Was Trafalgar Nelson's greatest battle, or was it simply the victory best suited to commemoration? His death at the moment of triumph made it easier for later admirers to strip away the awkwardly human parts of his life. The purified Victorian hero also sat uneasily beside the morally complicated Greek deities whose names filled the sailing navy. Public memory selects and reshapes a naval career rather than simply preserving it.
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Why Trafalgar became the perfect Nelson myth
The opening asks how Nelson's death at Trafalgar allowed later Victorians to turn a complicated officer into a purified national hero.