The History Page

    Their relationship developed and   they were   eventually married in September 1791 on a visit to London .    Yet even though   Emma    married Sir William and became the wife of the Ambassador to the Court of Naples......   she   was   still persona non grata   in Royal Circles... Queen Charlotte refused to grant her   a Royal   audience.
     However    on their   journey back to Naples   Sir William and   Emma visited Paris and were granted an audience with Marie Antoinette   Queen of France.
At that time in Paris, the forces of revolution held sway and   the King and Queen of   France   were living   under house arrest..... they were in fact   prisoners of the revolution.    A sad, resigned    Marie Antoinette   gave Emma   a letter   to deliver to the Queen of Naples,   who was     Marie s   sister.
       In   January   1793   King Louis was guillotined on a public scaffold in Paris.      Not long after the execution   England   declared war on France.
    The declaration of war was not because of the Regicide but because the New Republic had declared its intention    to convert the people of other nations to revolution and egalitarianism.
    The storming of the Bastille,   the bloody years of revolution.    the execution of the King and Queen .... these were events that shook   Europe...... her social order    and institutions.      Before long   Napoleon was building a mighty    Empire and the   Austrians,   the Swiss    the Germans.... all the old powers were falling before the might of Napoleons    French   armies .....     armies   fighting under the banner of Liberty and Equality.
    For   Britain, there was one ray of light   that shone out above   the gloomy scene... the Battle of the Nile   in August 1798.



      In that famous victory     Nelson encountered 13 French ships of the line supporting the French invasion of Egypt.   The outcome of the battle left      3 French battleships    burnt out,   9    French battleships    captured and   1   French frigate    sunk.   This battle and its outcome ensured British naval superiority during the remainder of the French revolutionary wars.
        Nelson   returned to Naples,   victorious but with a severe headwound caused by flying shrapnel.    Some say that it was at this time that Emma fell in love with Nelson and their love affair began..... a   love affair that seems to have been condoned by her ageing   husband    Sir William Hamilton.
      The   year     1798     saw   Napoleons   armies    dominant and all powerful   in Europe,   By   December of that year   even the Kingdom of Naples was under threat of invasion.
     It was in late December 1798 ,   with invasion imminent, that   Nelson helped the King and Queen of Naples in a dramatic   escape to   Sicily.   It was a dreadful voyage, there was a wild storm..... the King and Queen thought they were going to drown in the   storm and the   raging sea.
     The King was also angry with his wife and blamed their    misfortunes on her friendship with Emma and her love of all things English.    If they had nt been so closely allied to England,   then surely they could have come to some agreement with Napoleon and the French .
       However, fortunes turned and    in   June 1799   Naples was recaptured.     Nelson was able to return to the city.... the King and Queen were restored.
   Nelson and Emma's love affair developed with time   and    around April 1800,   Emma became pregnant with Nelsons child.
   In July 1800   the menage a trois.... Emma , Nelson and Sir William,   set off from Leghorn and travelled home to England   visiting Vienna, Dresden and Hamburg on the way.
   In November they finally landed in Yarmouth and thence to London where the population celebrated   Nelsons great   victory on the Nile.
    For a while Nelson lived with his wife   Fanny at 17 Dover street,    but he soon abandoned this sham of a marriage and went to live with   Emma and Sir William at their house in Grosvenor Square.
    At Christmastime   the odd trio travelled to Wiltshire to visit   William Beckford and stay at his Gothic mansion... Fonthill Abbey.     Fonthill with its magnificent 300 foot high tower   laid claim to be    the tallest private residence in all of   Europe .... already   it was a famous, celebrated folly.
   During the    festivities   Emma gave a performance of her "attitudes "   in which she used mime to tell    the tragic story of Agrippina..... at the time Emma   was   8 months pregnant.



   On   January 28th 1801   she gave birth to a daughter... Horatia....   who was promptly handed into the care of a nurse,   allowing Emma to carry on life as normal.
   In October   1801 Emma completed the purchase of Merton Place, a small property in Kent   where she,   Nelson and Sir William all lived together, enjoying the simple joys of   rural life.
Alas in    April   1803   Sir William   died.
      Emma hardly had time to mourn the death of her husband when in May    1803   Nelson was recalled to take up his new position as Commander -in-Chief   of the Mediterranean Fleet.
   He did nt return to   Emma and Merton's rural paradise for a full   2 years,   finally   making a brief return   in    August 1805.
   On the 12th of   September 1805   Emma and Nelson took    communion together and exchanged rings.   The very next day Nelson returned to the fleet leaving    Merton and Emma for the very last time...........for Nelson.... destiny was awaiting.
   The Battle of Trafalgar was fought on   the 21st October 1805 .     Admiral Lord Nelson   died in the battle ,   ensuring his place in history   as Britain's greatest Naval Hero.
    The stunning victory achieved at Trafalgar ensured that the Royal Navy would remain    as the worlds foremost naval power throughout the   19th century.   Only the rise of Imperial Germany in the years before the first world war would threaten that supremacy.
      On the   6th of November   Emma was informed that Nelson had died in the battle.
Unusually   , Emma   neither visited Nelson as   he lay in state, nor attended   his elaborate state   funeral in St Paul's Cathedral.
    Between 1806 and 1808   Emma kept open house at Merton   and was far too generous   with her hospitality and far too profligate with her spending.
She fell seriously   into debt. At the same time     her health deteriorated and   she became overweight.
In the summer of 1813 she was imprisoned for debt and remained   ensconced for a full year.
   On release from prison in   July 1814 she fled to France with her daughter Horatia.
In the French city of   Callais   she lived a desperate, hand to mouth existence,   often spending her days in    an alcoholic haze.
Finally   Emma died in Callais   in January 1815   and was buried there.
    Horatia returned to England to live with relatives.       In later life she    married a clergyman.... Stephen Ward and   had   8 children .   Horatia finally   died at the age of    80.
    Emma's life, from humble beginnings, had been so full of incident and adventure..... so full of colour and romance..............
      Her years in London with Charles Greville and his artistic friends, her glamorous life in Naples as wife of the Ambassador and confident of the Queen..... all this set against a background of   revolution,   wars,   invasions     and    dramas ..... events   that were turning European society upside down.
    Then .... as if the fates decreed it...... her meeting and romance with Lord Nelson.... Nelson   the great naval hero ....Nelson    the love of her life.
    Emma's life is an incredible story, its like a novel,   like the finest novel of love and romance.
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