Fields of fire: A life of Sir William Hamilton

The life of Sir William Hamilton is rich in contradictions: hedonist, scholar and an aesthete with a Rabelaisian streak, he represented the epitome of honourable public service until, as the eighteenth century drew to its climax, his personal life and career were flung into freefall when he became involved in the most scandalous ménage à trois of the century. The son of a favourite courtier, William Hamilton began life sharing a wet-nurse with the future George III, and spent much of his childhood in the discordant atmosphere of the Hanoverian household. After several years as a soldier, courtier and MP, he turned to the diplomatic world and, in 1764, was sent to Naples as Envoy Extraordinary to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There Hamilton could indulge the two passions: volcanoes and vases. His meticulous observations of Vesuvius earned him a Fellowship of the Royal Society. His unique collection of vases was eventually acquired by the British Museum. Later in life he also worked with Wedgwood and Boulton. Yet, for most people, William Hamilton is not remembered as a diplomat, art-collector, naturalist, musician and scholar but as the cuckolded husband of Emma Hamilton, mistress of the heroic Lord Nelson. Using the substantial correspondence between them and, for the first time, Hamilton’s unpublished notebooks, David Constantine throws new light on the relationship between the aristocratic Sir William and the relentlessly self-improving, irredeemably vulgar Emma. Interweaving fascinating detail with a broad historical sweep David Constantine brings to life this essentially private man.