England's Mistress_ The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton - Kate Williams [99]
Emma goes on perfectly to my mind, but she has made our house so agreeable that it is more frequented than ever, &, of course, I am at a greater expence. However, I may safely say that no minister was ever more respected than I am here, & the English travellers… feel the benefit of our being so well at this Court, for Emma is now as well with the K. & Q. as I am, & of many parties with them. You will be glad to hear as I am sure you must from every quarter of the prudent conduct of Emma. —She knows the value of a good reputation which she is determined to maintain having been completely recovered. She knows that beauty fades & therefore applies daily to the improvement of her mind.
Emma endeavored to be his perfect hostess and courtier, always telling him how grateful she was for his kindness to her. She never stopped working to make herself the perfect lady, practicing singing and French and studying the exquisitely fashionable topic of botany, as well as developing her charitable interests.
The English saw Emma's effusively affectionate behavior toward her husband and watched for signs of a pregnancy. A baby would ensure her position with her "husband, friend & protecter" and be her financial security after his death. Sir William's family dreaded a pregnancy: he would not cut Greville's inheritance for Emma, but he would for their son. Motherhood would enhance Emma's endeavor to appear respectable and would strengthen her position with Maria Carolina, mother of many. The Neapolitan court was child-friendly, and Emma had a willing nanny on hand in Mrs. Cadogan. Yet there was no suggestion of a pregnancy, and there is no evidence of any illness that might have been a miscarriage. It seems most likely that Sir William was infertile. Catherine Hamilton never conceived, and there is no trace that any of the courtesans he used did so either. Perhaps that was why he felt grateful to Emma for marrying him. Unlike many men his age, he had courted widows rather than young girls, knowing that his wife must sacrifice any wish to have a family.
There was no way of diagnosing infertility, and Emma might have thought that she, as a healthy young woman, could conceive by Sir William. If she was hoping to fall pregnant, she kept her efforts private. Her time was consumed by the work of an envoy's wife. "I literally have been so busy with the English, the Court, & my home duties, as to prevent me doing things I had much at heart to do," she wrote to Greville. When the Duchess of Devonshire blazed into town with her mother, Lady Spencer, and assorted children and hangers-on, there were "fifty in familly for four days at Caserta." She and Sir William had lived for eight months at Caserta to be near the royal family and commuted twice weekly to town, "to give dinners, balls, etc, returning here at 2 or 3 o clock in the morning after the fatige of a dinner of fifty, & ball & supper of 3 hundred, then to dress early in the morning, to go to court, to dinner at twelve a clock, as the Royal familly dine early, and they have done Sir William and me the honner to invite us very, very often."
Maria Carolina wanted to meet most of the English visitors, for many of them, such as the Devonshires, wielded considerable influence over key English ministers in Parliament. Aristocrats had heard of Emma's influence with the queen and demanded an audience. "Tis true, we dined every day at court, or at some casino of the King; for you cannot immag-ine how good our King and Queen as been to the principal English who have been here." She gave her visitors something more exclusive than an introduction at court: a private audience. "I have carried the Ladies to the Queen very often, as she permitted me to go to her very often in private, which I do. And the reason why we stay now here is, I have promised the Queen to remain as long as she does, which will be the tenth of July. In the evenings I go to her, and we are tete a tete 2 or 3 hours. Sometimes we sing. Yesterday