Nell Gwyn
Nell Gwyn was born in a London slum in 1650, and at fifteen she was selling oranges at the King's Theatre, Bridges Street. Two years later she first went on the stage at Drury Lane. When she became King Charles II's mistress in 1668, she had already had four lovers, and her royal liaison produced two openly-acknowledged sons.
The King's appetite for mistresses was legendary, but his wife, Queen Catherine, who was unable to bear him a living child, to...
