England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [89]
Sir William confessed to his friends that he had decided to "make an honest Woman of her." He promised that he would never set her above visiting female aristocrats by allowing her to present them to Maria Carolina. Declaring himself entirely confident about the future, he cheerfully knocked two years off Emma's age. He wrote to his friend, Georgiana, Countess Spencer, mother of the Duchess of Devonshire:
A Man of 60 intending to marry a beautifull young Woman of 24 and whose character on her first outset in life will not bear a severe scrutiny, seems to be a very imprudent step, and so it certainly would be 99 times in a 100, but I flatter myself I am not deceived in Emma's present character— We have lived together five years and a half, and not a day has passed without her having testified her true repentance for the past.10
On August 28, Sir William attended court at Windsor and gained the king's consent to the marriage. It was always a good sign when George made jokes, and Sir William was quietly jubilant when the "King joked him about Em. at a distance" and teased him "that he was not quite so religious as when he married the late Lady H." Queen Charlotte was less easily mollified. She made it clear that she would not receive the new Lady Hamilton. Emma had damaged her cause by insisting on sharing hotels with Sir William, rather than maintaining propriety by living separately before the wedding. She could only console herself with the hope that when her admirer, the Prince of Wales, ascended the throne, she would be received at court with all the trappings.
Emma listened patiently to lectures about getting above her station. Mr. Dickenson, husband of Mary, advised her to remain intent on pleasing in order to maintain in Sir William "that warmth of attachment which he entertained for her." He hoped, sternly, he would "find Emma & Lady H. the same." Even Sir William, Dickenson implied, who had risked his position to marry her, would never love her unconditionally11 He was right: she knew she had to flatter and cosset, not make emotional demands. She agreed to a small, secretive wedding. Sir William dreaded publicity and feared a mob at the church. He did not want people to hear the proof, when the names of the couple were read out, that Mrs. Hart had indeed been the notorious Amy Lyon.
Early in the morning of Tuesday, September 6, Mrs. Cadogan and Emma's maid dressed the bride in white muslin with a turquoise sash and arranged her hair loosely under a handsome blue plumed hat. They hired a carriage, and Emma traveled to St. Marylebone Church on the Maryle-bone Road, Greville's local church and conveniently distant from town. Once featured in William Hogarth's series of pictures, A Rake's Progress, as a ramshackle, unkempt church famous for clandestine marriages, St. Marylebone had smartened up its image; nevertheless, Emma would have to satisfy her passion for grandeur elsewhere. She said "I do" in a plain, small building, only slightly more impressive than humble St. Mary's in front of her old house in Paddington Green (then under renovation), bearing no resemblance to the graceful high late Regency church that now stands proudly across from Madame Tussaud's near Baker Street. Two friends of Sir William were witnesses.∗ Mrs. Cadogan was probably present, and Mary Dickenson's husband (who was in London on business) and Greville. At about half past nine, the "Right Hnble Sir Willm Hamilton of this Parish, Widower and Amy Lyon of the same Parish, Spinster" were married.
While Sir William celebrated with his witnesses, Emma drove to Romney's studio and sat for the last portrait he would create of her from life. Frantic to capture her on canvas before she left, he had painted her on the two days before her wedding. On September 6, for the first and last time, he wrote "Lady Hamilton" rather than "Mrs. Hart" in the