42 Facts About Nell Gwyn

Eleanor Gwyn was an English stage actress and celebrity figure of the Restoration period.

Nell Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk and James Beauclerk.

The eight-year difference between these two possible birth years can offer different readings of what Nell Gwyn achieved during her lifetime.

The information we have about Nell Gwyn is collected from various sources, including the plays she starred in, satirical poetry and pictures, diaries, and letters.

Madam Nell Gwyn is sometimes said to have had the maiden surname Smith.

Nell Gwyn's mother is said to have drowned when she fell into the water at her house near Chelsea.

Nell Gwyn is reported in a manuscript of 1688 to have been a daughter of "Tho [Thomas] Guine a Cap [captain] of ane antient fammilie in Wales", but the statement is doubtful as its author does not seem to have hesitated to create or alter details where the facts were unknown or perhaps unremarkable.

In either case, the available evidence indicates that Nell Gwyn was not a member of their family.

London is the simplest choice, perhaps, since Nell Gwyn's mother was born there and that is where she raised her children.

One way or another, Nell Gwyn's father seems to have been out of the picture by the time of her childhood in Covent Garden, and her "dipsomaniac mother, [and] notorious sister", Rose, were left in a low situation.

Old Madam Nell Gwyn was by most accounts an alcoholic whose business was running a bawdy house.

Around 1662, Nell Gwyn is said to have taken a lover by the name of Duncan or Dungan.

Mary Meggs, a former prostitute nicknamed "Orange Moll" and a friend of Madam Nell Gwyn's, had been granted the licence to "vend, utter and sell oranges, lemons, fruit, sweetmeats and all manner of fruiterers and confectioners wares" within the theatre.

Nell Gwyn joined the rank of actresses at Bridges Street when she was 14, less than a year after becoming an orange-girl.

Nell Gwyn was taught her craft of performing at a school for young actors developed by Killigrew and one of the fine male actors of the time, Charles Hart, and learned dancing from another, John Lacy; both were rumoured by satirists of the time to be her lovers, but if she had such a relationship with Lacy, it was kept much more discreet than her well-known affair with Hart.

Much as in the dispute over her date of birth, it is unclear when Nell Gwyn began to perform professionally on the Restoration stage.

The use of "Mrs" would imply that Nell Gwyn was more likely born in 1642 than 1650 as it indicates an actress over the age of 21 for which certain roles would be more suitable.

Pepys, whose diary usually has great things to say about Gwyn, was displeased with her performance in this same part two years later: "to the King's playhouse, and there saw 'The Indian Emperour'; where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the Emperour's daughter; which is a great and serious part, which she do most basely".

Nell Gwyn seems to have agreed that drama did not suit her, judging by the lines she was later made to say in the epilogue to a Robert Howard drama:.

In 1667, Nell Gwyn made such a match with Charles Sackville, titled Lord Buckhurst at that time.

Nell Gwyn saw her roll the stage from side to sideAnd, through her drawers the powerful charm descry'd.

Nell Gwyn was one of a handful of court wits, the "Merry Gang" as named by Andrew Marvell.

Nell Gwyn aimed to provide King Charles with someone who would supplant Barbara Palmer, his principal mistress and Buckingham's cousin, moving Buckingham closer to the King's ear.

Nell Gwyn was attending a performance of George Etherege's She Wou'd if She Cou'd at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

The anecdote turns charming if perhaps apocryphal at this point: the King, after supper, discovered that he had no money on him; nor did his brother, and Nell Gwyn had to foot the bill.

Nell Gwyn continued to act at the King's House, her new notoriety drawing larger crowds and encouraging the playwrights to craft more roles specifically for her.

Nell Gwyn had a wife, Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza, whose pregnancies all ended in miscarriages, and who had little or no say over the King's choice to have mistresses.

Nell Gwyn was the King's seventh son by five separate mistresses.

Nell Gwyn nicknamed Louise "Squintabella" for her looks and the "Weeping Willow" for her tendency to sob.

In one instance, recorded in a letter from George Legge to Lord Preston, Nell Gwyn characteristically jabbed at the Duchess' "great lineage," dressing in black at court, the same mourning attire as Louise when a prince of France died.

Nell Gwyn returned to the stage again in late 1670, something Beauclerk calls an "extraordinary thing to do" for a mistress with a royal child.

In 1676, Nell Gwyn was granted the freehold of the property, which remained in her family until 1693; as of 1960 the property was still the only one on the south side of Pall Mall not owned by the Crown Estate.

Nell Gwyn lived there when the King was in residence at Windsor Castle.

Nell Gwyn paid off the mortgage on Gwyn's Nottinghamshire lodge, which remained in the Beauclerk family until 1940.

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

One of its members was Captain John Nell Gwyn, who taught Charles II military exercises when he was Prince of Wales, and served throughout the English Civil War and afterwards in the Royal Regiment of Guards, later commanded by the King's son, the Duke of Monmouth.

Nell Gwyn can be placed in some of the same campaigns as Captain Thomas Gwyn, and the two men had probably met.

John [Nell Gwyn] has left a famous account of his exploits during the war, which include his pedigree and arms.

Nell Gwyn never received any official titles from the King while serving as his mistress.

Nell Gwyn was made Duke of Edinburgh and Earl of Merioneth at the same time.

Nell Gwyn was a well-known beauty, who became a Lady of the Bedchamber to Caroline of Ansbach, the then-Princess of Wales.

Nell Gwyn has appeared as the principal, or a leading character, in numerous stage works and novels, including:.