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.

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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)
• Trafalgar: The Men, the Battle, the Storm
  Tim Clayton and Phil Craig (Hodder, 2005)
• Horatio Nelson: A Controversial Hero
  Marianne Czisnik (Hodder, 2005)
• 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)
• Trafalgar y el mundo atlantico
  Agustin Guimera Ravina, Alberto Ramos Santana and Gonzalo Butron Prida (M. Pons, 2004, in Spanish)
• Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy: The Spanish Experience of Sea Power
  John D. Harbron (Conway Maritime Press, 2004)
• Naval Engagements: Patriotism, Cultural Politics, and the Royal Navy, 1793-1815
  Tim Jenks (Oxford University Press, 2006)
• The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson
  Roger Knight (Allen Lane, 2005)
• Trafalgar: 21 Octobre 1805
  Remi Monaque (Passes Composes, 2021, in French)
• The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain 1649-1815
  N.A.M. Rodger (Allen Lane, 2004)

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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.