Robert Clive

Early Life and Education

Robert Clive was born at Styche,on 29 September
1725 to Richard Clive and Rebecca Clive.Robert
was their eldest son of thirteen children; he had
seven sisters and five brothers, six of whom died
in infancy.Clive's father was known to have a
temper, which the boy apparently inherited.For
reasons that are unknown, Clive was sent to live
with his mother's sister in Manchester while still
a toddler.Daniel Bayley, the sister's husband,
reported that the boy was "out of measure
addicted to fighting".He was a regular
troublemaker in the schools to which he was
sent.When Clive was nine his aunt died, and, after
a brief stint in his father's cramped London
quarters, he returned to Shropshire.There he
attended the Market Drayton Grammar School,
where his unruly behaviour (and an improvement
in the family's fortunes) prompted his father to
send him to Merchant Taylors' School in London.
His bad behaviour continued, and he was then
sent to a trade school in Hertfordshire to
complete a basic education. Despite his early lack
of scholarship, in his later years he devoted
himself to improving his education.

First years in India

In 1743, when Clive was 18, he was sent to
Madras (now Chennai) in the service of the
British East India Company.At Madras, Clive was
moody and quarrelsome; he attempted suicide and
once fought a duel. He found solace in the
governor’s library, where he virtually educated
himself. Hostilities between the British and
French East India companies and their
competitive support of rival Indian princes drew
Clive into military service and gave him a chance
to demonstrate his ability. In 1751 Chanda Sahib,
an ally of the French, was besieging his British-
connected rival, Muḥammad ʿAlī, in the fortress
of Trichinopoly (now Tiruchchirappalli). Clive
offered to lead a diversion against Chanda’s base
at Arcot. With 200 Europeans and 300 Indians,
he seized Arcot on August 31 and then
successfully withstood a 53-day siege
(September 23–November 14) by Chanda’s son.
This feat proved to be the turning point in a
contest with the French commander, Joseph-
François Dupleix. In the next months Clive
established himself as a brilliant exponent of
guerrilla tactics.

In March 1753 he left Madras with his bride,

Margaret Maskelyne, and something of a fortune,
having been appointed in 1749 a commissary for
the supply of provisions to the troops. In 1755,
after unsuccessfully standing for Parliament, he
was sent out again to India, this time as governor
of Fort St. David and with a lieutenant colonel’s
commission in the Royal Army. With him went
troops intended to expel the French from India.
On the way, at the request of the government in
Bombay (now Mumbai), he stormed the pirate
stronghold at Gheriah on the western
coast.Reaching Madras in June 1756, Clive
immediately became involved in the affairs of
Bengal, with which, henceforward, his fate was to
be linked. Hitherto Bengal had been ruled by
viceroys of the figurehead Mughal emperor, and
it was under their protection that the British
East India Company carried on its trade. The
principal city, Calcutta (now Kolkata), had come to
rival Madras as a trading centre, and its
commerce was the most valuable in India. In 1756
a dispute with the British about fortifying the
city caused the new nawab (Mughal viceroy) of
Bengal, Sirāj al-Dawlah, to attack and capture the
fort there.

Wars of Robert Clive

The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of
the British East India Company over the Nawab
of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757,
under the leadership of Robert Clive. The victory
was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar,
who was Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in
chief.