Who is admiral nelson

Her handwriting in the letters reflects her upbringing: steady, straight, legible and neat. Her husband had died, probably from a tropical disease, in Emma Lyon, on the other hand, was a woman of volatile temperament; her handwriting wanders in crooked lines, her letters large and often all but unreadable.

Born in Cheshire in , she became a maid in London at about age 12; before long, she had become the mistress of Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh and bore him a daughter. When he jilted her, she took up with his friend, Charles Greville, who introduced her to the painters Sir Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, both of whom did portraits of her.

Unlike Fanny, who is remote and expressionless in her portraits, Emma appears both fetching and flirtatious. She eventually married him, acquiring in the bargain a title, a mansion and a considerable fortune.

Some were purchased by Nelson for Emma, others bestowed on him by Davison and other admirers. There are gold medals and coins—some struck by Davison, apparently to curry favor with Nelson and his men.

But the letters from Fanny are the real treasures. Davison convinced the relatively impoverished Nelson to hold out for a rich wife. Nelson had grown up the son of a country parson, the 6th of 11 children, in a little village in Norfolk called Burnham.

Nelson was commanding the frigate Boreas , interdicting trade between the British Caribbean colonies and the United States, when he met Frances Nisbet. They married in He was 29; she Her son, Josiah, then 7, would himself become a Royal Navy captain.

She and Nelson would not have children together. From to , when Britain was at peace and Nelson and other officers were forced to cool their heels at half pay, he and Fanny lived together in Norfolk, England.

But when war with revolutionary France broke out in , the navy called him back to active duty, and he took command of the Agamemnon. In , Nelson lost most of the sight from his right eye in action during an engagement near Corsica.

In , he played a significant role in defeating the French fleet at Cape Saint Vincent, for which he was knighted. The same year, Nelson lost his right arm in an attack on Santa Cruz in Tenerife and returned to England, where Fanny nursed him back to health. In that engagement, a wound to the head forced him to recuperate in Naples, where he would visit Sir William Hamilton and his wife, Emma, Lady Hamilton. In late , he began his affair with Emma, under the nose of her doddering husband, who apparently chose to overlook the matter.

Few heroes have captured the heart and the imagination more than Horatio Nelson, who died on, Oct 21, at the moment of his greatest victory. His colorful private life, coupled with his genius and daring as a naval commander, seems to make the Nelson story irresistible to every generation. He showed early promise, passing his lieutenant's exam more than a year under the official age in and being made post-captain at the age of With his own command, Nelson was in a position where his personal skills and bravery would be noticed.

Two paintings in the possession of the National Maritime Museum portray this fascinating but complicated character.

The first, begun by Jean Francis Rigaud in , was not completed until when Rigaud had to alter it to reflect a sitter who had not only been promoted but also had lost weight through illness while on duty. However, Rigaud certainly captured Nelson's determined spirit, keen eye, and a strong sense of self-confidence. These qualities gave him a presence that won the attention of nearly all who met him. In fact, Nelson's charisma soon won him a very influential friend. He had on a full laced uniform: his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff hessian tail of extraordinary length; the old-fashioned flaps of his waistcoat added to the general quaintness of his figure I had never seen anything like it before.

The second image of Nelson is very different. Painted nearly 20 years later, it shows the battered and be-medalled hero that we have come to know so well. Nelson agreed to sit for Lemuel Francis Abbott, who produced several variations of his original portrait, updating the Admiral's decorations and appearance as appropriate.

At the original sitting, Nelson was still in great pain from the amputation of his right arm. His face shows the marks of illness, fatigue, and the strain of long periods at sea. But although now almost blind in his right eye, Nelson's features reflect his zeal and indomitable spirit. His portrait does not belie the more personal pains he suffered and his struggle with his own conscience.

Now passionately in love with Emma, Lady Hamilton, wife of the aging Sir William Hamilton, Britain's ambassador at Naples, he realized that his own marriage was effectively over. Nelson's attire tells us something else. He had acquired a reputation for vanity, which sometimes got the better of his dignity. Caricaturists such as James Gillray made fun of Nelson's desire to cover himself in medals and orders in public.

His embarrassed fellow officers described him more like a prince of the opera than the hero of the Nile. When presented with a 'Chelengk', or plume of diamonds, by the Sultan of Turkey after that battle, he insisted on wearing it pinned on his cocked hat. The decoration contained a small mechanical device that, when wound, made its center rotate in a clockwise motion! For all his quirky personality traits, his charisma and bravery as a naval commander never came into question.

Nelson always led his men by example and from the front. He first made his name at the Battle of St. Vincent in February During this battle, although a commodore, he led a boarding party across first one enemy ship, and then proceeded to use that as a bridge to capture yet another.

In July the same year, he was personally involved in a boat action off Cadiz. He later recalled: 'This was a service, hand to hand with swords.

Nelson's coxswain, Sykes, standing on his right, saved the admiral's life twice that night by placing himself between Nelson and enemy cutlasses. On the second occasion, Sykes was wounded badly in the process.

Apart from illustrating Nelson's personal bravery, this incident shows the depth of the loyalty he inspired in his men, they were quite literally prepared to die for him. Read more: The armor and weaponry of the Normans. Nelson also showed a genius for taking daring but calculated risks.

The couple spent the next five years in England together, much of it at Burnham Thorpe. Frances, who had lived all her life in the West Indies, hated the bitter Norfolk winters, while Nelson became frustrated as the years passed without a ship to command.

Moreover, although Frances already had a son by her first marriage, the couple were still childless. While fighting on land at Calvi he lost almost all the sight in his right eye when he was hit in the face by gravel thrown up by a French cannonball. It was the first of a number of serious wounds suffered by Nelson — proof that while his thirst for glory might expose the men under him to risks, they were risks that he himself was willing to take. The British had the upper hand, but when Admiral Hotham broke off the action after only two ships had been captured, Nelson was frustrated and angry.

The following year saw Nelson given command of a small squadron of ships off the Italian coast. He blockaded French-held ports and captured the islands of Elba and Capraia. These exploits earned him the respect of men like Sir John Jervis, the new commander of the Mediterranean fleet, but Nelson believed that his achievements were being ignored back at home.

The year gave him the opportunity to secure the public recognition he craved. Displaying the kind of urgency so lacking in Hotham, he ordered his ships to make straight for a gap in the Spanish line, splitting the enemy fleet in two.

Nelson played a leading role in the ensuing victory, taking his ship, the Captain, out of the line to thwart a dangerous Spanish manoeuvre. More was to come. It was a quite unprecedented feat. Nelson was well aware that none of this would have been possible without the support of his captains, and was quick to thank them.

But he was equally quick to ensure that this time his actions were not overlooked. He wrote his own, unofficial, account of the battle and sent it for publication back home.

It instantly captured the public imagination and made him a national hero. Five months later, Nelson suffered his worst ever defeat when he led a naval force in a disastrous land assault on Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

A quarter of his men became casualties, and Nelson himself had his right arm amputated after it was shattered by a musket ball. But Jervis stood by him, the wound eventually healed and, helped by the popular adulation he was now receiving,. The following April, he was sent to the Mediterranean with 13 battleships to hunt down the French.

On 1 August , he found their fleet anchored in Aboukir Bay and immediately prepared to attack. Whereas most admirals at the time looked to keep a tight control on their fleets, Nelson was the opposite.

He trusted his captains implicitly and, after making sure they understood his plans, he allowed them the flexibility to decide how best to carry them out.