When King Charles II was dying, the name of only one of his
many mistresses was in his mind and on his lips: that of Nell Gwyn. Born in
extreme poverty, forced to become a child prostitute, she went on the stage and
became the most popular actress of the time until Charles took her into his
bed, where her beauty, wit and liveliness made her in the end preferable to his
other many mistresses, who were either common prostitutes found for him in the
bawdy-houses or on the streets by the royal pimp, William Chiffinch, or were
would-be grand ladies such as the English Barbara Villiers, the French Louise
de Kéroüalle and the Italian beauty Hortense Mancini, eager to use their
position to interfere in politics. Charles took all of them to bed with great
enthusiasm, but it was Nelly who he loved as much as he was capable of love. Unlike
the others, she knew her place – when her coachman fought a fellow who called
her a whore, she rebuked him: that, she said, was after all what she was. She
flattered no-one – even giving the King a piece of her mind when she pleased.
When she died, some years after the King, she was given a grand funeral, the
sermon preached by a future Archbishop of Canterbury. No court in modern
history has been as scandalously dissolute as that of Charles II, and the story
of the king and his mistresses is engrossingly outrageous. The heroine, however
– and who would deny her that title – is pretty, witty Nell.
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