Clive: The Life and Death of a British Emperor

by Robert Harvey

The real-life story of Robert Clive would be judged as wildly implausible if it came from the pen of a novelist.

Clive of India was one of the most extraordinary and colorful figures Britain ever produced. The founder of Britain's Indian empire, he was also Britain's first great guerrilla fighter by the age of twenty-seven, conqueror of Bengal at thirty-one, and avenging angel of righteousness against the greed of his own fellow-countrymen at forty-one. In his later life Parliament brought him under painful scrutiny and he ended up one of the most hated men in Britain. He died violently under still-mysterious circumstances just before his fiftieth birthday.

The story of Clive can be viewed on several as a spirited military adventure by a man who defied death many times, who withstood the greatest siege in British military history, and conspired to force one of the most absolute and cruellest monarchs on earth off his throne; as the morality tale of a penniless young man who became the sole ruler of a huge empire, ended up as one of the richest men in Britain and was then brought to account and driven to despair; or as the story of a plundering early poacher-turned-gamekeeper who sought to establish a moral and legal order amidst slaughter and greed.

Clive today lies buried in an unknown grave in an obscure corner of rural Shropshire, a reflection of the controversy he aroused in his lifetime and that still surrounds his legacy and the manner of his death. In this lively and revealing study Robert Harvey illuminates Clive's life's journey from the green fields surrounding Market Drayton through his adventures in India, his drive to success and self-destruction, to his vicious and premature death, by suicide or murder.

Genres: History, Biography, India, Nonfiction, British Literature, Asia, Military History

416 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 1998

Reviews

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book grabbed me from the first page and held my interest to the very end. This is a great adventure story, told with panache and feeling. I was captivated throughout, reading about this great man's humble beginnings though to his campaigns in India where he made the British presence, clinging to a number of small trading posts, into an Empire and then his final demise.

The reader is transported to the far-flung reaches within India where Clive carved out a name for himself against the French and Indian rulers as a man of ambition and ruthless military cunning. His campaigns and battles are told within an exciting narrative that just moved along relentlessly like Clive's Army moving across the plains of India. This is a great story, a masterful piece of historical writing presented by Robert Harvey and I am sure it will be enjoyed by all that love a good history book.

I would compare this book very favourably to the likes of `Cochrane: Britannia's Last Sea Wolf' by Donald Thomas. In fact I noticed that Robert Harvey also has a book on the market titled `Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain' which I have taken the liberty in ordering after his outstanding effort in telling the story of `Clive of India'.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and engaging biography of Clive, told with passion and verve. Harvey tells the story of Clive's’s humble beginnings and his campaigns in India, where he solidified the British presence into a real empire and became one of the greediest members of the greedy East India Company (of course, the House of Commons was well aware of his activities but Clive always got away with it).

Of course, Clive often faced superior numbers in battle, sometimes forces seven times larger than his, but he won every single one of them with little in the way of even superior technology. Harvey speculates that the forces facing Clive were inferior but does not give much detail regarding the keys to Clive’s military success. Also, he frequently uses the term “rifle,” even though these didn’t exist at the time.

A readable and well-written work.

[Bill Tress · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biography to me is an opportunity to compare myself to the subject of the biography. There are parallels and vast distances but always the trail can be followed.
Robert Clive was a upper middle class boy born to a family of influence. He did not conform to expectations in his early life and some biographers indicate that as a youth he was a thug and headed a gang that extorted money from shop keepers, his father wanted rid of this troublemaker and got for him a position with the East India Company as a clerk in faraway India.
Clive’s abrupt transition from the comfort of home in England to the harsh reality of the heat and poverty of India caused him great discomfort; it’s called cultural shock! This reader had the same experience when doing a 90-day assignment in Libera, on the west coast of Africa; Harvey’s narrative resonated with me. The shock threw me for a loop, so I had empathy for Clive, the deference was he had buddies with him, I was alone. We both recovered, in my case within a month it took Clive a little longer, but he did acclimate.
This book was not an easy read, the people, towns and cities were Indian and exotic, so things are hard to remember and follow at times.
The book moves a little too quickly. For instance, our author has Clive coming into India as a clerk employed by the East Indian Company. Within a few paragraphs he is leading the army. This quick change was too much for the reader and I fault Harvey. In cases like this biography, an author relieves on established patterns from earlier biographies. So, this was may have been a cut and paste error.
Our author tells the reader that Clive was a born leader and fighter. This must be true because Clive’s background gives no indication that he would win great victories with maneuver, strategy and stealth. The author describes these battles well and illustrates the disfunction and complicated politics of the Continent of India that Clive mastered for the benefit of England and the East Indian company.
He returned to England with a new wife as a conquering hero. This did not last long because he failed in a run for Parliament, and he lost his fortune. So, he returned to India, the site of his previous success. This time as an officer, in the British army. He was part of military actions against Calcutta and Bengal but always with controversy. He claimed the victory but so did others. He was also criticized for claiming booty because of these victories and he did become a very rich man.
With this newfound wealth, he returned to England and invested in real estate. In his social and political circles, there was jealousy over his wealth and how he got it. Parliament opened an inquiry into his behavior in India, yet he survived the acquisitions. The irony was that he assisted in draft the rules regarding the relationship of the English government and the East Indian company called the East India Company Regulating Act despite him being responsible for the needed rule change.
All biographers struggle with the issue of his integrity, was he a scoundrel or just a talented military officer who like others took some advantage of the great wealth of India.
He was appointed the first governor of Bengal, and he did succeed in putting large parts of India under British rule and exclusive control by the East India company.
The book is weighty and not written well, but it does provide the history of British and Indian interaction in the eighteenth century. It also, describes an ambitious man who rose from the lowest rank in the East India company to the man most responsible for making India the crown jewel of the British Empire. Yet, no one knows how to rank him because controversy followed him despite his achievements.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent biography of one of the greatest adventurers in British history. Clive was the conqueror of Mughal India, Emperor, East India Company operative, politician, and about everything else it was possible to be in the nascent British Empire.

Love him or hate him he is a key figure in British history -- perhaps as great as Churchill (another moral lightning rod).

Robert Clive had his faults, and this biography does not shy away from them, but he was a brilliant soldier, tactician, and strategist. As a politician, he was less successful and this may have led to his death as the most hated man in Britain -- this last was unfair. He should be remembered as a hero of the Empire...which may be re-evaluated now Brexit appears to be a done deal.

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

A must-read for anyone interested in the history of the British Empire...or imperial history in general.

[Rick Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy read biography of Robert Clive.

Clive came across superior numbers always.

I wondered what made him successful in battles?

The Author didn't give much details on it, but I enjoyed accounts of his life.

Deus Vult,
Gottfried

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not convinced this is actually the greatest piece of biography ever put on paper, but it's hard not to lapse into Boy's Own storytelling when you are dealing with a man of such heroic dimensions. From humble clerk to masterful soldier, leading his men against overwhelming odds to secure India for the British Empire. True his greed made him a target in his later political life, but he did return to try and set up an administration which was something more honourable than ex-pats lining their pockets at the expense of natives. He was truly one of the greatest heroes of Great Britain and the fact that his achievements are not taught in school due to political correctness or just embarrassment at our colonial past is wrong. Harvey falls down somewhat in making a conspiracy about Clive's death, proposing that he may have been murdered. I can't believe this - if it was the case the manner of his death may have been hushed up, but his funeral and the celebration of his life would have been just as it should be. Suicide is, I'm afraid, the only explanation that such a hero lies not in Westminster Abbey, but in an unmarked grave in a Shropshire village.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

The life of Robert Clive is read like an adventure novel with him as the daring hero who cheated death in every chapter. The fact that this wasn’t a fiction makes the story more remarkable.

Clive rose from a humble begining to the great military general and statesman. The author chose to open the story with a poignant start which was the event of his misterius death (I’m sold to the author’s third hypothesis) before it rewinds to his childhood. All I could say after reading this that now as then, people always envied others’s success and sought to bring them down. Secondly, policy makers or politicians often out of touch with the reality and only care about the optics as Clive’s trial in the House of Commons attest. Clive was no clear cut hero, but if compared to his contemporaries, he was the winner. In my opinion, his shade of gray was closer to white rather than black.

My only complain of this book was that the author scarcely mentioned year in his writing. Often he forgo the year for entire chapter so it was rather hard to follow at times. Otherwise, I think this book is good. It offered balanced account.

[John Kaye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Where was an editor! I doubt I have ever read a worse biography. Great passages of purple prose, and repetitive with it. Hardly a noun passes without a grandiose adjective, often more than one. The context of Clive's life, social, economic and political is treated very oddly, with occasional long sections that offer fanciful suppositions on Clive's thoughts and inner feelings. Some of this may be derived from Clive's voluminous correspondence, but there is precious little reference to this. Harvey frequently call on Macaulay for extended quotation , and the book as a whole often reads like Macaulay on a really bad day.

John Keay covers the ground much more effectively in a chapter of the Honourable Company. Preferred.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography of Clive, fast paced, analytical, swash buckling, with admirable context on 18th Century social norms.

[Ian Racey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read. Harvey is sympathetic to Clive which periodically leads to a bit of preemptive defensiveness on his behalf, but it never became too intrusive.

[Clivemichael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating accounting of the man. Vindication and perspective.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good account of Robert Clive's life. Most focus on his time in India, but covers his attempts to establish himself in London as an MP adequately.

[Louis Fenner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy to read, relatively favourable description of Clive but the title gives as much away.

[Adrian]

India in the mid 18th century was led by the tottering Mughal empire with England and France vying for control. Robert Clive joined the East India Company as a lowly clerk at just this point. He advanced rapidly due to uncommon military ability and led his forces to victories in several battles in which they were vastly outnumbered including Plassey near Calcutta. These wins effectively made him Emperor and established the British raj. Unfortunately English victory meant plunder of the Bengali treasury which eventually came back on Clive. Villainized and brought up on charges before Parliament he was eventually exonerated. The author's speculations that Clive's early death was either suicide or murder don't amount to much. There is an interesting sidebar into the American revolutionary war.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

An accessible biography of the amazing Clive of India, a name little known to Americans.

The biography tries to be even-handed, acknowledging some of Clive's more unsavory qualities, but the florid overuse of adjectives still makes it come off as hagiography at times. The book also provides a lot of background information on the trends in British politics, culture and economics, but doesn't do nearly the same for India or France. While the book is non-academic, it quotes other sources liberally especially the historian Macaulay, but unfortunately doesn't provide footnotes for those wishing to do further reading.

Given how prominently terrain figures into Clive's exploits, would it have killed the publisher to add some decent maps?

[Brian]

Good solid biography - very interesting

[John Reas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written of one of England's more controversial historical figures, Robert Harvey Clive, who lead England in the conquest of India and the establishment of the British Raj.