The Legacy of Trafalgar: Two Centuries of Contested Meaning
Dec 2005, Vol. 150, No. 6
By Andrew Lambert
While Trafalgar was immediately marked out as the ideal naval victory, for most this was simply a matter of how many ships were taken, rather than a demonstration of the highest intellectual and professional qualities. This failure to understand Trafalgar was part of the process that portrayed Nelson as a hero/god, rather than a genius. By dying at the moment of victory Nelson made Trafalgar magical. Both man and battle transcended mere matters of fact to become the talisman of a nation, and the definition of success. Jointly they gave the Royal Navy a unique status, closer to religion than reason, one that would be contested, but not countermanded. It is the argument of this paper that the historical and professional treatment of Nelson and Trafalgar is more revealing of the age in which it was created than of the events of 1805.
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By Andrew Lambert
While Trafalgar was immediately marked out as the ideal naval victory, for most this was simply a matter of how many ships were taken, rather than a demonstration of the highest intellectual and professional qualities. This failure to understand Trafalgar was part of the process that portrayed Nelson as a hero/god, rather than a genius. By dying at the moment of victory Nelson made Trafalgar magical. Both man and battle transcended mere matters of fact to become the talisman of a nation, and the definition of success. Jointly they gave the Royal Navy a unique status, closer to religion than reason, one that would be contested, but not countermanded. It is the argument of this paper that the historical and professional treatment of Nelson and Trafalgar is more revealing of the age in which it was created than of the events of 1805.
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