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Nell Gwyn

Women In History

By Ruth Elizabeth StiffPublished about a year ago 3 min read
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Nell Gwyn

“Let not poor Nelly starve”, Charles II.

She was a famous actress who caught the attention of a King, becoming his mistress and giving birth to two sons by him. She was a jolly woman and not greedy, asking the King for only £500 a year, who also gave her a pension of £4,000+ a year. She herself never received a title, but her eldest son did. She was born into a poor family but rose to become Charles IIs most famous mistress. She was Nell Gwyn.

Eleanor Gwyn was born in 1650 in London. Her father died in a debtors' prison when she was still an infant, and her mother kept a ‘bawdyhouse’ (brothel) in the Covent Garden district, where Nell and her elder sister, Rose, lived. It is ‘assumed’ that Helena (Nell’s mother) and her two daughters worked as prostitutes.

When Charles II was restored to the English throne in 1660, he quickly reopened the theatres, (he was known as the “Merry Monarch”). Mary Meggs, who was a former prostitute nicknamed “Orange Moll”, and a friend of Madam Gwyn (Nell’s mother), was granted a licence to sell fruit and sweetmeats within the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. She hired Nell and her sister as “Orange girls”, who were scantily clad, selling fruit and sweetmeats to the audience inside the theatre. This exposed the girls to ‘aspects’ of theatre life and high society. The actors at the theatre were the King’s Company, and Charles II attended performances on a regular basis at this theatre.

It was at this time that female parts were played by female actresses, as before this time, boys or men played the female parts. Less than a year after becoming an Orange girl, Nell joined the King’s Company as an actress. She was 14 years of age. Charles Hart and John Lacy, both actors, “taught” Nell the art of acting. It seems that she became a mistress to both of them.

Nell rose quickly in the theatre and became a star. She first met the King when they both attended a performance in April 1668, at Lincoln’s Inn Field Theatre. The King was in the next box to Nell, and was more interested in flirting with her than watching the performance. Charles and his brother, the Duke of York, along with Nell and her escort went for supper after the performance. The story goes that neither the King or his brother had any money on them so Nell had to pay for the supper, exclaiming: “but this is the poorest company I ever was in!”

Charles II and Nell spent a great deal of time together between September 1668 and the Spring of 1669. As Nell’s two previous lovers were called “Charles”, she would jokingly call the King “my Charles the Third”. When Charles chose other ‘ladies’ as his mistresses, Nell was never jealous.

Nell had her first son (by Charles II) in 1670. She was then ‘established’ in a brick townhouse at 79, Pall Mall, which was owned by the Crown and where Nell lived for the rest of her life. She would entertain the King and his friends here and lived extravagantly. Nell managed to persuade Charles II to give their first son, Charles Beauclerk, a title. Their second son, James, died in 1680 only 9 years of age. Remembering her mother, Nell settled her ageing mother in a house in Chelsea, but falling into a nearby brook, ‘overcome by brandy’, her mother drowned in 1679.

Nell was a small woman, slender and shapely, with hazel eyes and chestnut-brown hair. Although illiterate, she was the only mistress of Charles II who the public loved. Nell remained faithful to the King, even after his death. In March, 1687, Nell was stricken by apoplexy (a haemorrhage or a stroke), which left her partially paralysed. Nell died 8 months later.

A story of ‘rags to riches’ by a woman who was clever enough to remain faithful to Charles II, King of England, who made sure, on his deathbed: “let not poor Nelly starve”.

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About the Creator

Ruth Elizabeth Stiff

I love all things Earthy and Self-Help

History is one of my favourite subjects and I love to write short fiction

Research is so interesting for me too

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