Nell Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne), (February 1650 - 14 November 1687), the most famous of the many mistresses of King Charles II, was called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys.

The daughter of Thomas Gywnne and his wife Rose, Nell Gwyn was probably born in an alley near Covent Garden (though sometimes said to have been born in Hereford) and never learned to read or write. Her mother ran a bawdyhouse, where Nell grew up. (Her mother died because she passed out from too much brandy and drowned in a brook.)

Having first made a living selling oranges in the pit of a London theatre, where she also may have acted as pimp, procuring actresses for the men in the audience, she herself became an actress (not at that time a respectable profession) when she was fifteen. She was taught her craft by one of the fine male actors of the time, Charles Hart, and learned dancing from another, John Lacy; both were her lovers. As actress, she had an enormous success in partnership with Hart; they were admired by theatre goers, including Samuel Pepys, especially in 'Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen', in which they made a sensation (the part of Florimell was written for her, and portrays her faithfully). When she was 19 she became the king's mistress, having previously been the mistress of Lord Buckhurst and of Sir Charles Sedley. Though often caricatured as an empty-headed woman, Dryden said that her greatest attribute was her native wit, and she certainly became a hostess who was able to keep the friendship of Dryden, the playwright Aphra Behn, the Duke of Marlborough (another lover) and the king's other mistresses, who included her fellow-actress Mary 'Moll' Davis (she is said to have slipped a diuretic into Moll's drink on an evening when she was expected in the king's bed).

Nell is especially remembered for one particularly apt witticism, which was recounted in the memoirs of the Comte de Gramont, remembering the events of 1681:

"Nell Gwynn was one day passing through the streets of Oxford, in her coach, when the mob mistaking her for her rival, the Duchess of Portsmouth, commenced hooting and loading her with every opprobrious epithet. Putting her head out of the coach window, 'Good people,' she said, smiling, 'you are mistaken; I am the Protestant whore.'"

This appeal to British bigotry made her immensely popular. The particular Catholic whore (of the moment) was the Frenchwoman Louise de Kérouaille, Duchess of Portsmouth.

Nell is also famous for another remark made to her coachman, who was fighting with another man who had called her a whore. She broke up the fight, saying, "I am a whore. Find something else to fight about."

By Charles, Nell had two sons, Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726) and James Beauclerk (1671-1680). Charles was the first Earl of Burford, later Duke of St. Albans. There are two variations about the former of how he was given the Earldom of Burford, both of which are unverifiable.

The first (and most popular) is that when Charles was six years old, on the arrival of the King, Nell said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father." When the King protested her calling Charles that, she replied, "Your Majesty has given me no other name by which to call him." In response, Charles made him the Earl of Burford, and later Duke of St. Albans.

Another is that Nell grabbed Charles and hung him out of a window (or over a river) and threatened to drop him unless Charles was granted a peerage. The King cried out "God save the Earl of Burford!" and subsequently officially created the peerage, saving his son's life.

Nell was the only one of Charles II's many mistresses to be genuinely popular with the English public. It is thought to have been Nell who persuaded the king to build the Royal Hospital, Chelsea in London for ex-servicemen. Nell, however, accumulated enormous debts.

James II, obeying his brother's deathbed wish, "Let not poor Nelly starve," paid most of them off and gave her a pension of 1500 pounds a year, a huge sum in 1685.

She died, two years later, of apoplexy, aged 37, at 79 Pall Mall, in London.

She was buried in the Church of St Martin's in the Fields, at the corner of Trafalgar Square, London, after a funeral in which Thomas Tenison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon on the text of Luke 15:7 "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

The most recent biography is: Derek Parker, Nell Gwyn. London, Sutton, 2000.