Emma Hamilton was born in 1738 in a poor English mining village, the daughter of a blacksmith. Intelligent, strong- willed, and lovely to look at, she took herself to London, where she was working at the city's toughest brothel by age thirteen. Within a very short space of time, this extraordinary and indomitable young woman became the mistress of a leading aristocrat, the wife of another, the Lady Ambassadress to Naples, and the notorious lover of the most sought-after man in England, Admiral Horatio Nelson.
In the days before photography, television, and tabloid newspapers, Emma Hamilton managed to promote an image of herself as the epitome of beauty and an icon of fashion. However, it was her association with Admiral Nelson, British hero of the Napoleonic wars that brought Emma the kind of superstardom we associate today with people like Jackie Kennedy.
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