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Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

Nell Gwyn: Celebrity Mistress of King Charles II

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How did a working class illiterate woman become King Charles II's favourite mistress?


Nell Gwyn was an incredibly talented comedy actor who came from a working class background, and was part of a group of pioneering women who were the first allowed to take to the stage to play women's roles.


Her personality was huge, audiences loved her ability to swear, and she was described as "the wildest creature to ever be seen at court." No wonder Charles loved her!


What was the wild world of 17th century Restoration Theatre like? How did she change comedy acting? What did the general public think of her?


Joining Kate to take us back to this world is Dr. David Taylor, Associate Professor of English at Oxford University.


You can also watch both Kate and David in the History Hit documentary, Sex and Scandal: Royal Favourites, for more about Nell's extraordinary life. 


This episode was edited by Tom Delargy. The producer was Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.


If you'd like to get in touch with the show you can contact us at [email protected].


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.  


You can take part in our listener survey here.


All music from Epidemic Sounds.


Betwixt the Sheets: History of Sex, Scandal & Society is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hi, I'm your host, Kate Lister.

0:02.4

If you would like betwixt the sheets, add free and get early access, sign up to History Hit.

0:08.7

With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of original documentaries with top history presenters.

0:16.0

And enjoy a new release every single week.

0:19.8

Sign up now by visiting history hit.com forward slash subscribe.

0:24.6

Hello, my lovely betwixters.

0:26.5

It's me, Kate Lister, and you are listening to Bertwigs the sheets.

0:30.2

And I'm so glad that you are, because if you weren't, what is this?

0:34.3

It's just a mad northern woman talking to herself.

0:37.1

So thank God you are here.

0:38.6

But before we can go any further, I do have to tell you, this is an adult podcast spoken by adults to other adults,

0:43.3

about adulty things in an adultery way, coming away to adults, subjects, and used to be an adult too.

0:46.5

I think we all know that drill by now, don't we? Right, on with the show.

1:00.6

Thank you. Good evening, betwixters.

1:04.8

I'm shouting at you because it's very noisy in here.

1:06.9

Come and take a seat.

1:08.2

Here we are.

1:10.4

It's the mid-1660s,

1:13.9

and we are in for a rollicking evening of restoration theatre. It's good to get some culture in before the great fire and the plague arrives.

1:21.5

But this isn't the respectful high-class event that we think about when we say we're going to the theatre

1:28.6

today. Tonight, we are seeing history being made with women playing women's roles on stage

1:37.9

for their very first time. What an absolutely mad idea. My God, they'll be writing stuff next.

...

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