That Hamilton Woman: Emma and Nelson

By Barry Gough and Andrew Roberts

Emma Hamilton, much maligned by her contemporaries and later by historians and commentators, rose from the most humble beginnings to play a startling role in Britains naval victory over France and Spain in 1805. In this new book Barry Gough, employing the letters between the protagonists, and the unpublished examination of her career by famed American historian of the Royal Navy Arthur Marder, strongly defends Emma. He shows how this most talented of women and the beauty of her age fell victim to innuendo, slander and cruel caricature. She was to die in poverty in Calais in 1815, just months before Napoleons final defeat. Englands greatest sailor fell deeply in love with Emma in the years before Trafalgar. This, together with his quest for glory and victory entangled him in an inescapable web of circumstances and calumny. The author explores the evolving scandal, the high political stakes that were involved, and the love affair itself which so influenced the fortunes of Englands glory and the fate of her Wooden Walls. No novelist could have created such a tortuous scenario, charged as it was with high emotions, slurs, insults and slander. Richly illustrated throughout, the book shows Emma, probably the most painted woman of her age, in all her glories; it also shows how heartlessly caricaturists treated her. That Hamilton woman will long remain a controversial figure but here the author places her as one of the forces that gave the Royal Navy its will to fight and conquer. He depicts sympathetically a woman entrapped in circumstances of her own making, her saga reminding us of how frail is human fortune.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473875654

Barry Gough

Barry Gough, sailor-historian, is past president of the Organization for the History of Canada and the Official Historian of HMCS Haida, Canada's most decorated warship. His acclaimed books on the Royal Navy and British Columbia have received numerous prizes, including the prestigious Clio Award of the Canadian Historical Association. Professor emeritus of Wilfrid Laurier University, he lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Book preview

Front cover: Emma painted by J Schmidt, Nelson’s favourite depiction of her. See plate 33.

Copyright © Barry Gough 2016

‘That Hamilton Woman’ essay © Estate of Arthur Marder 2016

Introduction copyright © Andrew Roberts 2016

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by

Seaforth Publishing,

Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

47 Church Street,

Barnsley S70 2AS

www.seaforthpublishing.com

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 4738 7563 0 (HARDBACK)

ISBN 978 1 4738 7565 4 (EPUB)

ISBN 978 1 4738 7564 7 (KINDLE)

ISBN 978 1 4738 7566 1 (PDF)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing of both the copyright owner and the above publisher.

The right of Barry Gough to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Typeset and designed by MATS Typesetting, Leigh-on-Sea

Printed and bound in Malta by Gutenberg Press Ltd

Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction by Andrew Roberts

Preface & Acknowledgements

Prologue: Arthur Marder’s ‘That Hamilton Woman: Emma and Clio Reconciled’

1   Patroness of the Navy: The Women Behind the Fleet

2   Emma Meets Hamilton

3   Emma Meets Nelson

4   Emma Meets Fanny

5   Nelson and Emma Meet Immortality

Sources Writing Emma and Nelson

Dedication

For Lawrence Phillips

‘People will be very sorry they spoke so cruelly of me. One day they will see that they were abusing a tragic figure.’

SUSAN SONTAG, writing of Emma. The Volcano Lover: A Romance (1992)

‘It is strange to observe how the unfortunate Emma mingles herself with the life of Nelson. The student cannot get away from her. She is as a strand in the rope of his career, and makes herself as much a portion of his later life as if she had been a ship or a battle.’

W CLARK RUSSELL, Pictures from the Life of Nelson (1897)

List of Illustrations

Between pages 32 and 33

1. Portrait of Emma Hart, by George Romney, c1782 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

2. Mrs Cadogan, Emma’s mother. (National Museum of the Royal Navy)

3. Little Emma, painted by George Greville. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PU3232)

4. Emma as Nature, by George Romney, 1782. (Wiki Commons)

5. Emma as Bacchante, by George Romney, 1785. (Wiki Commons)

6. Emma in a cavern, by George Romney, c1785. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2736)

7. Emma, Lady Hamilton, by George Romney, c1785. (National Portrait Gallery)

8. Emma ‘From the Nude’, attributed to George Romney. (Private collection, photography by Mike Searle)

Between pages 48 and 49

9. Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh, by Pompeo Batoni 1776. (National Trust collections)

10. Emma sitting for George Romney in his studio, by Frank Dadd. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PU4300)

11. Sir William Hamilton, by David Allan. (Wiki Commons)

12. Emma as the Ambassadress, by George Romney, 1791 (Blanton Museum of Art)

13. Emma as Cassandra, copy of a study by George Romney. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2261)

14. The Attitudes of Lady Hamilton, etching by Francesco Novelli, after 1791. (Wiki Commons).

15. Lady Hamilton’s Attitudes, cartoon by Thomas Rowlandson, 1791. (Bridgeman Images)

16. The road at Posillipo, Naples, from an album of topographical drawings, by James Butt. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PT2100)

Between pages 64 and 65

17. Ferdinand IV, King of Naples and Sicily, artist unknown. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, B3173-a))

18. Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily, artist unknown. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, 4933)

19. A perspective view of Naples (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PY2468)

20. Lady Hamilton as Bacchante, by Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun. (Bridgeman Images)

21. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson, by Lemuel Francis Abbott 1800. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2889)

22. Lady Frances Nelson, by Daniel Orme 1798, (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, A0094)

23. The Battle of the Nile, 1 August 1798, engraving after Thomas Whitcombe 1799. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PY7957)

24. ‘Extirpation of the Plagues of Egypt; – Destruction of the Revolutionary Crocodiles; – or The British Hero cleansing ye Mouth of ye Nile’, by James Gillray 1798. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PW3893)

25. Vanguard entering the Bay of Naples, 22 September 1798, attributed to the son of Guardi the Venetian painter. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PX9746)

Between pages 80 and 81

26. Poster for film That Hamilton Woman. (Wiki Commons)

27. Vivien Leigh as Emma. (Wiki Commons)

28. Lord Nelson’s Reception at Fonthill. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PU3988)

29. Modern Antiques, by Thomas Rowlandson, c1800. (Private collection)

30. A Cognocenti contemplating ye Beauties of ye Antique, by James Gillray, 1801 (Private collection)

31. A Mansion House Treat or Smoking Attitudes, by Isaac Cruikshank 1800. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PAF3887)

32. Horatia Nelson, after Henry Bone 1806. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2884)

33. Emma, by J Schmidt 1800. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, A4288)

Between pages 96 and 97

34. Dido in Despair!, by James Gillray 1801. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PAF3874)

35. Needlework after an illustration in Laurence Sterne’s Sentimental Journey. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, F3644)

36. Merton Place. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PY6235)

37. The Noble Admiral Lord Nelson, falling in the Arms of Victory, by P Patriarcha. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PAF4352)

38. The Death of Admiral-Lord-Nelson – in the moment of Victory, by James Gillray 1805. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PAF3866)

39. The Exact Representation of the Grand Funeral Car which carried the Remains of Lord Nelson to St Pauls on Thursday January 9th 1806. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, PAF4369)

40. The Apotheosis of Nelson, by Benjamin West 1807. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2905)

41. Horatia Nelson, British school c1815. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, BHC2886)

Introduction

The 1941 classic movie That Hamilton Woman, starring Laurence Olivier as Horatio Nelson and Vivien Leigh as Emma Hamilton, was made in Hollywood by the great Hungarian-American film producer Alexander Korda. It was boycotted by the isolationist, anti-war America First Committee when it was released for its obvious propaganda overtones, such as the moment when, hearing of Napoleon’s peace offer, Olivier states: ‘Gentlemen, you will never make peace with Napoleon … Napoleon cannot be master of the world until he has smashed us up, and believe me, gentlemen, he means to be master of the world! You cannot make peace with dictators. You have to destroy them – wipe them out!’ Small wonder that it was Sir Winston Churchill’s favourite film and that he was said to have watched it seventeen times.

Barry Gough has written an excellent overview of the story of the hero and heroine of That Hamilton Woman, whose relationship still today constitutes a love affair to stand beside those of Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, Napoleon and Josephine (the last of whom died only eight months before Emma Hamilton). It was an extraordinary tale. One moment Emma was the gorgeous, buxom, rouge-cheeked temptress of the Romney portrait at the Frick Gallery in New York, striking her ‘Attitudes’ and fascinating a series of upper-class patrons who passed her on from one to the next. Then, after the briefest of interludes as Admiral Nelson’s lover, she became a debt-ridden, obese alcoholic eking out her existence in the Calais stews. The tragedy is tangible.

I have an invitation to Nelson’s funeral close to my desk, at which ceremony all the eight admirals who carried his coffin at St Paul’s Cathedral in January 1806 were in floods of tears. Regency men didn’t mind expressing their feelings in a way that their Victorian children and grandchildren felt they couldn’t. Yet if Nelson had lived, and become the Duke of Trafalgar, this story