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Authors: Elizabeth Mahon
Tags: #General, #History, #Women, #Social Science, #Biography & Autobiography, #Biography, #Women's Studies
Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women (14 page)
BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
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These were the glory years for Barbara. She sat several times for the king’s official court painter, Sir Peter Lely. The images were engraved and sold like hotcakes, making Barbara one of the best-known women in England. She received an annual income of almost five thousand pounds a year from the post office, and also other sums from customs and excise. She also did a brisk business taking money from those seeking to advance at court. Even the French and Italian ambassadors sought out her influence with the king. The Earl of Clarendon, her greatest enemy, remarked bitterly, “That woman would sell every place if she could.”
Barbara was extravagant; after a childhood of deprivation, she was making up for it big-time. Her carriage and barge had to outshine her rivals. It wasn’t uncommon for her to wear thirty thousand pounds’ worth of jewelry to the theater and then lose the same amount at the gaming tables later that night. The king paid her gambling debts and also deeded over the Tudor palace of Nonsuch to Barbara, which she proceeded to have dismantled, the contents sold.
She was the best thing to happen to the fledgling tabloid press. The public was eager to read about the doings of the royal court. Barbara was credited with every vice known to man and some that were invented, from being a lesbian to biting off the private parts of a corpse with her mouth. Barbara’s enemies were as legion as her lovers. One night she was accosted while walking through St. James’ Park by three masked men who shouted obscenities at her and chased her back to the palace.
The first crack in her power came from the arrival of a new lady-in-waiting, fifteen-year-old Frances Stuart. The king fell head over heels for the innocent teenager and chased her relentlessly. She was the anti-Barbara, sweet, childlike, with no interest in politics. Barbara’s own cousin George, the second Duke of Buckingham, turned against her, becoming part of a faction at court actively promoting Frances to replace her. The plot backfired when Barbara and Frances became best buds. When the queen fell seriously ill and almost died, giving hope that the king would marry Frances, Barbara prayed like she never had before in her life for her recovery.
Barbara never forgot anyone who had slighted her and when she had the opportunity, she took her revenge. She even managed to bring down the Earl of Clarendon. Despite the fact that he had been the king’s trusted adviser during his years of exile, and his daughter Anne had married the king’s brother, the Duke of York, the king had finally had enough of Clarendon’s puritanical attitude. Push came to shove when Clarendon was so unwise as to speak out against Barbara and her meddling in politics. Clarendon underestimated the king’s attachment to her, thinking her nothing but a whore, but she was a dangerous one. The king was furious and told him to turn in his seal of office. Barbara had won.
Clarendon’s banishment convinced Barbara that she was untouchable and that she could do anything with the king. Barbara was strong, bold, and uninhibited, and the king was turned on by dominating women. She saw no reason to be faithful to her royal lover. Henry Jermyn, the playwright William Wycherly, the acrobat Jacob Hall, and the young John Churchill,
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who later became Duke of Marlborough, are just a few who passed through her bed. She was generous with her lovers; John Churchill was able to purchase an annuity because of her financial help.
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who later became Duke of Marlborough, are just a few who passed through her bed. She was generous with her lovers; John Churchill was able to purchase an annuity because of her financial help.
The couple had ferocious arguments and she was not above threatening Charles. Whenever things weren’t going her way, Barbara would withdraw from court until the king mollified her, usually with an expensive gift—like the time he gave her all the New Year’s gifts from his wealthier subjects. When she was expecting her sixth child in 1672, Barbara swore that if he denied paternity, she would dash the infant’s brains out in front of him. Her power over Charles was such that once she even forced him to grovel at her feet for forgiveness in front of the entire court. Still, the king continued to visit Barbara four nights a week at her apartments in Whitehall.
But by 1674 Barbara found herself supplanted by Nell Gwynn and Louise de Keroualle. Ultimately, Barbara’s demands were so great, her temper so fierce, and her infidelities so brazen that Charles tired of her. He wanted peace, and so did the kingdom. She lost her position as lady of the bedchamber but not before she was created Duchess of Cleveland, Baroness Nonsuch, and Countess Southampton in her own right and she had secured the futures of her children by Charles. He paid for lavish weddings for their daughters, Anne and Charlotte, but the people protested this latest extravagance of “the King’s Whore.”
With the death of Charles II in 1685 and her beauty and arrogance faded with age, the days when Barbara had dominated the court were over. Her gambling debts were huge, and she had to sell the contents of her house in Cheam. After her husband’s death in 1705, Barbara married an opportunist by the name of Major General Robert “Beau” Fielding, who had been married twice and squandered at least two fortunes. The match was the talk of the town and the subject of cruel satires. When Fielding discovered that Barbara was not as wealthy as he’d been led to believe, he beat her so badly that she feared for her life. The marriage was voided when it turned out that Fielding already had a wife still living and he was marched off to jail for bigamy.
Barbara died in 1709 after suffering from dropsy at the age of sixty-eight. She’d spent her last few years in her house in Chiswick Mall, near the Thames. But her spirit, always restless and dissatisfied in life, is said to haunt the mall to this day.
Barbara Palmer’s distinction was that she was a master politician who studied the inner workings of the court like a great chess player. No royal mistress has ever had as great an influence on a monarch as she did. So much ink has been spilled about her beauty, her lovers, her greed, but Barbara Palmer’s strength lay in her ability to deal with each threat to her power as it came, accepting the king’s need for a little variety without losing her hold over him. For more than a decade, she was a woman who could not be ignored, dominating Charles II and the court with her beauty and her wit and becoming a symbol of the Restoration.
I must sin on and love him more than ever. It is a great worth going to hell for.
—EMMA HAMILTON ON NELSON, 1804
Maid, celestial goddess, courtesan, artist’s model, and ambassador’s wife, Emma Hamilton had lived more lives by the time she met Horatio Nelson than most women. Born to a dirt-poor family, she started life as plain Amy Lyon on April 26, 1765, in Ness, a small village twelve miles from Liverpool. Nearly illiterate but beautiful, by the time she was thirteen, young Amy had already worked as a low-end servant in various households before heading off for the bright lights of London. She lasted about a year working for a family named Budd before she was let go, probably because she was enjoying the entertainments of the big city too much.
Soon she had exchanged the drudgery of housework for the more exciting and lucrative life of a high-class prostitute. There are stories that she worked as a “Goddess” at Doctor Graham’s Temple of Health, singing and dancing while infertile couples paid for the privilege of sleeping in the “Celestial” bed. She did find work at Mrs. Kelly’s Piccadilly brothel, where, now calling herself Emma Hart, she found her first protector, Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, a spoiled young squire. Legend has it that she danced naked on his dining table for the entertainment of his friends at his country estate. The relationship lasted until Emma found herself pregnant with his child, whom she named Emma. Sir Harry refused to acknowledge the child as his, kicking Emma to the curb. But she had already met her next protector, Charles Greville, the son of the Earl of Warwick.
Greville paid for her daughter to be fostered with a family in Wales, and he set Emma up in a small house. Emma’s mother moved in to play housekeeper and chaperone. In exchange, Emma promised to curb her temper, live frugally on twenty pounds a year, and improve herself. She sat for the artist George Romney, who adored her chastely and painted her over and over again, as Circe, Venus, Cassandra, Joan of Arc, and herself, making her one of the most painted women in Europe. According to Emma’s most recent biographer, Kate Williams, there are more portraits of Emma than Queen Victoria. Emma loved to pose; she was a born entertainer, using her skills in dance and posture to reinvent herself as other characters. Before long Emma was in demand by other well-known artists of the day, including Sir Josiah Reynolds and Thomas Lawrence.
Soon her portraits were available everywhere, not just as prints, but also on cups, fans, screens, and sometimes clothing, making her sort of an eighteenth-century sex symbol. With her chestnut hair and classical profile, Emma had the type of beauty that transcends time and fashion. Looking at her portraits one sees a young woman who radiates on the surface an innocent sensuality but with a slightly knowing look in her eye. When Greville began to tire of her after four years, he passed her on like a secondhand sweater to his uncle Sir William Hamilton, who had long been the ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples. In exchange, he received property at Pembroke, assuring himself of a preferred place in his uncle’s will.
When Emma found out that Greville had shoved her off onto his uncle, she wrote him a warning. “You don’t know the power I have here. Only I will be his mistress. If you affront me, I will make him marry me.” Emma realized the opportunity she had been given. She was a tender twenty and her new protector was pushing fifty-five. Always anxious to please, she made herself indispensable to Sir William, fussing over him when he was sick, learning to speak French and Italian, and taking singing and dancing lessons. After several years as his mistress, they were secretly married, on September 6, 1791. Now respectable, she was presented at the Neapolitan court, becoming a confidante of Queen Maria Carolina and using their friendship to promote British interests in the kingdom. Dressed in a fetching Greek tunic, she entertained English visitors and foreign guests with her “Attitudes” from classical sculpture. Emma soon found herself the toast of Naples.
For the next seven years, Emma and Sir William were content with each other, until Admiral Horatio Nelson arrived to protect Naples from the advancing French. Like Emma, Nelson was a selfmade man. Born in Norfolk to a country rector, he joined the navy at the age of twelve as a midshipman. While in Nevis, he’d married Fanny Nisbet, a widow with a young son, thinking he was marrying a great heiress. He was soon disappointed, and the marriage floundered when it became apparent that there would be no children. They also had nothing in common. Nelson was ambitious and headstrong, while Fanny was cautious and retiring.
Emma and Nelson had met before, in 1793, when he was plain Captain Nelson. Now he was the hero of the battle of the Nile and Emma was determined that Nelson would fall in love with her. Not only would it be her crowning achievement but it would catapult her onto the world stage. Before he’d even arrived, she’d primed him by writing a passionate fan letter to him. “How shall I begin? It is impossible to write. . . . I am delirious with joy and assure I have a fervour caused by agitation and pleasure.” When Nelson arrived at the docks to a hero’s welcome, Emma, wearing a blue shawl with anchors, rushed to the dock and threw herself into his one arm, weeping over his wounds. Their lives would never be the same again.
When Nelson fell ill, Emma fussed over him and nursed him back to health. The Hamiltons threw a dinner party for his fortieth birthday, inviting eight hundred guests, but Emma and Nelson only had eyes for each other. Emma listened to him and flattered him, threw huge parties in his honor, and went out of her way to make friends with his stepson, Josiah. At forty, Nelson was not exactly a looker. Under five foot six and scrawny, with one good eye and one arm, he couldn’t believe this beautiful woman found him exciting. He soon found himself falling passionately in love with her.
For her part, Emma basked in the glory of being loved by a living legend. She soon made herself indispensable to Nelson, acting as his secretary and political adviser. She translated for him and guided him around the court, introducing him to Queen Maria Carolina. They became confidants, sharing intimate secrets. Emma confided her sadness at not having children with Sir William. He was soon writing home to his wife about how wonderful Lady Hamilton was, which must have gone over like a lead balloon.
Everyone was soon gossiping about the two. As Napoleon swept through Naples they retreated with the royal family to Sicily. The headiness of the Mediterranean spring combined with the exhilaration of the escape and carried them away. It wasn’t long before the rumors were made truth, and they were not terribly discreet about it. The news reached as far away as London, which was buzzing about the scandalous affair; caricatures soon appeared in the print shops depicting the relationship. England’s Hero and England’s Mistress coming together seemed designed to sell newspapers and magazines. Not since Antony and Cleopatra had the world seen anything like it. Their romance was a publicist’s dream come true. Nelson was so in love that he was soon neglecting his duties, reluctant to leave his mistress. Sir William turned a blind eye to the relationship. He was fond of Nelson and may even have been happy to have someone else entertain his energetic young wife. The three settled into a happy existence, with Nelson spending all his time with them onshore.
BOOK: Scandalous Women: The Lives and Loves of History's Most Notorious Women
3.47Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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