Diplomacy and Defeat: The Untold Story of Yorktown
In the first season of Tribute, I explored the Legacy of the 14th Earl of Derby, a man whose instincts for reform and conciliation helped to ease tensions at home and steer Britain away from potential revolutionary upheaval.
In this new season, we turn our attention to a figure, and an event, where reform proved insufficient, and the consequences reverberated across the globe. We pay tribute not only to General Charles Cornwallis, but also to the defining moment he is forever tied to: the surrender at Yorktown, which marked the turning point in the American Revolution and the birth of a new nation.
Cornwallis is too often remembered as the coward who refused to attend the surrender. But behind that caricature lies a more complex man: an officer who had once sympathised with colonial grievances, a pragmatist caught between duty to empire and recognition of change, and a pivotal character in one of history’s most significant revolutions.
Through new insights and conversations with leading historians, this series reframes Yorktown as not just a story of defeat, but of diplomacy, transition, and the origins of modern America.
