Hello everyone and welcome back to the history of England, episode 442, the Treaty of Dover.

Last week, we heard about some cultural flim-flam and stuff.

I'm sorry about that.

Although we did talk about the cabal and Clarendon too, it's got to be said.

Anyway, there's going to be a bit more cultural

flim flam this week as well, I'm afraid, but then we can build on Charles's aim to rebuild

the prestige of the monarchy and base his rule on the good, solid principle that a monarch must

be able to do as he chooses and follow his heart. First, though, I would like to introduce Nell Gwynn to you,

although on the way we should also discuss some darker aspects of our guide and companion

Samuel Pepys, which has been in the news recently, and I should also say a few things about

the presence of the enslaved in English society at this time. Then we can talk a bit more about now, and a very small bit on Restoration Theatre,

and then it's back to the knitting, the political knitting, which I suspect you are all really here for.

Is that a plan? It is a plan.

So, on April the 3rd, 1665, Peep's ready to the theatre, would he believe, and although he wasn't impressed with the play he saw at the King's Theatre, he had a great time, largely because, as he wrote, The King and My Lady Castlemain were there, and Pretty Witty Nell.

Pretty Witty Nell is a very famous phrase which introduces us to Nell Gwynn and tells

us something about Peep's continually roving eye. Nell's place of birth is very obscure but there's

a contemporary astrology reading in her life which means we can place her birth as the 2nd of

February 1651. So, at the time Peep's saw her, she would have been just 14,

and the tone makes it seem to me that he probably knew who she was anyway. I could be wrong.

She's very clearly out in the world, as they say, and Peeps was probably not alone in finding

her attractive, despite her very young age.

That brings me on to the relatively recent discussion about Peeps as a sexual predator. Books by

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