On October 30, that same year she signed one of her letters off to Davison, "I am ever your affectionate Emma. I would say N. but I am afraid such happiness and honour is not in store for me for She will never burst."

After a brief visit to England in August 1805, Nelson once again had to return to service. Emma received letters from him on 1, 7 and 13 October. On the ship, he wrote a note intended as a codicil to his will requesting that, in return for his legacy to King and Country that they should give Emma "ample provision to maintain her rank in life", and that his "adopted daughter, Horatia Nelson Thompson...use in future the name of Nelson only". For most of 1811 and 1812 she was in a virtual debtors' prison, and in December 1812 either chose to commit herself (her name does not appear in the record books) Emma was buried in Calais

Lady Hamilton's death incentivized her creditors to submit an application to Robert Fulke Greville, the trustee of her annuity and the person she sought for financial assistance. To enable the creditor to collect his reward, Greville got a copy of the death certificate from the Calais Mairie. Colonel "Wellbred" as he was called finally closed all his former aunt in law's debts.

Henry Cadogan cared for the 14-year-old Horatia in the aftermath of Emma's death and paid for her travel to Dover. The Matchams took her in to care for their younger children until she was sent to live with the Boltons two years later, Susanna having died in 1813.

Honours and heraldry

Emma Hamilton is generally known by the courtesy title of Lady Hamilton, to which she was entitled from 1791 as the wife and then widow of Sir William Hamilton. In 1800, she became a member of the Order of Malta. This was an unusual honour, awarded to Lady Hamilton by the then Grand Master of the Order, Paul I of Russia, in recognition of her role in the defence of the island of Malta against the French.

Subsequently, she used her new title in formal circumstances, most notably, this was the title under which she was formally granted her own coat of arms by the English College of Arms in 1806, Per pale Or and Argent, three Lions rampant Gules, on a chief Sable, a Cross of eight points of the second. The lions evidently refer to her maiden surname of Lyons, and the addition of the Maltese Cross, which has puzzled heraldic scholars unaware of her connection to the Order.

  • In cover artwork for many books, including Lady Hamilton as Circe on the cover of the Bantam Classics publication of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.
  • The 1926 operetta Lady Hamilton by the German composer Eduard Künneke. The operetta was revived in Cologne in 2004.
  • The 1919 silent British film The Romance of Lady Hamilton directed by Bert Haldane and starring Malvina Longfellow as Hamilton and Humberston Wright as Nelson.
  • The 1921 silent German film Lady Hamilton directed by Richard Oswald with Liane Haid as Hamilton and Conrad Veidt as Nelson.
  • Mentioned in the play La Tosca by Victorien Sardou.
  • The 1929 Vitaphone part-silent film The Divine Lady. Corinne Griffith played Lady Hamilton and Victor Varconi played Admiral Nelson.
  • The 1934 film Boots! Boots!, George Formby mentions Lady Hamilton and her relationship with Nelson in his song Why Don't Women Like Me
  • The 1941 film That Hamilton Woman starring Vivien Leigh as Emma and Laurence Olivier as Horatio. Leigh took publicity photos for the film arranged in poses very similar to paintings of Emma. The film is said to have been a favourite of Winston Churchill.
  • The 1951 opera Nelson by Lennox Berkeley.
  • The 1953 Soviet film Attack from the Sea. Emma Hamilton was portrayed by Yelena Kuzmina.
  • The 1968 film Emma Hamilton. Emma Hamilton was portrayed by Michèle Mercier.
  • The 1973 film Bequest to the Nation (released in the United States as The Nelson Affair). Emma Hamilton was portrayed by Glenda Jackson, and Peter Finch plays Nelson.
  • The 1979 song "Bang Bang", performed by B. A. Robertson, mentions both Lord Nelson ("Lord Nel") and Lady Hamilton.
  • The 1980s sitcom Blackadder the Third, the show's antihero Edmund Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson), repeatedly mocks both Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton.
  • Susan Sontag's 1992 novel The Volcano Lover: A Romance is a fictionalised portrait of Lady Emma and the times in which she lived.
  • The 1999 song "I'd Like That" on English pop band XTC's 13th studio album Apple Venus Vol. 1 refers to the famous lovers in the line "I'd be your Nelson if you'd be my Hamilton."
  • Lady Hamilton features in Jasper Fforde's novel Lost in a Good Book where, in a parallel to the main character Thursday Next whose husband has been erased from history, Emma remembers a timeline where Nelson divorced his wife and the two were happily married until time-travelling “revisionists” arranged for Nelson's death at Trafalgar.
  • During the first episode of Doctor Who (2005) Season 10, a black and white portrait of Emma Hamilton (Aged 17) can be found hanging on the wall in the doctor's office (opposite his desk and to the right).
  • In Jamaica, a vacation resort is named after her as the Grand Palladium Lady Hamilton. This resort is home to the largest swimming pool in Jamaica, and one of the largest in the world.

Bibliography

  • Williams, Kate (2006). England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton. Ballantine Books
  • Emma Hamilton Seduction and Celebrity

Research studies

  • Schachenmayr, Volker (1997). "Emma Lyon, the Attitude, and Goethean Performance Theory," in: New Theatre Quarterly vol. 13, pp. 3–17.
  • Contogouris, Ersy (2018). Emma Hamilton and Late Eighteenth-Century European Art: Agency, Performance, and Representation. London and New York: Routledge. .

Further reading

  • The Volcano Lover, a novel by Susan Sontag, features Emma prominently as a partially fictionalized character.
  • Celebrating Waddesdon's women blog article

Notes

References

  • Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante in the Lady Lever Art Gallery
  • "Finding the Lost Daughter of Lady Hamilton". Article about Emma Carew by Jacqui Livesey. (Global Maritime History, 24 March 2014)
  • "Dispelling the myths around Lady Emma Hamilton and Admiral Lord Nelson", article by the curator of the 2017 Emma Hamilton exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Quintin Colville. (Cheshire Life, 3 November 2016)
  • Paintings of Emma Hart in the Waddesdon Manor collection