Tom Pocock

The Terror Before Trafalgar

Behind the scenes of Napoleon's threatened invasion of England, a war of wits known as "The Great Terror."

The Royal Navy's annihilation of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, was a pivotal event in European history. Because the victory was so stunningly complete, and because Admiral Horatio Nelson died heroically in the engagement, the event has become a legend. But Trafalgar was not an isolated battle fought and won in a single afternoon, for the naval campaign had in fact begun more than four years earlier.

This extraordinary period, following Napoleon's threat to invade England in 1801, came to be known as "The Great Terror." As Napoleon's formidable and battle-hardened Grande Armée faced an army of English volunteers across the Channel, a secret war of espionage and subversion was being fought by shadowy men with little-known names. New technologies of war—including rockets, submarines, and torpedoes—were being developed in both countries. (An interesting figure here is the American Robert Fulton—later to become famous as the inventor of the steamship—who tried to interest Napoleon in his submarine Nautilus, armed with explosive torpedoes. He failed, then took his plans across the Channel to the Admiralty in London.)

Drawing on diaries, letters, and newspapers, Tom Pocock offers a wonderful picture of the years 1801–1805, and of the people wittingly or unwittingly caught up in these unique events: Nelson himself as he blockaded the French at sea for two unbroken years; his love Emma Hamilton waiting at home; Jane Austen and her naval brothers; the diarist Fanny Burney; the admirals, generals, and politicians; and those lesser-known men—Congreve, Moreau, and Pichegru—who waged the secret war, in England and in France.