X-Nico

3 unusual facts about Nell Gwyn


Mistress Nell

It is yet another story about Nell Gwyn taken from a Broadway play Mistress Nell that was very successful for stage actress Henrietta Crosman in 1900.

Peggy Hopkins Joyce

In Cole Porter's "They Couldn't Compare to You" (from Out of This World), the god Mercury sings of his affairs with women real and fictional through history: "... When betwixt Nell Gwyn / And Anne Boleyn / I was forced to make my choice, / I became so confused / I was even amused / And abused by Peggy Joyce..."

St. James's Park

Charles II opened the park to the public, as well as using the area to entertain guests and mistresses, such as Nell Gwyn.


Lauderdale House

In 1645 it was inherited by the Earl of Lauderdale (hence its name) and in 1666 it was visited by Charles II and Samuel Pepys, while Nell Gwyn is said to have lived there briefly in 1670.

Lord Frederick Beauclerk

Beauclerk was the fourth son and fifth child of the 5th Duke of St Albans, and thus descended from Charles II and Nell Gwyn.

Mistress Nell Gwyn

The year of its publication, the novel was adapted for the silent film Nell Gwyn, a prestige production directed by Herbert Wilcox for which the Hollywood actress Dorothy Gish was brought over to Britain to play Gwyn.


see also

Duke of St Albans

Donald Adamson and Peter Beauclerk Dewar, The House of Nell Gwyn.