Nelson & His World

One of my dear English friends gave me the Nicolas edition volume 1, to complete my Nicolas editions. Reading it I am amazed at the self-confidence Nelson had at such a young age. I wonder where he got it from. What gave him so much confidence in his own abilities?

I cannot imagine uncle Suckling gave him so much personal support to find this amount of self-confidence. Perhaps he was surprised by it too, especially after his remark: “What has poor Horatio done, who is so weak, that he, above all the rest, should be sent to rough it out at sea? But let him come, and the first time we go into action, a cannon-ball may knock off his head, and provide for him at once.” Even if his uncle was not over-enthusiastic about taking young Horatio at sea. The last part of this remark always seem so harsh, unloving, and uncaring to me.
Sylvia

I think we can only speculate about where Nelson’s self-confidence came from as we know so little about his childhood and the influences that shaped him. Neither is there much in his background or ‘genes’ to account for his charisma and genius. His father was a kindly, rather whimsical soul; his siblings were either pedestrian, feckless, or in the case of the ghastly William, totally repellent. But this is nothing unusual – many famous artists, writers, leaders and polymaths have emerged from nowhere with nothing in their background to stimulate or inspire. So maybe he was just ‘born that way’.

But we cannot ignore the effects of parental influence and one wonders about the effect that Catherine, his mother, had on him. She is a shadowy figure, known only for her hatred of the French, which she passed on to her son. Without ‘psychologising’ too much, there is a lot of evidence that the loss of a parent in early childhood can have a profound effect on behaviour and attitudes. Nelson was small and sickly, yet he acquired a spirited hatred of the traditional enemy, and an eagerness to join the force that engaged with it. This could well have been Catherine’s influence, passed on through robust encouragement rather than pampering attention. That he survived being packed off to school and then into the navy at an early age with an irrepressible optimism, the confidence and eagerness to do well, and an ability to establish good personal relationships with both fellow officers and men, suggests that many of the influences in his childhood were positive. However, Edgar Vincent suggests that Catherine’s early death left him in a state of arrested development that made him seek constantly for the approval and reassurance he had gained from her. In my opinion, (and I’m psychologising now!) this early loss also accounts in some ways for his devotion to Emma. She gave him overwhelming approval and support. It was only after he met her that he mentioned his mother – other than the brief reference to her hatred of the French – when he mentions his tears at the recollection of her – and this was nearly forty years after her death – which suggests to me a deep grief which had been totally repressed, and was only able to be addressed once he had the stability and reassurance that Emma’s hero worship provided.

So – with very little evidence – though I do have many years of professional experience in dealing with troubled and unhappy children - I feel that Catherine’s influence must have had some hand in developing Nelson’s robust self-confidence, and also, perhaps, his need for womanly approval. It is important too, to remember Nelson’s place in the scheme of things: he came from respectable stock, an old family with roots deep in Norfolk, his father a respected minister of the established church, in a country that was enjoying rapid expansion and prosperity, and that believed its laws, institutions and freedoms were second to none; and he was a commissioned officer in a service that won boundless admiration as the nation’s bulwark against a traditional enemy. All these things must have been a profound source of security and therefore of his self-confidence. And while he was the pre-eminent seaman of his day, it is important to remember that there were many others like him in the navy - the sons of respectable families, secure, patriotic, confident and proud. They knew who they were and what they were defending.