THE POSSIBILITY

INVASION?

While Napoleon was in exile on St Helena towards the end of his life, he noted to his doctor, Barry O’meara, that: “It was my firm intention to invade England and to head the expedition myself.” Napoleon then outlined his plan of drawing off the Royal Navy, then sail up the Channel and land an army that would march on and seize the capital. O’meara described how the two became involved in a debate as to the viability of such a plan and whether the British population would not have resisted and taken to the streets to defend the city. However, interestingly, Napoleon claimed that during the proposed march on London he would have exercised the most extreme discipline towards his troops and that he would have come to Britain as a ‘friend’ of the people. He said: “Marauding or otherwise injuring or insulting the inhabitants would have been punished with instant death.“

LA TOUCHE-TRÉVILLE

In 1803, Admiral Louis-rené de La Touchetréville had successfully managed to hold back the forces of Nelson while at Boulogne. In 1804, while off Toulon, La Touche-tréville intercepted Nelson as he was on the way to capture two French vessels. Nelson turned back, followed by La Touche-tréville, who then used the event to publicly humiliate the British admiral. For Nelson’s part, this began a bitter rivalry and he insulted his adversary numerous times. For La Touche-tréville, he spoke of a desire to “have another confrontation with his colleague, Nelson”. La Touche-tréville died in 1804 but had he lived to see Trafalgar it may have been he, and not Villeneuve, who commanded the French/spanish forces. If so, it would have been the final titanic duel between two rivals.