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The Rodney Papers - Volume II: 1763-1780: Selections from the Correspondence of Admiral Lord Rodney (Hardcover, New Ed)
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The Rodney Papers - Volume II: 1763-1780: Selections from the Correspondence of Admiral Lord Rodney (Hardcover, New Ed)
Series: Navy Records Society Publications
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This, the second of three volumes of the correspondence of George
Brydges Rodney, covers the admiral's life from the end of the Seven
Years War in 1763 until August 1780. This was perhaps his most
eventful, extraordinary and controversial period; from being a
successful admiral, a member of Parliament and the Governor of
Greenwich Hospital, Rodney plunges into debt and a debtor's exile
in France, only to rise again as a victorious admiral and as a
national hero. At the end of the Seven Years War Rodney was
disappointed and bitter at the failure of the British government to
reward him for his prominent part in the capture of Martinique and
other French islands in the West Indies. He was made baronet in
1764 and governor of Greenwich Hospital in 1765. He had already
been a member of Parliament for Saltash in 1751-4, and sat for
Okehampton, Penryn and Northampton consecutively between 1759 and
1774. In 1768 he was involved in one of the most costly elections
in eighteenth century parliamentary history. He secured election at
Northampton, but his finances were broken. Furthermore, he had
begun to gamble heavily and, with a limited income, fell into the
hands of moneylenders. In 1770 he attempted to recoup his finances
by becoming Commander-in-Chief at Jamaica. Nevertheless in the West
Indies until 1774 Rodney managed a successful period of diplomacy
with Spain, of intelligence gathering, and of navigational
surveying especially off the coast of Florida. Even so, he returned
to England deeply in debt and was forced to flee to France to
escape his creditors. The war with the American colonies proved to
be Rodney's salvation. After war with France had broken out, in
1779 the British government was desperate for an admiral who could
fight and win battles. Rodney was appointed Commander-in-Chief in
the Leeward Islands. His success in battle and skillful conduct of
the naval war in the West Indies in 1780 restored Rodney's public
standing. The stage was set for his most famous victory, the Battle
of the Saintes in 1782, and the restoration of his private
finances. George Brydges Rodney had gone through a dramatic change
of fortunes. The character of that man is revealed here. This
volume will permit re-assessment of this outstanding British
admiral of the American War of Independence for a new generation of
historians.
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