A. Choice of Documents

As pointed out in the Preface the collection of letters published here is sadly incomplete, since most of Lady Hamilton's letters to Nelson have disappeared. As mostly early letters of her to him and one of September 1805 that reached the fleet only after the Battle of Trafalgar have been traced so far [2, 4, 5, 10, 13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 37, 279 and 397], it appears that Nelson burnt them, although he only mentions burning her letters in the first three months of 1801, just before and after the birth of their daughter, a difficult and decisive period in their relationship [59, 96, 112, 123 and 139]. As the relationship could not be socially sanctioned, the couple was forced to observe a degree of secrecy. Nevertheless, the two lovers acted very much within a wider framework of friends and family. In the early stages of their correspondence and again during Nelson's time ashore after the pre-liminary articles of peace with France had been signed (1801–3) they sometimes wrote letters together or maintained a correspondence that included a third person, namely Sir William Hamilton or Captain Ball or even both [see 7, 36 and 39; and the introduction to Chapter IV]. Before their relationship had become a love affair they often appear to have assumed that their letters were read out or shown to others – at least to Sir William Hamilton [11 and 14]. Later their correspondence bears ample evidence of the importance that friends and acquaintances played in their lives. This network of contacts is explained and put into context in the introductions to the chronologically arranged chapters of this edition and in the many footnotes elucidating the contents of the individual letters.

Offering the correspondence of Nelson and Lady Hamilton to an interested public requires, first of all, the presentation of their letters to each other.