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By Root 1435 0

to persuade you to impart them to the Public, except at some distant day, as a Legacy to your Country from yourself"11 Emma followed his advice, much to Earl Nelson's anger. Her relations with him quickly became strained. Sarah, now Countess, Nelson wrote to Emma demanding the bloody coat, "in point of right there can be no doubt to whom this precious relic belongs."12 Emma kept the coat but behaved emolliently, still hoping that William Nelson might give money to Horada. She was disappointed. He was infuriated by Nelson's provision that his estate should pay the expenses and bills at Merton for six months after his death and he was utterly unable to feel sympathy for the child. He accused Emma of adding on bills accrued before Trafalgar and demanded that Mrs. Cadogan show him the accounts. At the same time, he failed to pay the £500 pension due her from Bronte. Believing his brother's lies that he loved Emma and Horada, Nelson had dreamed that Horatia might marry William Nelson's son, Horace, and mentioned this hope in his will. While his brother was alive, William enthused about the idea and encouraged him to fund his son's education. As soon as Nelson died, he forbade Horace to visit Emma and made plans for his son to marry a rich aristocrat.

In Emma's time, only the very richest woman could survive without the legal protection and financial support of a man. Emma's only chance of keeping herself and Horatia in a genteel manner was to remarry immediately. But she could not bring herself to look for another partner. Despite Grenville's refusal, she still hoped that the government would honor the codicil. She threw herself into society once more, anxious to make herself so conspicuous that she could not be overlooked.

CHAPTER 50

Fashion on Credit

In the two years after Nelson's death, Emma was the most popular guest in London. Everybody clamored to meet the mistress of a national icon. In an attempt to numb her grief and gain support for her mission to win a payout from the government, Emma attended every event. From 1806 to 1808 she retained her central place in the premier society of the Prince of Wales and his chatterbox brothers Clarence and Sussex, and continued to be one of London's leading charitable patrons, as well as a cultural doyenne hosting splendid performances by singers Madame Bianchi and Mrs. Billington. She was playing a role that was impossible to sustain.

Emma received only a few thousand pounds from Nelson's will, and it was on the annual £800 left to her by Sir William (given to her net of tax by Greville) that she tried to maintain her role as the inheritrix of Nelson's glory. In December 1806, the will was published in the press. The nation read that Nelson entrusted Lady Hamilton and Horatia to the care of the government and assigned Horatia Thompson to the guardianship of Lady Hamilton, also decreeing that the child's surname be changed to Nelson. Since women were treated as juveniles under the law, unable to retain their money and entirely subject to the will of their husbands or male relations, children were always left to the guardianship of a man, never a woman. The publication of his will made it obvious to everybody that Horatia was Emma's daughter.

Sarah and Charlotte moved swiftly to sever their links with Emma. "Is it true that Lady Charlotte Nelson can be ungrateful," marveled Emma. About £2,000 of her debts had been accrued paying for Charlotte's education, clothes, presents, holidays, and board for seven years, as well as many of Horace's expenses, but, Emma wrote resentfully, “they have never given the dear Horatia a Frock nor a sixpence.”1 She had cared for Charlotte in order to please Nelson and to seem respectable, but she had soon become genuinely fond of the teenager and she missed her deeply. Emma had spent hundreds of thousands supporting Nelson's bid for celebrity, but it was grasping William who benefited from it all. A letter remains in which Sarah invited Emma to dine at half past five but communicated that the Connors and Horatia were not welcome until the