MS 117. Letter

MS 117. Letter from Horatio Nelson to Lord Hawkesbury. October 20th 1803

Gift of Moss Davis.

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Transcript

Victory off Toulon Oct 20th 1803

Right Honourable Lord Hawkesbury

My Dear Sir

I send you a letter from Mr Drummond in answer to my first letter and I am happy in having anticipated your Lordship’s wishes by corresponding with Constantinople. The French fleet from Toulon has as many destinations as there are countries for it is certainly by no means certain that Buonaparte always makes wars upon his Enemies. It is more to his advantage sometimes to attack his friends especially if they are weak and unable to defend themselves. I have lately added to our force destined principally to watch the French army in the heel of Italy and it is under a very intelligent officer Captain Cracroft – guns – weight of metal

With this force I think we have done all that is possible to save the Morea and the 7 Islands and to prevent that army passing to Egypt. I am Ever my Dear Lord your obliged & obedient servant

Nelson & Bronte         

Notes

In April 1803 the uneasy peace with France ended and Nelson was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean. His chief aim was to “keep the French fleet in check and if they put to sea to annihilate them”. From his flagship Victory he kept a loose blockade on the southern French port of Toulon where the French fleet were concentrated. For two years, with no home leave, Nelson managed the complex task of his command, keeping the ships on the move, provisioned and in fighting trim. He also corresponded with politicians at home, and with diplomats and foreign dignitaries the length of the Mediterranean. 

The signature. Nelson was created Baron Nelson of the Nile after his victory at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. In 1799 he was created Duke of Bronte by the King of Naples. In 1801 he was given permission to use his Neapolitan title and began to sign himself  “Nelson & Bronte”

• Lord Hawkesbury to whom this letter is addressed was Foreign Secretary and leader of the House of Lords in the British Parliament.
• William Drummond was British Ambassador at Constantinople (now Istanbul).
• In writing of Napoleon’s propensity to “attack his friends especially if they are weak and unable to defend themselves” Nelson may have been referring to Sardinia. He used the deep water anchorage and safe harbour of the Maddelena Islands in northeastern Sardinia as his forward base. However, Sardinia was close to French-controlled Corsica, officially neutral and financially and defensively weak. Over the next year Nelson made more obvious attempts to persuade the government in England to formally secure the island.
• The small force under Captain William Cracroft protected the lower Adriatic Sea between the heel of Italy and the seven islands (Corfu, Paxi, Santa Maura, Cefalonia, Ithaka, Zante and Cerigo) strung along the Greek coast to the Morea, now known as the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece.