Lady Hamilton: Muse and Nelson's Mistress

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Kim Kardashian of Georgian England; she was a young housemaid who became one of the most famous socialites in the Western world and stole the heart Lord Nelson. Emma Hamilton, born Amy Lyon, grew up in abject poverty and at 13 travelled to London from Wales, where became a service maid. She was enthralled by the beauty and glamour of the actresses in Covent Garden and would miss work to go see them, eventually getting herself fired. She ended up destitute on the street until self proclaimed doctor and showman James Graham put her on the stage at his Temple of Good Health. Although still a teenager, men would come to oggle her beauty. Eventually she found work as a prostitute and became a mistress for the upper echelons of British society. She was effectively bought by Sir Henry Featherstonehaugh and while with him, learnt social graces, how to read, write and ride. Portraits were painted of her, she operated as a diplomat during the French revolution and became a socialite about Europe.

It was her relationship with Lord Nelson that gave her the greatest love affair and heartbreak of her life. It's said they had an electrifying chemistry and when Nelson hobbled into the Port of Naples in 1973, war-weary and sick she nursed him back to health. For years the pair enjoyed the highlife of the Enlightenment, inseparable, much to the disdain of the high society they mixed with. But, his death would mark the beginning of a steady decline- consumed by grief, addiction and debt, she died with just £10 in her pocket, some pawn receipts and just the clothes she was wearing.

Professor Joanna Lewis is a descendent of Lady Emma Hamilton and takes Dan through the twists and turns of her truly extraordinary life.

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Produced by James Hickmann and Mariana Des Forges, edited by Matthew Peaty and mixed by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History Hit. Lady Emma Hamilton is one of the most
0:05.9	fascinating figures in 18th and 19th century British European history. She was born to eliterate
0:13.4	parents, lived a life of rural poverty, rose to become the darling of the Prince Regent,
0:20.4	South very pinnacle of British society, married a night of the realm, took part in great affairs
0:27.3	of state, took part in the game of thrones, helped save the near-political royal family,
0:33.3	became the lover of Britain's greatest admiral Nelson, yet she died in poverty, addicted to drugs
0:41.3	and alcohol in 1815 in Calais. Lady Emma Hamilton is a fascinating figure through which to look at
0:51.1	the 18th century, both elite culture and also what life was like for women, for normal people,
0:57.6	walking the streets. Her heart it was, how fragile and the compromises, the decisions that people
1:03.6	had to make to survive. I've got Joanna Lewis, she's a professor in the Department of History at
1:09.0	the London School of Economics. She actually specialised in the modern Africa and the European
1:13.2	Imperial Carver of Africa, but she's agreed to talk to me about Lady Emma Hamilton,
1:18.6	to tell you why, because she discovered that she is a descendant of Emma and Nelson. Just imagine
1:24.9	for a second, having the blood of Nelson and Emma Hamilton in your veins, I mean, unbelievable.
1:31.8	It's the dream right there. I said Joanna has come on to tell us all about her illustrious
1:37.8	forebear, the very misunderstood but fascinating Emma Hamilton. Enjoy.
1:55.2	One another again. And look off and the subtle head cleared the tower.
2:01.1	Joanna, thank you very much for coming the podcast. My pleasure. I'm delighted to be here.
2:04.6	Thanks for asking me. Just tell the audience at her peak how famous was Lady Emma Hamilton.
2:11.1	Well, if you think of Kim Kardashian crashing the internet, then you've got a little bit of a
2:16.5	taste of how famous she was in Britain, in Europe. She had a face that everybody knew about.
2:24.4	So she was probably at her peak, one of the most well-known women in the Western world.
	...

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