The Battle of Trafalgar
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events of 21st October 1805, in which the British fleet led by Nelson destroyed a combined Franco-Spanish fleet in the Atlantic off the coast of Spain. Nelson’s death that day was deeply mourned in Britain, and his example proved influential, and the battle was to help sever ties between Spain and its American empire. In France meanwhile, even before Nelson’s body was interred at St Paul’s, the setback at Trafalgar was overshadowed by Napoleon’s decisive victory over Russia and Austria at Austerlitz, though Napoleon’s search for his lost naval strength was to shape his plans for further conquests.
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
- James Davey
2 episodes
Lecturer in Naval and Maritime History at the University of Exeter -
Marianne Czisnik No other episodes
Independent researcher on Nelson and editor of his letters to Lady Hamilton -
Kenneth Johnson No other episodes
Research Professor of National Security at Air University, Alabama
Reading list
-
Trafalgar in History: A Battle and its Afterlife
David Cannadine (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) Google Books → -
Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm
Tim Clayton and Phil Craig (Hodder, 2005) Google Books → -
Horatio Nelson: A Controversial Hero
Marianne Czisnik (Hodder, 2005) Google Books → -
Nelson's Tactics in the Battle of Trafalgar
Marianne Czisnik (History, vol. 89, 2004) -
In Nelson's Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic War
James Davey (Yale University Press, 2015) Google Books → -
Trafalgar y el mundo atlantico
Agustin Guimera Ravina, Alberto Ramos Santana and Gonzalo Butron Prida (M. Pons, 2004, in Spanish) Google Books → -
Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy: The Spanish Experience of Sea Power
John D. Harbron (Conway Maritime Press, 2004) Google Books → -
Naval Engagements: Patriotism, Cultural Politics, and the Royal Navy, 1793-1815
Tim Jenks (Oxford University Press, 2006) Google Books → -
The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson
Roger Knight (Allen Lane, 2005) Google Books → -
Trafalgar: 21 Octobre 1805
Remi Monaque (Passes Composes, 2021, in French) Google Books → -
The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815
N.A.M. Rodger (Allen Lane, 2004) Google Books →
Related episodes
-
Napoleon’s Hundred Days
18 Apr, 2024 940 History of Europe -
Napoleon’s Retreat from Moscow
19 Sep, 2019 940 History of Europe -
Napoleon and Wellington
25 Oct, 2001 940 History of Europe -
The Spanish Armada
7 Oct, 2010 940 History of Europe -
The Fighting Temeraire
10 Nov, 2016 750 Painting -
The Franco-American Alliance 1778
22 Apr, 2021 900 History -
The Battle of Lepanto
12 Nov, 2015 940 History of Europe -
The Battle of Valmy
16 Jan, 2025 940 History of Europe -
Bolivar
30 Oct, 2008 980 History of South America -
The Siege of Malta, 1565
11 Jan, 2018 940 History of Europe
Programme ID: m0012141
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012141
Auto-category: 900 (History & Geography)
Hello (First sentence from this episode)
Hello. On the 21st of October, 1805, Horatio Nelson led the British fleet to a famous victory over the French and Spanish fleets at the Battle of Trafalgar.