Hello, my lovely betwixters. Once again, this is Kate Lister jumping in with your fair

dews warning. Fair dews, this is a podcast about the history of sex, scandal and society.

So we will be talking about sex, scandal and society. In particular today, the sex life

and scandalous life of Charles II and all the women, the very, very many women that he

had parading through his bedroom. So we're going to be talking about naughty stuff and

now probably be swearing quite a lot as well. If that's not for you, not a problem, I'll

catch you on the next one. King Charles II or the Mary Monarch remembered

for the indulgence and pleasure of his reign, and the hedonism of his court. Well, if you

were rich anyway. So just what did it take to secure a place not only in the court, but

in the royal sack as well? And just what did the women who managed to achieve this actually

get out of it? Was it sexual pleasure? Were they actually into it? It was always about

money and titles and diamonds. I'm not sure which are to prefer to be completely honest.

But join us, Betwixt Charlie Boy's Sheets, because we're going to find out.

Hello, and welcome back to Betwixt The Sheets, the history of sex, scandal and society,

with me, Kate Lister. As historians, we often have this terrible habit of grouping women

together in relation to a man that they were kind of near to. Like, they would jack the

whippers victims. Or they were King Henry VIII's wives. Well, I'm introducing you today to

another gaggle of women. King Charles II's mistresses who often get lumped together as this

kind of anomalous, horny mass of petticoats and women. But hopefully today we're going

to be able to push past that and try and find out just who the hell these women actually

were. And to do that, I'm joined by Linda Porter, who can tell us the backgrounds, characters

and the rebellions of the women who Charles took an interest in. Or in the case of his

...