Lady Hamilton

The Odious Women Tour:  Friends with Queen Maria Sophia, English-born Lady Emma Hamilton started out as a housemaid who tried her hand at acting and ended up having several rich lovers.  Tricked into being the companion of Sir William Hamilton, the British Envoy to Naples, the couple ended up marrying in 1791.


Together they entertained guests from all over Europe.  Emma developed a form of entertainment called Attitudes in which people had to guess the names of famous characters (e.g. Medea, Cleopatra) that she portrayed.  For her performances, she wore dresses of Neapolitan peasants as well as created new styles of dance and fashion.  Considered very beautiful, many portraits were painted of Lady Hamilton.


Through her husband, Emma became a close friend of Queen Maria Sophia and even advised her when the revolution to overthrow the monarchy came to Naples.  She began an affair with Horatio Nelson (a famous English flag officer who distinguished himself in the navy) when he came to live in Naples and the affair was tolerated by Sir William.  


Several palazzo's around Naples can still be seen where Sir and Lady Hamilton lived.  The Palazzo Sessa, (situated on Pizzofalcone at Vico Santa Maria Cappella Vecchia, 31) is where they collected paintings, ancient Greek vases, and minerals.  Much of the collection formed the nucleus of the British Museum's collection.  

Palazzo Sessa

The Villa Angelica in Portici is where Sir Hamilton conducted his extensive research in vulcanology and lived during the spring and fall.  Then, the Villa Emma (Via Russo No. 27) in Posillipo was the summer home of the couple where they enjoyed sea bathing and a view of Mt. Vesuvius.

Villa Emma

Shortly after the Parthenopean Revolution in 1799, Nelson was recalled back to England.  Sir William and Lady Emma left with him, never to return to Naples again.  When her two men died, Emma became obese and a lavish spender.  She went deeply into debt and wondered where all her fame had gone.  She spent a year in debtor's prison and fled to France where she eventually died a lonely alcoholic.

The Queen Who Sweat Like A Pig

Inside the Royal Palace of Caserta

The Odious Women Tour:  Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, was born in Vienna.  In 1768 she married Bourbon King Ferdinand IV and cried all the way down to Naples because she insisted that Neapolitan Kings were unlucky.  She was sixteen years old.  The first time she laid eyes on Ferdinand, she thought him very ugly.  King Ferdinand, in turn, said that Maria Carolina slept like she'd been killed and sweat like a pig.  Together they lived at Caserta Palace and pro-created seven children.


Ferdinand spoke in Neapolitan slang, loved nothing better than hunting, and often sold his fresh caught fish on the streets among the lazzaroni.  A practical joker and absolutely positively inured to higher learning, Maria Carolina easily took over the reigns of day-to-day ruling.  She built up the navy, established a silk factory in San Leucio, brought the Farnese collection to Naples, patronized artists such as Angelica Kaufmann, and supported the Freemasons for a time.


Then, in 1793 her sister, Marie Antoinette, was executed.  Horrified, Maria Carolina turned Naples into a police state in hopes of avoiding a revolution in the Kingdom.  The army was kept perpetually mobilized, which increased taxation.  She set up spies as well as secret police forces and sub-divided Naples into twelve police wards controlled by government appointed commissioners, replacing the popularly-elected system.  Further paranoid, she employed food-testers and switched the royal family apartments daily.  The Queen, however, couldn't stem the tide of revolution.  By 1812 Ferdinand abdicated and the very next year Maria Carolina was exiled to Austria where she died in 1814.


Today, the Royal Palace of Caserta still pays tribute to Maria Carolina whose portrait hangs in the Art Gallery.  She occupied four rooms in the 18th-century apartments.  Ask for a map at the ticket office and you can roam her opulent world.


For a comprehensive biography of this fascinating Queen, read:  A sister of Marie Antoinette; the life-story of Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples by Catherine Mary Bearne

The Royal Palace and its Gardens