135EV Battery

was chosen for the trip.^[93]Ship's carpenter Harry McNish made various improvements, including raising the sides, strengthening the keel, building a makeshift deck of wood and canvas, and sealing the work with oil paint and seal blood.^[93] HP G62-140EL Battery

Shackleton chose five companions for the journey: Frank Worsley, Endurance's captain, who would be responsible for navigation; Tom Crean, who had "begged to go"; two strong sailors in John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy, HP G62-140EQ Battery

and finally the carpenter McNish.^[93] Shackleton had clashed with McNish during the time when the party was stranded on the ice, but, while he would not forgive the carpenter's earlier insubordination, Shackleton recognised his value for this particular job.^[h][94][95] HP G62-140ES Battery

Shackleton refused to pack supplies for more than four weeks, knowing that if they did not reach South Georgia within that time, the boat and its crew would be lost.^[96] The James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916; during the next fifteen days it sailed through the waters of the southern ocean, HP G62-140ET Battery

at the mercy of the stormy seas, in constant peril of capsizing. On 8 May, thanks to Worsley's navigational skills, the cliffs of South Georgia came into sight but hurricane-force winds prevented the possibility of landing. The party were forced to ride out the storm offshore, HP G62-140SF Battery

in constant danger of being dashed against the rocks. They would later learn that the same hurricane had sunk a 500-ton steamer bound for South Georgia from Buenos Aires.^[97] On the following day they were able, finally, to land on the unoccupied southern shore. HP G62-140SS Battery

After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast, Shackleton decided to attempt a land crossing of the island. Although it is likely that Norwegian whalers had previously crossed at other points on ski, HP G62-140US Battery

no one had attempted this particular route before.^[98] Leaving McNish, Vincent and McCarthy at the landing point on South Georgia, Shackleton travelled 32 miles (51 km)^[81] with Worsley and Crean over mountainous terrain for 36 hours to reach the whaling station at Stromness on 20 May.^[99] HP G62-143CL Battery

The next successful crossing of South Georgia was in October 1955, by the British explorer Duncan Carse, who travelled much of the same route as Shackleton's party. In tribute to their achievement he wrote: "I do not know how they did it, except that they had to–three men of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration with 50 feet of rope between them–and a carpenter's adze".^[100] HP G62-144DX Battery

RESCUE

Shackleton immediately sent a boat to pick up the three men from the other side of South Georgia while he set to work to organise the rescue of the Elephant Island men, who had been isolated there for four and a half months. His first three attempts were foiled by sea ice, HP G62-145NR Battery

which blocked the approaches to the island. He appealed to the Chilean government, which offered the use of Yelcho, a small seagoing tug from its navy. Yelcho reached Elephant Island on 30 August, and Shackleton quickly evacuated all 22 men.^[102] The Yelcho took the crew to Valparaiso in Chile where crowds warmly welcomed them back to civilisation. HP G62-147NR Battery

There remained the men of the Ross Sea Party, who were stranded at Cape Evans in McMurdo Sound, after Aurora had been blown from its anchorage and driven out to sea, unable to return. The ship, after a drift of many months, HP G62-149WM Battery

had returned to New Zealand. Shackleton travelled there to join Aurora, and sailed with her to the rescue of the Ross Sea party. This group, despite many hardships, had carried out its depot-laying mission to the full, but three lives had been lost, including that of its commander, Aeneas Mackintosh.^[103] HP G62-150EE Battery

World War I

When Shackleton returned to England in May 1917 Europe was in the midst of World War I. Suffering from a heart condition, made worse by the fatigue of his arduous journeys, and too old to be conscripted, he nevertheless volunteered for the army. Repeatedly requesting posting to the front in France^[104] he was by now drinking heavily.^[105][106] HP G62-150EF Battery

In October 1917 he was sent to Buenos Aires to boost British propaganda in South America. Unqualified as a diplomat, he was unsuccessful in persuading Argentina and Chile to enter the war on the Allied side.^[107] He returned home in April 1918. HP G62-150EQ Battery

Shackleton was then briefly involved in a mission to Spitzbergen to establish a British presence there under guise of a mining operation.^[108] On the way he was taken ill in Tromsø, possibly with a heart attack. Appointment to a military expedition to Murmansk obliged him to return home before departing for northern Russia.^[108] HP G62-150ET Battery

Four months after the 11 November 1918 Armistice was signed he was back in England, full of plans for the economic development of Northern Russia. In the midst of seeking capital these foundered when the region fell to Bolshevik control.^[109] HP G62-150EV Battery

Shackleton returned to the lecture circuit and published his own account of the Endurance expedition, South, in December 1919.^[110] For his war effort in North Russia, Shackleton was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).^[111] HP G62-150SE Battery

In 1920, tired of the lecture circuit, Shackleton began to consider the possibility of a last expedition. He thought seriously of going to the Beaufort Sea area of the Arctic, a largely unexplored region, and raised some interest in this idea from the Canadian government.^[112] HP G62-150SF Battery

With funds supplied by a former schoolfriend John Quiller Rowett he acquired a 125 ton Norwegian sealer, named Foca I which he renamed Quest.^[112][113] The plan changed; the destination became the Antarctic, and the project was defined by Shackleton as an "oceanographic and sub-antarctic expedition".^[112] HP G62-150SL Battery

The goals of the venture were imprecise, but a circumnavigation of the Antarctic continent and investigation of some "lost" sub-Antarctic islands, such asTuanaki, were mentioned as objectives.^[114][115] HP G62-153CA Battery

Rowett agreed to finance the entire expedition, which became known as the Shackleton-Rowett Expedition, and which left England on 24 September 1921.^[114] HP G62-154CA Battery

Although some of his former crew members had not received all of their pay from the Endurance expedition, many of them signed on with their former "Boss".^[114] When the party arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Shackleton suffered a suspected heart attack.^[116]He refused a proper medical examination, so Quest continued south, and on 4 January 1922 arrived at South Georgia.. HP G62-165SL Battery

In the early hours of the next morning Shackleton summoned the expedition's physician, Alexander Macklin,^[117] to his cabin, complaining of back pains and other discomfort. According to Macklin's own account, Macklin told him he had been overdoing things and should try to HP G62-166SB Battery

"lead a more regular life", to which Shackleton answered: "You are always wanting me to give up things, what is it I ought to give up?" "Chiefly alcohol, Boss," replied Macklin. A few moments later, at 2:50 a.m. on 5 January 1922, Shackleton suffered a fatal heart attack.^[117] HP G62-200XX Battery

Macklin, who conducted the postmortem, concluded that the cause of death was atheroma of the coronary arteries exacerbated by "overstrain during a period of debility".^[118] Leonard Hussey, a veteran of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition, offered to accompany the body back to Britain; however, HP G62-201XX Battery

while he was in Montevideo en route to England, a message was received from Emily Shackleton asking that her husband be buried in South Georgia. Hussey returned to South Georgia with the body on the steamerWoodville, HP G62-219WM Battery

and on 5 March 1922 Shackleton was buried in the Grytviken cemetery, South Georgia, after a short service in the Lutheranchurch.^[119] Macklin wrote in his diary: "I think this is as "the Boss" would have had it himself, standing lonely in an island far from civilisation, surrounded by stormy tempestuous seas, & in the vicinity of one of his greatest exploits." HP G62-251XX Battery

On 27 November 2011, the ashes of Frank Wild were interred on the right-hand side of Shackleton's grave site in Grytviken. The inscription on the rough-hewn granite block set to mark the spot reads "Frank Wild 1873–1939, Shackleton's right-hand man."^[120] HP G62-400 Battery

Legacy

Before the return of Shackleton's body to South Georgia, there was a memorial service held for him with full military honours at Holy Trinity Church,Montevideo, and on 2 March a service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, London, HP G62-450SA Battery

at which the King and other members of the royal family were represented.^[119]Within a year the first biography, The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton, by Hugh Robert Mill, was published. This book, as well as being a tribute to the explorer, was a practical effort to assist his family; HP G62-451SA Battery

Shackleton died some £40,000 in debt (2011: £1.6 million).^[42][121] A further initiative was the establishment of a Shackleton Memorial Fund, which was used to assist the education of his children and the support of his mother.^[122] HP G62-452SA Battery

During the ensuing decades Shackleton's status as a polar hero was generally outshone by that of Captain Scott. Scott's polar party had by 1925 been commemorated in Britain alone by more than 30 monuments, including stained glass windows, statues, HP G62-454TU Battery

busts and memorial tablets.^[123] A statue of Shackleton designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens was unveiled at the Royal Geographical Society'sKensington headquarters in 1932,^[124] but public memorials to Shackleton were relatively few. Likewise, the printed word saw much more attention given to Scott–a forty-page booklet on Shackleton, HP G62-456TU Battery

published in 1943 by OUP as part of a "Great Exploits" series, is described by cultural historian Stephanie Barczewski as "a lone example of a popular literary treatment of Shackleton in a sea of similar treatments of Scott". This disparity continued into the 1950s.^[125] HP G62-460TX Battery

In 1959 Alfred Lansing's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage was published. This was the first of a number of books about Shackleton that began to appear, showing him in a highly positive light. At the same time, HP G62-467TX Battery

attitudes towards Scott were gradually changing as a more critical note was sounded in the literature, culminating in Roland Huntford's 1979 treatment of him in his dual biography Scott and Amundsen, described by Barczewski as a "devastating attack".^[126] HP G62-468TX Battery

This negative picture of Scott became accepted as the popular truth^[127] as the kind of heroism that Scott represented fell victim to the cultural shifts of the late twentieth century.^[126] HP G62-550EE Battery

Within a few years he was thoroughly overtaken in public esteem by Shackleton, whose popularity surged while that of his erstwhile rival declined. In 2002, in a BBC poll conducted to determine the "100 Greatest Britons", Shackleton was ranked eleventh while Scott was down in 54th place.^[128] HP G62-a00 Battery

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In 2001 Margaret Morrell and Stephanie Capparell presented Shackleton as a model for corporate leadership in their book Shackleton's Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Antarctic Explorer. They wrote: "Shackleton resonates with executives in today's business world. HP G62-a01SA Battery

His people-centred approach to leadership can be a guide to anyone in a position of authority".^[129] Other management writers were soon following this lead, using Shackleton as an exemplar for bringing order from chaos. HP G62-a03SA Battery

The Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter (United Kingdom) offers a course on Shackleton, who also features in the management education programmes of several American universities.^[130] In Boston USA a "Shackleton School" was set up on "Outward Bound" principles, with the motto "The Journey is Everything".^[130] HP G62-a04EA Battery

Shackleton has also been cited as a model leader by the US Navy, and in a textbook on Congressional leadership, Peter L Steinke calls Shackleton the archetype of the "nonanxious leader" whose "calm, reflective demeanor becomes the antibiotic warning of the toxicity of reactive behaviour".^[130] HP G62-a04SA Battery

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The Athy Heritage Centre-Museum, Athy, County Kildare, Ireland established in 2001 the Ernest Shackleton Autumn School, which is held annually, to honour the memory of Ernest Shackleton and to commemorate the era of heroic polar exploration. HP G62-a13SA Battery

Shackleton's death marked the end of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, a period of discovery characterised by journeys of geographical and scientific exploration in a largely unknown continent without any of the benefits of modern travel methods or radio communication. HP G62-a13SE Battery

In the preface to his book The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry-Garrard, one of Scott's team on the Terra Nova Expedition, wrote: "For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organisation, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time".^[131] HP G62-a15EO Battery

In 2002, Channel 4 produced Shackleton, a TV serial depicting the 1914 expedition with Kenneth Branagh in the title role. Broadcast in the United States on theA&E Network, it won two Emmy Awards.^[132] HP G62-a15SA Battery

On 15 February 2011 the 137th anniversary of Shackleton's birth was celebrated with a Google Doodle on the search company's homepage.^[133] In a 2011 Christie's auction in London, a biscuit that Shackleton gave "a starving fellow traveller" on the 1907–09 Nimrod expedition sold for £1250.^[134] HP G62-a16SA Battery

Funeral

Nelson's corpse was unloaded from the Victory at the Nore. It was taken to Greenwichand placed in a lead coffin, and that in another wooden one, made from the mast ofL'Orient which had been salvaged after the Battle of the Nile. HP G62-a17EA Battery

He lay in state in the Painted Hall at Greenwich for three days, before being taken up river aboard a barge, accompanied by Lord Hood, Sir Peter Parker, and the Prince of Wales.^[215] The Prince of Wales at first announced his intention to attend the funeral as chief mourner, HP G62-a17SA Battery

but later attended in a private capacity with his brothers when his father George III reminded him that it was against protocol for the Heir to the Throne to attend the funerals of anyone except members of the Royal Family.^[216] HP G62-a18SA Battery

 The coffin was taken into the Admiralty for the night, attended by Nelson's chaplain, Alexander Scott.^[215] The next day, 9 January, a funeral procession consisting of 32 admirals, over a hundred captains, and an escort of 10,000 soldiers took the coffin from the Admiralty to St Paul's Cathedral. HP G62-a19EA Battery

After a four-hour service he was interred within a sarcophagus originally carved for Cardinal Wolsey.^[217] The sailors charged with folding the flag draping Nelson's coffin and placing it in the grave instead tore it into fragments, with each taking a piece as a memento.^[218] HP G62-a19SA Battery

Assessment

Scott Pierre Nicolas Legrand's Apotheosis of Nelson, c. 1805–18. Nelson ascends into immortality as the Battle of Trafalgar rages in the background. He is supported byNeptune, whilst Fame holds a crown of stars as a symbol of immortality over Nelson's head. A grieving Britannia holds out her arms, whilst Hercules, Mars, Minerva and Jupiterlook on. HP G62-a20SA Battery

Nelson was regarded as a highly effective leader, and someone who was able to sympathise with the needs of his men. He based his command on love rather than authority, inspiring both his superiors and his subordinates with his considerable courage, HP G62-a21EA Battery

commitment and charisma, dubbed 'the Nelson touch'.^[219][220] Nelson combined this talent with an adept grasp of strategy and politics, making him a highly successful naval commander. However, Nelson's personality was complex, often characterised by a desire to be noticed, HP G62-a21SA Battery

was not given sufficient credit for his actions.^[221]This led him to take risks, and to enthusiastically publicise his resultant successes.^[222]Nelson was also highly confident in his abilities, determined and able to make important decisions.^[223] HP G62-a22SA Battery

His active career meant that he was considerably experienced in combat, and was a shrewd judge of his opponents, able to identify and exploit his enemies' weaknesses.^[219] He was often prone to insecurities however, as well as violent mood swings,^[224HP G62-a22SE Battery

^] and was extremely vain: he loved to receive decorations, tributes and praise.^[225] Despite his personality, he remained a highly professional leader and was driven all his life by a strong sense of duty.^[224] Nelson's fame reached new heights after his death, and he came to be regarded as one of Britain's greatest military heroes, HP G62-a23SA Battery

ranked alongside the Duke of Marlborough and the Duke of Wellington.^[226] In the BBC's 100 Greatest Britons programme in 2002, Nelson was voted the ninth greatest Briton of all time.^[227] HP G62-a24SA Battery

Aspects of Nelson's life and career were controversial, both during his lifetime and after his death. His affair with Emma Hamilton was widely remarked upon and disapproved of, to the extent that Emma was denied permission to attend Nelson's funeral and was subsequently ignored by the government, HP G62-a25EA Battery

which awarded money and titles to Nelson's legitimate family.^[228] Nelson's actions during the reoccupation of Naples have also been the subject of debate: his approval of the wave of reprisals against the Jacobins who had surrendered under the terms agreed by Cardinal Ruffo, HP G62-a25SA Battery

and his personal intervention in securing the execution of Caracciolo, are considered by some biographers, such asRobert Southey, to have been a shameful breach of honour. Prominent contemporary politician Charles James Fox was among those who attacked Nelson for his actions at Naples, declaring in the House of Commons HP G62-a26SA Battery

I wish that the atrocities of which we hear so much and which I abhor as much as any man, were indeed unexampled. I fear that they do not belong exclusively to the French ... Naples for instance has been what is called "delivered",HP G62-a27SA Battery

and yet, if I am rightly informed, it has been stained and polluted by murders so ferocious, and by cruelties of every kind so abhorrent, that the heart shudders at the recital ... [The besieged rebels] demanded that a British officer should be brought forward, HP G62-a28SA Battery

and to him they capitulated. They made terms with him under the sanction of the British name ... Before they sailed their property was confiscated, numbers ... were thrown into dungeons, and some of them, I understand, notwithstanding the British guarantee, were actually executed.^[229] HP G62-a29EA Battery

Other pro-republican writers produced books and pamphlets decrying the events in Naples as atrocities.^[230] Later assessments, including one by Andrew Lambert, HP G62-a29SA Battery

have stressed that the armistice had not been authorised by the King of Naples, and that the retribution meted out by the Neapolitans was not unusual for the time. Lambert also suggests that Nelson in fact acted to put an end to the bloodshed, using his ships and men to restore order in the city.^[230] HP G62-a30SA Battery

LEGACY

Nelson's influence continued long after his death, and saw periodic revivals of interest, especially during times of crisis in Britain. In the 1860s Poet Laureate Alfred Tennysonappealed to the image and tradition of Nelson, in order to oppose the defence cuts being made by Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone.^[231] HP G62-a38EE Battery

First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher was a keen exponent of Nelson during the early years of the twentieth century, and often emphasised his legacy during his period of naval reform.^[232] Winston Churchill also found Nelson to be a source of inspiration during the Second World War.^[233] HP G62-a40SA Battery

Nelson has been frequently depicted in art and literature; he appeared in paintings by Benjamin West andArthur William Devis, and in books and biographies by John McArthur, James Stanier Clarke and Robert Southey.^[234] HP G62-a43SA Battery

A number of monuments and memorials were constructed across the country to honour his memory and achievements, with work beginning on Dublin's monument to Nelson,Nelson's Pillar, in 1808.^[235] In Montreal, a statue was started in 1808 and completed in 1809.^[236] HP G62-a44EE Battery

Others followed around the world, with London's Trafalgar Square being created in his memory in 1835 and the centrepiece, Nelson's Column, finished in 1843.^[237] HP G62-a44SA Battery

Titles

Nelson's titles, as inscribed on his coffin and read out at the funeral by the Garter King at Arms, Sir Isaac Heard, were: HP G62-a45SA Battery

The Most Noble Lord Horatio Nelson, Viscount and Baron Nelson, of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk, Baron Nelson of the Nile and of Hilborough in the said County, Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, HP G62-a50SG Battery

Vice Admiral of the White Squadron of the Fleet, Commander in Chief of his Majesty's Ships and Vessels in the Mediterranean, Duke of Bronté in the Kingdom of Sicily, Knight Grand Cross of the Sicilian Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit, Member of the Ottoman Order of the Crescent, Knight Grand Commander of the Order of St Joachim.^[238] HP G62-a53SG Battery

He was a Colonel of the Royal Marines and voted a Freeman of Bath, Salisbury, Exeter,Plymouth, Monmouth, Sandwich, Oxford, Hereford, and Worcester.^[239] The University of Oxford, in full Congregation, bestowed the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law upon Nelson in 1802.^[240] HP G62-a60SA Battery

In July 1799, Nelson was created Duke of Bronté (Duca di Bronté), of the Kingdom of Sicily (after 1816, existing in the nobility of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), by the King Ferdinand, and after briefly experimenting with the signature "Brontë Nelson of the Nile" signed himself "Nelson & Brontë" HP G62-b00SA Battery

for the rest of his life.^[241] Nelson had no legitimate children; his daughter, Horatia, subsequently married the Rev. Philip Ward, with whom she had ten children before her death in 1881.^[242] Because Lord Nelson died without legitimate issue, HP G62-b09SA Battery

his viscountcy and his barony created in 1798, both "of the Nile and of Burnham Thorpe in the County of Norfolk", became extinct upon his death.^[243] However, the barony created in 1801, "of the Nile and of Hilborough in the County of Norfolk",HP G62-b10SA Battery

passed by a special remainder, which included Lord Nelson's father and sisters and their male issue, to Lord Nelson's brother, The Reverend William Nelson. William Nelson was created Earl Nelson and Viscount Merton of Trafalgar and Merton in the County of Surrey in recognition of his brother's services, and also inherited the Dukedom of Bronté.^[244] HP G62-b11SA Battery

ARMORIAL BEARINGS

Arms were originally granted and confirmed on 20 October 1797. The original Nelson family arms were altered to accommodate his naval victories. After the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, Nelson was dubbed a Knight of the Bath and granted heraldic supportersof a sailor and a lion.^[245] HP G62-b12SA Battery

 In honour of the Battle of the Nile of 1798, the Crown granted him an augmentation of arms that may be blazoned "on a chief wavy argent a palm tree between a disabled ship and a ruinous battery all issuant from waves of the sea all proper", the motto, HP G62-b13EA Battery

Palmam qui meruit ferat (‘let him who has earned it bear the palm’), and added to his supporters a palm branch in the hand of the sailor and the paw of the lion, and a "tri-colored flag and staff in the mouth of the latter" ^[246] [247] After his death, his older brother and heir was granted the augmentation "on a fess wavy overall azure the word TRAFALGAR Or". ^[248HP G62-b13SA Battery

Return to sea

Nelson was appointed commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet and given the first-rate HMS Victory as his flagship. He joined her at Portsmouth, where he received orders to sail to Malta and take command of a squadron there before joining the blockade ofToulon.^[187] HP G62-b14SA Battery

 Nelson arrived off Toulon in July 1803 and spent the next year and a half enforcing the blockade. He was promoted to Vice Admiral of the White while still at sea, on 23 April 1804.^[188] In January 1805 the French fleet, under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, HP G62-b15SA Battery

escaped Toulon and eluded the blockading British. Nelson set off in pursuit but after searching the eastern Mediterranean he learned that the French had been blown back into Toulon.^[189] Villeneuve managed to break out a second time in April, and this time succeeded in passing through the Strait of Gibraltar and into the Atlantic, bound for the West Indies.^[189] HP G62-b16EA Battery

Nelson gave chase, but after arriving in the Caribbean spent June in a fruitless search for the fleet. Villeneuve had briefly cruised around the islands before heading back to Europe, in contravention of Napoleon's orders.^[190] HP G62-b16SA Battery

The returning French fleet was intercepted by a British fleet under Sir Robert Calder and engaged in the Battle of Cape Finisterre, but managed to reach Ferrol with only minor losses.^[191] Nelson returned to Gibraltar at the end of July, and travelled from there to England, HP G62-b17EO Battery

dismayed at his failure to bring the French to battle and expecting to be censured.^[192] To his surprise he was given a rapturous reception from crowds who had gathered to view his arrival, while senior British officials congratulated him for sustaining the close pursuit and credited him for saving the West Indies from a French invasion.^[192HP G62-b17SA Battery ^] Nelson briefly stayed in London, where he was cheered wherever he went, before visiting Merton to see Emma, arriving in late August. He entertained a number of his friends and relations there over the coming month, and began plans for a grand engagement with the enemy fleet, one that would surprise his foes by forcing a pell-mell battle on them.^[193] HP G62-b17SA Battery

Captain Henry Blackwood arrived at Merton early on 2 September, bringing news that the French and Spanish fleets had combined and were currently at anchor in Cádiz. Nelson hurried to London where he met with cabinet ministers and was given command of the fleet blockading Cádiz. HP G62-b18SA Battery

It was at one of these meetings on 12 September, with Lord Castlereagh the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, that the famous meeting between Nelson and the future Duke of Wellington took place. In a waiting room Wellington waited to be debriefed on his Indian operations and Nelson on his chase and future plans. HP G62-b19SA Battery

Wellington later recalled, 'He (Nelson) entered at once into conversation with me, if I can call it conversation, for it was almost all on his side and all about himself and, in reality, a style so vain and so silly as to surprise and almost disgust me.' ^[194] HP G62-b20SA Battery

However, after a few minutes Nelson left the room and having been told who his companion was returned in a very different fashion and entered into an earnest and intelligent discussion with the young Wellesley, for a quarter of an hour, on the war, HP G62-B20so Battery

the state of the colonies and the geopolitical situation, that left a marked impression upon each. This was the only meeting between the two men who achieved the greatest victories on land and sea of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and came to be recognised as, perhaps, the United Kingdom's foremost military heroes. HP G62-b21SA Battery

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Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the British Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). HP Pavilion dv3-2020ei Battery

The battle was the most decisive British naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led byAdmiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the south-west coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost. HP Pavilion dv3-2020el Battery

The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the previous century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy, HP Pavilion dv3-2020et Battery

which involved engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results. HP Pavilion dv3-2020tx Battery

Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Spanish AdmiralFederico Gravina escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle. HP Pavilion dv3-2021tx Battery

In 1805, the First French Empire, under Napoleon Bonaparte, was the dominant military land power on the European continent, while the British Royal Navy controlled the seas. During the course of the war, the British imposed a naval blockade on France, HP Pavilion dv3-2022tx Battery

which affected trade and kept the French from fully mobilising their own naval resources. Despite several successful evasions of the blockade by the French navy, it failed to inflict a major defeat upon the British. The British were able to attack French interests at home and abroad with relative ease. HP Pavilion dv3-2023tx Battery

When the Third Coalition declared war on France, after the short-lived Peace of Amiens, Napoleon was determined to invade Britain. To do so, he needed to ensure that the Royal Navy would be unable to disrupt the invasion flotilla, which would require control of the English Channel. HP Pavilion dv3-2024tx Battery

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The main French fleets were at Brest in Brittany and at Toulon on the Mediterranean coast. Other ports on the French Atlantic coast harboured smaller squadrons. France and Spain were allied, so the Spanish fleet based in Cadiz and Ferrol was also available. HP Pavilion dv3-2025eg Battery

The British possessed an experienced and well-trained corps of naval officers.^[3] By contrast, most of the best officers in the French navy had been either executed or dismissed from the service during the early part of the French Revolution. HP Pavilion dv3-2025tx Battery

As a result, Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was the most competent senior officer available to command Napoleon's Mediterranean fleet. However, Villeneuve had shown a distinct lack of enthusiasm for facing Nelson and the Royal Navy after the defeat at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. HP Pavilion dv3-2026tx Battery

Napoleon's naval plan in 1805 was for the French and Spanish fleets in the Mediterranean and Cadiz to break through theblockade and join forces in the Caribbean. They would then return, assist the fleet in Brest to emerge from the blockade, and together clear the English Channel of Royal Navy ships, ensuring a safe passage for the invasion barges. HP Pavilion dv3-2027ee Battery

THE CARIBBEAN

Early in 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson commanded the British fleet blockading Toulon. Unlike William Cornwallis, who maintained a tight blockade of Brest with the Channel Fleet, Nelson adopted a loose blockade in hopes of luring the French out for a major battle. However, HP Pavilion dv3-2027tx Battery

Villeneuve's fleet successfully evaded Nelson's when the British were blown off station by storms. While Nelson was searching the Mediterranean for him, erroneously supposing that Villeneuve intended to make for Egypt, Villeneuve passed through the Strait of Gibraltar, rendezvoused with the Spanish fleet, and sailed as planned to the Caribbean. Once Nelson realised that the French had crossed the Atlantic Ocean, he set off in pursuit.^[4] HP Pavilion dv3-2028tx Battery

CÁDIZ

Villeneuve returned from the Caribbean to Europe, intending to break the blockade at Brest, but after two of his Spanish ships were captured during the Battle of Cape Finisterre by a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Robert Calder, Villeneuve abandoned this plan and sailed back to Ferrol. There he received orders from Napoleon to resume to Brest according to the main plan. HP Pavilion dv3-2029tx Battery

Napoleon's invasion plans for England depended entirely on having a sufficiently large number of ships of the line beforeBoulogne, France. HP Pavilion dv3-2030ef Battery

This would require Villeneuve's force of 33 ships to join Vice-Admiral Ganteaume's force of 21 ships at Brest, along with a squadron of 5 ships under Captain Allemand, which would have given him a combined force of 59 ships of the line. HP Pavilion dv3-2030ei Battery

When Villeneuve set sail from Ferrol on 10 August, he was under orders from Napoleon to sail northward toward Brest. HP Pavilion dv3-2030ek Battery

 Instead, he worried that the British were observing his manoeuvres, so on 11 August he sailed southward towards Cadiz on the southwestern coast of Spain. With no sign of Villeneuve's fleet by 26 August, the three French army corps' invasion force near Boulogne broke camp and marched to Germany, where it was later engaged. HP Pavilion dv3-2030eo Battery

The same month, Nelson returned home to England after two years of duty at sea, for some rest. He remained ashore for 25 days, and was warmly received by his countrymen, who were nervous about a possible French invasion. Word reached England on 2 September about the combined French and Spanish fleet in the harbour of Cadiz. Nelson had to wait until 15 September before his ship HMS Victory was ready to sail. HP Pavilion dv3-2030ez Battery

On 15 August, Cornwallis decided to detach 20 ships of the line from the fleet guarding the Channel and to have them sail southward to engage the enemy forces in Spain. This left the Channel denuded of ships, with only 11 ships of the line present. HP Pavilion dv3-2030tx Battery

However, this detached force formed the nucleus of the British fleet that would fight at Trafalgar. This fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Calder, reached Cadiz on 15 September. Nelson joined the fleet on 29 September to take command. HP Pavilion dv3-2032tx Battery

The British fleet used frigates to keep a constant watch on the harbour, while the main force remained out of sight 50 miles (80 km) west of the shore. Nelson's hope was to lure the combined Franco-Spanish force out and engage them in a "pell-mell battle". HP Pavilion dv3-2033eg Battery

The force watching the harbour was led by Captain Blackwood, commanding HMS Euryalus. He was brought up to a strength of seven ships (five frigates and two schooners) on 8 October. HP Pavilion dv3-2033tx Battery

SUPPLY SITUATION

At this point, Nelson's fleet badly needed provisioning. On 2 October, five ships of the line, HMS Queen, HMS Canopus, HMS Spencer, HMS Zealous, HMS Tigre, and the frigate HMS Endymion were dispatched to Gibraltar under Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis for supplies. HP Pavilion dv3-2034tx Battery

These ships were later diverted for convoy duty in the Mediterranean, though Nelson had expected them to return. Other British ships continued to arrive, and by 15 October the fleet was up to full strength for the battle. Nelson also lost Calder's flagship, HP Pavilion dv3-2036tx Battery

the 98-gun Prince of Wales, which he sent home as Calder had been recalled by the Admiralty to face a court martial for his apparent lack of aggression during the engagement off Cape Finisterre on 22 July. HP Pavilion dv3-2050ea Battery

Meanwhile, Villeneuve's fleet in Cadiz was also suffering from a serious supply shortage that could not be readily rectified by the cash-strapped French. The blockades maintained by the British fleet had made it difficult for the allies to obtain stores and their ships were ill fitted. Villeneuve's ships were also more than two thousand men short of the force needed to sail.

HP Pavilion dv3-2050ec Battery

These were not the only problems faced by the Franco-Spanish fleet. The main French ships of the line had been kept in harbour for years by the British blockades with only brief sorties. The French crews contained few experienced sailors, and, HP Pavilion dv3-2050ep Battery

as most of the crew had to be taught the elements of seamanship on the few occasions when they got to sea, gunnery was neglected. The hasty voyage across the Atlantic and back used up vital supplies. Villeneuve's supply situation began to improve in October, but news of Nelson's arrival made Villeneuve reluctant to leave port. Indeed, his captains had held a vote on the matter and decided to stay in the harbour. HP Pavilion dv3-2050es Battery

On 16 September, Napoleon gave orders for the French and Spanish ships at Cadiz to put to sea at the first favourable opportunity, join with seven Spanish ships of the line then at Cartagena, go to Naples and land the soldiers they carried to reinforce his troops there, and fight with decisive action if they met a British fleet of inferior numbers. HP Pavilion dv3-2051ea Battery

On 21 October, Admiral Nelson had 27 ships-of-the-line. His flagship, HMS Victory, was one of three 100-gunfirst rates in his fleet. He also had four 98-gun second rates and twenty third rates. One of the third rates was an 80-gun vessel and sixteen were 74-gun vessels. HP Pavilion dv3-2055ea Battery

The remaining three were 64-gun ships, which were being phased out of the Royal Navy at the time of the battle. Nelson also had four frigates of 38 or 36 guns, a 12-gun schooner and a 10-gun cutter. HP Pavilion dv3-2080eo Battery

FRANCO-SPANISH

Against Nelson, Vice-Admiral Villeneuve fielded 33 ships-of-the-line, including some of the largest in the world at the time. The Spanish contributed four first-rates to the fleet. Three of these ships, one at 136 guns(Santisima Trinidad)and two at 112 guns(Principe de Asturias, Santa Anna), HP Pavilion dv3-2090ej Battery

were much larger than anything under Nelson's command. The fourth first-rate carried 100 guns. The fleet had six 80-gun third-rates, HP Pavilion dv3-2090en Battery

(four French and two Spanish), and one French 64-gun third-rate. The remaining 22 third-rates were 74-gun vessels, of which fourteen were French and eight Spanish. In total the Spanish contributed 15 ships of the line and the French 18. The fleet also included five 40-gun frigates and two 18-gun brigs, all French. HP Pavilion dv3-2100 Battery

The prevailing tactical orthodoxy at the time involved manoeuvring to approach the enemy fleet in a single line of battle and then engaging in parallel lines. Before this time the fleets had usually been involved in a mêlée with the fleets becoming mixed together. HP Pavilion dv3-2101tu Battery

One of the reasons for the development of the line of battle was to help the admiral control the fleet. If all the ships were in line, signalling in battle became possible. The line also had defensive properties, allowing either side to disengage by breaking away in formation. HP Pavilion dv3-2101tx Battery

If the attacker chose to continue combat their line would be broken as well. Often this latter tactic led to inconclusive battles or allowed the losing side to reduce its losses. Nelson wished to see a conclusive battle. HP Pavilion dv3-2102tu Battery

His solution to the problem was to deliberately cut the opposing line in three. Approaching in two columns sailing perpendicular to the enemy's line, one towards the centre of the opposing line and one towards the trailing end, his ships would break the enemy formation into three, surround one third, HP Pavilion dv3-2102tx Battery

and force them to fight to the end. Nelson hoped specifically to cut the line just in front of the flagship; the isolated ships in front of the break would not be able to see the flagship's signals, hopefully taking them out of combat while they reformed. HP Pavilion dv3-2103tx Battery

The intention of going straight at the enemy echoed the tactics used byAdmiral Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown and Admiral Jervis at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, both in 1797. HP Pavilion dv3-2105ee Battery

The plan had three principal advantages. First, it would allow the British fleet to close with the Franco-Spanish fleet as quickly as possible, reducing the chance that it would be able to escape without fighting. Second, HP Pavilion dv3-2105tu Battery

it would quickly bring on a mêlée and frantic battle by breaking the Franco-Spanish line and inducing a series of individual ship-to-ship fights, in which the British were likely to prevail. Nelson knew that the better seamanship, faster gunnery, and higher morale of his crews were great advantages. HP Pavilion dv3-2106tu Battery

Third, it would bring a decisive concentration on the rear of the Franco-Spanish fleet. The ships in the van of the enemy fleet would have to turn back to support the rear, and this would take a long time. Additionally, once the Franco-Spanish line had been broken, their ships would be relatively defenceless to powerful broadsides from the British fleet, and would take a long time to reposition to return fire. HP Pavilion dv3-2107tu Battery

The main drawback of attacking head on was that as the leading British ships approached, the Franco-Spanish ships would be able to direct at their bows a raking broadside fire to which they would be unable to reply. In order to lessen the time the fleet was exposed to this danger, Nelson had his ships make all available sail (including stuns'ls). HP Pavilion dv3-2108tu Battery

This was yet another departure from the norm. Nelson was also well aware that French and Spanish gunners were ill-trained, would probably be supplemented with soldiers, and would have difficulty firing accurately from a moving gun platform. HP Pavilion dv3-2110er Battery

 The Combined Fleet was sailing across a heavy swell, causing the ships to roll heavily and exacerbating these problems. Nelson's plan was indeed a gamble, but a carefully calculated one. HP Pavilion dv3-2112tx Battery

During the period of blockade off the coast of Spain in October, Nelson instructed his captains, over two dinners aboard Victory, on his plan for the approaching battle. The order of sailing, in which the fleet was arranged when the enemy was first sighted, was to be the order of ensuing battle, so that no time would be wasted in forming a precise line. HP Pavilion dv3-2115ea Battery

The attack was to be made in two bodies; one led by his second in command, Collingwood, was to throw itself on the rear of the enemy, while the other, led by Nelson, was to take care of the centre and vanguard. In preparation for the battle, Nelson ordered the ships of his fleet painted in a distinctive yellow and black pattern (later known as the Nelson Chequer) that would make them easy to distinguish from their opponents. HP Pavilion dv3-2115ee Battery

Nelson was careful to point out that something had to be left to chance. Nothing is sure in a sea fight, and he left his captains free from all hampering rules by telling them that "No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy." HP Pavilion dv3-2116tx Battery

In short, circumstances would dictate the execution, subject to the guiding rule that the enemy's rear was to be cut off and superior force concentrated on that part of the enemy's line. HP Pavilion dv3-2117tx Battery

Admiral Villeneuve himself expressed his belief that Nelson would use some sort of unorthodox attack, stating specifically that he believed he would drive right at his lines. But his long game of cat and mouse with Nelson had worn him down, HP Pavilion dv3-2119tx Battery

and he was suffering from a loss of nerve. Arguing that the inexperience of his officers meant he would not be able to maintain formation in more than one group, he chose not to act on his accurate assessment of Nelson's intentions. HP Pavilion dv3-2120ea Battery

DEPARTURE

The Combined Fleet of French and Spanish warships anchored in Cadiz and under the leadership of Admiral Villeneuve was in disarray. On 16 September 1805 Villeneuve received orders from Napoleon to sail the Combined Fleet from Cadiz to Naples. HP Pavilion dv3-2120ss Battery

At first Villeneuve was optimistic about returning to theMediterranean but soon had second thoughts. A war council was held aboard his flagship, Bucentaure, on 8 October. While some of the French captains wished to obey Napoleon's orders, HP Pavilion dv3-2121tx Battery

the Spanish captains and other French officers, including Villeneuve, thought it best to remain in Cadiz. Villeneuve changed his mind yet again on 18 October 1805, ordering the Combined Fleet to sail immediately even though there were only very light winds.^[5] HP Pavilion dv3-2122tx Battery

The sudden change was prompted by a letter Villeneuve had received on 18 October, informing him that Vice-Admiral François Rosily had arrived in Madrid with orders to take command of the Combined Fleet. Stung by the prospect of being disgraced before the fleet, HP Pavilion dv3-2123tx Battery

Villeneuve resolved to go to sea before his successor could reach Cadiz. At the same time, he received intelligence that a detachment of six British ships (Admiral Louis' squadron) had docked at Gibraltar, thus weakening the British fleet. This was used as the pretext for sudden change. HP Pavilion dv3-2125ee Battery

The weather, however, suddenly turned calm following a week of gales. This slowed the progress of the fleet leaving the harbour, giving the British plenty of warning. Villeneuve had drawn up plans to form a force of four squadrons, each containing both French and Spanish ships. HP Pavilion dv3-2126tx Battery

Following their earlier vote on 8 October to stay put, some captains were reluctant to leave Cadiz and as a result they failed to follow Villeneuve's orders closely. As a result, the fleet straggled out of the harbour in no particular formation. HP Pavilion dv3-2129tx Battery

It took most of 20 October for Villeneuve to get his fleet organised, and it set sail in three columns for the Straits of Gibraltar to the southeast. That same evening, Achille spotted a force of 18 British ships of the line in pursuit. The fleet began to prepare for battle and during the night, they were ordered into a single line. HP Pavilion dv3-2130ea Battery HP Pavilion dv3-2130ef Battery

The following day, Nelson's fleet of 27 ships of the line and four frigates was spotted in pursuit from the northwest with the wind behind it. Villeneuve again ordered his fleet into three columns, but soon changed his mind and ordered a single line. The result was a sprawling, uneven formation. HP Pavilion dv3-2130ei Battery

The British fleet was sailing, as they would fight, under signal 72 hoisted on Nelson's flagship. At 5:40 a.m., the British were about 21 miles (34 km) to the northwest of Cape Trafalgar, with the Franco-Spanish fleet between the British and the Cape. At 6 a.m. that morning, Nelson gave the order to prepare for battle. HP Pavilion dv3-2130es Battery

At 8 a.m., Villeneuve ordered the fleet to wear together and turn back for Cadiz. This reversed the order of the Allied line, placing the rear division under Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley in the vanguard. The wind became contrary at this point, HP Pavilion dv3-2130ez Battery

often shifting direction. The very light wind rendered manoeuvering virtually impossible for all but the most expert crews. The inexperienced crews had difficulty with the changing conditions, HP Pavilion dv3-2131tx Battery

and it took nearly an hour and a half for Villeneuve's order to be completed. The French and Spanish fleet now formed an uneven, angular crescent, with the slower ships generally leeward and closer to the shore. HP Pavilion dv3-2133tx Battery

By 11 a.m. Nelson's entire fleet was visible to Villeneuve, drawn up in two parallel columns. The two fleets would be within range of each other within an hour. Villeneuve was concerned at this point about forming up a line, as his ships were unevenly spaced and in an irregular formation. The Franco-Spanish fleet was drawn out nearly five miles (8 km) long as Nelson's fleet approached. HP Pavilion dv3-2135tx Battery

As the British drew closer, they could see that the enemy was not sailing in a tight order, but rather in irregular groups. Nelson could not immediately make out the French flagship as the French and Spanish were not flying command pennants. HP Pavilion dv3-2136tx Battery

Nelson was outnumbered and outgunned, the enemy totalling nearly 30,000 men and 2,568 guns to his 17,000 men and 2,148 guns. The Franco-Spanish fleet also had six more ships of the line, and so could more readily combine their fire. There was no way for some of Nelson's ships to avoid being "doubled on" or even "trebled on".HP Pavilion dv3-2137tx Battery

As the two fleets drew closer, anxiety began to build among officers and sailors, one British sailor described the time before thus: "During this momentous preparation, the human mind had ample time for meditation, for it was evident that the fate of England rested on this battle".^[6] HP Pavilion dv3-2138tx Battery

The battle progressed largely according to Nelson's plan. At 11:45, Nelson sent the famous flag signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty".HP Pavilion dv3-2139tx Battery

The term England was widely used at the time to refer to the United Kingdom, though the British fleet included significant contingents from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Unlike the photographic depiction, this signal would have been shown on themizzen mast only and would have required 12 'lifts'. HP Pavilion dv3-2140ei Battery

As the battle opened, the French and Spanish were in a ragged curved line headed north. As planned, the British fleet was approaching the Franco-Spanish line in two columns. Leading the northern, windward column in Victory was Nelson, HP Pavilion dv3-2140eo Battery

 while Collingwood in the 100-gun Royal Sovereign led the second, leeward, column. The two British columns approached from the west at nearly a right angle to the enemy line. HP Pavilion dv3-2144tx Battery

Nelson led his column into a feint toward the van of the Franco-Spanish fleet and then abruptly turned toward the actual point of attack. Collingwood altered the course of his column slightly so that the two lines converged at this line of attack. HP Pavilion dv3-2145tx Battery

Just before his column engaged the allied forces, Collingwood said to his officers, "Now, gentlemen, let us do something today which the world may talk of hereafter." Because the winds were very light during the battle, all the ships were moving extremely slowly, and the foremost British ships were under heavy fire from several of the enemy ships for almost an hour before their own guns could bear. HP Pavilion dv3-2146tx Battery

At noon, Villeneuve sent the signal "engage the enemy", and Fougueux fired her first trial shot at Royal Sovereign.^[9][10][11]Royal Sovereign had all sails out and, having recently had her bottom cleaned, outran the rest of the British fleet. HP Pavilion dv3-2147tx Battery

As she approached the allied line, she came under fire from Fougueux, Indomptable, San Justo and San Leandro, before breaking the line just astern of Admiral Alava's flagship Santa Ana, into which she fired a devastating double-shotted raking broadside. HP Pavilion dv3-2149tx Battery

The second ship in the British lee column, Belleisle, was engaged by L'Aigle, Achille, Neptune and Fougueux; she was soon completely dismasted, unable to manoeuvre and largely unable to fight, as her sails blinded her batteries, but kept flying her flag for 45 minutes until the following British ships came to her rescue. HP Pavilion dv3-2150ec Battery

For 40 minutes, Victory was under fire from Héros, Santísima Trinidad, Redoutable and Neptune; although many shots went astray, others killed and wounded a number of her crew and shot away her wheel, so that she had to be steered from her tiller belowdecks. HP Pavilion dv3-2150ej Battery

Victory could not yet respond. At 12:45, Victory cut the enemy line between Villeneuve's flagship Bucentaure andRedoutable. Victory came close to the Bucentaure, firing a devastating raking broadside through her stern which killed and wounded many on her gundecks. HP Pavilion dv3-2150el Battery

Villeneuve thought that boarding would take place, and with the Eagle of his ship in hand, told his men, "I will throw it onto the enemy ship and we will take it back there!" However Admiral Nelson of Victory engaged the 74 gun Redoutable. Bucentaure was left to be dealt with by the next three ships of the British windward column: Temeraire,Conqueror and Neptune. HP Pavilion dv3-2150ep Battery

A general mêlée ensued and, during that fight, Victory locked masts with the French Redoutable. The crew of the Redoutable, which included a strong infantry corps (with three captains and four lieutenants), gathered for an attempt to board and seize the Victory. HP Pavilion dv3-2150es Battery

A musket bullet fired from the mizzentop of the Redoutable struck Nelson in the left shoulder, passed through his spine at the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae, and lodged two inches below his right scapula in the muscles of his back. Nelson exclaimed, "They finally succeeded, I am dead." He was carried below decks. HP Pavilion dv3-2150ev Battery

Victory ceased fire, the gunners having been called on the deck to fight the capture, but were forced below decks by Frenchgrenades. As the French were preparing to board Victory, the Temeraire, the second ship in the British windward column, approached from the starboard bow of the Redoutable and fired on the exposed French crew with a carronade, causing many casualties. HP Pavilion dv3-2150tx Battery

At 13:55, Captain Lucas, of the Redoutable, with 99 fit men out of 643 and severely wounded himself, surrendered. The FrenchBucentaure was isolated by the Victory and Temeraire, and then engaged by Neptune, Leviathan and Conqueror; similarly, theSantísima Trinidad was isolated and overwhelmed, surrendering after three hours. HP Pavilion dv3-2150us Battery

As more and more British ships entered the battle, the ships of the allied centre and rear were gradually overwhelmed. The allied van, after long remaining quiescent, made a futile demonstration and then sailed away. The British took 22 vessels of the Franco-Spanish fleet and lost none. HP Pavilion dv3-2154ca Battery

 Among the taken French ships were the L'Aigle, Algésiras, Berwick, Bucentaure,Fougueux, Intrépide, Redoutable, and Swiftsure. The Spanish ships taken were Argonauta, Bahama, Monarca, Neptuno, San Agustín, San Ildefonso, San Juan Nepomuceno, Santísima Trinidad, HP Pavilion dv3-2155ee Battery

and Santa Ana. Of these, Redoutable sank, Santísima Trinidadand Argonauta were scuttled by the British and later sank, Achille exploded, Intrépide and San Augustín burned, and L'Aigle,Berwick, Fougueux, and Monarca were wrecked in a gale following the battle. HP Pavilion dv3-2157cl Battery

As Nelson lay dying, he ordered the fleet to anchor, as a storm was predicted. However, when the storm blew up, many of the severely damaged ships sank or ran aground on the shoals. A few of them were recaptured, some by the French and Spanish prisoners overcoming the small prize crews, HP Pavilion dv3-2160eo Battery

others by ships sallying from Cadiz. Surgeon William Beatty heard Nelson murmur, "Thank God I have done my duty"; when he returned, Nelson's voice had faded and his pulse was very weak.^[12] He looked up as Beatty took his pulse, then closed his eyes. HP Pavilion dv3-2175ee Battery

Nelson's chaplain, Alexander Scott, who remained by Nelson as he died, recorded his last words as "God and my country."^[13] It has been suggested by Nelson historian Craig Cabell that Nelson was actually reciting his own prayer as he fell into his death coma, as the words 'God' and 'my country' are closely linked therein. Nelson died at half-past four, three hours after being hit.^[12] HP Pavilion dv3-2200 Battery

Towards the end of the battle, and with the combined fleet being overwhelmed, the still relatively un-engaged portion of the van under Rear-Admiral Dumanoir Le Pelley tried to come to the assistance of the collapsing centre. After failing to fight his way through, he decided to break off the engagement, HP Pavilion dv3-2225TX Battery

and led four French ships, his flagship the 80-gun Formidable, and the 74-gun ships Scipion and Duguay Trouin and Mont Blanc away from the fighting. He at first headed for the Straits of Gibraltar, intending to carry out Villeneuve's original orders, HP Pavilion dv3-2301tu Battery

and make for Toulon.^[14] On 22 October he changed his mind, remembering a powerful British squadron under Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis was patrolling the straits, and headed north, hoping to reach one of the French Atlantic ports. With a storm gathering in strength off the Spanish coast, HP Pavilion dv3-2301tx Battery

he sailed westwards to clear Cape St Vincent, prior to heading north-west, and then swinging eastwards across theBay of Biscay, aiming to reach the French port at Rochefort.^[14] These four ships would remain at large until their encounter with and attempt to chase a British frigate brought them in range of a British squadron under Sir Richard Strachan, which captured them all on 4 November 1805 at the Battle of Cape Ortegal.^[14] HP Pavilion dv3-2303tx Battery

STORM AND SORTIE

Only eleven ships escaped to Cadiz, and of those, only five were considered seaworthy. The seriously wounded Admiral Gravina passed command of the remainder of the fleet over to Captain Julien Cosmao on 23 October, who determined to make an attempt to recapture some of the prizes. HP Pavilion dv3-2304tx Battery

He ordered the rigging of his ship, the 80-gun Pluton, to be repaired and reinforced her crew (which had been depleted by casualties from the battle) with sailors from the French frigate Hermione. HP Pavilion dv3-2305tx Battery

Taking advantage of a favourable north-westerly wind, he took the Pluton, the Neptune (another 80-gun), the 74-gun Indomptable, the Spanish 100-gun Rayo and 74-gun San Francisco de Asis, together with five frigates and two brigs, out of the harbour towards the British.^[15][16] HP Pavilion dv3-2306tx Battery

The British cast off the prizes

Soon after leaving port the wind shifted to west-south-west, raising a heavy sea with the result that most of the British prizes broke their tow-ropes, and, drifting far to leeward, were only partially re-secured. The combined squadron came in sight at noon, HP Pavilion dv3-2307tx Battery

causing Collingwood to summon his most battle-ready ships to meet the threat. In doing so, he ordered them to cast off towing their prizes. He had formed a defensive line of ten ships by three o'clock in the afternoon, and approached the Franco-Spanish squadron, covering the remainder of their prizes which stood out to sea.^[16][17] HP Pavilion dv3-2308tx Battery

The Franco-Spanish squadron chose not to approach within gunshot and then declined to attack.^[18] Collingwood also chose not seek action, and in the confusion of the powerful storm the French frigates managed to retake two Spanish ships of the line which had been cast off by their British captors, HP Pavilion dv3-2309tx Battery

the 112-gun Santa Ana and 80-gun Neptuno, taking them in tow and making for Cadiz.^[19] On being taken in tow the Spanish crews rose up against their British prize crews, putting them to work as prisoners.^[11][20][21] HP Pavilion dv3-2310ea Battery

Despite this initial success the Franco-Spanish force, hampered by battle damage, struggled in the heavy seas. The Neptunowas eventually wrecked off Rota in the gale, while the Santa Ana reached port.^[22] HP Pavilion dv3-2310er Battery

The French 80-gun ship Indomptable was wrecked on the 24th or 25th off the town of Rota on the north-west point of the bay of Cádiz.^[21] At the time the Indomptable had on board 1,200 men but no more than 100 were saved. The San Francisco de Asís was driven ashore in Cádiz Bay, near Fort Santa-Catalina, though her crew was saved. HP Pavilion dv3-2310sw Battery

The Rayo, an old three-decker with more than 50 years of service, anchored off Lucar, a few leagues to the north-west of Rota. There the Rayo lost her masts; they had been damaged by shot earlier.^[21] Heartened by the approach of the squadron, HP Pavilion dv3-2310tx Battery

the French crew of the former flagship Bucentaure also rose up and retook the ship from the British prize crew, but she was wrecked later on 23 October. The Aigle, escaped from the British ship HMS Defiance but was wrecked off the port of Santa María on 23 October, HP Pavilion dv3-2311tx Battery

while the French prisoners on the Berwick cut the tow cables, but caused her to founder off Sanlúcar on 22 October. The crew of the Algesiras rose up and managed to sail into Cádiz.^[11] HP Pavilion dv3-2312tx Battery

Observing that some of the leewardmost of the prizes were escaping towards the Spanish coast, HMS Leviathan asked for and was granted permission by Collingwood to try to retrieve the prizes and bring them to anchor. HP Pavilion dv3-2313tx Battery

Leviathan went in chase of theMonarca, but on 24 October she came across the Rayo, dismasted but still flying Spanish colours, at anchor off the shoals of San-Lucar.^[23] At this point the 74-gun HMS Donegal, enroute from Gibraltar under Captain Pulteney Malcolm, HP Pavilion dv3-2314tx Battery

was seen approaching from the south on the larboard tack with a moderate breeze from north-west-by-north, and steered directly for the Spanish three-decker.^[23] At about ten o'clock, just as the Monarca had got within little more than a mile of the Rayo,Leviathan fired a warning shot wide of the Monarca, HP Pavilion dv3-2315tx Battery

in order to oblige her to drop anchor. The shot fell between the Monarcaand the Rayo, the latter, conceiving probably that it was intended for her, hauled down her colours, and was taken by HMSDonegal, who anchored alongside and took off the prisoners.^[23] HP Pavilion dv3-2316tx Battery

Leviathan resumed her pursuit of the Monarca, eventually catching up and forcing her to surrender. On boarding her, her British captors found that she was in a sinking state, and so removed the British prize crew, and nearly all of her Spanish crew. HP Pavilion dv3-2317tx Battery

The nearly empty Monarca parted her cable and was wrecked during the night. Despite the efforts of her British prize crew, the Rayo was driven onshore on 26 October and wrecked, with the loss of twenty-five of the prize crew. The remainder were made prisoners by the Spanish. HP Pavilion dv3-2319tx Battery

Aftermath

In the aftermath of the storm, Collingwood wrote:

The condition of our own ships was such that it was very doubtful what would be their fate. Many a time I would have given the whole group of our capture, to ensure our own... I can only say that in my life I never saw such efforts as were made to save these [prize] ships, and would rather fight another battle than pass through such a week as followed it. HP Pavilion dv3-2320ep Battery

  —Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood to the Admiralty, November 1805.^[24]

On balance, the Allied counter-attack achieved little. In forcing the British to suspend their repairs in order to defend themselves, it influenced Collingwood's decision to sink or set fire to the most damaged of his remaining prizes.^[19] HP Pavilion dv3-2320es Battery

 Cosmao retook two Spanish ships of the line, but it cost him one French and two Spanish vessels to do so. Fearing their loss, the British burnt or sank the Santisima Trinidad, Argonauta, San Antonio and Intrepide.^[11] HP Pavilion dv3-2321tx Battery

Only four of the British prizes, the French Swiftsure, the Spanish Bahama, San Ildefonso, and the Spanish San Juan Nepomuceno survived to be conducted to England.^[19]After the end of the battle and storm only nine ships of the line were left in Cádiz.^[15][25] HP Pavilion dv3-2322tx Battery

Results of the battle

When Rosily arrived in Cadiz, he found only five French ships, rather than the 18 he was expecting. The surviving ships remained bottled up in Cadiz until 1808, when Napoleon invaded Spain. The French ships were then seized by the Spanish forcesand put into service against France. HP Pavilion dv3-2323tx Battery

HMS Victory made her way to Gibraltar for repairs, carrying Nelson's body. She put into Rosia Bay, Gibraltar and after emergency repairs were carried out, returned to England. Many of the injured crew were brought ashore at Gibraltar and treated in the Naval Hospital. HP Pavilion dv3-2324tx Battery

Men who subsequently died from injuries sustained at the battle are buried in or near theTrafalgar Cemetery, at the south end of Main Street, Gibraltar. HP Pavilion dv3-2326tx Battery

One Royal Marine officer was killed on board Victory, Captain Charles Adair. Royal Marine Lieutenant Lewis Buckle Reeve was seriously wounded and lay next to Nelson.^[26] HP Pavilion dv3-2327tx Battery

The battle took place the day after the Battle of Ulm, and Napoleon did not hear about it for weeks—the Grande Armée had left Boulogne to fight Britain's allies before they could combine a huge force. He had tight control over the Paris media and kept the defeat a closely guarded secret. In a propaganda move, the battle was declared a "spectacular victory" by the French and Spanish.^[27] HP Pavilion dv3-2329tx Battery

Vice-Admiral Villeneuve was taken prisoner aboard his flagship and taken back to England. After his parole in 1806 and return to France, Villeneuve was found in his inn room during a stop on the way to Paris stabbed six times in the chest with a dining knife. It was recorded that he had committed suicide. HP Pavilion dv3-2330tx Battery

Despite the British victory over the Franco-Spanish navies, Trafalgar had negligible impact on the remainder of the War of the Third Coalition. Less than two months later, Napoleon decisively defeated the Third Coalition at the Battle of Austerlitz, HP Pavilion dv3-2340ez Battery

knocking Austria out of the war and forcing the dissolution of theHoly Roman Empire. Though Trafalgar meant France could no longer challenge Britain at sea, Napoleon proceeded to establish the Continental System in an attempt to deny Britain trade with the continent. The Napoleonic Wars would continue for another ten years after Trafalgar.^[28] HP Pavilion dv3-2350ed Battery

Nelson’s body was put into a barrel of rum to preserve his body for the trip home so he could have a hero’s funeral.^[6] HP Pavilion dv3-2350ee Battery

Consequences

Following the battle, the Royal Navy was never again seriously challenged by the French fleet in a large-scale engagement. Napoleon had already abandoned his plans of invasion before the battle and they were never revived. HP Pavilion dv3-2350el Battery

The battle did not mean, however, that the French naval challenge to Britain was over. First, as the French control over the continent expanded, Britain had to take active steps in 1807 and 1808 to prevent the ships of smaller European navies from falling into French hands. HP Pavilion dv3-2355ee Battery

effort was largely successful, but did not end the French threat as Napoleon instituted a large scale shipbuilding program that produced a fleet of 80 ships of the line at the time of his fall from power in 1814, with more under construction. In comparison Britain had 99 ships of the line in active commission in 1814, HP Pavilion dv3-2360ee Battery

and this was close to the maximum that could be supported. Given a few more years, the French could have realised their plans to commission 150 ships of the line and again challenge the Royal Navy, compensating for the inferiority of their crews with sheer numbers.^[29] HP Pavilion dv3-2380eg Battery

 For almost 10 years after Trafalgar the Royal Navy maintained a close blockade of French bases and anxiously observed the growth of the French fleet. In the end, Napoleon's Empire was destroyed before the ambitious buildup could be completed. HP Pavilion dv3-2390eg Battery

Nelson became – and remains – Britain's greatest naval war hero, and an inspiration to the Royal Navy, yet his unorthodox tactics were seldom emulated by later generations. The first monument to be erected in Britain to commemorate Nelson was raised on Glasgow Green in 1806, HP Pavilion dv3-2390eo Battery

preceded by a monument at Taynuilt, near Oban dated 1805, both also commemorating the many Scots crew and captains at the battle.^[30][31] The 144 feet (44 m) tall Nelson Monument on Glasgow Green was designed by David Hamilton and paid for by public subscription. HP Pavilion dv3t-2000 Battery

Around the base are the names of his famous victories: Aboukir (1798),Copenhagen (1801) and Trafalgar (1805). In 1808, Nelson's Pillar was erected in Dublin to commemorate Nelson and his achievements (many sailors at Trafalgar had been Irish^[32][33]), HP Pavilion g4-1010us Battery

and remained until it was destroyed in a bombing by "Old IRA" members in 1966.^[30] Nelson's Monument in Edinburgh was built between 1807 and 1815 in the form of an upturned telescope, HP Pavilion g4-1011nr Battery

and in 1853 a time ball was added which still drops at noon GMT to give a time signal to ships in Leith and the Firth of Forth. In summer this coincides with the one o'clock gun being fired. The Britannia Monument in Great Yarmouth was raised by 1819HP Pavilion g4-1013tx Battery

London's famous Trafalgar Square was named in honour of his victory, and Nelson's statue on Nelson's Column, finished in 1843, towers triumphantly over it. The statue of Lord Nelson in Bridgetown, Barbados, in what was also once known as Trafalgar Square, was erected in 1813. HP Pavilion g4-1014tx Battery

The disparity in losses has been attributed by some historians less to Nelson's daring tactics than to the difference in fighting readiness of the two fleets.^[34] HP Pavilion g4-1015tx Battery

Nelson's fleet was made up of ships of the line which had spent considerable amount of sea time during months of blockades of French ports, whilst the French fleet had generally been at anchor in port. However, HP Pavilion g4-1016tx Battery

Villeneuve's fleet had just spent months at sea crossing the Atlantic twice, which supports the proposition that the main difference between the two fleets' combat effectiveness was the morale of the leaders. The daring tactics employed by Nelson were to ensure a strategically decisive result. The results vindicated his naval judgement. HP Pavilion g4-1017tu Battery

The Royal Navy proceeded to dominate the seas for the remaining years of sail. Although the victory at Trafalgar was typically given as the reason at the time, modern analysis by historians suggest that relative economic strength was an important underlying cause of British naval mastery. HP Pavilion g4-1018tu Battery

100th anniversary

In 1905, there were events up and down the country to commemorate the centenary, although none were attended by any member of the Royal Family, apparently to avoid upsetting the French, with whom the United Kingdom had recently entered the Entente cordiale.^[35] HP Pavilion g4-1020us Battery

King Edward VII did support the Nelson Centenary Memorial Fund of the British and Foreign Sailors Society, which sold Trafalgar centenary souvenirs marked with the Royal cypher. A gala was held on 21 October at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the fund, HP Pavilion g4-1021tx Battery

which included a specially commissioned film by Alfred John West entitled "Our Navy".^[36] The event ended with God Save the King and La Marseillaise^[37] The first performance of Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songsoccurred on the same day at a special Promenade Concert.^[38] HP Pavilion g4-1022TU Battery

200th anniversary In 2005, a series of events around the UK, as part of the Sea Britain theme, marked the bicentenary. The 200th anniversary of the battle-Trafalgar 200- was also marked by six days of celebrations in Portsmouth during June and July, and at St Paul's Cathedral (where Nelson is entombed) and in Trafalgar Square in London in October (T Square 200), as well as across the rest of the UK. HP Pavilion g4-1022tx Battery

On 28 June, the Queen was involved in the biggest Fleet Review in modern times in the Solent, in which 167 ships from 35 nations took part. The Queen inspected the international fleet from the Antarctic patrol ship HMS Endurance. HP Pavilion g4-1023TU Battery

The fleet included six carriers: Charles De Gaulle, Illustrious, Invincible, Ocean, Príncipe de Asturias and Saipan. In the evening a symbolic re-enactment of the battle was staged with fireworks and various small ships playing parts in the battle. HP Pavilion g4-1026TX Battery

Lapenotière's historic voyage in HMS Pickle bringing the news of victory from the fleet to Falmouth and thence by post chaise to theAdmiralty in London, was commemorated by the inauguration of The Trafalgar Way and further highlighted by the New Trafalgar Dispatchcelebrations from July to September, in which an actor played the part of Lapenotière and reenacted parts of the historic journey. HP Pavilion g4-1027TX Battery

On 21 October, naval manoeuvres were conducted in Trafalgar Bay, near Cadiz, involving a combined fleet from Britain, Spain and France. Many descendants of those men who fought and died in these waters, including members of Nelson's family, were present at the ceremony.^[39] HP Pavilion g4-1038tx Battery

Nelson returned briefly to Merton to set his affairs in order and bid farewell to Emma, before travelling back to London and then on to Portsmouth, arriving there early in the morning of 14 September. He breakfasted at the George Inn with his friends George Rose, HP Pavilion g4-1047tx Battery

the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, and George Canning, the Treasurer of the Navy. During the breakfast word spread of Nelson's presence at the inn and a large crowd of well wishers gathered. They accompanied Nelson to his barge and cheered him off, HP Pavilion g4-1048tx Battery

which Nelson acknowledged by raising his hat. Nelson was recorded as having turned to his colleague and stated, "I had their huzzas before: I have their hearts now".^{[195][196][197]}Robert Southey reported that of the onlookers for Nelson's walk to the dock, "Many were in tears and many knelt down before him and blessed him as he passed".^[198] HP Pavilion g4-1049tu Battery

Victory joined the British fleet off Cádiz on 27 September, Nelson taking over from Rear-Admiral Collingwood.^[199] He spent the following weeks preparing and refining his tactics for the anticipated battle and dining with his captains to ensure they understood his intentions.^[200] HP Pavilion g4-1050tx Battery

Nelson had devised a plan of attack that anticipated the allied fleet would form up in a traditional line of battle. Drawing on his own experience from the Nile and Copenhagen, and the examples of Duncan at Camperdown and Rodney at the Saintes, HP Pavilion g4-1051xx Battery

Nelson decided to split his fleet into squadrons rather than forming it into a similar line parallel to the enemy.^[201] These squadrons would then cut the enemy's line in a number of places, allowing a pell-mell battle to develop in which the British ships could overwhelm and destroy parts of their opponents' formation, before the unengaged enemy ships could come to their aid.^[201] HP Pavilion g4-1052TX Battery

PREPARATION

The combined French and Spanish fleet under Villeneuve's command numbered 33 ships of the line. Napoleon Bonaparte had intended for Villeneuve to sail into the English Channeland cover the planned invasion of Britain, HP Pavilion g4-1053TX Battery

but the entry of Austria and Russia into the war forced Napoleon to call off the planned invasion and transfer troops to Germany. Villeneuve had been reluctant to risk an engagement with the British, and this reluctance led Napoleon to order Vice-Admiral François Rosily to go to Cádiz and take command of the fleet, sail it into the Mediterranean to land troops at Naples, before making port atToulon.^[199] HP Pavilion G42 Battery

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 Villeneuve decided to sail the fleet out before his successor arrived.^[199] On 20 October 1805 the fleet was sighted making its way out of harbour by patrolling British frigates, HP Pavilion g6-1000 Battery

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and Nelson was informed that they appeared to be headed to the west.^[202] HP Pavilion g4t-1000 CTO Battery

At four o'clock in the morning of 21 October Nelson ordered the Victory to turn towards the approaching enemy fleet, and signalled the rest of his force to battle stations. He then went below and made his will, before returning to the quarterdeck to carry out an inspection.^[203] HP Pavilion g6-1006tu Battery

Despite having 27 ships to Villeneuve's 33, Nelson was confident of success, declaring that he would not be satisfied with taking fewer than 20 prizes.^[203] He returned briefly to his cabin to write a final prayer, after which he joined Victory’s signal lieutenant, John Pasco. HP Pavilion g6-1008tx Battery

Mr Pasco, I wish to say to the fleet "England confides that every man will do his duty". You must be quick, for I have one more signal to make, which is for close action.^[204] HP Pavilion g6-1009tx Battery

Pasco suggested changing 'confides' to 'expects', which being in the Signal Book, could be signalled by the use of a single flag, whereas 'confides' would have to spelt out letter by letter. Nelson agreed, and the signal was hoisted.^[204] HP Pavilion g6-1010tx Battery

As the fleets converged, the Victory’s captain, Thomas Hardy suggested that Nelson remove the decorations on his coat, so that he would not be so easily identified by enemy sharpshooters. Nelson replied that it was too late 'to be shifting a coat', adding that they were 'military orders and he did not fear to show them to the enemy'.^[205] HP Pavilion g6-1011tx Battery

Captain Henry Blackwood, of the frigate HMS Euryalus, suggested Nelson come aboard his ship to better observe the battle. Nelson refused, and also turned down Hardy's suggestion to let Eliab Harvey's HMS Temeraire come ahead of the Victory and lead the line into battle.^[205] HP Pavilion g6-1012tx Battery

BATTLE IS JOINED

Victory came under fire, initially passing wide, but then with greater accuracy as the distances decreased. A cannon ball struck and killed Nelson's secretary, John Scott, nearly cutting him in two. HP Pavilion g6-1013tu Battery

Hardy's clerk took over, but he too was almost immediately killed.Victory’s wheel was shot away, and another cannon ball cut down eight marines. Hardy, standing next to Nelson on the quarterdeck, had his shoe buckle dented by a splinter. Nelson observed 'this is too warm work to last long'.^[206] HP Pavilion g6-1013tx Battery

 The Victory had by now reached the enemy line, and Hardy asked Nelson which ship to engage first. Nelson told him to take his pick, and Hardy moved Victory across the stern of the 80-gun French flagshipBucentaure.^[206] HP Pavilion g6-1014tu Battery

Victory then came under fire from the 74-gun Redoutable, lying off theBucentaure’s stern, and the 130-gun Santísima Trinidad. As snipers from the enemy ships fired onto Victory’s deck from their rigging, Nelson and Hardy continued to walk about, directing and giving orders.^[206] HP Pavilion g6-1014tx Battery

NELSON IS HIT

Shortly after one o'clock, Hardy realised that Nelson was not by his side. He turned to see Nelson kneeling on the deck, supporting himself with his hand, before falling onto his side. Hardy rushed to him, at which point Nelson smiled HP Pavilion g6-1015tu Battery

  Hardy, I do believe they have done it at last… my backbone is shot through.^[206]

He had been hit by a marksman from the Redoutable, firing at a range of 50 feet. The bullet had entered his left shoulder, passed through his spine at the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebrae, and lodged two inches below his right scapula in the muscles of his back. HP Pavilion g6-1016tu Battery

Nelson was carried below by a sergeant-major of marines and two seamen. As he was being carried down, he asked them to pause while he gave some advice to a midshipman on the handling of the tiller.^[207] He then draped a handkerchief over his face to avoid causing alarm amongst the crew. He was taken to the surgeon William Beatty, telling him HP Pavilion g6-1022tx Battery

  You can do nothing for me. I have but a short time to live. My back is shot through.^[208]

Nelson was made comfortable, fanned and brought lemonade and watered wine to drink after he complained of feeling hot and thirsty. He asked several times to see Hardy, who was on deck supervising the battle, and asked Beatty to remember him to Emma, his daughter and his friends.^[208] HP Pavilion g6-1023tx Battery

Hardy came below deck to see Nelson just after half-past two, and informed him that a number of enemy ships had surrendered. Nelson told him that he was sure to die, and begged him to pass his possessions to Emma.^[209] HP Pavilion g6-1024tx Battery

With Nelson at this point were the chaplain Alexander Scott, the purser Walter Burke, Nelson's steward, Chevalier, and Beatty. Nelson, fearing that a gale was blowing up, instructed Hardy to be sure to anchor. After reminding him to 'take care of poor Lady Hamilton', HP Pavilion g6-1025sf Battery

Nelson said 'Kiss me, Hardy'.^[209]Beatty recorded that Hardy knelt and kissed Nelson on the cheek. He then stood for a minute or two and then kissed him again. Nelson asked 'Who is that?', and on hearing that it was Hardy, replied 'God bless you, Hardy.'^[209] HP Pavilion g6-1025tx Battery

By now very weak, Nelson continued to murmur instructions to Burke and Scott, 'fan, fan ... rub, rub ... drink, drink.' Beatty heard Nelson murmur 'Thank God I have done my duty' and when he returned, Nelson's voice had faded and his pulse was very weak.^[209] HP Pavilion g6-1026tx Battery

 He looked up as Beatty took his pulse, then closed his eyes. Scott, who remained by Nelson as he died, recorded his last words as 'God and my country'.^[210] Nelson died at half-past four, three hours after he was shot.^[209] HP Pavilion g6-1027tx Battery

Return to England

Nelson's body was placed in a cask of brandy mixed with camphor and myrrh, which was then lashed to the Victory’s mainmast and placed under guard.^[211] Victory was towed toGibraltar after the battle, and on arrival the body was transferred to a lead-lined coffin filled with spirits of wine.^[211] HP Pavilion g6-1030ef Battery

Collingwood's dispatches about the battle were carried to England aboard HMS Pickle, and when the news arrived in London, a messenger was sent to Merton Place to bring the news of Nelson's death to Emma Hamilton. She later recalled HP Pavilion g6-1030tx Battery

They brought me word, Mr Whitby from the Admiralty. 'Show him in directly,' I said. He came in, and with a pale countenance and faint voice, said, 'We have gained a great Victory.' - 'Never mind your Victory,' I said. 'My letters - give me my letters' - HP Pavilion g6-1031tx Battery

Captain Whitby was unable to speak - tears in his eyes and a deathly paleness over his face made me comprehend him. I believe I gave a scream and fell back, and for ten hours I could neither speak nor shed a tear.^[212] HP Pavilion g6-1040ef Battery

King George III, on receiving the news, is alleged to have said, in tears, "We have lost more than we have gained."^[213] The Times reportedHP Pavilion g6-1040sf Battery

We do not know whether we should mourn or rejoice. The country has gained the most splendid and decisive Victory that has ever graced the naval annals of England; but it has been dearly purchased.^[213] HP Pavilion g6-1041ef Battery

The first tribute to Nelson was fittingly offered at sea by sailors of Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin's passing Russian squadron, which saluted on learning of the death.^[214] HP Pavilion g6-1042ef Battery

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