Nell Gwyn - Softcover

Charles Beauclerk is a direct descendant of Charles II and Nell Gwyn. He lectures on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature and history. He lives in Suffolk. This is his first book.

British historian Beauclerk, a descendant of King Charles II and his longtime mistress Nell Gwyn (1650–1687), draws on earlier biographies, contemporary satires and plays, noted diarist Samuel Pepys and family archives to present a lively portrait of his famous forebears, along with an account of the theater of the time and the surprisingly parallel worlds of prostitutes and royal mistresses. Along the way, he renders an awfully generous reading of the royal cause and argues that Charles led the Restoration out of joie de vivre as much as for the sake of the monarchy. Beauclerk posits that the king's amorous adventures—particularly with women of lower classes—endeared him to his people after dismal years of Puritan restrictions. Nell's rise was meteoric: selling refreshments in London theaters, she honed a quick wit that led to an acting career and brought her to the attention of the king. Nell was never Charles's only mistress, but she was faithful to him and amused him by playing the fool. Beauclerk's historical insights have a personal flair that indicates his family's take on their ancestors. He ends with an odd history of his troubled family, suggesting its problematic twin inheritances from king and actress. 16 pages of color illus. not seen by PW.
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