Hamilton, Emma
ACHIEVEMENTS:
Admiral Horatio Nelson’s mistress
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
Born: Amy Lyon
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
c 1761, Great Neston, Cheshire, England
DATE AND PLACE OF DEATH AND AGE AT DEATH:
15 January 1815, Calais, France. Aged 54
DISCIPLINE: Singer, model and diplomatic hostess
FIELD: Art, diplomacy
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS:
Father: Henry Lyon
Mother: Mary
SIBLINGS: None known
SPOUSE: Sir William Hamilton
CHILDREN:
by Nelson: Horatia Nelson
EDUCATION: Rudimentary
MAJOR WORK: None
LIFE AND TIMES:
Emma's parents were very poor and her father died shortly after her birth. Her mother returned to her home in Flintshire where Emma was brought up in great poverty in her grandmother's house at Hawarden. She may have acted as nursemaid to a local family and certainly came to London around 1778 as a nursemaid.
It is probable that she then worked as a maidservant in the home of Linley*, the musician, and it was reported by a contemporary that she devotedly nursed the Linley's son Samuel who died at the age of twenty-one.
During the next two years she took various jobs and is said to have represented a classical maiden dressed in Greek draperies at an exhibition put on by the quack doctor James Graham*. She also gave birth to a child. At the end of 1780 she went to live at Uppark in Sussex under the protection of a young gentleman called Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh.
He turnedher out the following year and she went back to her grandmother in Hawarden where she gave birth to a stillborn child. In despair, Emma wrote for help to Charles Greville*, a man she had met at Uppark and the probable cause of her quarrel with Fetherstonhaugh. Greville sent for her and for the next four years the two of them lived together in a small house near Paddington Green with Emma's mother acting as cook.
Although he was an aristocrat Greville had very little money and the household was maintained in an extremely modest way. Emma lived a secluded life and became dependent on Greville who arranged singing lessons for her and tutored her in literature, art and history.
Emma was tall and extremely beautiful and when Greville introduced her to the artist Romney* in 1782 he became one of Emma's most devoted admirers. She became Romney's model and sat for numerous pictures.
Two years later, she met Greville's uncle, Sir William Hamilton*, the British Minister in Naples. When Greville's circumstances changed and he wanted to break up the Paddington Green household, he made an arrangement with Hamilton to send Emma out to him. Hamilton paid off Greville's debts and in March 1786 Emma was unwillingly sent to Italy, accompanied by her mother. Emma was surprised and hurt to discover that Hamilton wanted her to become his mistress but at the end of the year, she did so.
She could sing, and she invented an entertainment she called "attitudes" where she struck poses relating to classical imagery, and also danced. She soon became celebrated by artists and poets for her attitudes. With the aid of her shawls, Emma posed as various classical figures from Medea to Queen Cleopatra, and her performances charmed aristocrats, artists such as Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun, writers—including the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[11]—and kings and queens alike, setting off new dance trends across Europe and starting a fashion for a draped Grecian style of dress.
"Attitudes" were taken up by several other (female) artists, among them Ida Brun from Denmark, who became Emma's successor in the new art form.[12] The famed sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen admired her art.
In 1791, she accompanied Hamilton on a visit to England during which they were married. On a visit to Paris she was received by Marie Antoinette and back in Naples she became an intimate friend of Queen Maria Carolina. Under cover of their friendship the queen, who was sister to Marie Antoinette and hated the French, could communicate secretly with Hamilton and the English government.
Britain was at war with revolutionary France and in 1793 Emma met Nelson* for the first time when he made a brief stopover in Naples. In September 1798, he returned as victor of the Battle of the Nile, and was greeted in the Bay of Naples by the Hamilton’s. Emma went on board Nelson's ship and is said to have fainted in his arms from an excess of hero worship.
When Nelson collapsed with nervous exhaustion a few days later, Emma nursed him with a diet of asses' milk and organised lavish festivities for his birthday at the end of the month. When French forces approached Naples in December 1798, it was Nelson who escorted the royal family and the Hamilton’s in his ship "Vanguard" to safety in Sicily. Emma had lost almost all her clothes and possessions and their home in Naples was abandoned.
Nelson remained in the Mediterranean and at some point he and Emma became lovers.
In 1800, Hamilton was recalled from his position as ambassador, and after he and Emma accompanied Nelson on a visit to Malta, they left Palermo to travel back to England. By this time, Emma was carrying Nelson's child. Hamilton either accepted the situation or was oblivious, as the three of them traveled together across Europe.
In England, the pretense of a platonic relationship between Nelson and Emma was maintained and relations between Nelson and Sir William remained amicable although the scandal was well known in society.
At the end of January 1801, Emma gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Horatia. When Sir William was dying in April 1803, Nelson joined Emma in maintaining a vigil at his bedside, after which Emma lived with Nelson at his home in Merton, Surrey when he was not at sea.
After Nelson’s death in October 1805, Emma went through the legacies left her by Hamilton and Nelson and in 1813 was arrested for debt and sentenced to live under the jurisdiction of the prison governor.
In July 1814 she received a small pension payment owing to her from the Nelson family and won her discharge by paying off some of her debts. Before other debts could be discovered, she and Horatio slipped out of the country on a small boat which they boarded at the Tower of London.
They landed in Calais where they lived a hand to mouth existence until Emma died in January 1815.
ASSESSMENT: She achieved national notoriety for her famous affair with Nelson.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: She entertained Thomas Bruce Elgin*
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Fraser, Flora,Beloved Emma, The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton, Macmillan General Books, London, 1994
Multimedia:
Connections 3 Episode 1
Effect on fashion from Camera Obscura