Queen Victoria’s Revenge: Storming the Citadel (Part 2)

Tom Holland (0:12)

A commotion at the doorway brought me back to life, trying to start up and failing thanks to the weight of those infernal clanking manacles. As the door crashed shut again, I was aware of a swaying figure in the middle of the room, bare to the waist. How are you?

How are you, my dear friend? My best of friends? Cries this apparition, whooping with laughter.

Thank God, I am well. Are you well? Ah, my good friend! My heart rejoices to see you for the friendship I have entertained for you has not diminished. Be of good cheer, for though you are bound with fetters of Sampson and Zedekiah, were bound even with fetters of brass, yet, yet.

His voice trailed away, muttering, and, and who else? Yea, Joachim also was bound, and Manasseh. They were bound by the power of God, and so was Joachim, who was sold for a shaman, whose feet they hurt with fetters, and he was laid in iron.

And then he gave another crazy laugh and almost fell over, but have no fear, for the hour of your deliverance is at hand. My eyes had recovered from the lamp glare, but I could hardly believe them, for the newcomer was Theodore, King of Abyssinia, and he was staggeringly drunk. So that was the great Victorian hero, Sir Harry Flashman, remembering his first meeting with the Emperor, Tewodros II, in his memoir Flashman on the March. It is, to reiterate, a novel, not a work of history, but it is very, very deeply rooted in all the historical records. And in the book, Flashman has been sent on a secret mission to recruit allies against the Abyssinian Emperor, Tewodros II, as part of a British expedition to rescue several dozen European hostages. And even though Flashman's part of it, as we've said, is invented, all the most jaw-dropping parts of the story in the novel, Tewodros, his mountain lair, the British expedition, are absolutely true. And today we have reached the melodramatic climax of the story. And Dominic, this is ultimately, it's a British imperial version of the Iranian hostage crisis, isn't it?

Dominic Sandbrook (2:51)

Yes.

Tom Holland (2:51)

And if only Jimmy Carter had paid attention to the lesson that could have been learnt from our glorious boys in 1868, the way that they solved the problem of hostages in the hands of an unfriendly regime.

Dominic Sandbrook (3:08)

So true, Tom. I'm not sure his knowledge of Victorian imperial history is as good as it should be. I mean, one of the flaws, he spent too much time fighting rabbits.

Tom Holland (3:16)

The key, as far as I can tell, is to involve railways and elephants.

Dominic Sandbrook (3:21)

Elephants.

Tom Holland (3:22)

Which may be where Carter went wrong.

Dominic Sandbrook (3:24)

Definitely. So let's remind people where and when we are. Summer of 1867

So for four years or so this crisis has been rumbling on in the mountain kingdom of Abyssinia. And at the root is the Emperor Tewodros' simmering rage at the fact that Queen Victoria has not been answering his letters.

And he has taken a group of Europeans hostage. So most of the missionaries, but also to remind people, the British Consul, Captain Charles Duncan Cameron, and the Foreign Office's agent, Hormuz Rassam. And he's holding them in his mountain top lair, his Citadel of Magdala. And the hostages have been smuggling out these increasingly desperate messages, reporting that Tewodros is descending into insanity and basically begging the Foreign Office to use force. And last time he ended with Lord Darby's conservative government sending an ultimatum to Abyssinia, giving Tewodros three months to release them.

So let's pick up the story on the 19th of August in London. We are at 10 Downing Street and chairing the cabinet is Lord Darby. And Lord Darby is a proper Victorian grandee, formerly a Whig, now a conservative, incredibly rich. He has coal mines in Lancashire. He is classically educated, he's a brilliant debater, he's a man who likes shooting and horse racing. He's sort of Victorian politics bingo. And he runs the country in cahoots with his sort of ally in the Commons, Benjamin Disraeli.

Tom Holland (4:55)

He was the longest serving conservative political leader ever. 22 years.

Dominic Sandbrook (5:01)

He was prime minister multiple times, but only for very short spells. Yeah.

Tom Holland (5:05)

And he never had a majority?

Dominic Sandbrook (5:06)

No.

And he relied, I mean, he's in the Lords and he relied on Disraeli to run things in the Commons. Anyway, they meet his cabinet and they agree this cannot stand. As British governments always do, they blame their predecessors, the liberals, and they say the liberals should have sorted this out. However, they didn't and here we are. And we are being embarrassed in the eyes of the world. In particular, we're being embarrassed in the eyes of our subjects in India and in South Arabian places like Aden. And we cannot lose face in front of these people. We cannot be humiliated by an African king. So Lord Darby's ministers have already been in touch with officials in Bombay to discuss an intervention plan. The army in India has been put on alert and they've agreed that the British authorities in India will meet all the costs. An important point, although they do, as Flashman and his interlocutor were discussing in our first episode, they do end up putting a penny on income tax to pay for it all.