Carolyn on Nell Gwyn

This is the portrait of Nell Gwyn, painted around 1680 by the artist, Simon Verelst. Nell Gwyn, restoration actress, and the mistress to Charles II, in her underwear. The NPG London has over 30 works featuring Nell Gwyn. And this one is actually quite prudish by comparison. So Nell Gwyn's story is pretty much a rags to riches story. And we know this through the diaries of Samuel Pepys who covered 1660 to 1669. But just how rags are we talking? And just how riches? So we know from these diaries, that in 1650, there was around 350,000 people living in London. So it was very overcrowded and very, very very dirty. On top of that, 1665, we have The Plague hit. So with that, about a quarter of the population die. Following that, 1666, we have the Great Fire run through London. With that, three quarters of London is destroyed. But in the midst of all this, we have our cockney Cinderella, born in 1650. Now the year prior to this, Charles I has lost his head. Now in the Interregnum period, there is no dancing, there is no singing, there is no maypoles. And then everything changed again in 1660. Where Charles II becomes King. Now he's just come from France, and he loves the good things. So one of the first things that he does is he opens the theatres. One of the second things he does is he makes sure women are allowed on the stage. So our beautiful Nell here, goes from serving waters to men in a brothel, to becoming an orange seller, to becoming a famous actress, to the mistress of a King. Now, in terms of riches, if you wanted to see an actress get undressed, that would cost you one penny. Now, when she came to the attention of the King, Nell was negotiating for 500 pounds a year, which I worked out that would come to about $34,000 in today's standard. So still like minimum wage, but I think pretty good in comparison. So how did Nell end up? Charles' II last words famously were, "Let not poor Nelly starve." And she didn't. His brother James made sure that she didn't end up in debtor's prison, where she was headed. Her house was paid off, and she secured a pension of 1500 pounds. Her son, Charles Beauclerk as well, got handed, after five years of having no last name, the last name Beauclerk, he got his own shield and 12 grandchildren. Now our beautiful Nell Gwyn died at the ripe old age of 37, probably from syphilis.