It’s time for Pitt’s second go as Prime Minister, and for another round of war in Europe. But Pitt was no longer the conquering hero he once had been. On the other hand, there was one notable moment of conquest during his second term in office: what remains the greatest naval victory in British History, the Battle of Trafalgar.

Which, oddly enough, led to two fine illustrations of the ambiguities in men’s minds over the ideas of England and of Britain. Nelson at Trafalgar told his sailors that England expected them to do their duty. And, in response to the victory, Pitt referred to England’s saving itself by its own exertions. As neat a summing up as anyone could provide of the uneasy relations between the dominant nation of the United Kingdom and that Kingdom as a whole.

Illustration: Frederick Stanfield Clarkson, The Battle of Trafalgar, 1836.

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License