NELL GWYNN Research

NELL GWYNN…  

Nell "Eleanor" Gwynn was born on the 2nd of February 1650 in London.
She is famously known for being the long term mistress of King Charles the 2nd.
Nell began acting when she was 14, at the Bridges street acting club in London, previously she was an orange girl, selling oranges on the street to make money for herself.
Nell was part of a plan by her "love affair manager" George Villiers, to be kept by King Charles the 2nd for £500 a year, but this plan was rejected as it was seen to be too much money for someone of her status.
However, her love affair was estimated to of began with the King in 1668, when Nell was just 18 years old.
Nell remained one of the Kings life long mistresses, and "out shone" all the other mistresses he allegedly was seeing throughout his and Nell's time together.
In 1670, when Nell was 20 years old, she had her first son "Charles" who was the Kings SEVENTH SON! Whom he had with FIVE separate women..
After her son was born, she returned to the stage as an actress and she received mixed reactions for this, as she was a young women with a royal child.
in 1671 on Christmas Day, Nell had her second son with the King, James who was sent to study in Paris when he was only six years old, sadly James died whilst he was in Paris, and reasons have always remained unknown….
In 1685 the King died, and Nell was forever compensated by his Brothers wishes, and received £1500 a year, which back then was a lot of money, and she was never without money for the rest of her life.
She lived a hard yet successful life and was seen to be a powerful and smart women, as the King stayed with her until his death, and he evidently felt love towards her, and she was forever looked after by royal family members.
Nell sadly passed away when she was 37 years old, after suffering from two severe strokes which left her paralysed on her left side of her body.
I was amazed at the amount of research I found on Nell Gywnn and just how extreme and interesting her life was.

King Charles kept dozens of paintings of Nell Gywnn topless and nude in his home,
this at the time was seen as very scandalous as Gywnn was very young when the first painting was created.