Little is known about the young Eleanor Gwyn, as records about her are scarce from that time, and though there has been speculation about who her family was, there hasn’t been a definitive decision made on her early life. She was born a commoner, probably in or around Covent Garden, London, where her mother ran a brothel. Samuel Pepys recounted a story in which Nell told people that she “was brought up in a bawdy-house to fill strong waters to the guests,” though it is very likely that she also worked as a prostitute at some point in her time there. Her renowned quick wits, gift of the gab, and feisty personality could well have been formed in these earlier years working in such an environment, and they were to stand her in good stead as the low-born, perky, cockney mistress of Charles II, who came from nothing and rose to be an famous actress and royal concubine.

Orange Girl and Actress

Through a fortuitous family connection, Nell was employed as an orange-girl at the King’s Theatre, London in 1663.  Orange-girls were young women, often just girls, who sold fruit, candies, and other sweet treats to theatregoers during performances. They were also tasked with running messages from men in the audience to the actresses backstage or between people in the crowd, usually to arrange sexual encounters; the orange-girls themselves may also have been expected to provide occasional sexual services to earn some extra money.

Over the next year or so, she began taking bit parts in shows and was quickly noticed as a rising star in the world of Restoration theatre. This was the first time ever that women were allowed to perform on stage, and Nell’s talent for comedy, good looks, and lively persona embodied the new and exciting world of the Restoration. By 1665 she was a well-known and established actress, admired by people from all walks of life who came to see her in the popular comedic roles that had made her one of the most famous celebrities of her day!

A Social Climber

Nell’s talent for acting wasn’t the only skill that helped her up the social ladder. From a young age she took a succession of lovers, each more rich or famous than the last. In 1667, she left London and the stage to begin an affair with Charles Sackville the Earl of Dorset, after he promised her £100 a year for her position. It was not to last, and by that winter she had returned to London and her acting career.

Around this time the Duke of Buckingham, Barbara’s cousin and now enemy, had been scheming to supplant Castlemaine as the king’s favourite mistress, introducing Charles to several beauties whom he hoped would divert his attention from her. Charles was already enamoured with Moll Davis, a fellow actress but, on Nell’s return to London at the end of 1667, Buckingham saw an opportunity to dangle another mistress under the king’s nose. Negotiations began: Nell suggested that she would need £500 per year to be kept as the king’s mistress, but this was rejected as too expensive - and so, as quickly as they began, the negotiations were over. 

One afternoon Nell and the young courtier Mr Villiers (a cousin of Buckingham and Castlemaine) were attending the theatre together and by chance the king and his brother, James Duke of York, were sitting close by. After flirting with her throughout the entire performance, Charles invited Nell and Villiers to supper with them at a nearby tavern. It is said that Nell’s charm, sense of humour, and honest, down-to-earth personality won over the king; in January 1668, Pepys heard a rumour from another actress “that the King did send several times for Nelly, and she was with him”, which suggests that by then they had come to an agreement of their own.

Nell, who had relationships with two other men named Charles –Charles Sackville and the actor Charles Hart – jokingly referred to the king as “her Charles the Third.”

From Rags to Riches

Although she was already receiving gifts of money for her sexual services to the king, Nell continued acting, likely because at this early stage of her relationship with the king her position and her livelihood were not yet secured. But her notoriety as a royal concubine and celebrated comedienne drew large crowds, encouraging playwrights to create roles and plays specifically for her, securing at least her own crown as the Restoration actress, making her well paid and in high demand.

But in 1669, Nell became pregnant with her first child with the king and quit the theatre. The king moved her into a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where their son, also named Charles, was born in May 1670. Soon after, Nell and her son were upgraded to a house closer to Whitehall on the east end of Pall Mall. However, it was only on a lease through the crown, and Nell knew that, while she had established herself as a royal mistress, she had to ensure that she would be financially set for life.

In December 1670 she returned to acting, indicating that, even as the mother to the king’s child, she simply could not afford not to work. Within two months, the king, probably embarrassed that a mistress of his should have to take employment, persuaded her to retire by buying  her a grand house on the fashionable west end of Pall Mall, just across St James’ Park from Whitehall, as well as a pension to secure her place as a royal mistress.

Here they enjoyed a blissful, almost domestic life together on those occasions when Charles wanted to withdraw from the demands of court (and his other more high-maintenance mistresses) to spend time at Nell’s house. For a couple of years Nell was Charles’ favourite bedfellow. He was even spending more time with her than Barbara or Moll: on Christmas Day 1671, she gave birth to their second son, James.

Adversaries at Court

Her rivalry with fellow actress Moll was already strong on and off stage. The girls were to be continually pitted against each other, both as actresses in different theatre companies and as rivals for the king’s attentions, as they were both introduced to him around the same time. At the beginning of her stay at court, Nell, knowing that Moll was due to see the king one evening, invited her round for afternoon tea… laced with laxatives!

As for Barbara, she had already started to see the king’s attentions diverted by Moll, and now, Nell, an even brasher and more common actress, was in the fold. For the proud and snobby Barbara, this must have been a hard pill to swallow: she had been able to see off most of her competitors, but Nell, who was like a breath of fresh air in comparison to Barbara’s demanding, angry and volatile nature, quickly replaced her as Charles’ preferred mistress.

However, when Louise de Kérouaille arrived at court in 1670, it was clear that Charles was smitten; by the following year, Nell had been eclipsed by Louise as Charles’ favourite. The two women would have an ongoing rivalry, no less because they were different in every way imaginable. Nell would torment the high-born and sensitive Louise, using her sharp tongue and quick wit. While Nell went un-titled, Louise was ennobled as the Duchess of Portsmouth just three years after she became Charles’ mistress. When Louise slyly remarked that Nell looked fine enough in her dress to be a Queen, Nell retorted with, “You are entirely right, Madam, and I am whore enough to be a duchess!”

Louise and Nell did eventually become friends, often meeting for tea and cards, or attending each other’s parties, especially when they were both temporarily side-lined in favour of the enchanting Hortense Mancini. But Nell was resilient and feisty and was often exasperated by Louise who was prone to outbursts of crying and despair; so much so that she called her the ‘the weeping willow’.

Despite the rivalries between the mistresses, and Louise’s position as principle mistress, Nell had already secured herself in the king’s affections and would stay there for the rest of his life. In comparison to his other ‘favourites’ she was faithful to the king, was not as greedy with money, rarely meddled in politics, and he was always happy and relaxed in her company.

The Popular Protestant Whore

Unlike Charles’ other mistresses, Nell came from humble social background, without a title, family connections, or wealth. At court and with the public this worked both for and against her. Many turned their noses up at such a low-born woman invading their aristocratic space, but, as Charles’ court had become increasingly filled with libertines and young up-and-coming courtiers, Nell was welcomed by many who saw her vivacious and fun personality as an exciting addition. She kept a fun circle of actors, musicians, poets and playwrights, often entertaining at her Pall Mall house, where Charles would be in regular attendance.

More than anything, Charles - who loved to be amused by comedy, satire, pranks, and jokes, usually at the expense of others - must have been delighted by Nell’s cheeky and playful tendencies. When Castlemaine chose to ride around in a coach-and-eight horses as a show of wealth and status, Nell later paraded herself through London by a coach pulled by eight oxen! And she publicly and brazenly asked the French ambassador for a present from the French king, Louis XIV, saying she served Charles better than Louise (who was patronised by both Charles and Louis) in the bedroom.

She fared even better with the public and was by far the most popular of Charles’ mistresses. She was already well known through her acting career, and her roots as a low-born girl who had risen through the ranks as a result of her own efforts, unlike the snobby aristocratic mistresses, meant that she had the common touch that the people admired. She rarely meddled in politics or asked the king for favours. She was also Protestant, a fact that cannot be under-estimated in the intensely antipapist culture of Restoration England, in contrast to Barbara and Louise were openly Catholic, and hated for it. There is a famous anecdote in which while travelling in a coach, Nell was mobbed by a crowd who thought she was Louise. “Pray good people be silent,” Nell said, sticking her head out of the carriage window, “I am the Protestant whore!” Finally, she was English through-and-through, while Louise was French and loathed even more so for it because of the Francophobia that had permeated England at the time.

The Un-noble mistress

Despite her popularity and place at the king’s side, her status as a commoner denied her the titles and riches that Barbara and Louise were granted so freely by Charles. Unfortunately for Nell she never received a title, though it is not recorded that she ever pushed for one. She had accumulated wealth enough over the years: several properties, small lands of her own, pensions that grew to £5000 a year by 1676, and a great amount of finery such as furniture, clothes, and jewellery. Her sons were a different matter, however; she wanted to secure their future in the aristocracy.

In 1675 both Barbara and Louise’s sons were granted dukedoms, with hefty pensions to boot. Nell’s sons (despite being older than Louise’s) were passed over for titles, much to her anger, though her eldest son, Charles, was given a pension of £4000 per year. Nell did not press for titles at the time, but the following year, likely through a campaign by Nell to honour his children equally, the king made Charles Earl of Burford, and his younger brother James was given the title Lord Beauclerk.

Nell and her son Charles (her younger son, James, had died in 1680) further established their place in the English aristocracy in 1684, shortly before the king’s death. Charles was created the Duke of St Albans, officially given the surname Beauclerk, issued an additional allowance of £1000 per year, and granted the offices of Chief Ranger of Enfield Chase and Master of the Hawks – fitting as Nell was the king’s only mistress who truly loved the countryside, and she was a fan of falconry. Some even believe that the king had finally planned to ennoble Nell, granting her the title of the Countess of Greenwich, had he not fallen ill and died the following year…

Life after Charles

On his deathbed, Charles II famously asked his brother to ‘let not poor Nelly starve.’ Honouring his brother’s wishes, James, now King of England, ensured that Nell and her son were well looked after. He paid off all of Nell’s debts, and granted her an additional pension of £1500 a year. He also paid off the mortgage on her house, Nottinghamshire Lodge, settling the estate to Nell and Charles, which remained  in the Beauclerk family until 1940. Heartbroken, and now without her biggest supporter, Nell withdrew somewhat from court life, preferring to entertain at home with friends and family.

She herself fell ill in 1686, some believe succumbing to syphilis that she may have contracted years earlier, which resulted in two strokes in 1687; the first left her paralysed on her left side, and the second confined her to her bed for several months; she passed away in November of that year, just three years after Charles II.

Nell was only 37 when she died, but what she achieved in such a short life was nothing less than extraordinary. She had pulled herself from the slums of London, became a famous actress, endeared herself to people from all ranks and walks of life, successfully installed herself as a favourite mistress of the king, and secured wealth, titles, and property for her child. Though she didn’t live to meet them, she had twelve grandchildren through her son, Charles Beauclerk, which has resulted in her being the ancestress of many members of the aristocracy. Beauclerk’s title, Duke of St Albans, is still in use today having been passed down through his male bloodline.

Not bad for an orange-girl!