Nell Gwyn: Mistress to a King

The other reviews of Nell Gwyn at this site seem to come from people steeped in Restoration history. But you don't have to be an historian to enjoy this book. The author, Charles Beauclerk, is the direct descendant King Charles II and his mistress, Nell Gwyn. He writes in clear, easy to read sentences. Nonetheless, he is impressively erudite. Gradually, with painstaking research, he recreates Nell, the people important in her life, and the world they lived in. In keeping with his fun-loving main characters, Beauclerk writes with humor and tenderness. I am sure Charles and Nell would approve! Unlike many people who write about their famous ancestors, Beauclerk does not fall into the trap of either apologizing for or aggrandizing them. He depicts Nell as uncultured with a warm, open, boisterous personality, a trenchant wit, and winning charm. A rich, complex picture of the Restoration emerges. Beauclerk depicts a frenzied reaction to previous years of Civil War and Puritan rule, which gave rise to a renaissance in theater and literature, horse racing, scientific inquiry, extravagance, and licentiousness. Political intrigue was rampant. Charles II was the right king for the times. He emerges as a complex man with towering strengths and weaknesses. Charles was a master at snuffing out political plots. His religious tolerance and political moderation gave the nation a brief respite between the Puritans and the stogy continental royalty who followed. Fortuitously, his behavior and interests reflected those of the nation during that period. Nell Gwyn is also an attack on the British class system. Beauclerk, descendant of royalty and the cockney slums, has a unique point of view. A reluctant aristocrat himself, he understands why aristocrats constantly disparaged lower class Nell. Probably because of Nell's class origins even her beloved Charles occasionally neglected her. For example, although all of Charles' other highborn principal mistresses received lands and titles, presumably because of Nell's lowly origins, Charles never bestowed a title or much land on her. (But he did give their son a bankrupt Dukedom.) By contrast, in America, where classes are more fluid, Ronald Reagan whose biography was similar to Nell - a movie star with lower class origins - reached the pinnacle of American society when he won the Presidency. Most Americans thought his lower class origins were admirable. Nell Gwyn is a rich and fascinating book. It is never dry or boring. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't require a fast moving plot in order to enjoy a book.

The Restoration period in England is especially dear to historians--it provides so many interesting anecdotes and biographies, among them that of the King himself, Charles II. The sufferings of his youth, when he was hunted like a dog by his father's enemies, would seem more the stuff of fiction than fact if we didn't know it to be true. But Charles is probably better known for the many mistresses he acquired later, once his country returned him to the throne. Of these, the most interesting and famous is surely the actress turned Royal Mistress, Nell Gwynn. Although the reign of Charles II is famous for its bawdy wit and licentious behavior, for the most part, it simply saw a return to the kind of healthy fun the English people had been denied during twenty years of repressive Puritan rule. Bawdy wit and licentious behavior was really only true of a handful of rakish pranksters whose antics have come down in history because they were well-reported. Typical of this group was Charles's friend, the poet John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, whose father had been given the earldom for military service to the Crown during the King's years in exile. Although Rochester's reputation as a genuine poet has suffered from his bad behavior, the 19th-century critic William Hazlitt stated that although Rochester's "contempt for everything that others respect almost amounts to sublimity . . . his verses cut and sparkle like diamonds." Of Charles, Rochester once teased: "He never said a foolish thing, nor ever did a wise one," to which Charles replied: "That is true, for my words are my own, but my actions are those of my ministers." Among this group of wild and unruly poets and playwrights, beautiful Nell Gwynn held her own as a commedienne and entertainment star, qualities she took with her to Court when she rose to the status of Royal Mistress. Nell was the only one of Charles II's many mistresses who was genuinely popular with the English public. It is thought she persuaded the King to do the things he did to help the people, among them build the Royal Hospital in London for ex-servicemen. Nell had two sons by the King, Charles and James Beauclerk. There are two versions of how Charles acquired the Earldom of Burford (both unverifiable). The first has it that one day, upon the arrival of the King, Nell, surrounded by a circle of friends, called out to her six-year-old, "Come here you little bastard and say hello to your father." When the King protested her language, she replied: "Your Majesty has given me no other name by which to call him." So Charles made him the Earl of Burford. The other version claims that out of frustration after months of unfulfilled promises, one day Nell grabbed her son and hung him out of a window, threatening to drop him unless the boy was granted a peerage, whereupon the frightened but quick-witted King cried out, "God save the Earl of Burford!" These and many more such anecdotes are related here by the boy's descendant, an

Far more than a mere recitation of dry facts, Charles Beauclerk's biography of the magical life of Nell Gwyn displays rare insight into the human condition, which insights one soon realizes are acutely applicable to the here-and-now of politics, art, and the mysterious attachments of the heart. To history, Nell Gwyn was (pg. 297) "...the stuff of legend, the girl from the slums who had won the heart of a king." In the author's hands, however, this story of love reciprocated (for such it was) is more than romance- it shines a spotlight on the theater of politics and power which was the 17th century and still is today, in which nothing is as it seems to be, and fame provides a most convincing disguise for the truth. Beauclerk's evident erudition is worn lightly, and in this biography the richly comedic serves to illustrate the philosophical. Beautifully written, the author's style is both polished and relaxed, not unlike the later diaries of James Lees-Milne, with a limpid clarity of prose interspersed with surprising imagery, like his description of the Protestant rabble-rouser Titus Oates, (p. 279) "His mouth, we are told, was in the centre of his face, and he was built like an orc, with short bandy legs and long lifeless arms." On nearly every page one finds apt insights as, for example (p. 293) referring to the death of Nell's mother, "...like many alcoholics, old Madam Gwyn probably found a way of abandoning decent surroundings for a life of misery somewhere." The world of Charles Stuart and Nell Gwyn was a theatre, both metaphorically and literally, and whether on stage or at court everyone acted a part. In his biography of Nell, the plays of Dryden, Marvell, and others are neatly dissected by Charles Beauclerk to reveal unexpected depths of meaning. Nell was above all a comedienne, a star in her own right whose alliance with the saturnine, tricksy Charles Stuart made them the most successful double act of the 17th century. And there is, of course, the well-known account of Nell, whose coach being attacked by a mob mistaking her for the King's French (and Roman Catholic) mistress Louise de Keroualle, ordered her driver to stop, and flinging open the window (p. 307) "...cried out good-humouredly, 'Pray, good people, be civil, I am the PROTESTANT whore!' Immediately, the curses turned to cheers, caps were tossed in the air, and a path cleared for her coach. Waving and smiling, she passed on." And so, waving and smiling, Nell's brightly shining spirit has been well and truly awakened in this present biography.

Charles Beauclerk's vibrant narrative of Nell Gwyn's amazing life is much more than a terrific biography. This richly woven portrait of a woman and her era is a masterwork of literature that draws you completely into its own world. I couldn't put it down and kept hoping that it wouldn't end. Anyone fortunate enough to attend one of Beauclerk's powerful, inspiring talks on English literature and history already knows that here is a unique individual voice, destined to draw a wide following. Without hesitation I predict he will be counted among the brightest thinkers and writers of his generation. Charles Beauclerk's first book could have no more fitting heroine than the incomparable Nell Gwyn, from whom he is directly descended. Finally this legendary mistress of Charles II has a biographer who knows his subject and can bring her to life. My advice is to grab a copy and settle into a comfortable chair and surrender to the capable hands of this brilliant young writer. Beauclerk's sharp eye never overlooks a significant detail and his ever-present sense of humor never misses the chance to share a smile or a laugh. And when the inevitable movie comes out, you will say with conviction: "Oh, but you should really read the book!"

Nell Gwyn is by way of being an English folk heroine. Only with the 1660 "Restoration" of the British monarchy were women allowed on the stage. Indeed, all Shakespeare's heroines had been played by men. Emerging from a background of poverty and obscurity, the teenage Nell rose to stardom as the best comic actress of the London Restoration stage in the 1660's. Beautiful, witty, unabashedly outspoken, Nell caught the eye and heart of the restored Stuart King, Charles II. In a time when class conscious snobbery extended even to the King's mistress, commoners were not welcome, and Nell's pointed humor and uninhibited ways stood in sharp contrast to the mannered, calculating world of the court. Then as now, people enjoyed gossip about notable figures, so Londoners came to feel strong affection for this untrammeled sprite. Beauclerk's brilliant depiction of the worlds of stage and politics, coupled with his penetrating analysis of character, bring Nell, Charles II, and their turbulent world to life. This is a touching love story, for Nell was the King's dear friend as well as his totally loyal lover throughout their seventeen years together, which ended only with his death in 1685. Beauclerk is a direct descendant of Nell and Charles's son, so a last chapter telling how the family has fared from then to the present adds and interesting coda to this lively tale.