Nelson was sent to Naples to gather reinforcements against the French. There in 1793 he met the love of his life in the form of Lady Emma Hamilton, the 33-year-old wife of 63-year-old Sir William Hamilton.
The daughter of a blacksmith, she was calling herself Emily Hart when, in 1781, she began to live with Charles Francis Greville, nephew of her future husband, Sir William Hamilton, British envoy to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1786 Greville sent her to Naples to be his uncle's mistress in return for Hamilton's payment of Greville's debts. On Sept. 6, 1791, she and Hamilton were married. A beautiful woman whose portrait was frequently painted by George Romney, Lady Emma Hamilton was already a great favourite in Neapolitan society and was the diplomatic intermediary between her husband and her close friend Queen Maria Carolina of Naples.
His first stay in Naples was brief. He returned to sea and to war, and it was five years before he returned to Naples. He was famous now, an admiral and a living legend. He was also prematurely middle-aged, a semicripple with one arm, missing teeth and racked by coughing spells. "Oh God," Emma cried when she saw him. "Is it possible?" And she fainted into his one arm.
Under the same roof with her husband, she nursed Nelson with asses' milk and entertained him with her dancing--she shunned underwear as being too uncomfortable. On his 40th birthday, she arranged a party with 1,800 guests. Emma's worship of the man was as complete as it was indiscreet. Although both were married, Nelson felt himself above convention, and Emma guided herself by impulse. Still, Nelson and Sir William Hamilton displayed nothing but admiration and respect for each other.
In 1800, when the British government recalled Hamilton, Nelson returned with him and his wife to England. They had two daughters, one of whom survived infancy.