Eleanor ‘Nell’ Gwyn was born February 2, 1650 and traditionally believed to have been born in Hereford in Pipe Well Lane, though some believe she was born in London or Oxford. Nell was raised by her mother, who is said to have been an alcoholic and the hostess of a brothel, and brought up with her sister Rose serving spirits to her mother’s customers. There is speculation that Nell was worked as a child prostitute and it is known that around the age of 12 she took a lover for a short number of years. In her youth Nell and her sister Rose were hired by a friend of their mother’s, Mary Meggs, to sell oranges and other concessions in Theatre Royal, where Charles II was known to frequent.
Nell Gwyn became an actress at the
Theatre Royal around 1664 after gaining knowledge of the theatre through her
orange-selling job. She was taught the
acting arts by Charles Hart and John Lacy, both of whom are thought to be her
lovers. Nell generally performed well
and made herself a star in the theatre, even to the king who hired her, among
others, for private plays while the public playhouses were closed due to the
black plague, from 1665-66.
Within two years after the end of
the black plague Nell was a mistress to the king and gave birth to her first
son with him in 1670, at the age of 20.
The same year her son was born, Nell returned to the stage for a last
few performances before officially retiring.
Though the king had multiple mistresses, Nell remained his favorite
until his death because of her honest wit, granting her living son a title and
giving her the lease and later the ownership of a her own property which is to
this day outside of the reach of the crown.
When Nell died in 1687 her estate was valued at over 100,000 English
Pounds, in Restoration dollars. Not too
bad for an orange-selling actress eh?
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