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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, was called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys.
Nell Gwynn was one of the first actresses and the mistress of Charles II. 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) 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 oranges, she became an actress (not at that time a respectable profession) when she was fifteen. When she was 19 she became the king's mistress, having previously been the mistress of Lord Buckhurst.
Nell is 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 Louise de Keroualle, the 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 (1670-1726) and James Beauclerk (1671-1680). Charles was the first Duke of St Albans.
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, 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, 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 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."
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