Nell Gwyn Mistress To A King

Beautiful, quick-witted and sexually magnetic, Nell Gwyn remains one of England's great heroines. The story of her incredible rise from an impoverished, abusive childhood to the wealth and connections that came with being King Charles II's most cherished mistress is one of the greatest love stories of Royal history. Nell Gwyn was famously spotted selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The job was already an improvement for a girl who grew up in a brothel and sold oysters on the street. Her wit and charm brought her to the attention of numerous suitors, including one of the theater's leading actors, Charles Hart. Under his patronage she took to the stage, where she caught the eye of King Charles II, the newly restored, pleasure seeking "merry monarch" of a nation in full hedonistic reaction to Puritan rule. Their seventeen-year love affair played out against the backdrop of the Great Fire of London, the Great Plague, court scandals, and the constant threat of political revolution. Despite his other lovers' Machiavellian efforts to win the King's favor and humiliate Nell, the self-proclaimed "Protestant whore" earned the devotion of her king and the love of her nation, becoming England's first "people's princess."

Written by a direct descendant of the union between Nell Gwyn and King Charles II, Nell Gwyn tells the story of one of England's great folk heroines. Born during a tumultuous period in England's past, Nell Gwyn was spotted selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Nell's wit and charm brought her to the attention of numerous suitors, including one of the theater's leading actors, Charles Hart. Under his patronage Nell took to the stage where she became one of London's first professional female actresses, and the finest comedienne in London. She then caught the eye of the pleasure-seeking "merry monarch" King Charles II, and their seventeen-year love affair played out against the backdrop of the Great Fire of London, the Great Plague, court scandals, and the constant threat of political revolution. Magnificently re-creating the heady, licentious, yet politically charged atmosphere of Restoration England, Nell Gwyn tells the true-life Cinderella story of a common orange girl who became England's first "people's princess."