Her Unsung Achievements
Emma’s Incredible Achievements
Despite being born poor in an age of pretty much zero social mobility, Emma rose from being an abandoned, unmarried mother to becoming a confidant of royalty and being made Dame by the Czar of Russia (see below) and mixing in the highest echelons of society.
When teenaged Emma became pregnant to a young aristocrat, he cast her out. His friend, Charles Greville agreed to take her in on condition that she learned to speak and behave like a gentlelady. Her success at this inspired George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, which the musical My Fair Lady was based on.
Emma Hamilton Society’s literary consultant, Dr Jesse Hellman, published a paper entitled “Lady Hamilton, Nelson's Enchantress, and the Creation of Pygmalion" in SHAW: the Journal of Bernard Shaw Studies, 35:2. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. If you would lie a copy, please email Emma Hamilton Society.
INSPIRATION BEHIND ‘MY FAIR LADY’
Emma first sat for up-and-coming artist, George Romney, when she was a teen.
They connected with each other. Both had been born in north-west England and were looked down upon for being commonly born.
George Romney’s portraits of teenaged Emma caused such a stir that everyone wanted her image. In the days before mass media, prints of portraits were highly sought-after, and images of Emma were the most desired of all.
Emma was painted also by other prominent artists, such as Joshua Reynolds and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
THE MOST PAINTED WOMAN IN EUROPE
Emma was able to play many instruments to a high standard, including the violin.
Her singing was rated so highly that she was invited to sing for three years with the Italian opera at Madrid.
ACCLAIMED MUSICAL PROWESS
INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED “ATTITUDES”
Emma's unique and startling Attitudes of Greek and Roman classics became a must-see for European aristocracy, including royalty. Top artists, including Elizabeth Vigée-Le Brun and Joshua Reynolds sought to capture these performances and printed line drawings of these were snapped up across Europe. Emma's Attitude performances remained highly popular for over twenty years.
You can see an informative lecture about her Attitudes on Youtube here.
FIELD ARCHEOLOGIST
Her husband, Sir William Hamilton, was a pioneering explorer of Pompeii.
Emma accompanied him on many digs.
INSPIRED THE ENTIRE "JANE AUSTEN" FASHION REVOLUTION
Emma was quick to learn French.
She became fluent in Italian.
POLYLINGUIST
The loose, draped clothes tied with a sash that Emma wore for her Attitudes inspired the fashionable elite to adopt her signature look of loose draped white muslin dress and 'Grecian style' pumps.
An entire and radical fashion revolution followed.
Think Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
She was much loved by the needy of Naples for her dedicated charity and
kindness.
A nun said she looked like an angel.
NAMED AN ANGEL
SOLE CONFIDANTE OF THE QUEEN OF NAPLES
Emma became Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily's closest confidante.
Queen Maria Carolina's husband, King Ferdinand I, was not interested in politics, leaving Maria Carolina as the acting political power. Emma and the Queen worked together to stand against the threat of invasion from the new French Republic, which had just had Maria Carolina's sister, Marie Antoinette, executed.
Emma was instrumental in helping the Neapolitan Royal Family escape the revolutionary French mob.
THE FIRST ENGLISH WOMAN AWARDED THE MALTESE CROSS FOR BRAVERY
Emma was made a Dame of Malta (for men it would have been a Knight of Malta) by the Russian Czar for paying for and organising the delivery of grain to the starving population of Malta during a famine. Johann Schmidt's portrait (left) shows her wearing the Cross of the order, which she obtained permission from the King George III to wear in England. She was always proud to be the first Englishwoman so honoured*.
* Lady Hamilton, Nelson's Enchantress, and the Creation of Pygmalion (2015) Jesse Hellman, citing Memoirs of Emma, Lady Hamilton: The Friend of Lord Nelson and the Court of Naples (1910) Walter Sydney Sichel
CRUCIAL TO NELSON'S BATTLE OF THE NILE VICTORY
Nelson's fleet had been unable to counter Napoleon's encroachment into Egypt because he had been refused vital supplies at the Sicilian port of St Peter.
Emma influenced Queen Maria Carolina to order the supplies released. Nelson was then able to lead his revictualed ships on to his famous victory at Aboukir Bay, on 1st August 1798, that made him a hero in Naples and Britain.
SPY COURIER
Emma acted as a spy courier to actively support the British against French and Spanish attack.
Queen Maria Carolina’s husband, King Ferdinand, and his brother, Philip of Spain, were siding with revolutionary France. Revolutionaries had killed the Queen’s sister, Marie Antoinette. She smuggled intelligence to Emma to pass to the British.
These are incredible achievements for a mine’s blacksmith’s daughter from Cheshire born in an age of immobile class structure and massive gender inequality.
However, misogynist society did everything they could to discredit her achievements so she was remembered only, unfavourably, as a corrupt woman who became Lord Nelson’s mistress.