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Charles Iis Favourite Mistress
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Book Synopsis Charles II's Favourite Mistress by : Sarah-Beth Watkins
Download or read book Charles II's Favourite Mistress written by Sarah-Beth Watkins and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-10-30 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nell Gwyn, the most infamous mistress of Charles II, was a commoner raised from the dingy back alleys of London to the stage and into a king’s arms. Hers was a true rags to riches story that saw a young girl rise from selling oranges to capturing the heart of a king. The Restoration period was one of change. After the troubled years of the English Civil War, it was time for pleasure, debauchery and entertainment with the ‘Merry Monarch’ restored to the throne. Nell was one of the first actresses on stage; a loveable comedienne who wowed audiences with her wit and charm. She fell in love with Charles Hart (one of the leading actors of the time), had a torrid affair with Lord Buckhurst and ultimately ended up in the king’s bed. She stayed on the stage for six years, but she stayed in the king’s heart for seventeen – his only mistress who was faithful to him. Set against the backdrop of Restoration London, this book charts Nell’s life and that of her family and friends – from her drunken mother and troublesome sister to the most notorious wits of the age John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Nell had a generous heart and a mischievous spirit, and was friends with people from all walks of life. The only woman she really detested was another of the king’s mistresses, Louise de Kerouaille, known as the French Spy. This highly entertaining book will tell the story of Nell’s life – the good and the bad – and show why Nell truly embodies the spirit of the Restoration.
Download or read book Mistresses written by Linda Porter and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2020-04-16 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to the great diarist, John Evelyn, Charles II was ‘addicted to women’, and throughout his long reign a great many succumbed to his charms. Clever, urbane and handsome, Charles presided over a hedonistic court, in which licence and licentiousness prevailed. Mistresses is the story of the women who shared Charles’s bed, each of whom wielded influence on both the politics and cultural life of the country. From the young king-in-exile’s first mistress and mother to his first child, Lucy Walter, to the promiscuous and ill-tempered courtier, Barbara Villiers. From Frances Teresa Stuart, ‘the prettiest girl in the world’ to history’s most famous orange-seller, ‘pretty, witty’ Nell Gwynn and to her fellow-actress, Moll Davis, who bore the last of the king’s fifteen illegitimate children. From Louise de Kéroualle, the French aristocrat – and spy for Louis XIV – to the sexually ambiguous Hortense Mancini. Here, too, is the forlorn and humiliated Queen Catherine, the Portuguese princess who was Charles’s childless queen. Drawing on a wide variety of original sources, including material in private archives, Linda Porter paints a vivid picture of these women and of Restoration England, an era that was both glamorous and sordid.
Book Synopsis Charles II's Favourite Mistress by : Sarah-Beth Watkins
Download or read book Charles II's Favourite Mistress written by Sarah-Beth Watkins and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-10-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nell Gwyn, the most infamous mistress of Charles II, was a commoner raised from the dingy back alleys of London to the stage and into a king's arms. Hers was a true rags to riches story that saw a young girl rise from selling oranges to capturing the heart of a king. The Restoration period was one of change. After the troubled years of the English Civil War, it was time for pleasure, debauchery and entertainment with the 'Merry Monarch' restored to the throne. Nell was one of the first actresses on stage; a loveable comedienne who wowed audiences with her wit and charm. She fell in love with Charles Hart (one of the leading actors of the time), had a torrid affair with Lord Buckhurst and ultimately ended up in the king's bed. She stayed on the stage for six years, but she stayed in the king's heart for seventeen - his only mistress who was faithful to him. Set against the backdrop of Restoration London, this book charts Nell's life and that of her family and friends - from her drunken mother and troublesome sister to the most notorious wits of the age John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester and George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham. Nell had a generous heart and a mischievous spirit, and was friends with people from all walks of life. The only woman she really detested was another of the king's mistresses, Louise de Kerouaille, known as the French Spy. This highly entertaining book will tell the story of Nell's life - the good and the bad - and show why Nell truly embodies the spirit of the Restoration.
Book Synopsis The King's Favorite by : Susan Holloway Scott
Download or read book The King's Favorite written by Susan Holloway Scott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2008-07-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The acclaimed author of Duchess and Royal Harlot returns with the unforgettable story of a king's last love and London's darling? BRNell Gwyn has never been a lady, nor does she pretend to be. Blessed with impudent wit and saucy beauty, she swiftly rises from the poverty of Covent Garden to become a sensation in the theater. Still in her teens, she catches the eye of King Charles II, and trades the stage for Whitehall Palace-and the role of royal mistress. Even though she delights the king, she must learn to negotiate the cutthroat royal court, where ambition and lust for power rule the hearts of all around her. For beneath her charm and light-heartedness, Nell has her own ambition-to become no less than the king's favorite.
Book Synopsis The French Mistress by : Susan Holloway Scott
Download or read book The French Mistress written by Susan Holloway Scott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-07-07 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of The King's Favorite-a new novel based on a dazzling and decadent true story of Restoration England. The daughter of a poor nobleman, Louise leaves the French countryside for the court of King Louis XIV, where she must not only please the tastes of the jaded king, but serve as a spy for France. With few friends, many rivals, and ever-shifting loyalties, Louise learns the perils of her new role. Yet she is too ambitious to be a pawn in the intrigues of others. With the promise of riches, power, and even the love of a king, Louise creates her own destiny in a dance of intrigue between two monarchs-and two countries.
Book Synopsis The Perfect Royal Mistress by : Diane Haeger
Download or read book The Perfect Royal Mistress written by Diane Haeger and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born into poverty and raised in a brothel, Nell Gwynne sells oranges in the pit at London’s King’s Theater, newly reopened after the plague and the Great Fire devastated the city. Soon, her quick sense of humor and natural charm get her noticed by those who have the means to make her life easier. But the street-smart Nell knows a woman doesn’t get ahead by selling her body. Through talent, charm, intelligence, and sheer determination—as well as a keen understanding of how the world operates—Nell works her way out of the pit and onto the stage to become the leading comedic actress of the day. Her skills and beauty quickly win the attention of all of London—eventually even catching the eye of King Charles II. Their attraction is as real as it is unlikely, and the scrappy orange girl with the pretty face and the quick wit soon finds herself plunged into the confusing and dangerous world of the court, where she learns there are few she can trust—and many whom she cannot turn her back on. From the gritty streets of seventeenth-century London, to the backstage glamour of its theaters, to the glittering court of Charles II, The Perfect Royal Mistress is a love story for the ages, the rags-to-riches tale of a truly remarkable heroine.
Download or read book A Gambling Man written by Jenny Uglow and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-11-23 with total page 853 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Restoration was a decade of experimentation: from the founding of the Royal Society for investigating the sciences to the startling role of credit and risk; from the shocking licentiousness of the court to failed attempts at religious tolerance. Negotiating all these, Charles II, the "slippery sovereign," laid odds and took chances, dissembling and manipulating his followers. The theaters may have been restored, but the king himself was the supreme actor. Yet while his grandeur, his court, and his colorful sex life were on display, his true intentions lay hidden. Charles II was thirty when he crossed the English Channel in fine May weather in 1660. His Restoration was greeted with maypoles and bonfires, as spring after the long years of Cromwell's rule. But there was no way to turn back, no way he could "restore" the old dispensation. Certainty had vanished. The divinity of kingship had ended with his father's beheading. "Honor" was now a word tossed around in duels. "Providence" could no longer be trusted. As the country was rocked by plague, fire, and war, people searched for new ideas by which to live. And exactly ten years after he arrived, Charles would again stand on the shore at Dover, this time placing the greatest bet of his life in a secret deal with his cousin, Louis XIV of France. Jenny Uglow's previous biographies have won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and International PEN's Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History. A Gambling Man is Uglow at her best: both a vivid portrait of Charles II that explores his elusive nature and a spirited evocation of a vibrant, violent, pulsing world on the brink of modernity.
Book Synopsis The Countess and the King by : Susan Holloway Scott
Download or read book The Countess and the King written by Susan Holloway Scott and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2010-09-07 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Katherine Sedley lived by her own rules and loved who she pleased- until she became the infamous mistress of King James II... London, 1675: Born to wealth and privilege, Katherine is introduced to the decadent court of King Charles II, and quickly becomes a favorite from the palace to the bawdy playhouses. She gleefully snubs respectable marriage to become the Duke of York's mistress. But Katherine's life of carefree pleasure ends when Charles II dies, and her lover becomes King James II. Suddenly she is cast into a tangle of political intrigue, religious dissent, and ever-shifting alliances, where a wrong step can mean treason, exile, or death at the executioner's block. As the risks rise, Katherine is forced to make the most perilous of choices: to remain loyal to the king, or to England.
Book Synopsis Girl on the Golden Coin by : Marci Jefferson
Download or read book Girl on the Golden Coin written by Marci Jefferson and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Returned to favor by the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660, Royalist exile Frances Stuart is rendered a political and sexual pawn torn between keeping her family's secrets and pleasing the kings she serves. A first novel. 25,000 first printing.
Book Synopsis The Child from the Sea by : Elizabeth Goudge
Download or read book The Child from the Sea written by Elizabeth Goudge and published by Hendrickson Publishers. This book was released on 2022-05-03 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Against the pomp and pageantry of turbulent seventeenth century England, Elizabeth Goudge weaves the poignant tale of Lucy Walter, the proud and beautiful secret wife of Charles II. From her early childhood in a castle by the sea in Wales and the joys and pangs of childhood, to her tragic estrangement from the king and her death in Paris at the age of twenty-eight, Lucy Walter lived to the full a life of intense joy and equally intense drama. Miss Goudge portrays brilliantly a young love almost too ecstatic to bear. Equally moving is her characterization of Lucy—a spirited woman caught up in the cataclysmic wars and disruptive revolution of a tumultuous era. From London at the time of the Great Fire, to Paris when British royalty fled to the sanctuary of the Louvre, to Brussels and The Hague and a rich panoramic background—a master storyteller traces the life and loves of an extraordinary woman. The Child from the Sea is a superbly colorful and romantic historical novel alive with brilliant cameos and infused with a spiritual essence rare in our times.
Download or read book Exit the Actress written by Priya Parmar and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the critically acclaimed author of Vanessa and Her Sister, the debut novel hailed by New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory as “a vivid imagining of the restoration London of Charles II with Nell Gwynn as a powerful and engaging heroine.” While selling oranges in the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, sweet and sprightly Ellen "Nell" Gwyn impresses the theater’s proprietors with a wit and sparkle that belie her youth and poverty. She quickly earns a place in the company, narrowly avoiding the life of prostitution to which her sister has already succumbed. As her roles evolve from supporting to starring, the scope of her life broadens as well. Soon Ellen is dressed in the finest fashions, charming the theatrical, literary, and royal luminaries of Restoration England. Ellen grows up on the stage, experiencing first love and heartbreak and eventually becoming the mistress of Charles II. Despite his reputation as a libertine, Ellen wholly captures his heart—and he hers—but even the most powerful love isn’t enough to stave off the gossip and bitter court politics that accompany a royal romance. Telling the story through a collection of vibrant seventeenth-century voices ranging from Ellen’s diary to playbills, letters, gossip columns, and home remedies, Priya Parmar brings to life the story of an endearing and delightful heroine.
Book Synopsis My Dearest Minette by : Charles II (King of England)
Download or read book My Dearest Minette written by Charles II (King of England) and published by Peter Owen Publishers. This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles II was a renowned ladies' man but, arguably his greatest love--though not in the Biblical sense--was his sister Minette. Separated from her in their youth by a royal inter-marriage, his letters reveal a tender and humane side not often seen in biographies of this cunning and calculating monarch.
Download or read book The King's Bed written by Don Jordan and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2015-01-08 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To refer to the private life of Charles II is to abuse the adjective. His personal life was anything but private. His amorous liaisons were largely conducted in royal palaces surrounded by friends, courtiers and literally hundreds of servants and soldiers. Gossip radiated throughout the kingdom. Charles spent most of his wealth and his intellect on gaining and keeping the company of women, from the lowest sections of society such as the actress Nell Gwyn to the aristocratic Louise de Kérouaille. Some of Charles' women played their part in the affairs of state, colouring the way the nation was run. Don Jordan and Michael Walsh take us inside Charles' palace, where we will meet court favourites, amusing confidants, advisors jockeying for political power, mistresses past and present as well as key figures in his inner circle such as his 'pimpmasters' and his personal pox doctor. The astonishing private life of Charles II reveals much about the man he was and why he lived and ruled as he did. The King's Bed tells the compelling story of a king ruled by his passion.
Book Synopsis The Mistresses of Charles II by : Brian Masters
Download or read book The Mistresses of Charles II written by Brian Masters and published by Constable Limited. This book was released on 1997 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Scandalous Liaisons by : R. E. Pritchard
Download or read book Scandalous Liaisons written by R. E. Pritchard and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells the story of the most hedonistic, loose-living court in English history
Download or read book Nell Gwyn written by Derek Parker and published by Sutton Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nell Gwyn Entertains the reader with the story of the actress nell Gwyn, daughter of a brothel keeper who became Charles II's favorite mistress.
Book Synopsis To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape by : Charles Spencer
Download or read book To Catch A King: Charles II's Great Escape written by Charles Spencer and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the most wanted man in the country outwit the greatest manhunt in British history?
