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Nell Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne), (February 1650 -
14 November 1687), the most famous of the many
mistresses of King Charles II of England|Charles
II, was called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel
Pepys.


The daughter of Thomas Gywnne and his wife Rose,
Nell Gwyn was probably born in an alley near
Covent Garden (though sometimes said to have been
born in Hereford or even Oxford) and never learned
to read or write. Her mother ran a bawdyhouse,
where Nell grew up. (Her mother died because she
passed out from too much brandy and drowned in a
brook.)

Having first made a living selling orange
(fruit)|oranges in the pit of a London theatre,
where she also may have acted as pimp, procuring
actresses for the men in the audience, she herself
became an actress (not at that time a respectable
profession) when she was fifteen.  She was taught
her craft by one of the fine male actors of the
time, Charles Hart, and learned dancing from
another, John Lacy; both were her lovers. As an
actress, she had enormous success in partnership
with Hart; they were admired by theatre goers,
including Samuel Pepys, especially in 'Secret
Love, or the Maiden Queen', in which they made a
sensation (the part of Florimell was written for
her, and portrays her faithfully). When she was 19
she became the king's mistress, having previously
been the mistress of Charles Sackville|Lord
Buckhurst and of Sir Charles Sedley. Though often
caricatured as an empty-headed woman, Dryden said
that her greatest attribute was her native wit,
and she certainly became a hostess who was able to
keep the friendship of Dryden, the playwright
Aphra Behn, the Duke of Marlborough (another
lover), John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and the
king's other mistresses, who included her
fellow-actress Mary 'Moll' Davis (she is said to
have slipped a diuretic into Moll's drink on an
evening when she was expected in the king's bed).

Nell is especially remembered for one particularly
apt witticism, which was recounted in the memoirs
of the Comte de Gramont, remembering the events of
1681:

:"Nell Gwynn was one day passing through the
streets of Oxford, in her coach, when the mob
mistaking her for her rival, the Duchess of
Portsmouth, commenced hooting and loading her with
every opprobrious epithet. Putting her head out of
the coach window, 'Good people,' she said,
smiling, 'you are mistaken; I am the Protestant
whore.'"

This appeal to British bigotry made her immensely
popular.  The particular Catholic whore (of the
moment) was the Frenchwoman Louise de Kérouaille,
Duchess of Portsmouth.

Nell is also famous for another remark made to her
coachman, who was fighting with another man who
had called her a whore. She broke up the fight,
saying, "I am a whore. Find something else to
fight about."

By Charles, Nell had two sons, Charles Beauclerk,
1st Duke of St Albans|Charles Beauclerk
(1670-1726) and James Beauclerk (1671-1680).
Charles was the first Earl of Burford, later Duke
of St. Albans. There are two variations about the
former of how he was given the Earldom of Burford,
both of which are unverifiable.

The first (and most popular) is that when Charles
was six years old, on the arrival of the King,
Nell said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say
hello to your father." When the King protested her
calling Charles that, she replied, "Your Majesty
has given me no other name by which to call him."
In response, Charles made him the Earl of Burford,
and later Duke of St. Albans.

Another is that Nell grabbed Charles and hung him
out of a window (or over a river) and threatened
to drop him unless Charles was granted a peerage.
The King cried out "God save the Earl of Burford!"
and subsequently officially created the peerage,
saving his son's life.

Nell was the only one of Charles II's many
mistresses to be genuinely popular with the
English public. It is thought to have been Nell
who persuaded the king to build the Royal
Hospital, Chelsea in London for ex-servicemen. 
Nell, however, accumulated enormous debts.

James II of England|James II, obeying his
brother's deathbed wish, "Let not poor Nelly
starve," paid most of them off and gave her a
pension of 1500 pounds a year, a huge sum in 1685.

She died, two years later, of apoplexy, aged 37,
at 79 Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall, in London.

She was buried in the Church of St Martin's in the
Fields, at the corner of Trafalgar Square, London,
after a funeral in which Thomas Tenison, the
Archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon on the
text of Gospel of Luke|Luke 15:7  "Just so, I tell
you, there will be more joy in heaven over one
sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous
persons who need no repentance."

Two recent biographies are by Derek Parker
(London, Sutton, 2000) and
Charles_de_Vere_Beauclerk,_Earl_of_Burford|Charles
Beauclerk (Macmillan, 2005), a direct descendant.