The Hindu : International : When Nelson, Napoleon meet in peace

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

International

International

When Nelson, Napoleon meet in peace

By Claudia Pritchard

LONDON, OCT. 15. A collaboration which their forebears could not have imagined has come about between the direct descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte and his enemy at sea, Horatio Nelson, in the run-up to the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar next year (2005).

Anna Tribe is the great-great grand-daughter of Nelson's illegitimate child Horatia and, like her own daughter Mary Arthur, has grown up a leading character in the Nelson `industry'. And her unlikely co-star in the coming year-long Trafalgar anniversary celebrations will be a descendant of Napoleon's family, Bernard de Sallis, the same number of generations removed from the Emperor, but this time through a mistress.

Descendants

The two distinguished descendants were first introduced to each other last year on the deck of Nelson's flagship HMS Victory which lies in the British naval port of Portsmouth. "It was rather fun," Ms. Tribe recalls of the meeting, and a friendship has sprung up. The pair have been meeting to compare notes of their family trees, and recently modelled their ancestors' hats at Lock's of St James's, the famous London hatters who counted Nelson among their customers. Mr. De Sallis, whose family settled in England, even served in the British Royal Navy for 20 years, although he admits to having kept his ancestry a secret while commissioned. Granting equal status to the old enemies rather than casting them firmly as aggressor (Napoleon) and saviour (Nelson) is the idea of the U.K.'s National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, on the river Thames, east of London. Its main attraction during Sea Britain 2005 is a blockbuster exhibition called Nelson and Napoleon, which looks at the similarities and differences between the two great campaigners, whose lives ran parallel in some ways.

"I am a great believer in bringing history alive," said Dr. Colin White, director, Trafalgar 200, and a leading authority on Nelson, "and the best way to do that is through people. To have descendants is not just a stunt but quite important. The two men were in a very real sense personal rivals although they never actually met or fought. They refer to each other a lot in their letters, we know that Napoleon had a bust of Nelson in his dressing room and that each captured letters belonging to the other. We are looking at history through the eyes of people who made it."

Legendary leaders

Nelson and Napoleon were born within 11 years of each other and were destined to dog each other's heels in warfare. In 1797, the two commanders' vessels were close to engaging in direct combat, but they never met. Both are inextricably linked with women who seemed to empower them. Nelson `gave' Emma Hamilton to the British nation and Napoleon died with Josephine's name on his lips. Mythology and romanticism has grown around the life stories of each, but one of the intentions of the coming exhibition is to untangle fact and fiction, explains Dr. White.

"We are trying to tell the story based on up-to-date research. There has been a lot of new work that proves, for example, that life in Nelson's navy was far from dreadful — the very reason the British won was because they had improved conditions for their men. We are challenging stories that have got distorted, like Chinese whispers."

While some of the legends are stripped away, hitherto neglected material is coming to light. Dr. White has uncovered hundreds of letters in collections and libraries all over the world, including the United States, which add up to a detailed portrait of Nelson, both as a warrior and as a man. Written at speed, latterly with his left hand, having lost his right arm in battle, the letters speak volumes.

New material

"Nelson was not a lone star — he was the star of the most brilliant generation of sea commanders. Ten years ago new letters started to come to light and we now have 1,300 at least one third of which contain new material — new accounts of events, events that were suppressed, sometimes because they would have embarrassed a letter's owner. We now have a much broader, deeper sense of what Nelson was like as a man and why people loved him so much."

Other events in the coming commemorative year include a recreation on the Thames of Nelson's funeral procession by boat from Greenwich to Westminster Abbey in the centre of the British capital and a performance of Haydn's Nelson Mass at Greenwich. Midway through the year, the Trafalgar 200 week includes the International Festival of the Sea at Portsmouth, with sailing vessels from all over the world and an international fleet review at which more than 30 of the world's navies will be represented. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section