After being interred in an oak coffin in the public cemetery, just outside Calais, Emma Hamilton was moved somewhere else because that churchyard was converted into a timber-yard in 1816.She was probably relocated to a cemetery near a theatre in an area that was later devastated during World War I and World War II.People say… Read More Lady Hamilton’s Ghost (part 69)
Emma was buried in Calais on January 21 in the graveyard of the Eglise de St Pierre, outside the town, without any sign.Some time later an unknown person planted a wooden cross bearing the inscription “Emma Hamilton, England’s Friend”. Another unknown hand removed it. This happened twice. A British visitor passing through Calais in September… Read More Lady Hamilton in Calais (part 68)
When the news of Emma Hamilton’s death reached Britain very few people were concerned, besides her creditors who were worried about their prospects of repayment.However, there were a couple of men who seemed really willing to know more. One of them was her nephew Colonel Fulke-Greville, the younger brother and heir of Charles Greville, to… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia in Calais (part 67)
Although Horatia was convinced that Emma was not her mother, but only her “guardian“, she remained by her side until the end. Emma, after trying to find a remedy for her battered body and to allay her moral anguish by resorting to alcohol and opium, finally sought solace in religion.She turned to the Catholic Church,… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia in Calais (part 65)
The house in Rue Francaise was not as healthy as Emma might have hoped. It faced north, thus it was really gloomy and dreary, without a ray of sunshine to warm and cheer the side of the street in which it stood. Her rooms were always in the shade and decidedly cold. Without the money… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia in Calais (part 64)
In another letter to sir William Scott (Judge of the High Court of Admiralty, famous for saying “A dinner lubricates business“) she had also stated that, although they needed financial support, the Rev. Earl Nelson had done nothing to help them. He had even refused to pay her the money (£500 per annum) from the… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia in Calais (part 63)
In early July 1814, Emma landed in France, the country she had always detested, and to which she had done every possible harm, which had become war-free, now that Napoleon had abdicated-It was probably just a stopover to then seek asylum among her previous acquaintance in Italy, a country where she hoped to find gratitude,… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia in Calais (part 62)
By now Lady Hamilton’s life had become a catalogue of debt, betrayal and abandonment, and very few were still interested in “the divine lady … superior to all womankind”, as painter George Romney used to call her. The theft, under mysterious circumstances, and the publication of the private letters Nelson had written to her made… Read More Lady Hamilton & Horatia Released from Prison (part 61)
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