Anyone who has ever seen the 1941 movie, “That Hamilton Woman” staring Lawrence Olivier and Vivian Leigh remembers that perfect looking couple working together to save the British Empire in the face of the ogre, Napoleon. In some ways, the movie was historically accurate; Nelson was a brilliant, innovative naval commander who through his daring, saved the British position in the Mediterranean and of course, was responsible for the famous victory at Trafalgar. He was also vain, stubborn and a romantic who while still loving his wife, threw her over for Lady Hamilton. While the movie showed Lady Hamilton as a converted trollop who became well educated thanks to her husband, apparently the actual Lady Hamilton conformed more to Richard Burton’s description of his wife Elizabeth Taylor: “Her arms are too fat, her legs are too short, and she is too big in the bust”. Yet the real Lady Hamilton captured the soul of Nelson and almost caused him to lose his position and worse still, for England to lose the services of their best Admiral as he used poor judgment in attempting to prop up the weak King of Naples.
The real Lady Hamilton loved to gamble, drink and spend money and her husband, Lord Granville was apparently happy to have Nelson love his wife; they travelled together and must have presented a strange threesome upon their return to England. Poor Granville did lose many of his works of art while in transport but he and then Lord Nelson remained friends until Granville’s death.
Unlike other naval captains, Nelson spent most of his time destroying enemy fighting vessels rather than concentrating on trading ships. Given the prize rules of the day, this deprived him (and his crews) of much wealth. Despite this, his crews were dedicated to him and he appears to be a man out of his time in the way he handled his crews and was associated with them. He certainly did not mingle with them, but they had confidence in his skills and knew that he would not use them for his own ends. The proof of this was his hard fought and very near destruction of the Danish fleet, a battle which he could and perhaps should have lost. His men never tired and always believed in his lucky star and despite a terrible pounding and high losses, he and his men won through in the end.
Because he concentrated on enemy warships, he died in debt and Lady Hamilton managed to run through the money left to her by her husband. She did die in poverty in Calais.
This is a well written book which makes the times and characters come alive in an easy manner. The test for me was that I can still watch the movie and not pick it apart as being historically inaccurate. Yes, it is the movie version of history, but aside from the depiction of Fanny, Nelson’s wife, it is within a stone’s throw of actual history. So, enjoy the movie and the book.
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