History Characters / HoratioHornblower

!!!Actress: Creator/Julia Sawalha

!!!Actress: Julia Sawalha

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Jerome was really Bonaparte's brother. Napoleon annulled the marriage when the Catholic church refused to and married him to a German princess. If you can believe it, his and Betsy's grandson ended up being Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy and then earned the nickname of "Charlie the Crook Chaser" as his Attorney General]].

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: When he becomes The Captain, one would think that he will be sending his midshipmen and lieutenants to participate in landing parties and their missions. However, he insists that exercise will do him good and rarely stays aboard.

* WorthyOpponent: Don Massaredo, Colonel Ortega and Wolfe consider him a worthy adversary. Don Massaredo gains a great deal of respect for Hornblower and refuses to believe that the escape attempt was his idea. Colonel Ortega recognizes his intelligence, astuteness, boldness and courage. Wolfe respects Hornblower considerably as an individual, but despises every single thing that Hornblower stands and fights for.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: He suffers from a fear of heights, which is established in the first episode, and as a naval officer, he must deal with it a lot. He's shown at least twice to face his fear voluntarily. He climbs a mast once just for the kicks of it to enjoy the sail, and he volunteers himself once during a military operation to descend from a high cliff.

* StiffUpperLip: As expected for an officer at the time, he remains stoic and calm on the battlefield. He leads his troops into battle, never takes cover and [[CasualDangerDialog engages in conversations]] even while bullets are flying around.

* NiceHat: He has a nice boater and several other rather cool hats.

* NiceHat: The Army's hats looked way better that the Navy's. Lord Edrington's military hat was really cool and he wore it with style.

* NiceHat: Cylindrical hats for gunners have their level of cool.

* NiceHat: The cylindrical midshipman's hats are flattering and add some cool.

* NiceHat: Generally speaking, naval hats are not very flattering, but one midshipman's hat that Horatio wore had a fairly good design. In "The Examination for Lieutenant", Horatio had a very cool, very dashing straw hat. Finally, Captain's hats look way better that Lieutenant's.
* NoSenseOfHumour: A somewhat {{Downplayed}} example, but it's definitely a part of his personality. It takes him some time to figure out a sarcasm, but it gets to him. He tried to tell a mathematical joke about a bridge being slightly bigger that a river, and he did crack up some successful jokes. For example, when he suggested to the recovered Archie that he was going to call an inn-keeper and order him a proper English breakfast while they were in a bloody prison, or when he poked fun at Mr Bush's dislike of turnips.

* NiceHat: Captain Pellew looks cool with or without his Nice Hat.

* NiceHat: A midshipman's cylindrical hat was tolerably cool. Those pointy front-to-back naval uniform bicorner hats look better off, even on Archie.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Captain Sawyer is erratic, violent, paranoid, and believes his lieutenants are conspiring against him. Because of this behaviour, his lieutenants... begin conspiring against him.
* ShellShockedVeteran: Horatio, at least, imputes his madness to many long years as a fighting captain. Given that he mistakes Archie for Admiral [=DuBris=] but then recalls that [=DuBris=] was decapitated in a battle, and the harrowing report he reads to himself about that battle with the three French frigates, it's pretty plausible.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Pellew,_1st_Viscount_Exmouth Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth]]. The fictionalized Pellew's high regard for life does have basis in fact. He once refused to burn two scuttled enemy ships because they contained wounded men, was known for rescuing sailors who fell overboard by swimming out to rescue them, and was created a baronet for personally swimming a line to a foundered merchant vessel, saving many lives.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Pellew,_1st_Viscount_Exmouth Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth]].
* LikeASonToMe: He treats Hornblower as his protege and he's very fond of him to the point of favouritism. In "Retribution", when Captain Collins asks about Hornblower, Pellew admits he's so dear to him as... and almost says son, but then changes his wording to "one of my very own". The final instalment "Duty" has Pellew spell it out in nearly explicit terms by saying to the newly-promoted Captain Hornblower "You know, Hornblower, it is very hard for a father to see his children grow up."

* CompositeCharacter: In the third series, he becomes a composite of himself and Admiral Cornwallis, who ran the British blockade for the duration of ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''. Cornwallis was also the one who attended Hornblower's wedding, and some of his dialogue was given to Pellew. (Pellew did appear in the book as a captain in the fleet and hosted the same dinner, but the historical figure attained flag rank and was sent somewhere else in the midst of the book's timeframe and Forester had him depart accordingly.)

* OfficerAndAGentleman: He's amazing at the dinner party in "The Duchess and the Devil". Ladies sure do like him a lot.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: He is a hard captain, but with a strong sense of justice and concern for the lives under his command.

* NumberOne: In Series Three, he becomes Horatio's First Lieutenant and is responsible for the crew and that the ''Hotspur'' runs smoothly. He enforces discipline and basically guards Horatio from having to deal with the minutiae of the ship's operation, whether it's stroppy French officers or deficiencies of the crew.

* SixthRanger: In "Mutiny." He's pleased to be serving under the distinguished Sawyer and grows increasingly irritated with Horatio and Archie's attitude towards the captain, making them and Buckland mistrustful of him. When he seeks out their mutinous assembly belowdecks, they're frozen until he says that he'd like to join them.

* BeautyMark: He has a small mole on his face. It's a fake one as its place is not consistently the same. Well, it was the fashionable thing to have at the time.