Nelson: Britannia's God of War (45 page)

Fanny was with Edmund to the end, but his death removed her last link with the family while Nelson lived. Lord Glenbervie, who met her at Bath in 1810, considered that she had been grossly ill used, but was unimpressed with her personality: ‘she is stupid, heavy, yet fond of talking if she can find a listener. One soon sees also that she is in her nature eager to attract attention, and hurt if she is not rated as a principal personage.’
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She never did recover her role as a principal: there was no room for her in Nelson’s life after the birth of Horatia, an advantage Emma exploited to secure Nelson’s affection.

Nelson in civilian dress with Lady Hamilton

 

Emma, mistress of Merton, and of Nelson’s heart, was in her element. While Sir William lived, the three of them would be together –this, along with Nelson’s lack of concern to hide the situation, was the only unusual aspect to an otherwise mundane affair. Sir William was too wise to miss the events passing under his nose, and too cynical not to exploit them. His last years would pass in the company of the man he admired more than any other, and his devoted wife/nurse. In return for their support he played the chaperone. It was undignified, but not
unpleasant. Nelson never ceased to love his old friend, and it is likely they agreed that he would take on the expensive Emma while Hamilton left his money and estate to his nephew Greville.

With the child Horatia as her pledge, Emma had Nelson in chains –though he was besotted, anyway, readily accepting all her demands. Her campaign to discredit Fanny was a masterpiece of flattery, blackmail and power. She controlled access to Nelson, and used that control to force his family into line: even old Edmund had given in by the time he died. Emma, a whirlwind of energy and ambition, was always a step ahead of her men, scheming out the next option. When Sir William died she needed a ‘reserve’ patron, and lit on the Duke of Queensberry. She could not afford to be alone, and had skill enough to keep herself in the limelight. Whether she ever separated her need for Nelson as a protector from her love for him is unknown: she certainly possessed him and held his private life in thrall.
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Throughout his time ashore Nelson remained an admiral in waiting, a warrior at rest. He spent his energy urging the claims of his chosen followers, campaigning on the Copenhagen medal and prize-money issues, and negotiating with Lloyds Patriotic Fund for the families of those killed and wounded. One of the key elements in the creation and maintenance of an eighteenth-century naval ‘family’ was the patron’s ability to distribute rewards, with prize money as the most obvious, if not always the most important example. Prize cases could run on for years: Nelson spent part of 1802 settling the distribution of money earned in Vado Bay back in 1796, and he also settled the more fraught question of the Copenhagen prize money.
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In early 1803 Nelson proposed a round figure of £100,000; St Vincent finally settled on £60,000 and £35,000 head money – the timing suggests that the old Earl was anxious to remove as many causes of grievance as he could before Nelson went back to war.
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Although he had been a major public figure for several years, 1802 was Nelson’s only opportunity to engage with British politics. Hitherto his political connections had been restricted to an intermittent, quasi-public correspondence with Lord Spencer at the Admiralty, and personal contacts like Minto. During the Baltic campaign he had corresponded with Prime Minister Addington, opening a curious relationship with a worthy but ultimately dull politician. While Nelson was mercurial, brilliant and dynamic, Addington, the guardian of good order, sound money and stability, was the minister for the state
rather than a party leader. After being picked by the King to continue the government, he gained the support of most independent men and proved remarkably popular. These were the very qualities that attracted Nelson. He had no time for faction; indeed, in wartime he thoughtopposition tantamount to treason. Addington and Nelson shared a simple patriotism built on unwavering loyalty: the admiral admired Addington’s ‘truly patriotic feelings’ and trusted his judgement, while the Prime Minister listened carefully to Nelson’s advice, and acted on it.
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Addington, moreover, needed Nelson. His very name was a guarantee of sound defence and success in war, while his vote in the House of Lords and his occasional speeches were a powerful reinforcement for Addington’s Ministry. In turn Nelson raised key issues with the Prime Minister, having abandoned hope that St Vincent would concede on Copenhagen, prize or pensions. His appeals were carefully constructed. Nelson asked Addington to secure Royal sanction to wear a Turkish decoration awarded for Copenhagen, while noting that he would be far happier to wear the King’s gold medal for the battle, ‘the greatest and most honourable reward in the power of our sovereign to bestow, as it marks the personal services’.
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Too astute to swallow the bait Addington secured the necessary permission, while holding out hope for brother William’s episcopal ambitions.
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This relationship worked because Nelson saw it as a ‘friendship’ as well as a political connection. It even stretched to cover the interests of those southern scapegraces the King and Queen of Naples, for whom Nelson acted as a local agent.
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If Nelson was never entirely satisfied with the official response to his requests for patronage and reward, he was wise enough to keep up the connection with Addington, as the best guarantee of future satisfaction. Later, he would consider the return of Pitt a change for the worse, and saw nothing to celebrate in the underhand and factious methods employed to bring down his friend.
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The exact nature of the contact between Nelson and Addington from late 1802 is obscured by their presence in London, but the fact that it remained frequent and friendly is obvious from the sensitive national and personal issues on which Nelson wrote, and his contact with other members of the administration. It was also the period in which his rather awkward relationship with the Admiralty began to improve.

While they were all at sea, Nelson had been very close to St Vincent
and Troubridge, but their translation to the Board of Admiralty changed the relationship. He expected them to treat him as close friends, as he would have treated them had the situation been reversed. That both men felt constrained to act as his ‘superiors’ grated. He found St Vincent distant and formal, and thought it ill became Captain Troubridge to lord it over Vice Admiral Nelson. In a barbed note to Troubridge he noted, ‘when I forget an old and dear friend, may I cease to be your affectionate Nelson & Bronte.’
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He was not the only officer to resent the stiff and formal manners of St Vincent’s Board: it did not help that the old Earl was frequently unwell, and embarking on a highly contentious policy that would split the Cabinet and the service, making him many enemies.
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Nelson had only secured a few patronage trifles from the Earl before the alarming events in Europe made his goodwill priceless.
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St Vincent, narrow-minded, dogmatic and resolute, would not bend or admit his error. Both Copenhagen and the prize case made easy relations impossible, and it did not help that the Earl was not fully engaged with the rest of the government, which held a rather more astute appreciation of Nelson’s worth.
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Nelson may have been at home at last, but he could not entirely relax:the Peace of Amiens was only a truce and the signs from Europe remained threatening, while his public fame and record made it obvious that he would be back in harness if war came again. There was no time to settle, and no excuse for turning his back on the task: once ashore, he focused his hard-won and finely honed talents on the higher direction of national policy and strategy. Nelson did not share the fears of Grenville and Windham that peace with France meant destruction, but he was not blind to the dangers:

These were wise sentiments, although his analysis of France was optimistic. In the event the French were prepared to follow Bonaparte’s chariot of glory for another twelve years, renouncing him only when the enemy reached Paris.

Nelson also discussed the future of the peace with Colonel Stewart. From his post at Shorncliffe, watching the French forces at Boulogne, Stewart doubted they meant to keep the peace. Nelson’s views were based on a broader grasp of the issues. He thought Napoleon’s demands on the Swiss would bring all Europe into concert against him, because it proved that his word was worthless. There was ‘no sense but insolence in his present conduct’. He was confident the Ministers would not allow any French insult to pass, or accept any dictatorial language from them. ‘This conduct and no other will secure my support.’ Although Addington ‘will not want a proper spirit to call forth, when it is necessary, the resources of the country, and make a popular war’, he still hoped for peace.
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In late July Nelson and the Hamiltons set off to promote the claims of the new shipyard and facilities at Milford on Sir William’s Welsh estate. Along the way the party, which included William Nelson, Catherine Matcham and their families, stopped at Oxford to receive honorary doctorates: Horatio and Sir William in Civil Law, brother William in Divinity. Although turned away from Blenheim Palace by the descendants of the great Marlborough, the English warrior hero of the previous century, the party was greeted with rapturous applause in every town it passed through, and as the news spread each destination tried to outdo the last. Who needed the chilly hospitality of the great, when the unalloyed love of the people was available at every coach stop? The party travelled from Burford to Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye, before taking a river journey to Monmouth where the reception surpassed anything that had gone before. The journey through Wales was punctuated by a stop at the impressive Merthyr ironworks, before pressing on to Pembrokeshire.

At Milford Greville had laid on a grand civic occasion: Sir William presented the New Inn with the Guzzardi portrait and Nelson gave a major speech, praising his Welsh friend Foley and the town that had gathered to hang on his every word. The return leg passed through more towns, including Swansea, where civic freedoms were granted and Emma sang ‘Rule Britannia’, with an extra ‘Nelson’ verse in case anyone missed the point. She did the same when they returned to
Monmouth, while Nelson gave a speech expressing his confidence that when a British army met the French, without relying on allies, it would be as successful as the Navy. Monmouth, after all, was the birthplace of the victor of Agincourt.

Nelson’s ‘triumphal progress’ was already attracting attention in London, as the
Morning
Post
noted: ‘It is a singular fact that more éclat attends Lord Nelson in his provincial rambles than attends the King.’ He gave the speech once again in Hereford, as ever mixing piety with praise for his followers. After another triumph at Ludlow, the party stopped for a few days with Richard Payne Knight, an old friend of Sir William, and author of a scandalous book on the cult of Priapus. Thereafter the party called at Worcester, placed a large order for china and took another freedom, at the cost of a speech. Further halts only added to the pandemonium that broke out whenever he appeared. Forewarned by the provincial press, midland towns were primed for a show, long starved of anything on this scale. At Birmingham he met manufacturing colossus Matthew Boulton, before stopping at Althorp, home of Lord Spencer. When the journey ended at Merton on 5 September, Nelson had harvested the full measure of his earthly glory in forty-six days, stamping his name on the nation.