England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [168]
Soon after the death of her husband, the marriage proposals began. In 1804 alone, she received one from an earl, from the second son of a viscount, and from a relation of Sir William's. Her suitors were wealthy men—they had to be to countenance her gigantic and ever-growing debts.
Emma had to dress stylishly, entertain the highest echelons of society, and maintain two houses, but her £1,200 a year from Nelson and £800 left to her by Sir William hardly covered the food bills. She still owed money to her husband's creditors. Nelson promised that he would become wealthy with prize money and would leave her rich in his will, and she borrowed more and more, eager to believe him. She comforted herself by remembering the amounts her friends owed, such as the Duchess of Devonshire, in debt for an amount equivalent to $9 million today, accrued mainly through gambling and socializing. Emma did not understand how much more vulnerable she was than such great ladies. Aristocrats such as Devonshire had the assets to sustain their debt and they could always beg money from their family.
Emma's paramount desire was to keep in with the Prince of Wales, who she thought would protect her. She was trying to promote herself as a hostess to the glamorous Whig set, as well as attempting to win over James Perry, editor of the pro-Fox and pro-Whig and sometimes anti-Nelson Morning Chronicle. Bitterly disappointed in the king's treatment of her, she was convinced that the accession of the Prince of Wales would bring her and Nelson more recognition. Nelson's political loyalties wavered, so after he took his seat in the House of Lords in October 1801 the Whigs wanted him on their side.
London was fizzing with political gossip. The Whigs had been debating an alliance with Lord Grenville of the Tory party, against Henry Adding-ton, current prime minister. Covert meetings mushroomed across London. James Gillray satirized the cabaling in his caricature L'Assemblée Nationale—or, Grand Co-operative Meeting at St Ann's Hilt. The major Whigs discuss allying with Grenville at the house of Charles James Fox. Emma, adorned with a Nelson miniature, stands above Fox and his wife as they receive the notables. She flutters her fan and gossips with the Duchess of Devonshire, while Greville's brother, Colonel Robert Greville, eavesdrops on them. Among the luminaries in attendance are the Prince of Wales, Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was still at the prince's beck and call despite his stream of mistresses, the Dukes of Bedford and Norfolk, the Duchess of Gordon, Lord Cholmondeley, the Duke of Clarence (future William IV) and his mistress, the actress Mrs. Jordan, Lord and Lady Derby, and Lady Buckinghamshire, and Lord Grenville. Emma was swinging with the in crowd. By frantic entertaining, socializing, and spending, she presented herself as the keeper of Nelson's flame and favor. The Fox set had bottomless purses—Fox once lost £32,000 at the card tables in a single night—and most owed the equivalent of millions. Emma could not afford to keep up, but she tried.
James Gillray's LAssemblée Nationale—or, Grand Co-operative Meeting at St Ann's Hill (June 1804). Emma, wearing a Nelson miniature around her neck and a feathered headdress, gossips with the Duchess of Devonshire as, directly in front of them, plump little Charles James Fox and his wife receive the luminaries. Emma's position with the duchess in the center of the picture suggests how predominant she was in the hedonistic Fox set.
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