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127-563: Eleanor Gwyn (2 February 1650 – 14 November 1687; also spelled Gwynn , Gwynne ) was an English stage actress and celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage, she became best known for being a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England (c. April 1668 – 6 February 1685). Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Pepys, she has been regarded as

254-516: A low situation . She experimented with cross-dressing between 1663 and 1667 going under the name "William Nell" and adopting a false beard; her observations informed a most successful and hilarious character interpretation acting as a man on the stage in March 1667. Old Madam Gwyn was by most accounts an alcoholic whose business was running a bawdy house (or brothel ). There, or in the bawdy house of one Madam Ross, Nell would spend at least some time. It

381-515: A stroke that left her paralysed on one side. In May, a second stroke left her confined to the bed in her Pall Mall house; she made out her will on 9 July and a codicil on 18 October with her executors, Laurence Hyde (the Earl of Rochester) , Thomas Earl of Pembroke , Sir Robert Sawyer the Attorney General , and Henry Sidney each receiving £100. Gwyn died from apoplexy "almost certainly due to

508-513: A tragicomedy written by the theatre's house dramatist, John Dryden , was performed in March 1667. It was a great success: King Charles "graced it with the Title of His Play" and Pepys's praise was effusive: ... to the King's house to see 'The Maiden Queen', a new play of Dryden's, mightily commended for the regularity of it, and the strain and wit; and the truth is, there is a comical part done by Nell, which

635-615: A 'Mrs. Nell'. Additionally, 'Nelle' was intended to play the small role of Paulina, a courtesan, in Killigrew's Thomaso, or The Wanderer in November 1664, but the play seems to have been cancelled. The use of 'Mrs' would imply that Gwyn was more likely born in 1642 than 1650 as it indicates an actress over the age of 21 (not her marital status) for which certain roles would be more suitable. Nonetheless, since players of less substantial parts are seldom mentioned in cast lists or playgoers' diaries of

762-663: A Roman garrison at Aballava , now Burgh-by-Sands , in Cumbria: a 4th-century inscription says that the Roman military unit "Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum" ("unit of Aurelian Moors") from Mauretania (Morocco) was stationed there. Although the Roman Empire incorporated peoples from far and wide, genetic studies suggest the Romans did not significantly mix into the British population. The exact nature of

889-429: A considerable number of mistresses through his life, both short affairs and committed arrangements. He also had a wife, Portuguese Queen consort Catherine of Braganza , whose pregnancies all ended in miscarriages , and she had little or no say over Charles's choice to have mistresses. This had come to a head shortly after their marriage in 1662, in a confrontation between Catherine and Barbara Palmer, which became known as

1016-576: A farce about a company of Cavalier soldiers during the English Civil War , based on Lacy's own experiences. Possibly, Gwyn's father had served in the same company, and Gwyn's part—the company whore—was based on her own mother. As her commitment to the King increased, though, her acting career slowed, and she had no recorded parts between January and June 1669, when she played Valeria in Dryden's very successful tragedy Tyrannick Love . King Charles II had

1143-462: A forename for the supposed grandfather of Nell and there are reasons to think that the "Dr ... Gwyn" in the pedigree was intended to be not Edmund Gwyn but rather his brother Matthew . In either case, the available evidence indicates that Nell was not a member of their family. Gwyn was assigned arms similar to those of the Gwynnes of Llansannor . However, her specific connection to that family, if any,

1270-466: A frequent theme in restoration comedies. The gay couple, broadly defined, is a pair of witty, antagonistic lovers, he generally a rake fearing the entrapment of marriage and she feigning to do the same in order to keep her lover at arm's length. Theatre historian Elizabeth Howe goes so far as to credit the enduring success of the gay couple on the Restoration stage entirely to "the talent and popularity of

1397-627: A geographic area brings protests, especially from the Scotch . However, although Taylor believed this blurring effect was dying out, in his book The Isles: A History (1999), Norman Davies lists numerous examples in history books of "British" still being used to mean "English" and vice versa. In December 2010, Matthew Parris in The Spectator , analysing the use of "English" over "British", argued that English identity, rather than growing, had existed all along but has recently been unmasked from behind

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1524-647: A greater extent than their white counterparts; however, groups such as the Campaign for an English Parliament (CEP) suggest the emergence of a broader civic and multi-ethnic English nationhood. Scholars and journalists have noted a rise in English self-consciousness, with increased use of the English flag , particularly at football matches where the Union flag was previously more commonly flown by fans. This perceived rise in English self-consciousness has generally been attributed to

1651-450: A large statistical spread in all cases. However, the authors noted that the similarity observed between the various sample groups was likely to be due to more recent internal migration. Another 2016 study conducted using evidence from burials found in northern England, found that a significant genetic difference was present in bodies from the Iron Age and the Roman period on the one hand, and

1778-419: A living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England , and has come to be considered a folk heroine , with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella . Gwyn had two sons by King Charles: Charles Beauclerk (1670–1726) and James Beauclerk (1671–1680). Charles Beauclerk was created Earl of Burford and Duke of St. Albans ; Murray de Vere Beauclerk, 14th Duke of St. Albans is her descendant, and

1905-457: A majority of respondents thought that being English was not dependent on race. 77% of white respondents in England agreed that "Being English is open to people of different ethnic backgrounds who identify as English", whereas 14% were of the view that "Only people who are white count as truly English". Amongst ethnic minority respondents, the equivalent figures were 68% and 19%. Research has found that

2032-597: A native British "North Atlantic" population and a Danish-like population. While much of the latter signature was attributed to the earlier settlement of the Anglo-Saxons, it was calculated that up to 6% of it could have come from Danish Vikings, with a further 4% contribution from a Norwegian-like source representing the Norwegian Vikings. The study also found an average 18% admixture from a source further south in Europe, which

2159-402: A parliament being established. Krishan Kumar notes that support for measures to ensure that only English MPs can vote on legislation that applies only to England is generally higher than that for the establishment of an English parliament, although support for both varies depending on the timing of the opinion poll and the wording of the question. Electoral support for English nationalist parties

2286-507: A powerful laxative into Davis's tea-time cakes before an evening when she was expected in the King's bed. The love affair between the King and Gwyn allegedly began in April 1668. Gwyn was attending a performance of George Etherege 's She Wou'd if She Cou'd at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields . In the next box was the King, who from accounts was more interested in flirting with Gwyn than watching

2413-463: A rise in English self-awareness. This is linked to the expressions of national self-awareness of the other British nations of Wales, Scotland and, to some extent, Northern Ireland which take their most solid form in the new devolved political arrangements within the United Kingdom ;– and the waning of a shared British national identity with the growing distance between the end of

2540-627: A separate ethnic identity, others have assimilated and intermarried with the English. Since Oliver Cromwell 's resettlement of the Jews in 1656, there have been waves of Jewish immigration from Russia in the 19th century and from Germany in the 20th. After the French king Louis XIV declared Protestantism illegal in 1685 in the Edict of Fontainebleau , an estimated 50,000 Protestant Huguenots fled to England. Due to sustained and sometimes mass emigration of

2667-651: A separate people from the English. This separation was enshrined when Alfred the Great signed the Treaty of Alfred and Guthrum to establish the Danelaw, a division of England between English and Danish rule, with the Danes occupying northern and eastern England. However, Alfred's successors subsequently won military victories against the Danes, incorporating much of the Danelaw into the nascent kingdom of England. Danish invasions continued into

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2794-512: A single actress, Nell Gwyn". The Great Plague of London shut down the Bridges Street theatre, along with most of the city, from mid-1665 until late 1666. Gwyn and her mother spent some of this time in Oxford , following the King and his court. The King's Company is presumed to have mounted some private theatrical entertainments for the court during this time away from the virulent capital. Gwyn and

2921-542: A veneer of Britishness. English people, like most Europeans, largely descend from three distinct lineages: Mesolithic hunter-gatherers , descended from a Cro-Magnon population that arrived in Europe about 45,000 years ago; Neolithic farmers who migrated from Anatolia during the Neolithic Revolution 9,000 years ago; and Yamnaya Steppe pastoralists who expanded into Europe from the Pontic–Caspian steppe in

3048-406: A year after becoming an orange-girl. If her good looks, strong clear voice, and lively wit were responsible for catching the eye of Killigrew, she still had to prove herself clever enough to succeed as an actress. This was no easy task in the Restoration theatre; the limited pool of audience members meant that very short runs were the norm for plays and fifty different productions might be mounted in

3175-502: Is Florimell, that I never can hope ever to see the like done again, by man or woman. The King and the Duke of York were at the play. But so great performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before as Nell do this, both as a mad girl, then most and best of all when she comes in like a young gallant; and hath the notions and carriage of a spark the most that ever I saw any man have. It makes me, I confess, admire her. After seeing

3302-464: Is also low, even though there is public support for many of the policies they espouse. The English Democrats gained just 64,826 votes in the 2010 UK general election , accounting for 0.3 per cent of all votes cast in England. Kumar argued in 2010 that "despite devolution and occasional bursts of English nationalism – more an expression of exasperation with the Scots or Northern Irish – the English remain on

3429-464: Is founded on hearsay, gossip, and rumour, and must therefore be handled with caution. Her mother Ellen (or a variant, being referred to in her lifetime as "Old Madam", "Madam Gwyn" and "Old Ma Gwyn") was born, according to a monumental inscription , in the parish of St Martin in the Fields , which stretched from Soho and Covent Garden to beyond Mayfair, and is thought to have lived most of her life there in

3556-523: Is possible that she herself was a child prostitute ; Peter Thomson, in the Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre , says it is "probable". However, a rare mention of her upbringing from the source herself might be seen to contradict the idea. A 1667 entry in Samuel Pepys 's diary records, second-hand, that: Here Mrs. Pierce tells me ... that Nelly and Beck Marshall , falling out the other day,

3683-480: Is said to have complained that "she had always conveyed free under the Crown, and always would; and would not accept [the house] till it was conveyed free to her by an Act of Parliament." In 1676, Gwyn was granted the freehold of the property, which remained in her family until 1693; as of 1960 the property was still the only one on the south side of Pall Mall not owned by the Crown. Gwyn gave birth to her second child by

3810-485: Is said to have drowned when she fell into the water at her house near Chelsea. She was buried on 30 July 1679, in her 56th year, at St Martin in the Fields. Nell Gwyn is reported in a manuscript of 1688 to have been a daughter of "Tho [Thomas] Guine a Cap [captain] of ane antient fammilie in Wales ", although the reliability of the statement is doubtful as its author does not seem to have hesitated to create or alter details where

3937-468: Is that Gwyn grabbed young Charles and hung him out of a window of Lauderdale House in Highgate , where she briefly resided, and threatened to drop him unless he 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. On 21 December 1676, a warrant was passed for "a grant to Charles Beauclerc, the King's natural son, and to

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4064-722: Is the poorest company I ever was in!" Having previously been the mistress of Charles Hart and Charles Sackville, Gwyn jokingly called the King "her Charles the Third". By mid-1668, Gwyn's affair with the King was well-known, though there was little reason to believe it would last for long. She continued to act at the King's House, her new notoriety drawing larger crowds and encouraging the playwrights to craft more roles specifically for her. June 1668 found her in Dryden's An Evening's Love , or The Mock Astrologer , and in July she played in Lacy's The Old Troop ,

4191-491: Is unknown. Three cities make the claim to be Gwyn's birthplace: Hereford , London (specifically Covent Garden ) and Oxford . Evidence for any one of the three is scarce. The fact that "Gwyn" is a name of Welsh origin might support Hereford, as its county is on the border with Wales ; The Dictionary of National Biography notes a traditional belief that she was born there in Pipe Well Lane, renamed to Gwynne Street in

4318-612: Is usually termed "elite dominance". The second process is explained through incentives, such as the Wergild outlined in the law code of Ine of Wessex which produced an incentive to become Anglo-Saxon or at least English speaking. Historian Malcolm Todd writes, "It is much more likely that a large proportion of the British population remained in place and was progressively dominated by a Germanic aristocracy, in some cases marrying into it and leaving Celtic names in the, admittedly very dubious, early lists of Anglo-Saxon dynasties. But how we identify

4445-480: Is very poor, and hath lost my Lady Castlemayne, who was her great friend also but she is come to the House, but is neglected by them all'. Late in 1667, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham , took on the role of unofficial manager for Gwyn's love affairs. He aimed to provide King Charles II with someone who would supplant Barbara Palmer , his principal current mistress and Buckingham's cousin, moving Buckingham closer to

4572-590: The Anglo-Saxons , a group of closely related Germanic tribes that began migrating to eastern and southern Britain, from southern Denmark and northern Germany, in the 5th century AD, after the Romans had withdrawn from Britain . The Anglo-Saxons gave their name to England ("Engla land", meaning "Land of the Angles") and to the English. The Anglo-Saxons arrived in a land that was already populated by people commonly referred to as

4699-544: The British Empire and the present. Many recent immigrants to England have assumed a solely British identity, while others have developed dual or mixed identities. Use of the word "English" to describe Britons from ethnic minorities in England is complicated by most non-white people in England identifying as British rather than English. In their 2004 Annual Population Survey , the Office for National Statistics compared

4826-584: The English language , a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons , when they were known as the Angelcynn , meaning race or tribe of the Angles . Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain around the 5th century AD. The English largely descend from two main historical population groups:

4953-626: The Irish , current estimates indicate that around 6 million people in the UK have at least one grandparent born in the Republic of Ireland. There has been a small black presence in England since the 16th century due to the slave trade , and a small Indian presence since at least the 17th century because of the East India Company and British Raj . Black and Asian populations have only grown throughout

5080-606: The Treaty of Union . The Parliament of Scotland had previously passed its own Act of Union, so the Kingdom of Great Britain was born on 1 May 1707. In 1801, another Act of Union formed a union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland , creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland . In 1922, about two-thirds of the Irish population (those who lived in 26 of

5207-706: The devolution in the late 1990s of some powers to the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales . In policy areas for which the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have responsibility, the UK Parliament votes on laws that consequently only apply to England. Because the Westminster Parliament is composed of MPs from throughout the United Kingdom, this has given rise to

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5334-464: The " Romano-British "—the descendants of the native Brittonic-speaking population that lived in the area of Britain under Roman rule during the 1st–5th centuries AD. The multi-ethnic nature of the Roman Empire meant that small numbers of other peoples may have also been present in England before the Anglo-Saxons arrived. There is archaeological evidence, for example, of an early North African presence in

5461-462: The " West Lothian question ", a reference to the situation in which MPs representing constituencies outside England can vote on matters affecting only England, but MPs cannot vote on the same matters in relation to the other parts of the UK. Consequently, groups such as the CEP have called for the creation of a devolved English Parliament , claiming that there is now a discriminatory democratic deficit against

5588-413: The "Bedchamber crisis". Ostracised at Court and with most of her retinue sent back to Portugal, Catherine had been left with little choice but to acquiesce to Charles's mistresses being granted semi-official standing. During Gwyn's first years with Charles, there was little competition in the way of other mistresses: Barbara Palmer was on her way out, while others, such as Moll Davis, kept quietly away from

5715-552: The 11th century, and there were both English and Danish kings in the period following the unification of England (for example, Æthelred II (978–1013 and 1014–1016) was English but Cnut (1016–1035) was Danish). Gradually, the Danes in England came to be seen as 'English'. They had a noticeable impact on the English language: many English words, such as anger , ball , egg , got , knife , take , and they , are of Old Norse origin , and place names that end in -thwaite and -by are Scandinavian in origin. The English population

5842-471: The 19th century. There is also the legend that Nell Gwyn chose red coats for the pensioners of Chelsea Hospital , which she allegedly influenced King Charles II to found, because she remembered that similar coats had been worn at Coningsby Hospital in Hereford. London is the simplest choice, perhaps, since Gwyn's mother was born there and that is where she raised her children. Alexander Smith's 1715 Lives of

5969-540: The 32 counties of Ireland), left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State . The remainder became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although this name was not introduced until 1927, after some years in which the term "United Kingdom" had been little used. Throughout the history of the UK, the English have been dominant in population and in political weight. As a consequence, notions of 'Englishness' and 'Britishness' are often very similar. At

6096-522: The Anglo-Saxon period on the other. Samples from modern-day Wales were found to be similar to those from the Iron Age and Roman burials, while samples from much of modern England, East Anglia in particular, were closer to the Anglo-Saxon-era burial. This was found to demonstrate a "profound impact" from the Anglo-Saxon migrations on the modern English gene pool, though no specific percentages were given in

6223-604: The Court Beauties says she was born in Coal Yard Alley in Covent Garden and other biographies, including Wilson's, have followed suit. Her noble descendant Beauclerk pieces together circumstantial evidence to favour an Oxford birth. One way or another, Gwyn's father seems to have been out of the picture by the time of her childhood in Covent Garden, and her " dipsomaniac mother, [and] notorious sister", Rose, were left in

6350-600: The Duchess's "great lineage," dressing in black at Court, the same mourning attire as Louise when a prince of France died. Someone there asked, "What the deuce was the Cham of Tartary to you?" to which Gwyn responded, "Oh, exactly the same relation that the French Prince was to Mademoiselle de Kérouaille." The Duchess of Portsmouth's only recorded riposte was, "anybody may know she has been an orange-wench by her swearing". Their relationship

6477-466: The English language became more important even in the court, and the Normans were gradually assimilated, until, by the 14th century, both rulers and subjects regarded themselves as English and spoke the English language. Despite the assimilation of the Normans, the distinction between 'English' and 'French' people survived in some official documents long after it had fallen out of common use, in particular in

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6604-578: The English. The establishment of an English parliament has also been backed by a number of Scottish and Welsh nationalists. Writer Paul Johnson has suggested that like most dominant groups, the English have only demonstrated interest in their ethnic self-definition when they were feeling oppressed. John Curtice argues that "In the early years of devolution...there was little sign" of an English backlash against devolution for Scotland and Wales, but that more recently survey data shows tentative signs of "a form of English nationalism...beginning to emerge among

6731-473: The French and English sides. She and Gwyn would prove rivals for many years to come. They were opposites in personality and mannerism; Louise a proud woman of noble birth used to the sophistication of Versailles , Gwyn a spirited and pranking ex-orange-wench. Gwyn nicknamed Louise "Squintabella" for her looks and the "Weeping Willow" for her tendencies to sob. In one instance, recorded in a letter from George Legge to Lord Preston , Gwyn characteristically jabbed at

6858-804: The Iberian Bell Beakers, but appeared to be an offshoot of the Corded Ware single grave people, as developed in Western Europe. It is currently unknown whether these Beaker peoples went on to develop Celtic languages in the British Isles , or whether later Celtic migrations introduced Celtic languages to Britain. The close genetic affinity of these Beaker people to Continental North Europeans means that British and Irish populations cluster genetically very closely with other Northwest European populations, regardless of how much Anglo-Saxon and Viking ancestry

6985-427: The King's ear. The plan failed; reportedly, Gwyn asked £500 a year to be kept and this was rejected as it was regarded as too expensive. Buckingham had an alternative plan, which was to set the King up with Moll Davis , an actress with the rival Duke's Company . Davis would be Gwyn's first rival for the King. Several anonymous satires from the time relate a tale of Gwyn, with the help of her friend Aphra Behn , slipping

7112-611: The King's house, lies with her, and gives her £100 a year, so she hath sent her parts to the house, and will act no more." Gwyn was acting once more in late August, and her brief affair with Buckhurst had ended. Pepys reports that by 22 August 1667, Gwyn had returned to the King's Playhouse in The Indian Emperour . On 26 August, Pepys learns from Moll Davis that, 'Nell is already left by my Lord Buckhurst, and that he makes sport of her, and swears she hath had all she could get of him; and Hart, her great admirer, now hates her; and that she

7239-609: The King's playhouse, and there saw 'The Indian Emperour;' where I find Nell come again, which I am glad of; but was most infinitely displeased with her being put to act the Emperour's daughter; which is a great and serious part, which she do most basely." Gwyn herself seems to agree that drama did not suit her, to judge from the lines she was later made to say in the epilogue to a Robert Howard drama: We have been all ill-us'd, by this day's poet. 'Tis our joint cause; I know you in your hearts Hate serious plays, as I do serious parts. It

7366-634: The King, christened James Beauclerk, on 25 December 1671, or Christmas Day. There are two stories about how the eldest of her two children by Charles 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, Gwyn said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father." When the King protested against her calling Charles that, she replied, "Your Majesty has given me no other name by which to call him." In response, Charles created him Earl of Burford . Another

7493-608: The UK generally, as immigration from the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth of Nations was encouraged due to labour shortages during post World War II rebuilding. However, these groups are often still considered to be ethnic minorities and research has shown that black and Asian people in the UK are more likely to identify as British rather than with one of the state's four constituent nations, including England. A nationally representative survey published in June 2021 found that

7620-511: The UK, it is also "problematic for the English [...] when it comes to conceiving of their national identity. It tells of the difficulty that most English people have of distinguishing themselves, in a collective way, from the other inhabitants of the British Isles". In 1965, the historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, "England"

7747-415: The UK. In his study of English identity, Krishan Kumar describes a common slip of the tongue in which people say "English, I mean British". He notes that this slip is normally made only by the English themselves and by foreigners: "Non-English members of the United Kingdom rarely say 'British' when they mean 'English ' ". Kumar suggests that although this blurring is a sign of England's dominant position with

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7874-493: The United Kingdom . The majority of people living in England are British citizens. In the Acts of Union 1707 , the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of Scotland merged to become the Kingdom of Great Britain . Over the years, English customs and identity have become fairly closely aligned with British customs and identity in general. The demonyms for men and women from England are Englishman and Englishwoman. England itself has no devolved government. The 1990s witnessed

8001-428: The United Kingdom. Wales was annexed by England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 , which incorporated Wales into the English state. A new British identity was subsequently developed when James VI of Scotland became James I of England as well, and expressed the desire to be known as the monarch of Britain. In 1707, England formed a union with Scotland by passing an Act of Union in March 1707 that ratified

8128-471: The United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. In the 2020 United States census , English Americans were the largest group in the United States with 46.5 million Americans self-identifying as having some English origins (many combined with another heritage) representing (19.8%) of the White American population. This includes 25.5 million (12.5%) who were "English alone" - one origin. However, demographers regard this as an undercount, as

8255-464: The West End. She is also believed, by most Gwyn biographers, to have been "low-born". Her descendant and biographer Charles Beauclerk calls this conjecture, based solely on what is known of her later life. Madam Gwyn is sometimes said to have had the maiden surname Smith. This appears to be derived from a fragmentary pedigree by Anthony Wood that shows signs of confusion between different Gwyn families and it has not been firmly established. Nell's mother

8382-442: The West Germanic tribes, including the Angles, Saxons , and Jutes who settled in Southern Britain following the withdrawal of the Romans , and the partially Romanised Celtic Britons who already lived there. Collectively known as the Anglo-Saxons , they founded what was to become the Kingdom of England by the 10th century, in response to the invasion and extensive settlement of Danes and other Norsemen that began in

8509-439: The acquired variety of syphilis " on 14 November 1687, at ten in the evening, less than three years after the King's death. She was 37 years old (if she was born in 1650). Her balance at Child's Bank was reported to be well over four figures, and she possessed almost 15,000 ounces of plate. The Oxford Dictionary of Actors therefore suggests that 'perhaps most of her wealth was in trust or not in liquid assets' which might explain why

8636-440: The actress appeared in men's clothes under one pretence or another, and as Bax supposes "was one of the first occasions upon which a woman appeared in the disguise of a man"; if nothing else this could draw an audience eager to see the women show off their figures in the more form-fitting male attire. The attraction had another dynamic: the theatres sometimes had a hard time holding onto their actresses, as they were swept up to become

8763-417: The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons and their relationship with the Romano-British is a matter of debate. The traditional view is that a mass invasion by various Anglo-Saxon tribes largely displaced the indigenous British population in southern and eastern Britain (modern-day England with the exception of Cornwall ). This is supported by the writings of Gildas , who gives the only contemporary historical account of

8890-461: The audience and actresses backstage; they received tips for this role, and some of these messages would end in sexual assignations. Whether this activity rose to the level of pimping may be a matter of semantics. The new theatres were the first in England to feature actresses; earlier, women's parts had been played by boys or men. Gwyn joined the rank of actresses at Bridges Street when she was fourteen (if we take her birth year to be 1650), less than

9017-416: The cases of eastern regions such as East Anglia and Lincolnshire, while in parts of Northumbria, much of the native population likely remained in place as the incomers took over as elites. In a study of place names in northeastern England and southern Scotland, Bethany Fox found that the migrants settled in large numbers in river valleys, such as those of the Tyne and the Tweed, with the Britons moving to

9144-472: The complex nature of national identities, with many people considering themselves both English and British. A 2017 survey by YouGov found that 38% of English voters considered themselves both English and British, alongside 19% who felt English but not British. Recent surveys of public opinion on the establishment of an English parliament have given widely varying conclusions. In the first five years of devolution for Scotland and Wales, support in England for

9271-585: The context of Indo-European migrations 5,000 years ago. Recent genetic studies have suggested that Britain's Neolithic population was largely replaced by a population from North Continental Europe characterised by the Bell Beaker culture around 2400 BC, associated with the Yamnaya people from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe . This population lacked genetic affinity to some other Bell Beaker populations, such as

9398-529: The current holder of the duchy . The details of Gwyn's background are somewhat obscure. A horoscope in the Ashmolean manuscripts gives her date of birth as 2 February 1650. On the other hand, an account published in The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist in 1838 states that she was born about 1642. The earlier date of birth was asserted without documentation, but various scholars have supported both

9525-602: The death of King Stephen in 1154, when the succession passed to Henry II , House of Plantagenet (based in France), and England became part of the Angevin Empire until its collapse in 1214. Anglo-Norman and Latin continued to be the two languages used officially by the Plantagenet kings until Edward I came to the throne, when Middle English became used in official documents, but alongside Anglo-Norman and Latin. Over time

9652-576: The death of the current incumbents. King Charles died on 6 February 1685. James II , obeying his brother's deathbed wish, "Let not poor Nelly starve," eventually paid most of Gwyn's debts and gave her an annual pension of £1,500. He also paid off the mortgage on Gwyn's Nottinghamshire lodge at Bestwood , which remained in the Beauclerk family until 1940. At the same time, James applied pressure on Gwyn and her son Charles to convert to Roman Catholicism , something she resisted. In March 1687, Gwyn suffered

9779-485: The earlier and later dates. The eight-year difference between these two possible birth years can offer different readings of what Gwyn achieved during her lifetime. The obscurity surrounding Gwyn's date of birth parallels numerous other obscurities that run through the course of her life. The information we have about Gwyn is collected from various sources, including the plays she starred in, satirical poetry and pictures, diaries, and letters. As such, much of this information

9906-595: The establishment of an English parliament was low at between 16 and 19%, according to successive British Social Attitudes Surveys . A report, also based on the British Social Attitudes Survey, published in December 2010 suggests that only 29% of people in England support the establishment of an English parliament, though this figure had risen from 17% in 2007. One 2007 poll carried out for BBC Newsnight , however, found that 61 per cent would support such

10033-416: The ethnic identities of British people with their perceived national identity . They found that while 58% of white people in England described their nationality as "English", non-white people were more likely to describe themselves as "British". It is unclear how many British people consider themselves English. The words "English" and "British" are often incorrectly used interchangeably, especially outside

10160-564: The fabric of the house is mostly of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was enlarged and refurbished during the Georgian period. However, when the last member of the Gwyn family died in 1846, the entire contents of the house were sold to a wealthy merchant who used only five rooms, allowing the rest of the house to deteriorate. It subsequently passed through several generations of the Roper family, who helped restore

10287-448: The facts were unknown or perhaps unremarkable. There is some suggestion, from a poem dated to 1681, again of doubtful accuracy, that Gwyn's father died at Oxford , perhaps in prison. It has been suggested, based on the pedigree by Anthony Wood, that Gwyn was a granddaughter of Edward or Edmund Gwyn, Canon of Christ Church from 1615 to 1624. However, administration records show that Edmund Gwyn died unmarried. Moreover, Wood did not give

10414-472: The front wall of the present building, shows a carved mask which is probably a reference to her stage career. Just after the death of Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans on 5 January 1684, King Charles granted his son Charles the title of Duke of St Albans , gave him an allowance of £1,000 a year, and also granted him the offices of Chief Ranger of Enfield Chase and Master of the Hawks in reversion; i.e., after

10541-449: The general public". Michael Kenny, Richard English and Richard Hayton, meanwhile, argue that the resurgence in English nationalism predates devolution, being observable in the early 1990s, but that this resurgence does not necessarily have negative implications for the perception of the UK as a political union. Others question whether devolution has led to a rise in English national identity at all, arguing that survey data fails to portray

10668-400: The heirs male of his body, of the dignities of Baron of Heddington, co. Oxford, and Earl of Burford in the same county, with remainder to his brother, James Beauclerc, and the heirs male of his body." A few weeks later, James was given "the title of Lord Beauclerc, with the place and precedence of the eldest son of an earl." Shortly afterwards, the King granted Gwyn and their son a house, which

10795-635: The house and gardens. Within the grounds of Llansannor Court is the local parish church, the Church of St Senwyr , the only one in Wales dedicated to this particular saint. The house has been used as a filming location for many television programmes, including multiple episodes of Doctor Who , such as " The Unicorn and the Wasp ", " Tooth and Claw " and " The Woman Who Lived ". A community organisation called LAMBS ("Llansannor Ancient and Modern Buildings and Settlements")

10922-515: The index of inconsistency is high, and many, if not most, people from English stock have a tendency (since the introduction of a new 'American' category and ignoring the ancestry question in the 2000 census) to identify as simply Americans or if of mixed European ancestry, identify with a more recent and differentiated ethnic group. Prior to this, in the 2000 census , 24,509,692 Americans described their ancestry as wholly or partly English. In addition, 1,035,133 recorded British ancestry. This

11049-437: The kept mistresses of the aristocracy. In 1667, Gwyn made such a match with Charles Sackville , titled Lord Buckhurst at that time. She supposedly caught his eye during an April performance of All Mistaken, or The Mad Couple , especially in one scene in which, to escape a hugely fat suitor able to move only by rolling, she rolls across the stage herself, her feet toward the audience and her petticoats flying about. A satire of

11176-472: The late 9th century. This was followed by the Norman Conquest and limited settlement of Normans in England in the late 11th century and a sizeable number of French Protestants who emigrated between the 16th and 18th centuries. Some definitions of English people include, while others exclude, people descended from later migration into England. England is the largest and most populous country of

11303-406: The latter called the other my Lord Buckhurst's whore. Nell answered then, "I was but one man's whore, though I was brought up in a bawdy-house to fill strong waters to the guests; and you are a whore to three or four, though a Presbyter 's praying daughter!" It is not out of the question that Gwyn was merely echoing the satirists of the day, if she said this at all. Various anonymous verses are

11430-400: The legal process Presentment of Englishry (a rule by which a hundred had to prove an unidentified murdered body found on their soil to be that of an Englishman, rather than a Norman, if they wanted to avoid a fine). This law was abolished in 1340. Since the 18th century, England has been one part of a wider political entity covering all or part of the British Isles, which today is called

11557-477: The less fertile hill country and becoming acculturated over a longer period. Fox describes the process by which English came to dominate this region as "a synthesis of mass-migration and elite-takeover models." From about 800 AD, waves of Danish Viking assaults on the coastlines of the British Isles were gradually followed by a succession of Danish settlers in England. At first, the Vikings were very much considered

11684-553: The new French-speaking Norman elite almost universally replaced the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy and church leaders. After the conquest, "English" normally included all natives of England, whether they were of Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian or Celtic ancestry, to distinguish them from the Norman invaders, who were regarded as "Norman" even if born in England, for a generation or two after the Conquest. The Norman dynasty ruled England for 87 years until

11811-437: The nine-month season lasting from September to June. She was reputed to have been illiterate. She was taught her craft of performing at a school for young actors developed by Killigrew and one of the fine male actors of the time, Charles Hart , and learned dancing from another, John Lacy ; both were rumoured by satirists of the time to be her lovers, but if she had such a relationship with Lacy (Beauclerk thinks it unlikely), it

11938-511: The only other sources describing her childhood occupations: bawdyhouse servant, street hawker of herring , oysters , or turnips , and cinder-girl have all been put forth. Tradition has her growing up in Coal Yard Alley, a poor slum off Drury Lane . Around 1662, Nell is said to have taken a lover by the name of Duncan or Dungan. Their relationship lasted perhaps two years, and was reported with obscenity-laced acidity in several later satires; "For either with expense of purse or p---k, / At length

12065-687: The other ten "women comedians in His Majesty's Theatre" were issued the right (and the cloth) to wear the King's livery at the start of this exile, proclaiming them official servants of the King. After the theatres reopened, Gwyn and Hart returned to play role after role that fit the mould of the gay couple, including in James Howard's The English Monsieur (December 1666), Richard Rhodes ' Flora's Vagaries , an adaptation of John Fletcher 's The Chances by George Villiers , and then in their greatest success, Secret Love, or The Maiden Queen . This play,

12192-524: The period, an absolute date for Gywn's debut cannot be ascertained. Whatever her first role as an actress may have been, it is evident that she had become a more prominent actress by 1665. It is around this time when she is first mentioned in Pepys's diary, specifically on Monday 3 April 1665, while attending a play, where the description 'pretty, witty Nell' is first recorded. This unusual use of only her first name would imply that Gwyn had made herself known both on

12319-413: The period, and describes the slaughter and starvation of native Britons by invading tribes ( aduentus Saxonum ). Furthermore, the English language contains no more than a handful of words borrowed from Brittonic sources. This view was later re-evaluated by some archaeologists and historians, with a more small-scale migration being posited, possibly based around an elite of male warriors that took over

12446-548: The play for the third time, Pepys writes, "It is impossible to have Florimel’s part, which is the most comical that ever was made for woman, ever done better than it is by Nelly." Killigrew must have agreed with Pepys's opinion. Once Gwyn left the acting profession, it would be at least ten years before his company revived The Maiden Queen and even the less favoured The Indian Emperour because "the management evidently felt that it would be useless to present these plays without her." The Maiden Queen featured breeches roles , where

12573-454: The play. Charles invited Gwyn and her escort, Mr. Villiers, a cousin of Buckingham's, to supper along with his brother the Duke of York . The anecdote turns charming if perhaps apocryphal at this point: the King, after supper, discovered that he had no money on him; nor did his brother, and Gwyn had to foot the bill. "Od's fish!" she exclaimed, in an imitation of the King's manner of speaking, "but this

12700-714: The population of Northern Ireland and 20% of the Welsh population were born in England. Similarly, the census of the Republic of Ireland does not collect information on ethnicity, but it does record that there are over 200,000 people living in Ireland who were born in England and Wales . English ethnic descent and emigrant communities are found primarily in the Western world , and settled in significant numbers in some areas. Substantial populations descended from English colonists and immigrants exist in

12827-459: The proportion of people who consider being white to be a necessary component of Englishness has declined over time. The 1990s witnessed a resurgence of English national identity. Survey data shows a rise in the number of people in England describing their national identity as English and a fall in the number describing themselves as British. Today, black and minority ethnic people of England still generally identify as British rather than English to

12954-427: The rich woman was so poor. A letter from Wigmore to Etherege, the day after Gwyn's burial, reports that Gwyn left about £1,000,000, "a great many say more, few less". The majority of her estate went to her son. Gwyn's will also conveys her charitable side with her leaving £100 to be distributed to the poor of the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Westminster and £50 to release debtors from prison every Christmas. She

13081-500: The rule of the country and gradually acculturated the people living there. Within this theory, two processes leading to Anglo-Saxonisation have been proposed. One is similar to culture changes observed in Russia, North Africa and parts of the Islamic world, where a politically and socially powerful minority culture becomes, over a rather short period, adopted by a settled majority. This process

13208-485: The same time, after the Union of 1707, the English, along with the other peoples of the British Isles, have been encouraged to think of themselves as British rather than to identify themselves with the constituent nations. England has been the destination of varied numbers of migrants at different periods from the 17th century onwards. While some members of these groups seek to practise a form of pluralism, attempting to maintain

13335-419: The spotlight of public appearances or Whitehall . Gwyn gave birth to her first son fathered by Charles II, Charles Beauclerk , on 8 May 1670. He was the King's seventh son by five separate mistresses. Several months later, Louise de Kérouaille came to England from France, ostensibly to serve as a maid of honour to Queen Catherine, but also to become another mistress to King Charles, probably by design on both

13462-498: The stage and off as her celebrity status started to emerge. Her first recorded appearance on-stage was in March 1665, in John Dryden 's heroic drama The Indian Emperour , playing Cydaria, daughter of Moctezuma and love interest to Cortez , played by her real-life lover Charles Hart. However, Pepys, whose diary usually has great things to say about Gwyn, was displeased with her performance in this same part two years later: "...to

13589-432: The stage by this point. In February 1671, Gwyn moved into a brick townhouse at 79 Pall Mall . The property was owned by the crown and its current resident was instructed to transfer the lease to Gwyn. It would be her main residence for the rest of her life. Gwyn seemed unsatisfied with being a lessee only—in 1673, a letter written by that of Joseph Williamson stated that "Madam Gwinn complains she has no house yet." Gwyn

13716-567: The study. A third study combined the ancient data from both of the preceding studies and compared it to a large number of modern samples from across Britain and Ireland. This study found that modern southern, central and eastern English populations were of "a predominantly Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry" while those from northern and southwestern England had a greater degree of indigenous origin. A major 2020 study, which used DNA from Viking-era burials in various regions across Europe, found that modern English samples showed nearly equal contributions from

13843-598: The surviving Britons in areas of predominantly Anglo-Saxon settlement, either archaeologically or linguistically, is still one of the deepest problems of early English history." An emerging view is that the degree of population replacement by the Anglo-Saxons, and thus the degree of survival of the Romano-Britons, varied across England, and that as such the overall settlement of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons cannot be described by any one process in particular. Large-scale migration and population shift seems to be most applicable in

13970-407: The theatre. Orange Moll hired Nell and her elder sister Rose as scantily-clad "orange-girls", selling small, sweet "china" oranges to the audience inside the theatre for a sixpence each. The work exposed her to the theatre and to London's higher society: this was "the King's playhouse", and King Charles II frequently attended performances. The orange-girls would also serve as messengers between men in

14097-412: The time describes this and also Hart's position now, in the face of competition from the upper echelons of society: Yet Hart more manners had, then not to tender When noble Buckhurst beg'd him to surrender. He saw her roll the stage from side to side And, through her drawers the powerful charm descry'd. Beauclerk describes Buckhurst: "Cultured, witty, satirical, dissolute, and utterly charming". He

14224-555: The weary fool grew Nelly-sick". Duncan provided Gwyn with rooms at a tavern in Maypole Alley, and the satires also say he was involved in securing Nell a job at the theatre being built nearby. During the English Commonwealth era, pastimes regarded as frivolous, including theatre, had been banned. King Charles II had been restored to the English throne in 1660, and he reinstated the theatre. One of Charles' early acts as king

14351-433: The whole satisfied with current constitutional arrangements". From the earliest times, English people have left England to settle in other parts of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is impossible to identify their numbers, as British censuses have historically not invited respondents to identify themselves as English. However, the census does record place of birth, revealing that 8.1% of Scotland's population, 3.7% of

14478-523: Was a numerical decrease from the census in 1990 where 32,651,788 people or 13.1% of the population self-identified with English ancestry. Llansannor Court The walls are of rubble and the roof is slate. The house has two storeys in some places and three in others, is L-shaped, and has stone mullioned windows. During the 18th century it was owned by the politician Francis Gwyn , who inherited it from his father, Edward Gwyn. On Francis's death it passed to his son, Edward Prideaux Gwyn . Although

14605-440: Was almost certainly her last season. Gwyn's theatrical career spanned seven years and ended at the age of 21 (if we take 1650 to be her birth year). In the cast list of Aphra Behn's The Rover , produced at Dorset Garden in March 1677, the part of Angelica Bianca, "a famous Curtezan" is played by a Mrs. Gwin. This has sparked some confusion. The spelling of 'Gwin' does not refer to Nell Gwyn, but to Mrs. Anne Quin. Nell Gwyn had left

14732-641: Was buried in the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields , London , on 17 November 1687. In compliance with one of Gwyn's final requests, Thomas Tenison , the future Archbishop of Canterbury , preached a sermon on 17 December from 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." Her will and codicil were proved on 7 December 1687. English people Modern ethnicities The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England , who speak

14859-590: Was for the most part a politically unified entity, and remained permanently so after 954. The nation of England was formed in 12 July 927 by Æthelstan of Wessex after the Treaty of Eamont Bridge , as Wessex grew from a relatively small kingdom in the South West to become the founder of the Kingdom of the English, incorporating all Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Danelaw. The Norman conquest of England during 1066 brought Anglo-Saxon and Danish rule of England to an end, as

14986-508: Was in the new form of restoration comedy that Gwyn would become a star. In May 1665, she appeared opposite Hart in James Howard 's comedy All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple . There is some debate over the year The Mad Couple debuted, with earlier authorities believing it to be 1667. This was the first of many appearances in which Gwyn and Hart played the "gay couple", a form that would become

15113-433: Was interpreted as reflecting the legacy of French migration under the Normans. A landmark 2022 study titled "The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool", found the English to be of plurality Anglo-Saxon-like ancestry, with heavy native Celtic Briton , and newly confirmed medieval French admixture. Significant regional variation was also observed. The first people to be called "English" were

15240-738: Was introduced during the 1st millennium. The influence of later invasions and migrations on the English population has been debated, as studies that sampled only modern DNA have produced uncertain results and have thus been subject to a large variety of interpretations. More recently, however, ancient DNA has been used to provide a clearer picture of the genetic effects of these movements of people. One 2016 study, using Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon era DNA found at grave sites in Cambridgeshire, calculated that ten modern day eastern English samples had 38% Anglo-Saxon ancestry on average, while ten Welsh and Scottish samples each had 30% Anglo-Saxon ancestry, with

15367-409: Was kept much more discreet than her well-known affair with Hart. Much as in the dispute over her date of birth, it is unclear when Gwyn began to perform professionally on the Restoration stage. It is possible that she first appeared in smaller parts during the 1664–65 season. For example, The Bodleian Manuscript of The Siege of Urbin has the part of Pedro (Melina- a maid servant in breeches) played by

15494-405: Was not politically unified until the 10th century. Before then, there were a number of petty kingdoms which gradually coalesced into a heptarchy of seven states, the most powerful of which were Mercia and Wessex . The English nation state began to form when the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms united against Danish Viking invasions, which began around 800 AD. Over the following century and a half England

15621-481: Was not strictly adversarial; they were known to get together for tea and cards, for example. Basset was the popular game at the time, and Gwyn was a frequent—and high-stakes—gambler. Gwyn returned to the stage again in late 1670, something Beauclerk calls an "extraordinary thing to do" for a mistress with a royal child. Her return was in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada , a two-part epic produced in December 1670 and January 1671. This may have been her last play; 1671

15748-522: Was one of a handful of court wits, the " Merry Gang " as named by Andrew Marvell . Sometime after the end of April and her last recorded role that season (in Robert Howard's The Surprisal ), Gwyn and Buckhurst left London for a country holiday in Epsom , accompanied by Charles Sedley , another wit in the merry gang. Pepys reports the news on 13 July: "[Mr. Pierce tells us] Lord Buckhurst hath got Nell away from

15875-733: Was renamed Burford House, on the edge of the Home Park in Windsor . She lived there when the King was in residence at Windsor Castle . In addition to the properties mentioned above, Gwyn had a summer residence on the site of what is now 61–63 King's Cross Road, London, which enjoyed later popularity as the Bagnigge Wells Spa. According to the London Encyclopedia (Macmillan, 1983) she "entertained Charles II here with little concerts and breakfasts". An inscribed stone of 1680, saved and reinserted in

16002-407: Was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law , by origin a Scotch Canadian , was not ashamed to describe himself as "Prime Minister of England" [...] Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of "England" except for

16129-746: Was to license the formation of two acting companies and to legalise acting as a profession for women. In 1663, the King's Company , led by Thomas Killigrew , opened a new playhouse, the Theatre in Bridges/Brydges Street, which was later rebuilt and renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane . Mary Meggs, a former prostitute nicknamed "Orange Moll" and a friend of Madam Gwyn's, had been granted the licence to "vend, utter and sell oranges, lemons, fruit, sweetmeats and all manner of fruiterers and confectioners wares" within

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