battle of Trafalgar

battle of Trafalgar , naval engagement fought off Cape Trafalgar on the SW coast of Spain on Oct. 21, 1805, in which the British fleet under Horatio Nelson won a famous victory over the allied French and Spanish fleets under Pierre de Villeneuve . Nelson's strategy was to divide his own fleet into two sections, one led by himself in the HMS Victory, the other by his deputy Cuthbert Collingwood in the HMS Royal Sovereign, and to penetrate the enemy line in two places. This maneuver resulted in the capture of 20 enemy ships (one was blown up). The British lost no ships. Among the dead was Nelson himself, struck by a bullet from the French ship Redoutable. The decisive English victory ended Napoleon I's power on the sea and made a French invasion of England impossible. The words signaled by Nelson at the beginning of the battle— "England expects that every man will do his duty" —became immortal.

Bibliography: See studies by D. A. Howarth (1969), O. Warner (1971), and A. Nicolson (2005).

Trafalgar, Battle of a decisive naval battle fought on 21 October 1805 off the cape of Trafalgar on the south coast of Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. The British fleet under Horatio Nelson (who was killed in the action) defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain.
Trafalgar Day 21 October, the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.
Trafalgar Square a square in central London, planned by John Nash and built between the 1820s and 1840s. It is dominated by Nelson's Column, a memorial to Lord Nelson.

Trafalgar, Battle of (October 21, 1805) British naval victory over the French and Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar, Spain. It ended Napoleon I's plans for an invasion of England. The victory was secured by the skilful tactics of the British admiral, Lord Nelson, who was killed in the battle.

http://www.nelsonsnavy.co.uk