On This Day, 21 October 1805, Britain’s greatest ever naval hero proved conclusively that Britannia rules the waves… and died in the process, writes Eliot Wilson

Today, 21 October, in 1805. It is a Monday, shortly after 5.30am, 25 miles off the coast of southern Spain. As dawn breaks, the skies are mostly clear, the wind very light, with a heavy sea swell from the west. There are 33 ships of the Royal Navy under the command of Vice-Admiral Viscount Nelson on board his flagship, HMS Victory; between them and the coast is a fleet of 40 vessels, 25 French and 15 Spanish, under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve.

Europe was six months into the War of the Third Coalition. The 1802 Treaty of Amiens, having created a fragile peace, had unravelled within a year. Britain, fearing French expansion, had refused to withdraw troops from Malta and Egypt as agreed, and, on 13 May 1803, declared war on France.

The First Consul of the French Republic, Napoleon Bonaparte, was unprepared for war but his strategy was clear. He meant to invade Britain, something no-one had done successfully for nearly 750 years, and began to assemble an army at Boulogne. A successful invasion, however, required mastery of the English Channel.

In 1805, the Royal Navy was by far the largest in........

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