Call Number:

C1772

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

• 5 boxes
• 1 oversize folder
• 3.4 linear feet

Language:

English

Date:

1848-1856 (inclusive) and 1848-1850 (inclusive)

Form:

Letters -- 19th century

Abstract:

Consists of correspondence, manuscript documents, and eight letter books, related to the British Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope (as individual and commanding officer) and a thrilling, and at times barbarous, and a view of mid-nineteenth century British colonial military life and rule in the Mediterranean. Commander Charles Trollope Papers suppressed Greek rebels on the Island of Cephalonia in Greece.

Consists of a collection, which provides an account of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope (as individual and commanding officer) and a thrilling, and at times barbarous, and a view of mid-nineteenth century British colonial military life and rule in the Mediterranean. This collection of manuscript documents (requisitions and police reports, returns of punishments, and military papers) includes correspondence from British government and Cephalonian officials, and army officers (more than 250 letters), with eight letter books (1848-1850), as well as printed papers (1850), which offer an unfiltered insight into the command of the British army on Cephalonia island in Greece by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Trollope, Commanding Officer of the Reserve Battalion between 1848-1850.

The collection was contained in Trollope's own lockable metal travel case with his name and rank in gilt. Charles Trollope's service coincided with a turbulent period for the British Protectorate, which saw two agrarian-nationalist insurrections (September 1848 and August 1849) and the related murder of Captain John Parker on Black Mountain in May 1848, a cause célèbre in mid-nineteenth century Europe. With the introduction of martial law to southern districts on 31 August 1849 – announced by the new Lord High Commissioner Sir Henry Ward, in a letter to Trollope in this collection, and with Trollope's proclamation represented here too – Charles Trollope became the epicentre of the British military response on the island, of which this collection offers unparalleled detail. In the search for the ringleaders Theodore Vlaco and Papa Gregorio Nodaro Listi, inhabitants were forced to help, with 'outlaws' and participating villagers punished, publicly and brutally; Trollope's signature validated the in situ court martials and the six-week wave of military violence, including executions and floggings (a number Trollope deemed illegal under martial law), as well as house burning and the punishment of Primates. While consideration for his officers and even Cephalonian friends and dignitaries is evident here, following his orders, and in response to the rape, murder, theft and destruction that accompanied the second insurrection, Trollope adopted a strong and often merciless stance against inhabitants, noting to an officer: 'nothing but terror has any influence over these people' (Letter Book 5). Other than mention of a 'certain flag or banner being flown' (Nodaro's return of punishment), Trollope makes no reference to the insurrections being nationalist uprisings; those involved are, variously, labelled 'outlaws,' 'brigands,' rebels' or 'villains'. It proved a decorated service for Trollope ('the excellent man of business', according to Ward in a reflective letter of 1854) who, along with his troops, received the thanks of Queen Victoria, Lord Grey and the legislature of the islands (copies of letters represented here), and was 'voted a sword of honour by the inhabitants of Cephalonia', while Ward felt the backlash from Britain and Greece, evident in the printed Papers ('showing the outrages & cruelties committed on the Cephalonians under the Orders of Sir H. Ward') and was rewarded with the sobriquet 'Dead or Alive' Ward (a phrase echoed in Trollope's letter books).

Items are physically arranged in the order in which they were received.