羅伯特·克萊芙，第一代克莱芙男爵

Major-General The Rt. Hon. The Lord Clive 克莱芙少将阁下
身着戎装的克莱芙少将，在他身后进行的是普拉西战役。 由纳撒尼尔·丹斯（Nathaniel Dance）所绘。
威廉堡总督
任期 1757 – 1760
前任	罗杰·德雷克（Roger Drake）
繼任	亨利·范西塔特（Henry Vansittart）
任期 1765 – 1766
前任	亨利·范西塔特
繼任	哈里·弗莱斯特（Harry Verelst）
出生	1725年9月29日(1725-09-29) 英格兰什罗普郡马凯德雷顿（Market Drayton）
逝世	1774年11月22日 （49歲） 英格兰伦敦西敏
國籍	英国
母校	泰勒商校（Merchant Taylors' School）
軍事背景
別名	印度的克莱芙（Clive of India）
效忠	大不列顛王國
服務	英国陆军
服役期間	1746 – 1774
階級	少将
隊	不列颠东印度公司
司令部	印度陆军总指挥
戰爭/戰役	奧地利王位繼承戰爭 马德拉斯战役（Battle of Madras） 第二次卡那提克战争 阿喀德攻城战（Siege of Arcot） 阿莲战役（Battle of Arnee） 清郭泼战役（Battle of Chingleput） 七年战争 陈达尼加尔战役（Battle of Chandannagar） 普拉西战役
獲獎	KB

罗伯特·克莱芙，第一代克莱芙男爵（Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive，1725年9月29日 - 1774年11月22日），KB，又称印度的克莱芙（Clive of India），为东印度公司建立军事、政治霸权的军人。他与沃伦·黑斯廷斯（Warren Hastings）一起，被认为是建立英国印度殖民地的早期关键人物。

早年

罗伯特·克莱芙，1725年9月25日在什罗普郡近马凯德雷顿（Market Drayton）的家族庄园出生。父亲是理查德·克莱芙（Richard Clive），母亲是瑞贝卡·加斯克尔·克莱芙（Rebecca Gaskell Clive）。家族自亨利七世时期开始，就拥有这个庄园。家族很早就活跃在政坛：有的在亨利八世时期担任爱尔兰财政大臣，有的在国会中长期担任议员。罗伯特的父亲，因庄园盈利底，从事法律工作，也长期担任议员，代表着蒙哥馬利郡。罗伯特有七个姊妹，五个兄弟。

罗伯特曾爬上的圣玛丽教堂。

罗伯特的父亲以脾气暴躁著称，而罗伯特明显地继承了这一点。因某些原因（未为记载），当罗伯特还是婴孩时，他就被送到西敏的姨妈处寄养。姨丈丹尼尔·贝利（Daniel Bayley）向他的父母说，他“打架成瘾”。他在校内经常惹麻烦，后来因此被开除。在他大一些时，就与一群青年一起，要挟马凯德雷顿商家交出保护费，并捣毁不从者的店面。罗伯特在年轻时就表现得十分无畏。他惊人地爬上马凯德雷顿的圣玛丽教区教堂（St. Mary's Parish Church），并伏在教堂的雨漏上。

罗伯特曾先后被两间学校开除，分别为马凯德雷顿文法学校与泰勒商校。因为缺乏教育，后来他专心的进修。最后他发展出了一种独特的文风，而他在下议院的演说被威廉·皮特（William Pitt）赞誉为他所听过的演讲中最雄辩的。

印度各国欧洲人间的关系受到欧洲大陆一系列的战争以及条约的影响。自17时期晚期以来，欧洲商人就已经组织部队保护自己的商业利益，亦用以影响地方政治，以为自己取得优势。在充满价值的印度贸易中，军事力量很快变得与商业触觉一样重要，占地收租日益由军队来执行。

首次踏足印度

在18岁时，克莱芙被送往印度，在东印度公司中任职事务官（Factor）或作者（writer）。但是，他乘搭的船只在巴西海岸搁浅，维修了九个月。这给了他学葡萄牙文的时间；这种语言在印度得到广泛的使用。当时，东印度公司在圣乔治堡（Fort St. George）有一个小型殖民地，这个殖民地近着马德斯柏林村（Madraspatnam）（这条村现在已经发展为印度大城金奈）。

由查理·克莱芙（Charles Clive）绘于约1764年。

印度政治局势

18世纪中叶，莫卧儿帝国已经分裂为许多国家。皇帝奥朗则布驾崩后的40年时间里，皇权逐渐落入各省总督（或称为地方官，Soobedars）手中。在这些国家中，最强大的两个国家分别为孟加拉国与阿娃国（Awadh）。阿娃国一直受到信仰印度教的马拉地与尼泊尔的压力。另一个穆斯林国家，海得拉巴国，是马拉地的附庸国，亦同样遭到信奉印度教的国家，普莱加国（Polygar）的压力。孟加拉国既是南亚最富裕的国家，又是唯一真正独立的穆斯林势力，它有能力抵抗英国的入侵。然而，孟加拉国处于危险之中，因为他被充满敌意的、信奉印度教的国家环绕，又被官僚系统、银行削弱。

第一次卡那提克战争

奥地利皇位继承战争（War of the Austrian Succession）爆发后，在1746年9月4日，马德拉斯受到拉布爾多內所带领的法军围攻，是为马德拉斯战役（Battle of Madras）。在数日轰炸后，英军守城部队投降，法军入城。英方意图通过谈判取回马德里，但遭到杜柏林（Dupleix，后任法属印度总督）拒绝。漫长的谈判使克莱芙有机会逃到南面约20英里（32千米）处的圣大卫堡（Fort St. David，今古德洛尔）。这时，克莱芙被委任为少尉。最后，莫卧儿部队赶到解围，结束了这场攻城战。

在这场战役中，克莱芙的英勇被指挥官斯特林格·劳伦斯少校（Stringer Lawrence）注意到。但少校在1748年召开的艾克斯-夏佩尔和会（Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle）后被调回返国。几个月后的1749年，他随劳伦斯到坦贾武尔远行，因为当地的君主（Rajah）请求他们帮助他夺回皇位。克莱芙带领一小股部队猛攻一道大堤，他的部队损失惨重，几乎全军覆没。战后，克莱芙回到文职岗位，在commissary处供职。

然而，他换上了某种精神病，所以被送到孟加拉北部修养。另一边厢，英法双方的斗争仍在继续，只是形式由武装冲突转为政治斗争。两年后，当克莱芙复职时，卡那提克的纳瓦布（Nawab）与海得拉巴的尼扎姆（Nizam）都换成了强烈亲法的人，结果第二次卡那提克战争爆发了。钱打·萨希布（Chanda Sahib）在杜柏林的协助下，推翻了亲英的穆罕默德·阿里·汗·瓦拉杰（Mohammed Ali Khan Walajah），当上了卡那提克的纳瓦布。杜柏林获钱打赏赐一幅年产35万卢比的土地，也提升了他在莫卧儿的地位。

阿喀德攻城战（1751）

1751年夏，钱打率军离开卡那提克首府阿喀德攻打切西纳普里（Trichinopoly）。克莱芙欲攻打阿喀德，为切西纳普里解围。但他的兵力、装备有限：马德拉斯与圣大卫堡只能拨给他200欧洲士兵，300印度士兵与几支小型大炮。而指挥他们的八个军官中，有四个像克莱芙一样，是临时投笔从戎的，在经验方面，有六个军官从未参与过作战。英军在一场闪电风暴后夺取了阿喀德，在夺取了城镇后，英军立刻开始强化城镇中的建筑物，为即将来临的防御战作准备。克莱芙也在当地组织了一支部队。在数日后，钱打派出了一支大军，委任他的儿子拉扎·撒希巴（Raza Sahib）与法国人为指挥官，围攻被克莱芙占领的阿喀德。

一些非中文的文字因为尚未翻譯而被隐藏，歡迎參與翻譯。

The historian Macaulay wrote a century later of the siege:

"... the commander who had to conduct the defence...was a young man of five and twenty, who had been bred as a book-keeper... Clive...had made his arrangements, and, exhausted by fatigue, had thrown himself on his bed. He was awakened by the alarm, and was instantly at his post.... After three desperate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch. The struggle lasted about an hour...the garrison lost only five or six men."

The contemporary Tuzuk-e Walajahi states that Clive received assistance from two thousand Maratha horse under the command of Madina Ali Khan and Yunus Khan, two sardars (commanders) of Mohammed Ali Walajah. This reinforcement proved a turning point, and Clive and Major Lawrence were able to bring the campaign to a successful conclusion. In 1754, the first of the provisional Carnatic treaties was signed between Thomas Saunders, the Company's resident at Madras, and Charles Godeheu, the French commander. Mohammed Ali Khan Walajah was recognized as Nawab, and both nations agreed to equalize their possessions. When war again broke out in 1756, during Clive's absence in Bengal, the French obtained successes in the northern districts, and it was Mohammed Ali Khan Walajah's efforts which drove them from their settlements. The Treaty of Paris (1763) formally confirmed Mohammed Ali Khan Walajah as Nawab of the Carnatic. It was a result of this action and the increased British influence that in 1765 a firman (decree) came from the Emperor of Delhi, recognizing the British possessions in southern India.

His conduct during the siege made Clive famous in Europe. The Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder described Clive, who had received no formal military training whatsoever, as the "heaven-born general", endorsing the generous appreciation of his early commander, Major Lawrence. The Court of Directors of the East India Company voted him a sword worth £700, which he refused to receive unless Lawrence was similarly honoured. He left Madras for home, after ten years' absence, early in 1753, but not before marrying Margaret Maskelyne, the sister of his friend Nevil Maskelyne who was afterwards well known as Astronomer Royal.

Second journey to India (1755-1760)

In July 1755, Clive returned to India to act as deputy governor of Fort St. David at Cuddalore. He arrived after having lost a considerable fortune en route, as the Doddington, the lead ship of his convoy, was wrecked near Port Elizabeth, losing a chest of gold coins belonging to Clive worth £33,000. Nearly 250 years later in 1998, illegally salvaged coins from Clive's treasure chest were offered for sale, and in 2002 a portion of the coins were given to the South African government after protracted legal wrangling.

Clive, now promoted to lieutenant-colonel in the British Army, took part in the capture of the fortress of Gheriah, a stronghold of the Maratha Admiral Tuloji Angre. The action was led by Admiral James Watson and the English had several ships available, some Royal troops and some Maratha allies. The overwhelming strength of the joint British and Maratha forces ensured that the battle was won with few losses. A fleet surgeon, Edward Ives, noted that Clive refused to take any part of the treasure divided among the victorious forces as was custom at the time.

The fall and recapture of Calcutta (1756-57)

Following this action Clive headed to his post at Fort St. David and it was there he received news of twin disasters for the English. Early in 1756, Siraj Ud Daulah had succeeded his grandfather Alivardi Khan as Nawab of Bengal. In June Clive received news that the new Nawab had attacked the English at Kasimbazar and shortly afterwards on 20 June he had taken the fort at Calcutta. The losses to the Company because of the fall of Calcutta were estimated by investors at £2,000,000. Those British who were captured were placed in a punishment cell which became infamous as the Black Hole of Calcutta. In stifling summer heat, it was alleged that 123 of the 146 prisoners died as a result of suffocation or heat stroke. While the Black Hole became infamous in Britain, it is debatable whether the Nawab was aware of the incident.

By Christmas 1756, as no response had been received to diplomatic letters to the Nawab, Admiral Charles Watson and Clive were dispatched to attack the Nawab's army and remove him from Calcutta by force. Their first target was the fortress of Baj-Baj which Clive approached by land while Admiral Watson bombarded it from the sea. The fortress was quickly taken with minimal British casualties. Shortly afterwards, on 2 January 1757, Calcutta itself was taken with similar ease.

Approximately a month later, on 3 February 1757, Clive encountered the army of the Nawab itself. For two days, the army marched past Clive's camp to take up a position east of Calcutta. Sir Eyre Coote, serving in the British forces, estimated the enemy's strength as 40,000 cavalry, 60,000 infantry and thirty cannon. Even allowing for overestimation this was considerably more than Clive's force of approximately 540 British infantry, 600 Royal Navy sailors, 800 sepoys, fourteen field guns and no cavalry. The British forces attacked the Nawab's camp on the nearly morning hours of 5 February 1757. In this battle, unofficially called the 'Calcutta Gauntlet', Clive marched his small force through the entire Nawab's camp, despite being under heavy fire from all sides. By noon, Clive's force broke through the besieging camp and arrived safely at Fort William. During the assault, around one tenth of the British attackers became casualties. Clive reported 57 killed and 137 wounded. While technically not a victory in military terms, the sudden British assault intimidated the Nawab. He sought to make terms with Clive, and surrendered control of Calcutta on 9 February, promising to compensate the East India Company for damages suffered and to restore its privileges.

War with Siraj Ud Daulah

As Britain and France were once more at war, Clive sent the fleet up the river against the French colony of Chandernagore, while he besieged it by land. There was a strong incentive to capture the colony, as capture of a previous French settlement near Pondicherry had yielded the combined forces prizes valued at £140,000. After consenting to the siege, the Nawab unsuccessfully sought to assist the French. Some officials of the Nawab's court formed a confederacy to depose him. Jafar Ali Khan, also known as Mir Jafar, the Nawab's commander-in-chief, led the conspirators. With Admiral Watson, Governor Drake and Mr. Watts, Clive made a gentlemen's agreement in which it was agreed to give the office of viceroy of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to Mir Jafar, who was to pay a million sterling to the Company for its losses in Calcutta and the cost of its troops, half a million to the British inhabitants of Calcutta, £200,000 to the native inhabitants, and £70,000 to its Armenian merchants.

Clive employed Umichand, a rich Bengali trader, as an agent between Mir Jafar and the British officials. Umichand threatened to betray Clive unless he was guaranteed, in the agreement itself, £300,000. To dupe him a second fictitious agreement was shown to him with a clause to this effect. Admiral Watson refused to sign it. Clive deposed later to the House of Commons that, "to the best of his remembrance, he gave the gentleman who carried it leave to sign his name upon it; his lordship never made any secret of it; he thinks it warrantable in such a case, and would do it again a hundred times; he had no interested motive in doing it, and did it with a design of disappointing the expectations of a rapacious man." It is nevertheless cited as an example of Clive's unscrupulousness.

Plassey

Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey, meeting with Mir Jafar after battle of Plassey, by Francis Hayman.

The whole hot season of 1757 was spent in negotiations with the Nawab of Bengal. In the middle of June Clive began his march from Chandernagore, with the British in boats and the sepoys along the right bank of the Hooghly River. During the rainy season, the Hooghly is fed by the overflow of the Ganges to the north through three streams, which in the hot months are nearly dry. On the left bank of the Bhagirathi, the most westerly of these, 100英里（161千米） above Chandernagore, stands Murshidabad, the capital of the Mughal viceroys of Bengal. Some miles farther down is the field of Plassey, then an extensive grove of mango trees. On 21 June 1757, Clive arrived on the bank opposite Plassey, in the midst of the first outburst of monsoonal rain. His whole army amounted to 1,100 Europeans and 2,100 sepoy troops, with nine field-pieces. The Nawab had drawn up 18,000 horse, 50,000 foot and 53 pieces of heavy ordinance, served by French artillerymen. For once in his career Clive hesitated, and called a council of sixteen officers to decide, as he put it, "whether in our present situation, without assistance, and on our own bottom, it would be prudent to attack the Nawab, or whether we should wait till joined by some country (Indian) power." Clive himself headed the nine who voted for delay; Major Eyre Coote led the seven who counselled immediate attack. But, either because his daring asserted itself, or because of a letter received from Mir Jafar, Clive was the first to change his mind and to communicate with Major Eyre Coote. One tradition, followed by Macaulay, represents him as spending an hour in thought under the shade of some trees, while he resolved the issues of what was to prove one of the decisive battles of the world. Another, turned into verse by Sir Alfred Lyall, pictures his resolution as the result of a dream. However that may be, he did well as a soldier to trust to the dash and even rashness that had gained Arcot and triumphed at Calcutta since retreat, or even delay, might have resulted in defeat. After heavy rain, Clive's 3,200 men and the nine guns crossed the river and took possession of the grove and its tanks of water, while Clive established his head-quarters in a hunting lodge. On 23 June, the engagement took place and lasted the whole day, during which remarkably little actual fighting took place. Gunpowder for the cannons of the Nawab were not well protected from rain. That impaired those cannons. Except the 40 Frenchmen and the guns which they worked, the Indian side could do little to reply to the British cannonade (after a spell of rain) which, with the 39th Regiment, scattered the host, inflicting on it a loss of 500 men. Clive had already made a secret agreement with aristocrats in Bengal, including Jagat Seth and Mir Jafar. Clive restrained Major Kilpatrick, for he trusted to Mir Jafar's abstinence, if not desertion to his ranks, and knew the importance of sparing his own small force. He was fully justified in his confidence in Mir Jafar's treachery to his master, for he led a large portion of the Nawab's army away from the battlefield, ensuring his defeat. Clive lost hardly any European troops; in all 22 sepoys were killed and 50 wounded. It is curious in many ways that Clive is now best-remembered for this battle, which was essentially won by suborning the opposition rather than through fighting or brilliant military tactics. Whilst it established British military supremacy in Bengal, it did not secure the East India Company's control over Upper India, as is sometimes claimed. That would come only seven years later in 1764 at the Battle of Buxar, where Sir Hector Munro defeated the combined forces of the Mughal Emperor and the Nawab of Oudh in a much more closely fought encounter.

Siraj Ud Daulah fled from the field on a camel, securing what wealth he could. He was soon captured by Mir Jafar's forces, and later executed by the assassin Mohammadi Beg. Clive entered Murshidabad, and established Mir Jafar as Nawab, the price which had been agreed beforehand for his treachery. Clive was taken through the treasury, amid a million and a half sterling's worth of rupees, gold and silver plate, jewels and rich goods, and besought to ask what he would. Clive took £160,000, a vast fortune for the day, while half a million was distributed among the army and navy of the East India Company, and provided gifts of £24,000 to each member of the Company's committee, as well as the public compensation stipulated for in the treaty.

In this extraction of wealth Clive followed a usage fully recognized by the Company, although this was the source of future corruption which Clive was later sent to India again to correct. The Company itself acquired revenue of £100,000 a year, and a contribution towards its losses and military expenditure of a million and a half sterling. Mir Jafar further discharged his debt to Clive by afterwards presenting him with the quit-rent of the Company's lands in and around Calcutta, amounting to an annuity of £27,000 for life, and leaving him by will the sum of £70,000, which Clive devoted to the army.

Further campaigns

Battle of Condore

While busy with the civil administration, Clive continued to follow up his military success. He sent Major Coote in pursuit of the French almost as far as Benares. He dispatched Colonel Forde to Vizagapatam and the northern districts of Madras, where that officer won the Battle of Condore, pronounced by Broome "one of the most brilliant actions on military record".

Great Mughal

The Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, negotiates territorial changes with a member of the British East India Company.

He came into direct contact, for the first time, with the Great Mughal himself, a meeting which would prove beneficial in his later career. Prince Ali Gauhar, escaped from Delhi after his father, the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II had been murdered by the usurping Vizier Imad-ul-Mulk and his Maratha associate Sadashivrao Bhau. Prince Ali Gauhar was welcomed and protected by the Shuja-ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh. In the year 1760 after gaining control over Bihar, Orissa and some parts of the Bengal, the Mughal Crown Prince Ali Gauhar and his Mughal Army of 30,000 intended to overthrow Mir Jafar and the Company in order to reconquer the riches of the Eastern Subah's for the Mughal Empire. The Mughals were led by Prince Ali Gauhar and accompanied by Muhammad Quli Khan, Hidayat Ali, Mir Afzal, Kadim Husein and Ghulam Husain Tabatabai. Their forces were reinforced by the forces of Shuja-ud-Daula and Najib-ud-Daula. The Mughals were also joined by Jean Law and 200 Frenchmen and waged a campaign against the British during the Seven Years' War. Prince Ali Gauhar successfully advanced as far as Patna, which he later besieged with a combined army of over 40,000 in order to capture or kill Ramnarian a sworn enemy of the Mughals. Mir Jafar was fraught in terror at the near demise of his cohort and sent his own son Miran to relieve Ramnarian and retake Patna. Mir Jafar also implored the aid of Robert Clive, but it was Major John Caillaud, who defeated Prince Ali Gauhar's army and dispersed it.

Dutch aggression

Clive also repelled the aggression of the Dutch, and avenged the massacre of Amboyna - the occasion when he wrote his famous letter; "Dear Forde, fight them immediately; I will send you the order of council to-morrow". Meanwhile Clive improved the organization and drill of the sepoy army, after a European model, and enlisted into it many Muslims from upper regions of the Mughal Empire. He re-fortified Calcutta. In 1760, after four years of hard labour, his health gave way and he returned to England. "It appeared", wrote a contemporary on the spot, "as if the soul was departing from the Government of Bengal". He had been formally made Governor of Bengal by the Court of Directors at a time when his nominal superiors in Madras sought to recall him to their help there. But he had discerned the importance of the province even during his first visit to its rich delta, mighty rivers and teeming population. Clive selected some able subordinates, notably a young Warren Hastings, who, a year after Plassey, was made resident at the Nawab's court.

The long-term outcome of Plassey was to place a very heavy revenue burden upon Bengal. The Company sought to extract the maximum revenue possible from the peasantry to fund military campaigns, and corruption was widespread amongst its officials. Mir Jafar was compelled to engage in extortion on a vast scale in order to replenish his treasury, which had been emptied by the Company's demand for an indemnity of 2.8 crores of rupees (£3 million).

Return to England

Memorial, King Charles St near St James's Park

In 1760, the 35-year-old Clive returned to England with a fortune of at least £300,000 and the quit-rent of £27,000 a year. He financially supported his parents and sisters, while also providing Major Lawrence, the commanding officer who had early encouraged his military genius, with a stipend of £500 a year. In the five years of his conquests and administration in Bengal, the young man had crowded together a succession of exploits which led Lord Macaulay, in what that historian termed his "flashy" essay on the subject, to compare him to Napoleon Bonaparte, declaring that "[Clive] gave peace, security, prosperity and such liberty as the case allowed of to millions of Indians, who had for centuries been the prey of oppression, while Napoleon's career of conquest was inspired only by personal ambition, and the absolutism he established vanished with his fall." Macaulay's ringing endorsement of Clive seems more controversial today, as some would argue that his own ambition and desire for personal gain set the tone for the administration of Bengal until the Permanent Settlement 30 years later. The immediate consequence of Clive's victory at Plassey was an increase in the revenue demand on Bengal by at least 20%, much of which was appropriated by Zamindars and corrupt Company Officials, which led to considerable hardship for the rural population, particularly during the famine of 1770.

During the three years that Clive remained in England, he sought a political position, chiefly that he might influence the course of events in India, which he had left full of promise. He had been well received at court, had been made Baron Clive of Plassey, County Clare, had bought estates, and had himself as well as a few friends returned to the House of Commons.

Clive set himself to reform the home system of the East India Company, and began a bitter dispute with the chairman of the Court of Directors, Mr Sullivan, whom in the end, he defeated. In this he was aided by the news of reverses in Bengal. Mir Jafar had finally rebelled over payments to English officials, and Clive's successor had put Kasim Ali Khan, Mir Jafar's son-in-law upon the musnud (throne). After a brief tenure, Kasim Ali had fled, ordering Walter Reinhardt Sombre (known to the Muslims as Sumru), a Swiss mercenary of his, to butcher the garrison of 150 English at Patna, and had disappeared under the protection of his brother, the Viceroy of Oudh. The whole Company's service, civil and military, had become mired in corruption, demoralized by gifts and by the monopoly of the inland as well as export trade, to such an extent that the Indians were pauperised, and the Company was plundered of the revenues which Clive had acquired for them. For this Clive himself must bear much responsibility, as he had set a very poor example during his tenure as Governor. Nevertheless, the Court of Proprietors, forced the Directors to hurry Lord Clive to Bengal with the double powers of Governor and Commander-in-Chief.

Third journey to India

Miniature of Al-Khidr, from the "Small Clive Album" thought to have been given to Clive on his 1765-67 visit to India by Shuja ud-Daula, the Nawab of Awadh. The Album contains 62 folia of Mughal miniature paitings, drawing and floral pattern studies. The binding is from Indian brocade silk brought home by the 2nd Lord Clive, who served as Governor of Madras, 1799 to 1803. Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1956.

On 3 May 1765 Clive landed at Calcutta to learn that Mir Jafar had died, leaving him personally £70,000. Mir Jafar was succeeded by his son Kasim Ali, though not before the government had been further demoralized by taking £100,000 as a gift from the new Nawab; while Kasim Ali had induced not only the viceroy of Oudh, but the emperor of Delhi himself, to invade Bihar. At this point a mutiny in the Bengal army occurred, which was a grim precursor of the Indian rebellion of 1857, but on this occasion it was quickly suppressed by blowing the sepoy ringleader from a gun. Major Munro, "the Napier of those times", scattered the united armies on the hard-fought field of Buxar. The emperor, Shah Alam II, detached himself from the league, while the Oudh viceroy threw himself on the mercy of the British.

Clive had now an opportunity of repeating in Hindustan, or Upper India, what he had accomplished in Bengal. He might have secured what is now called Uttar Pradesh, and have rendered unnecessary the campaigns of Wellesley and Lake. But he believed he had other work in the exploitation of the revenues and resources of rich Bengal itself, making it a base from which British India would afterwards steadily grow. Hence he returned to the Oudh viceroy all his territory save the provinces of Allahabad and Kora, which he presented to the weak emperor.

The Imperial Firman

In return for the Oudhian provinces Clive secured from the Emperor one of the most important documents in British history in India, effectively granting title of Bengal to Clive. It appears in the records as "[firman] from the King Shah Aalum, granting the dewany of Bengal, Behar and Orissa to the Company 1765." The date was 12 August 1765, the place Benares, the throne an English dining-table covered with embroidered cloth and surmounted by a chair in Clive's tent. It is all pictured by a Muslim contemporary, who indignantly exclaims that so great a "transaction was done and finished in less time than would have been taken up in the sale of a jackass". By this deed the Company became the real sovereign rulers of thirty million people, yielding a revenue of four millions sterling.

On the same date Clive obtained not only an imperial charter for the Company's possessions in the Carnatic, completing the work he began at Arcot, but a third firman for the highest of all the lieutenancies of the empire, that of the Deccan itself. This fact is mentioned in a letter from the secret committee of the court of directors to the Madras government, dated 27 April 1768. The British presence in India was still tiny compared to the number and strength of the princes and people of India, but also compared to the forces of their ambitious French, Dutch and Danish rivals. Clive had this in mind when he penned his last advice to the directors, as he finally left India in 1767:

"We are sensible that, since the acquisition of the dewany, the power formerly belonging to the soubah of those provinces is totally, in fact, vested in the East India Company. Nothing remains to him but the name and shadow of authority. This name, however, this shadow, it is indispensably necessary we should seem to venerate."

Attempts at administrative reform

Having thus founded the Empire of British India, Clive sought to put in place a strong administration. The salaries of civil servants were increased, the acceptance of gifts from Indians was forbidden, and Clive exacted covenants under which participation in the inland trade was stopped. Unfortunately this had very little impact in reducing corruption, which remained widespread until the days of Warren Hastings. Clive's military reforms were more effective. He put down a mutiny of the English officers, who chose to resent the veto against receiving presents and the reduction of batta (extra pay) at a time when two Maratha armies were marching on Bengal. His reorganization of the army, on the lines of that which he had begun after Plassey, neglected during his absence in England, subsequently attracted the admiration of Indian officers. He divided the whole army into three brigades, making each a complete force, in itself equal to any single Indian army that could be brought against it. He had not enough British artillerymen, however, and would not make the mistake of his successors, who trained Indians to work the guns, which were later turned against the British.

Retirement and death

Clive left India for the last time in February 1767. In 1769, he acquired the house and gardens at Claremont near Esher and commissioned Lancelot "Capability" Brown to remodel the garden and rebuild the house.

In 1772 Parliament opened an inquiry into the Company's practices in India. Clive's political opponents turned these hearings into attacks on Clive. Questioned about some of the large sums of money he had received while in India, Clive pointed out that they were not contrary to accepted company practice, and defended his behavior by stating "I stand astonished at my own moderation" given opportunities for greater gain. The hearings highlighted the need for reform of the Company, and a vote to censure Clive for his actions failed. Later in 1772 Clive was invested in the Order of the Bath, and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire.

Clive continued to be involved in ongoing Parliamentary discussions on company reforms, during which General John Burgoyne, one of Clive's most vocal enemies, pressed the case in 1773 that some of Clive's gains were made at the expense of the Company and the government. Clive again made a spirited defense of his actions, and closed his testimony by stating "Take my fortune, but save my honour." The vote that followed completely exonerated Clive, who was commended for the "great and meritorious service" he rendered to the country. Immediately thereafter Parliament began debating the Regulating Act of 1773, which significantly reformed the East India Company's practices.

On 22 November 1774 Clive committed suicide at his Berkeley Square home in London by stabbing himself with a penknife. Though Clive's suicide has been linked to his history of depression and to opium addiction, the likely immediate impetus was excruciating pain resulting from illness (he was known to suffer from gallstones) which he had been attempting to abate with opium. He had recently been offered command of British forces in North America which he had turned down.

Clive was awarded an Irish peerage and was created Baron Clive of Plassey co Clare; he bought lands in County Limerick and County Clare, Ireland, naming part of his lands near Limerick City, Plassey. Following Irish independence, these lands became state property. In the 1970s a technical college, which later became University of Limerick, was built at Plassey.

Family

"George Clive and his family with an Indian maid", painted by Joshua Reynolds, 1765.

Robert Clive married Margaret Maskelyne (d. 28 December 1817) on 18 February 1753, sister of the Rev. Dr Nevil Maskelyne, fifth Astronomer Royal, in Madras. They had six children:

• Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis (b. 7 March 1754–16 May 1839)
• Rebecca Clive (bapt 10 October 1760 Moreton Say, married Lt-Gen John Robinson, MP (d. 1798) in 1780 and died December 1795).
• Margaret Clive (bapt 18 September 1763, d. June 1814)
• Elizabeth Clive (bapt 18 November 1764)
• Charlotte Clive
• Robert Clive (14 August 1769–28 July 1833), Lt-Col.

Legacy

• Robert Clive's desk from his time at Market Drayton Grammar School is on display at Market Drayton museum complete with his carved initials.
• Robert Clive's pet Aldabra Giant Tortoise died on Thursday, 23 March 2006 in the Kolkata zoo. The tortoise, whose name was "Adwaita" (meaning the "The One and Only" in Bengali), appeared to be 150–250 years old. Adwaita had been in the zoo since the 1870s and the zoo's documentation showed that he came from Clive's estate in India
• A statue of Clive stands in the main Square in the market town of Shrewsbury.
• Clive is a Senior Girls house at the Duke of York's Royal Military School, where, as at Welbeck college, all houses are named after prominent military figures.
• Clive Road, in West Dulwich, London commemorates Baron Clive despite being so named close to a century after his death. Following the completion of the relocation of The Crystal Palace from Hyde Park to what is now Upper Norwood in 1854, the West End of London and Crystal Palace Railway was opened on 10 June 1854 to cope with crowds visiting the Crystal Palace. This led to a huge increase in employment in the area and a subsequent increase in the building of residential properties. Many of the new roads were named after eminent figures in Britain's imperial history, such as Robert Clive.
• There is a settlement named after Clive in the Hawke's Bay province of New Zealand.
• The movie Clive of India was released in 1935, and starred Ronald Colman, Loretta Young, and Colin Clive, his descendant.
• 'Clive' is a house at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood where he was a student for seven years before his expulsion. Members can be distinguished by their red striped ties.

参考书目

相關的维基共享资源：

羅伯特·克萊芙，第一代克莱芙男爵

本條目部分或全部内容出自已经处于公有领域的《大英百科全書第十一版》，劍橋大學出版社，1911年版，休·克里斯霍姆纂。

• Arbuthnot, Alexander John; Clive, Robert. Lord Clive. New York: Longman's, Green & Co. 1899. OCLC 2341161. 
• Burhan Ibn Hasan, Tuzak-I-Walajahi, University of Madras, 1934.
• H.E.Busteed, Echoes from Old Calcutta, Calcutta, 1908.
• Harrington, Jack, Sir John Malcolm and the Creation of British India, ch. 6, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.. 2010, ISBN 978-0-230-10885-1 
• Harvey, Robert. A Few Bloody Noses: The American Revolutionary War. Constable & Robinson, 2004.
• Harvey, Robert. Clive: The life and Death of a British Emperor. Hodder and Stoughton, 1998.
• A. Mervyn Davies, Clive of Plassey, London, 1939.
• Michael Edwardes, The Battle of Plassey and the Conquest of Bengal, London, 1963.
• Mark Bence-Jones, Clive of India, London, 1974.
• P.J. Marshall, Bengal, The British Bridgehead: Eastern India 1740–1828, Cambridge, 1988.
• Malleson, George. Lord Clive. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1893. OCLC 2143228. 
• Treasure, Geoffrey. Who's Who in Early Hanoverian Britain, 1714-1789. Stackpole Books. 2002. ISBN 0811716430. 

外部链接

• 托马斯·巴宾顿·麦考利（Thomas Babington Macaulay）所作随笔（英文）

軍職
前任： 约翰· 阿德勒克朗（John Adlercron）	印度陆军总指挥 1756 - 1760	繼任： 约翰·卡约（John Caillaud）
前任： 约翰·卡纳克（John Carnac）	印度陆军总指挥 1765 - 1767	繼任： 理查德·史密斯（Richard Smith）
愛爾蘭貴族爵位
前任： 新设立	克莱芙男爵 1762 - 1774	繼任： 爱德华·克莱芙（Edward Clive）