Royal Family History of Nell Gwyn
This lady became a socialite's darling and a symbol of an England
that was more carefree and opulent thanks to her wit and charm.
Hers is a tale of rags to riches, and everything in between.
We now look at the life of Nell Gwyn.
A lot of Nell's past is shrouded in mystery.
Her date of birth is given as 2 February 1650.
However, this has been disputed
but for this video we will assume the date i've just given.
In many ways, the mystery surrounding Nell's exact date
of birth mirrors the mystique surrounding her entire life.
We know a lot about Nell because of her
plays, satirical poetry, art, diaries, and letters she left behind.
Consequently, much of the information is based on hearsay
and rumour and should be treated with caution.
Her mother Ellen was born in the parish of St Martin in the Fields,
which extended from Soho and Covent Garden beyond Mayfair.
She is thought to
have spent the majority of life in the West End.
She was known as "Old Madam," "Madam Gwyn,"
Nell's mother allegedly drowned after falling into the water near Chelsea.
She was 56 years old, and laid to rest at St
Martin's in the Fields on 30 July 1679.
Three cities claim to be the birthplace
of Nell Gwyn: Hereford, London, specifically Covent Garden, and Oxford.
There isn't much evidence to support any of these theories.
The fact that "Gwyn" is a Welsh surname may support
Hereford's claim, as its county borders Wales.
Some say Nell's
mother was born and raised in London, and it seems like the most obvious choice.
So, by the time Nell was a young girl growing up in Covent Garden,
her father seemed to be long gone, leaving her and her "alcoholic mother"
to struggle.
Between 1663 and 1667, she experimented with dressing as a man
while taking on the role of "William Nell" and wearing a fake beard.
Her conclusions informed a hilarious performance as a man on stage
in March 1667.
As for her mother, well Old Madam Gwyn made her living by running a brothel.
It would be where Nell would spend most of her free time.
Around 1662, Nell allegedly had a lover named "Duncan" or "Dungan".
Their relationship lasted for about two years.
Duncan gave Gwyn a room in a tavern in Maypole Alley,
and he helped Nell get a job at the nearby theatre.
Throughout Oliver Cromwells' decade of protectorate
rule, frivolous pursuits, including theatre, were prohibited.
Charles II then ascended to the throne of England
in 1660 he promptly reinstated these establishments.
Early in his reign, Charles granted permission to establish
two theatre companies, and he legalised the profession for women.
With the help of Thomas Killigrew, the King's Company opened a new theatre on
Bridges Street in 1663, today it's known as the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
Orange Moll, a former prostitute and friend of Madam Gwyn, had been granted
a licence to "sell oranges and lemons as well
as other fruits' and confectionary' within the theatre.
Moll then hired Nell and her older sister Rose to work as scantily
clad "orange-girls," selling small oranges for sixpence each to the audience.
It was while working here it had allowed Nell to meet members
of London's elite since it was "the King's playhouse," and Charles
was a frequent attendee of productions.
The orange girls would deliver messages
between the actors on stage and the men in the audience for a fee.
On some occasions these messages, ended in sexual favours for the orange girls.
For the first time in England's history, the new theatres
featured actresses in roles traditionally played by men or boys.
The year after being an orange girl, Nell joined the Bridges Street
cast as a fourteen-year-old actress.
Killigrew was drawn to her by her good looks, clear voice, and wit,
but she had to confirm that she was a competent
enough actress to make it in the business.
It was not easy in the Restoration theatre; plays typically
ran for only a few weeks due to the limited audience pool.
Yet the theatrical troupe could mount fifty different productions
during the nine-month season from September to June.
Nell would attend a school for young actors founded by Killigrew and Charles
Hart, himself a fine male actor, here she learned acting and dancing
from John Lacy, who was rumoured to be her lover by some.
It's unclear when Nell began performing professionally on the Restoration stage,
just like there's a debate over when she was born.
It's possible that she made her first
appearance around 1664 in minor roles.
However, the exact date of her debut is unknown because cast lists
and playgoers' diaries from the period rarely mention minor players.
Whatever her initial role as an actress was, it is clear
that by 1665, she had established herself as a more prominent actress.
A play on Monday, 3 April 1665, is when she is first mentioned in Pepys'
diary as a "pretty, witty Nell." Using only her first name in this way
suggests that Nell had established her celebrity status both on and off the stage.
From mid-1665 until
the end of 1666, the Great Plague in London forced closures
of the Bridges Street Theatre and the rest of the city.
Gwyn and her mother followed the King and his Court for a while,
spending time in Oxford.
During their absence from the virulent capital, the King's Company
is thought to have staged some private theatrical productions for the Court.
When they were first sent into exile, Gwyn and the other ten "women actors
in His Majesty's Theatre" received permission to wear the King's livery
and the cloth that went along with it,
making them official servants of the monarch.
It wasn't long after the theatres were reopened in 1667 before Nell
Gwyn matched up with Charles Sackville, then known as Lord Buckhurst.
When people talked about him, they used words like "Cultured,"
"Witty," and "Satirical." He allegedly provided her £100 every year
in exchange for not acting any longer.
But as of late August, Nell had returned to her
old ways, and her brief liaison with Buckhurst had ended.
Samuel Pepys records Nell's return to the King's Playhouse
in The Indian Emperour on 22 August 1667.
Late in 1667, George Villiers, 2nd
Duke of Buckingham, assumed the role of unofficial manager
for Nells's love affairs, which he continued until he died in 1668.
He wanted to replace Barbara Palmer, the King's current mistress
and Buckingham's cousin so that Buckingham would have more say in Court.
According to reports, the plan was a failure; Nell requested £500
a year in maintenance and was turned down because it was considered excessive.
Buckingham's alternative
strategy was to introduce the King to actress Moll Davis,
a member of the Duke's Company, a rival theatre troupe.
The King's and Nells love affair allegedly began in April of 1668.
Nell was at the Lincoln's Inn Fields
Theatre to see George Etherege's She Wou'd if She Cou'd.
The King sat in the following box along, and according to reports,
he was more interested in flirting with Nell than he was in watching the play.
As well as Charles's brother, the Duke of York,
Charles also invited Nell and her partner to dinner.
Here is where the story becomes slightly alarming for Nell, and quite
possibly entirely unfounded.
However, the King, following dinner, discovered that he had no money on him;
neither did his brother, and Nell was forced to foot the bill.
she would mimick the King, saying "but this is the poorest company I've ever been in!"
As the mistress of Charles Hart and Charles Sackville before him, Nell jokingly
referred to the King as "her Charles the Third." Nell's relationship
with the King had become well-known by the middle of 1668,
but there's little cause to suppose it would last.
She continued to perform at the King's House, and her new fame
drew larger audiences and inspired playwrights to write roles just for her.
However, as her devotion to the King deepened, her acting career waned.
Throughout his life, King Charles II had many mistresses,
both brief liaisons and long-term relationships.
Aside from that, Charles had a wife, the Portuguese Queen consort Catherine
of Braganza, whose three pregnancies all resulted in miscarriages.
She had little or no say in his choice of consorts or mistresses.
Yet, it came to an abrupt end shortly after their marriage in 1662.
In what became known as the "Bedchamber crisis," a conflict between Catherine
and Barbara Palmer.
Having been shunned by the Court and having most of her entourage
sent back to Portugal, Catherine had no choice
but to agree to Charles' mistresses being awarded semi-official status.
Although other women were vying for Charles' attention during Nells
first years with him, she had little competition
Barbara Palmer was on the decline physically and mentally, while others like
Moll Davis remained out of the public eye and away from him Whitehall.
On 8 May 1670, Nell gave birth to Charles, her first child.
That was also the King's seventh son—the result of five different mistresses.
It wasn't long after that Louise de Kérouaille made her way over
from France to England, where she served as Queen Catherine's maid of honour while
also taking on the role of another mistress for King Charles.
For the next few years, she and Nell would-be rivals.
They were complete opposites in terms of personality and demeanour;
Louise was a proud woman of noble birth accustomed to Versailles'
sophistication, while Nell was a spirited prankster and ex-orange-wench.
Louise was dubbed "Squintabella" by Nell due to her
appearance and "Weeping Willow" due to her sobbing tendencies.
Nell returned to the stage in late 1670, an "extraordinary thing
to do" for a mistress with a royal child.
Dryden's epic The Conquest of Granada, featured her return.
1671 was almost certainly her final season, and this play
could have been her last.
Nell Gwyn's stage career lasted seven years and ended
when she was twenty-one if we take 1650 as her birth year.
Nell then moved into 79 Pall Mall, a brick townhouse, in February 1671.
The property belonged to the Crown, who ordered
the current tenant to hand over the lease to Nell.
It would become her primary residence for the remainder of her years.
As late as 1960, the property remained the only one on Pall Mall's south side
not owned by the Crown, thanks to a freehold granted to Nell in 1676.
Nell Gwyn became a mother for the second time, giving birth to James.
He was six years old when he was sent to Paris
to attend school, but sadly he died there a year later in 1681.
Nothing is known about the child
during his time in Paris, nor what led to his death.
There are two conflicting accounts about how the elder of her
two sons by Charles came to acquire the Earldom of Burford.
The first and most popular is that when Charles was six years old,
Nell said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father."
When the King objected to her referring to Charles by that name,
she responded, "Your Majesty has given me no other name by which to refer
to him." In response, Charles elevated him to the position of Earl of Burford.
Another idea is that Nell threatened to drop young Charles
unless he was granted a peerage by grabbing him and hanging him
out of the window of Lauderdale House in Highgate, where she briefly resided.
Following his son's life-saving cry of "God save the Earl of Burford!"
the King officially established the peerage.
Within a short time, the King granted Nell and her son
a house in Windsor's Home Park, which he renamed Burford House.
She resided there during the King's stay at Windsor Castle.
On 6 February 1685, King Charles II passed away.
James II eventually paid off the majority of Gwyn's debts and provided
her with an annual pension of £1,500, following his brother's deathbed wish.
Simultaneously, James pressed Nell and her son Charles
to convert to Roman Catholicism, but Nell refused.
Nell became paralysed
on one side after suffering a stroke in March 1687.
After suffering a second stroke in May, she was confined to her Pall Mall home.
She made her will on 9 July, with her executors.
On 14 November 1687, at ten o'clock in the evening,
Nell Gwyn died , "almost likely due to the diverse range of syphilis
she had contracted," it was approximately three years after the death of King.
She was 37 years old at the time.
Nell is one of England's most beloved and well-known folk heroines;
she rose from poverty and abuse as a child to become King Charles
II's most beloved mistress and the heroine of a legendary story of love.
In the midst of the Great Fire of London, the Plague, numerous court scandals,
and the ever-present threat of political upheaval, Nell attracted
the merry monarch's attention and the two were involved
in a passionate affair that lasted seventeen years.
On 17 November 1687, she was laid to rest
in London's Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Following a final request from Nell, the future Archbishop of Canterbury,
Thomas Tenison, delivered a sermon and said "Indeed, I tell you,
there will be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than there
will be over ninety-nine righteous people who do not require repentance."