The Windsor Nell Gwynn Knew

As royal mistresses go, Nell Gwynn is probably our most favourite of King Charles II's mistresses - and with good reason. This saucy, funny, beautiful actress was quite a loveable character - and her royal lover certainly knew that. John Evelyn referred to Nell as, "the Comedian & Apple-woman's daughter", whilst Samuel Pepys called her, "pretty witty Nell." She had risen from impoverished prostitute and orange seller to admired Restoration actress before catching the eye of the Merry Monarch. She had two sons by Charles - Charles and James.

Last month, my husband and I moved from Lancashire to Windsor, and I was excited for many reasons, not least because Windsor has an abundance of 17th-century history. As I turn one corner, walk down this street, stop in front of this house, I can't get over how much history is everywhere. Very near Windsor Castle, there is a small, quaint street which has an array of little shops and eateries. I daresay most tourists - overwhelmed by so much to see - don't realise how old the buildings are. There is a Chinese restaurant in what is referred to as "Nell Gwynn's House" - and there is an inscription on the exterior of this building that states it was built in 1640. You can see how close the castle is to the site of Nell's house.

"The Protestant Whore" had previously lived in houses in Lincoln's Inn Fields and Pall Mall. In Windsor, however, Nell Gwynn is most closely associated with Burford House. In The Story of Windsor, Maurice Bond stated, "Charles II had a strong affection for Windsor. [His] mistress, Nell Gwynn, had a house especially built for her (Burford House) just outside the Castle Walls, and her descendants, the Beauclerks, Dukes of St. Albans, came to play a considerable role in the life of the borough" (page  63).

James Beauclerk, Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke
St. Albans, Nell Gwynn, by Richard Tompson,
after Sir Peter Lely, before 1693.

The Windsor that Nell Gwynn knew was one of rural life mixed with cockfighting, horse races, and there was a bustling new coffee house. According to The Physical Shape and Urban Landscape of New Windsor 1500-1780 by E.J. Brown, "a coach and postal service were introduced in 1673 and 1674." The River Thames runs by, dividing Windsor from Eton. Windsor Castle, now known to be the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world, was extensively renovated during the Restoration, following its use as a prison under Cromwell. You can read more about its history here.

By the time Nell began living in Windsor, the 1670s, the town had begun to see a rise in population. Such increase understandably led to some concerns about contaminated wells, more refuse on the streets, and associated health risks. In the early 18th-century, during the reign of Queen Anne, the population had risen more and the queen asked for water to be brought in from a neighbouring area.

As with the home in Pall Mall, London, Nell Gwynn wanted to secure the freehold of the house instead of the leasehold she was originally given. Now, this is a problem many people still face. Indeed, my husband and I had a leasehold in London and we had to pay rent for the land even though we owned the house. It's all rather confusing, but then as now it was far better - more secure - to have the freehold on a property than a leasehold. 

Nell, always a sharp cookie, knew this and did obtain the freehold (first for the Pall Mall property) by telling the king that, "she had always conveyed herself free under the crown , but that she would not accept the house until its freehold was conveyed free to her by the crown." Nell and Charles's descendants continued to own Burford House until the late 18th century.

Image found in The House of Nell Gwynn, 1670-1974.

Burford House, however, was an enchanting dwelling, as you can see from the image above. Great, fabulous gardens were created, and it is believed that the land surrounding the house was no more than forty acres. You can tell how countryfied it was. It is to this day a remarkably verdant area - and I can understand why Charles liked it so - it's very different and quiet - in comparison to London. As a great deal of construction was going on inside Windsor Castle itself at that time, Nell was able to have the interiors of her new, modern home decorated by the highly sought-after painter Antonio Verrio and some elaborate woodcarvings were also created for parts of the house by the talented Baroque woodcarver Grinling Gibbons. We can only imagine how beautiful the end result was! 

Despite her favourable position as a royal mistress, poor Nell was often in debt. In fact, one of King Charles II's last words was to his brother, James. The following is from John Evelyn's Diary entry for 6th of February, 1685:

He spake to the Duke [James, Duke of York] to be kind to his Concubines the DD: of Cleveland, & especially Portsmouth, & that Nelly might not starve.

...because she was so often in debt, starvation was a frightening possibility. James stayed true to his promise to his brother and paid of Nell's debts. Nell and Charles's son, the Duke of St. Albans, was financially better off than his mother.

Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke St. Albans. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

As stated in The Windsor Beauties:

The Earl of Burford was created Duke of St. Albans in January 1684, and ample provision was made for him by his father. There was a settlement of £5000 a year, chargeable on the Exchequer, he inherited on his mother's death Burford House, and he was given the reversion of the sinecure office of Master Falconer of England and Registrar of the Court of Chancery, both to be hereditary, worth some £1500 a year.

Beauclerk later became a favourite of King William III's following the Glorious Revolution of 1688/89, at which point his fortunes increased. Beauclerk lived in Burford House and eventually married Diana de Vere, with whom he had twelve children.

As I've walked around this part of Windsor, I've noticed so many shop signs and gift shop trinkets that feature Nell. Nell as the busty orange-seller, Nell as the romantic actress, Nell as the wanton mistress. A highly romanticised depiction of her from a 19th-century painting adorns the door to the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum (perfectly situated in the building that Christopher Wren designed!).

It's quite easy to imagine her in her colourful dresses, a bright smile upon her face, as she walked around these streets. I think she'd be astonished to find that, after all this time, people still think on her fondly. I like to think it's because she's the most accessible of Charles II's mistresses, and her warmth transcends time. 

Bibliography:

Adamson, Donald and Peter Beauclerk Dewar. The House of Nell Gwynn, 1670-1974.

Bond, Maurice. The Story of Windsor.

Brown, E.J. The Physical Shape and Urban Landscape of New Windsor 1500-1780.

Evelyn, John. Diary.

Pepys, Samuel. Diary.

Melville, Lewis. The Windsor Beauties: Ladies of the Court of Charles II.
Powell, Roger. Royal Sex: The Scandalous Love Lives of the British Royal Family.

Andrea Zuvich (aka The Seventeenth Century Lady) is usually a 17th-century historian and authoress of historical fiction set in the 17th-century, but she has had to take a break from her beloved history for a month to deal with the craziness of moving house. Now that's sorted out (whew!) she's back, working on three books: William & Mary: A Novel, William Alone: A Sequel, and Anthea: Confessions of a Restoration Actress. She is also thinking about writing a non-fiction history on the Stuarts. She was recently listed as one of the Most Followed Historians on Twitter.

Traffic Jams on London Bridge in the 17th Century

When I was writing THE GILDED LILY, one of the things that struck me the most about London was that there was only one bridge over the river Thames - London Bridge, which was the same bridge that had stood there since 1209. The only other way to cross the river in this period was by boat.

The money for the original construction of the bridge was raised in part by allowing the land on the bridge to be sold for dwellings. By Stuart times there were more than two hundred buildings on the bridge, both residential and commercial. Some stood up as high as seven storeys and overhung the river by several feet. This picture shows just how far out they protruded.

In the middle of the bridge was a Chapel to St Thomas Becket, built by King Henry II, which became the official start of pilgrimages to Becket's shrine at Canterbury. This chapel actusally took 33 years to complete, and was not finished in Henry's lifetime. King John had to license out more building plots on the bridge to help recoup the costs of Henry's repentance.

Looking at these pictures of London Bridge you can see that the buildings were truly monumental.

So tall-ships could pass upriver there was a drawbridge, and there were defensive gatehouses at both ends, one of which supported a tower on which traitor's heads used to be displayed on iron spikes. This  practice was finally stopped in 1660, following the Restoration, presumably so as not to remind the King of the fate of his father! You can see traitors heads on this print by Visscher from 1616, which was the nearest image I could find in my research with detail of the bridge, although there is doubt now as to its accuracy as it was copied (with a degree of artistic licence) from an earlier drawing.

The buildings on London Bridge were a major fire hazard and in 1212, perhaps the greatest of the fires broke out on both ends of the bridge, trapping many in the middle as the flames at each end raged towards each other, resulting in the death of an estimated 3,000 people. Houses on the bridge were also burnt during the Peasants Revolt in 1381. As for the period I am interested in, a major fire had destroyed a third of the bridge in 1633, but this was fortunate as it formed a firebreak that prevented further damage to the bridge during The Great Fire of 1666.

The width of the actual bridge was about 4 metres, and it was divided into two lanes, so that whichever way you went, whether in a coach and horses, with a wagon or on foot, you had to negotiate a road only 2 metres wide. No wonder the bridge was congested and crossing it could take up to an hour! Those who could afford the fare might prefer to cross by ferry but as I discovered, the actual bridge structure made passing under it by boat quite dangerous.

To support this amount of wood and masonry nineteen arches had been made, none of which were the same dimensions because the river bed was tidal and the foundations uneven, so the 'legs' or piers were built onto boat shaped structures called "starlings" set into the river-bed. The narrow arches and wide pier bases restricted the river's tidal ebb and flow so, that in hard winters, the water upstream of the bridge became more susceptible to freezing. In The Gilded Lily I use the frozen Thames, and the Frost Fair upon it, as one of the settings. 

Old London Bridge model; seen from the East with part of the Pool of London shipping in the foreground, in about 16th century. This view of London Bridge shows St. Magnus Martyr church on the north bank and Nonsuch House in the foreground - Nonsuch house replaced the medieval drawbridge gatehouse.

Artist/Photographer/Maker
John B. Thorp 1901-1939

By the 17th century the flow was further obstructed as waterwheels had been installed under the two north arches to drive water pumps, and under the two south arches to power mills and granaries. At the time my novel is set there was a difference in water levels on each side of the bridge. Negotiating it meant braving rapids with a drop of almost two metres. Most boats stopped on one side, allowed passengers to alight, and then they had to pick up a boat further downstream.

Because the river flowed much more slowly above the bridge it often froze. In the 17th century because temperatures were lower and it was known as The Little Ice Age it froze several times.The tidal nature of the river meant that plates of ice formed and then the level of the river would rise again and create vast layered platforms or glaciers of ice. This picture by Hondius of 1677 shows London Bridge in the background and the amazing glacial landscape of the Thames in the foreground.

"Thousands and thousands to the river flocks,
Where mighty flakes of Ice do lye like Rocks,
There may you see the Coaches swiftly run
As if beneath the Ice were Waters none,
And sholes of people every where there be
Just like to herrings in the brackish Sea."

Excerpt from a long poem about a  Frost Fair from a Print of 1684.

THE GILDED LILY is out now, here's the trailer - enjoy!