England's Mistress, by Kate Williams

From prostitute to national celebrity: how Emma Hamilton made good

Rebecca Loncraine
Wednesday 11 October 2006 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

It is the thoroughness of the research and attention to detail that make Kate Williams' new biography of Emma Hamilton so interesting. The iconic Emma has been continuously reimagined since her lover Nelson's death, but Williams offers a new portrait. In dogged archival work, the author discovered letters by Hamilton unused by other biographers; she also got behind the heavily edited Victorian edition of Emma's known letters, returning to the originals to uncover the raciest excised bits.

There's also a section on the 19th-century view of Hamilton, including what might be allusions in Jane Austen's novels (Jane's brother Frank was one of Nelson's captains).

The book looks at Emma's childhood in the mining areas of the Wirral and Chester, and her adolescence as a servant in London. Vivid details of the daily lives of servants bring this least-known part of her story to life. After staying out all night at Bartholomew Fair, Emma was sacked and forced into the seedier side of London. Refreshingly, Williams avoids the usual prurient treatment of famous women with murky pasts, and plays down the importance of Emma's brief time as a prostitute. As an 18th-century woman from lower-class origins, Emma's body was her only asset. Through working at Madame Kelly's brothel, she gained access to aristocratic men. Yet it's a paradox that her most high-profile affair, with Nelson, seems to have been based on real love.

This is a sympathetic portrait: a contemporary take on Emma Hamilton as an ambitious, self-promoting, media-savvy celebrity, who came to life only with male attention and the public spotlight. Like many celebrities, she talks about herself in the third person: "Am I Emma Hamilton? It seems impossible", she wrote after marrying the scholar-diplomat Sir William Hamilton in 1791. Sharing some of Marilyn Monroe's characteristics, she was superficial, beautiful, attention-seeking, socially insecure and fascinating.

She also had an aptitude for the shape-shifting self-invention of Madonna, transforming herself from serving girl into glamorous, exotic dancer ("the Goddess of Health"), artists' muse, society hostess, and, finally, into the controversial mistress of England's hero, and mother of his child, Horatia. The great-great-great-granddaughter of Horatia found one of Emma's gowns in her dressing-up box. Likewise, we need to keep trying on Emma's story as a way of looking at her again, and seeing how she fits.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in