Birth of Nell Gwyn ~ Mistress of Charles II
Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwynn (or Gwyn or Gwynne) was a London Orange seller turned actress, who captured the heart of a King….
Nell’s birthplace is disputed, some claim she was born in Hereford, some say she sprang to life in Coal Yard Alley, off Drury Lane.
Little is known of Nell’s early life, it is thought she probably helped her mother in the ‘bawdy house,’ but it’s unclear if she was ‘used’ by men as a child.
It’s possible she worked as a street hawker of oysters, or a cinder-girl.
Samuel Pepys reports that Nell said she “was brought up in a bawdy-house to fill strong waters to the guests…”
In the early 1660s, Charles II reinstated theatre houses, after they were banned by Cromwell.
He also legalised the profession of women on the stage, bringing England up to speed with its European counterparts.
Around 1664, a former prostitute called Mary Meggs or ‘Orange Moll’ hired Nell and her older sister Rose to help her sell oranges in the king’s playhouse, called The Theatre, in Bridges Street – now the Theatre Royal Drury Lane.
While working, Nell caught the attention of someone at the theatre.
Its thought it could have been Thomas Killigrew, the leader of the King’s Company, or possibly one of the actors, Charles Hart.
Aged around 14, she became one of the actresses in the troupe, and Hart’s mistress.
Her comedic talent brought Nell leading roles and widespread fame.
Her performances won her Samuel Pepys’s famous epithet, “pretty, witty Nell”.
In 1667, she became the mistress of Charles Sackville, – Lord Buckhurst.
A year later, she was introduced to King Charles, and quickly became his lover.
In February 1671, Nell moved into a townhouse owned by the King at 79 Pall Mall.
Five years later, she was granted the lease on the property.
Of all of King Charles’ mistresses, Nell is supposedly said to be the least greedy for Royal Favours.
79 Pall Mall remained in Nell’s 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.
King Charles’s deathbed request ‘Let not poor Nelly starve’ in 1685, meant Nell was left with a £1,500-a-year pension – about £150,000 in today’s money)
All her debts were paid by James II, Charles’ younger brother and heir.
In March 1687, Nell suffered a stroke that left her paralysed on one side.
Two months later, in May 1687, a second stroke left her confined to the bed in her Pall Mall house.
Nell Gwynn died from apoplexy, possibly due to a strain of syphilis, on 14th November 1687.
She was just 37 years old.
Nell’s good friend Thomas Tenison, the vicar of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields (and later Archbishop of Canterbury) conducted her funeral and allowed Nell’s body to be interred in his space below the altar, when she was buried on 17th November 1687.
Today, Nell gives her name to a tiny, traditional old-man’s pub near the Strand.
There’s also an art deco building in Chelsea, called Nell Gywnn House Apartments, with a statue of Nell over the door.
In Sloane Square, Nell’s relationship with the king is immortalised in the Venus Fountain from 1953.
And there’s even a Nell Gywnn nursery school in Southwark
