History Weekends 2019: Sam Willis

Sam Willis’s talk at our 2019 History Weekend in Chester will challenge our current view of the battle of Trafalgar

Talk: The Myth of Trafalgar

Chester: Saturday 26 October, 17.20–18.20

Talk synopsis: Sam Willis challenges our current view of the battle of Trafalgar. If Britain ‘ruled the waves’ after Trafalgar in 1805, why did the Napoleonic war last another decade? What was the actual impact of naval battle in the Age of Sail? What was the battle’s real significance, and why has an inaccurate understanding of sailing warfare come down to the present day?

Speaker bio: Sam Willis is one of the country’s best-known historians. He has made more than ten major TV series for the BBC and National Geographic including The Silk Road, Invasion! And Castles. He has also written more than ten critically acclaimed and award-winning books, most recently three for the new Penguin Ladybird Expert Series: The Spanish Armada, The Battle of the Nile and The Battle of Trafalgar, all published in 2018.