Nelson in his own words
The relationship between Horatio Nelson and Emma Lady Hamilton is one of history’s most notorious love stories. Over the course of their affair – which began in Naples in 1799, produced a daughter, Horatia, in 1801, and ended with Nelson’s death at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805 – the couple exchanged hundreds of letters.
Due to repeated and often prolonged spells of separation, one of which stretched to two years, these intimate messages were a vital means of communication between the two lovers. Sadly, Nelson appears to have burned nearly all of his letters from Emma in order to keep them from being discovered on board ship. (Both were married – Emma to Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy to Naples, and Nelson to the patient Frances.)
Lady Hamilton, however, kept all the letters she received – for as long as she could. On falling into poverty after Nelson’s death, she gave them as pawns to friends who lent her money. Over the course of the centuries since, the letters have been leaked.
The first selection was published in 1814, when Lady Hamilton was still alive. The damage that its publication inflicted on her reputation hurried her to an early death in 1815, in Calais, where she had fled from her creditors. It had a significant impact on Nelson’s posthumous stature, too. During the course of the 19th century, two more substantial publications of letters followed, one in 1849, hidden in what was termed Memoirs of the Life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, and one in 1892–93 in a two-volume work that was merely printed for private circulation and thus hardly noticed in public. By the end of the 19th century, as he was reimagined as a figurehead of the naval arms race with Germany, Nelson’s relationship with this great beauty and celebrated artists’ model had been brushed under the carpet.
Over time, most of the letters found their ways into archives – both public and private, scattered from Europe to California. Some of those that Emma gave away as pawns still keep coming up at auction. All those accessible in archives or known from printed sources have recently been published together for the first time in Nelson’s Letters to Lady Hamilton, a book that I have edited for the Navy Records Society.
Nelson’s correspondence with Emma offers historians an unprecedented insight into his experiences as a rising star of the Royal Navy and his opinions on everything from politics and romance to seafaring and celebrity – as the following examples reveal…
Along with descriptions of the mundanity of life at sea and heartfelt eZpressions of affection, 0elsonos letters to Emma also reveal his views on international relations and Europe’s power-holding elite. He readily shared gossip about leading political and public gures but was not prepared to spend too much time pondering what this gossip meant. “Report says, she [the Queen of Naples] and the king are likely at last to have a serious rupture… However, I never trouble myself with these matters, they may settle their own affairs, they are old enough.”
William Pitt the Younger, two-time prime minister, played a huge role in marshalling Britainos war effort against Napoleon’s France. When Pitt resigned in 1801, Nelson wrote to 'mma: “I am sorry Mr 2itt is out. I think him the greatest minister this country ever had, and the honestest man.” Unfortunately, Nelson does not elaborate on his reasons for this assessment. His matter-of-fact writing style resembled more the entries into a logbook than a fully developed political tract.
Nelson could, however, be crystal clear in his political observations. Following the battle of Copenhagen [for more on this see overleaf], he observed: “I look upon the Northern league to be like a tree, of which [Tsar] Paul was the Trunck [sic] + Sweden + Denmark the Branches, If I can get at the Trunk and hew it down, the branches fall of course, but I may lop the branches + yet not be able to fell the tree.”
Another of Nelson’s political desires – the “hope that by the destruction of Buonaparte that wars with all nations will cease” – was just as diʛcult to achieve. #fter 0elsonos death at Trafalgar, Britain had to bear a strenuous war effort for nearly
more years before enLoying the 2aZ Britannica that reigned for much of the 19th century.
Nelson wrote the above words to Emma on March , less than days before the battle of %openhagen, a critical clash in the 9ar of the 5econd %oalition, which saw Britain scrambling to prevent the powerful &anish fleet allying with the 4ussian and 5wedish fleets in support of the (rench.
By the time of the battle, 0elson had gained the reputation of an audacious risk taker s the kind of admiral whood always favour aggression over caution s thanks to his spectacular victory over the (rench at the battle of the 0ile in
. But, by , his affair with 'mma had become so notorious that the #dmiralty did not Ludge 0elson t for anything but ghting. #s such, he had not been entrusted with the com mand of a fleet, but rather placed under a senior admiral, 5ir *yde 2arker, who began negotiations with the &anes before entering the Baltic.
0elsonos letters to 'mma from this time bear testimony to his impatience to advance into the Baltic and his desire to frighten the &anes into siding with Britain. By contrast, 5ir *yde hesitated until the ice started melting in the Baltic, enabling the 4ussian and 5wedish fleets to Loin their &anish ally. 2ressed for action, *yde sent 0elson to ght at %openhagen.
#s the battle ran its course, it sounded and looked so dreadful from a distance that 5ir *yde signalled retreat, which 0elson ignored. (a mously putting the telescope to his blind eye, he declared: “I really do not see the signal.” 0otwithstanding this determination to go on the attack, 0elson started negotiating with the “&anes, the brothers of 'nglishmen”, rather than ghting to the bitter end.
9hen he learned that this act of mercy was being criticised back home, he Lusti ed his actions to 'mma: “6he cause that I felte =was? humanity e when my flag of truce went on shore, the crown batteries, and the batteries on #mack and in the dock yard were
ring at us, one half their shot neces sarily striking the =&anish? ships who had surrendered and our re did the same and worsee it was a massa cre, this caused my notee I felt when the &anes became my prisoners, I became their protector.”
A needlework picture (reportedly worked by Emma herself) of Emma and Nelson at Merton Place in Surrey, where the couple lived with Sir William Hamilton