0:00

There was a Thai one. I didn't think too

0:02

much about the blinds in my house. I'd maybe

0:04

adjust them in the morning or close them at night.

0:06

But over time, I realized how

0:08

much window sheets can do and how important

0:10

they are in design and you can too

0:13

with Hunter Douglas. Hunter

0:15

Douglas offers unique shade designs that actually

0:17

defuse raw sunlight and cast a beautiful

0:20

glow across the room. Hunter Douglas has

0:22

a gorgeous selection of fabrics

0:24

and colors and Hunter Douglas isn't

0:26

just about their looks. They have industry

0:29

leading energy efficient shades that provide

0:31

superior insulation against heat

0:33

and cold for year round comfort

0:36

and they help you save on utility bills.

0:38

Right now, for a limited time, you can

0:40

take advantage of special rebate savings

0:42

of one hundred dollars or more on some

0:44

of hundred Douglas's most popular

0:46

styles offer ends December fifth.

0:49

So visit hunter douglas dot com

0:51

slash checks today for details and take

0:53

advantage of special rebate savings

0:56

of one hundred dollars or more. That's

0:58

hunter douglas dot com slash

1:01

checks. Welcome to the

1:03

history checks where any resemblance to

1:05

a boring old history lesson is purely

1:07

coincidental.

1:10

Hello, and welcome to the show.

1:12

We just want to give you a little

1:14

ear's warning due to the circumstances

1:16

of Mel Gwen's life, we are going

1:18

to have to tell you this episode is not

1:20

suitable for children. Her life

1:23

and her profession intertwine and

1:25

the scenarios in and around King Charles

1:27

II's restoration London Court?

1:30

Well, we just can't edit or

1:32

bleep or sanitize and still tell her

1:34

story. So, click away if you

1:36

have small friends with you and we'll see

1:38

the younger part of our audience next

1:40

time. and now

1:43

on with the show. And here is

1:45

your thirty second summary.

1:48

She's pretty and she knows it.

1:50

she's witty and she shows it.

1:52

And besides that, she's so witty and

1:55

so little and so pretty, she

1:57

has a hundred other parts. for

2:00

to take and conquer hearts. Amongst

2:02

the rest, her air is so spiteful, so

2:05

pleasant, and delightful. With

2:07

such charms and such attractions in

2:10

her words and in her actions

2:13

as who aired you hear and see

2:15

say there's nothing to charm but she.

2:18

but for that sufficed to tell you,

2:21

tis the little pretty

2:22

belly.

2:24

B and Let's

2:27

talk about Nell Gwen. But first,

2:29

let's drop her into history.

2:31

In sixteen sixty two,

2:33

the very first bus service began

2:35

in Paris with a fleet of seven

2:37

horse drawn carriages running on a

2:39

set route and schedule. The

2:42

colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut

2:44

were granted charters by the British monarch

2:46

King Charles II. And the

2:48

fine folks in Rhode Island got busy building

2:50

America's very first lime kilns

2:53

to produce product that was primarily used

2:56

in building mortar. The character

2:58

who would later become punch of punch and

3:00

duty puppet fame first appeared in

3:02

England. King Philip the

3:04

fourth was in his final years of

3:06

his reign in Spain and the

3:08

sun king Louis the fourteenth was

3:10

in the twentieth of his seventy

3:12

two year rule of France. Marie

3:16

Darlene, future queen of was

3:18

born in France, Elizabeth Stewart,

3:21

granddaughter of Mary Queen of Scots,

3:23

and Blaise Pascal who was

3:25

the inventor of the very first bus service

3:28

in France both died.

3:30

Author of Paradise lost, John

3:32

Milton married his third wife Elizabeth.

3:35

And in sixteen sixty two, Per

3:37

the king, women were legally allowed

3:39

to appear in theatrical productions in

3:41

England setting the stage for Nel

3:43

Gwyn's career and life.

3:46

Elanor Gwen was born on

3:48

perhaps second

3:51

of, we think, sixteen

3:53

fifty That's as good as a guess

3:55

as any we're going to have because

3:57

this is the date that Nell herself gave

4:00

an astrologer many years later.

4:03

So because we have to have a date to work

4:05

with. That is what we have chosen. Born

4:07

where though? Well,

4:09

there's a case for Hereford. if

4:12

you think her papa is one guy, there's

4:14

a case to be made for London, say

4:16

some others. But the weightiest and

4:19

most contemporary to her candidate

4:22

for both papa and her birthplace

4:25

seems to be Oxford.

4:28

with doctor Edward Gwyn, canon

4:30

of Christchurch Oxford as

4:32

her grandpa pa, and his military

4:35

son, Thomas, sometimes

4:37

written as James, it's killing me

4:39

as Nells Pupa. And even

4:41

the last name, sometimes it's written

4:43

as with one end, sometimes intermittent

4:45

with two. These people have a lot of different

4:48

versions of their names, but, you know, they've been around

4:50

since the sixteen hundred. I think

4:52

spelling of many words was

4:54

very assorted

4:55

for a very long time. Uh-huh. Yeah.

4:58

So Thomas, let's

5:00

call him, married miss Helena Smith,

5:02

and had two daughters, Rose and

5:05

Eleanor. So that

5:07

part checks out. if

5:09

this man, captain Thomas Quinn,

5:11

was her papa, he had just

5:13

been fighting on the wrong side

5:15

of history, which was the king's

5:17

side. unexpectedly. Only

5:19

one year before now, a

5:21

little Eleanor's nickname was

5:23

born, King Charles who

5:26

we know is King Charles the first, but at the time

5:28

was just King Charles because there weren't any

5:30

weed only. Yeah. Yes. Had

5:32

been deposed and then executed

5:35

by his enemies. The key issue

5:37

in their dispute is the king an

5:39

absolute ruler or should

5:41

the people, and by that, you should read

5:43

the right people, have a say

5:46

via parliament. And

5:48

after years of fighting,

5:51

the parliamentarians won. And

5:53

for the very first time in British

5:55

history, the king was found guilty

5:57

of treason. and the

5:59

words they used, that the king

6:01

upheld in himself an unlimited

6:03

inter panical power to rule

6:05

according to his will and

6:07

to overthrow the rights and

6:09

liberties of the people,

6:11

which to me sounds like everything

6:13

that every plain old king has always

6:15

done. So they sentenced

6:17

him to death by beheading their

6:20

king. They're anointed by

6:22

god in their view king.

6:24

this whole movement and the

6:26

final act really bypassed the

6:29

average common man. I think

6:31

the day of his execution thousands

6:34

arrived to see the spectacle. And

6:37

word was the official executioner had

6:39

gone into hiding so he wouldn't have

6:41

to do it. If that gives you a

6:43

sense of the general mood, though,

6:45

afterward, some say that

6:47

it probably was him in disguise

6:49

because the skill level was so

6:51

high. Mhmm. But as far as

6:53

officially, he wasn't in

6:55

it, had nothing to do with him. So the

6:57

executioner, regular, our substitute,

7:00

after the fatal blow held

7:02

up the head as usual. But

7:05

instead of the usual cheers

7:07

and I quote, an onlooker, there

7:09

was such a grown by the thousands

7:11

then present as I never heard

7:13

before and desire that I may

7:15

never hear again. Well,

7:17

so say the royalist anyway. And

7:20

honestly, on this podcast, we

7:22

cannot get a hundred percent into

7:24

the politics and reputation of the man

7:26

who eventually took over. Lord

7:28

protector Oliver Cromwell, he

7:31

is a divisive dude. There

7:33

is a statue of him

7:35

right outside of Westminster Abbey,

7:38

between there in parliament that

7:40

as recently as two thousand

7:42

four, some members of parliament wanted

7:44

to have removed and melted down. So

7:47

if they can't work it out by now,

7:49

we're not going to settle it

7:51

for you. So let's give you a link to

7:53

some back and forth about Cromwell

7:55

good, Cromwell bad, and concentrate

7:58

on a few factors of this recent

8:00

history that involve our subject, now

8:02

Gwen. Upon the defeat at

8:05

the Battle of Worcester, The

8:07

last major battle of the English civil war,

8:09

the king's eldest son and heir

8:11

fled the country. The second

8:13

Hispapod died technically, historically,

8:15

traditionally, he ought to become

8:17

king of England the way our own

8:19

recent King Charles had been. But

8:21

England was now a commonwealth a

8:23

republic though Charles was

8:25

the king of Scotland still Charles

8:27

had to flee in any case and

8:30

the six week trip across England

8:32

was fraught with near misses. He

8:34

famously hid in an oak tree

8:36

while parliamentary troops searched

8:38

below. He was taught to walk and

8:40

talk like a farm worker by

8:42

some royalist, there was

8:44

some subterfuge of being a

8:46

servant. Half of an alloping couple,

8:48

he was hidden in a priest holes

8:51

by Catholics all across the country.

8:54

Once he was literally saved by a

8:56

woman going into labor and

8:58

distracting some pursuers, Thanks,

9:00

Lady. Eventually, he ended up safe in

9:02

Paris with his mother and sister,

9:04

and he never forgot those who had helped

9:06

him at great risk to their

9:08

lives. and later rewarded them

9:10

handsomely. But as for right now,

9:12

at the time of Nell's birth,

9:14

Charles II is an exile. biting

9:16

his time across the water

9:19

in France. England wasn't

9:21

under royal rule anymore. It

9:23

was under Cromwell's rule,

9:25

so there's no kings. Actually, there's

9:27

no a lot of things. There's

9:29

no theaters. There's no ends.

9:31

There's no sports. There's

9:33

no swearing. That is actually punishable

9:36

by prison. There's no work

9:38

on

9:38

Sunday. There's no walking

9:40

except to church on Sunday. There's no

9:42

makeup, there's no colorful

9:44

dresses, there's no traditional

9:46

Christmas

9:46

celebrations, only religious

9:49

ones, And all those feast days

9:51

of saints, those are now

9:53

fast days. There's

9:55

not even any May polls around

9:57

town. Yeah. They went

9:59

full foot loose. Remember that movie?

10:01

These puritans were not

10:03

the most cheerful people and

10:05

guess who they were. Yeah.

10:08

You remember the Mayflower. Don't

10:10

you? So the

10:12

puritans that were sent years

10:14

ago to the Americas to start

10:16

a colony wasn't the only country that

10:18

these puritans are trying to take over.

10:20

Ireland was now under the same

10:22

rule. And in Ireland, Catholics

10:24

were banned from practicing their religion,

10:27

and they were stripped

10:29

of their land, which was given

10:31

to Protestant settlers.

10:34

You know what I never understood is

10:36

Cromwell, you see all these things that he

10:38

did. He was credited for instituting

10:41

religious freedoms. That doesn't

10:42

sound like freedom? I

10:44

think because he wasn't harsh

10:47

to the Jews. Oh,

10:49

that they give him credit for but

10:51

he was extraordinarily harsh

10:53

within his own faith.

10:55

Mhmm. That's why I think we should

10:57

give you a link because it's complicated.

10:59

Like, there are some you

11:02

know, I'm kind of prejudiced against

11:04

the puritans because

11:06

really they wanted I

11:08

don't know. It just seemed like they wanted a

11:10

theocracy at the expense of,

11:12

like, human life. Mhmm.

11:13

And they didn't value this

11:16

human life. They wanted the

11:18

next life. And so this life was

11:20

only a preparation for the next life.

11:21

Right? So

11:23

everyone can't just live like that.

11:25

I will tell you also that Cromwell

11:28

was perfectly happy with music

11:30

and and dancing in his own house,

11:32

especially at one of his daughter's weddings.

11:34

Mhmm. It's just, you know, waving his hands

11:36

those people that can't be trusted with

11:38

things like temptation. Right.

11:41

That's, like, also dirty. Mhmm.

11:43

And hilariously to me, parts

11:46

of the female body that

11:48

are how shall I put it always

11:50

in fashion? We're

11:52

a hundred percent hidden from view.

11:54

Those things are directly

11:56

from the devil. Right. So

11:58

it was into this highly regulated

12:01

world that first rose

12:03

and then two years later, Little

12:06

Nell were born to Papa Thomas,

12:08

and I'm gonna call her MOG

12:10

Nguyen because that's what everybody called

12:12

her. And at some point

12:14

after that, Pappat Thomas landed in

12:16

debtor's prison, and that's where he

12:18

died. That left Mad Gwain

12:20

as a single mother who moved

12:22

her small family back into

12:24

London to settle in the Covent

12:26

Garden district. Now

12:28

lovely, then where they

12:30

were, not really. If this

12:32

was a movie, there'd be a camera

12:34

showing the glistening cathedral

12:36

and a voice would say, no, not

12:38

there. Turnaround. Go down that

12:40

dirty alley. to where impoverished

12:42

people lived, where the

12:44

pubs do a loud business and where

12:46

crime is rampant, as

12:48

is filled in disease,

12:50

and sadly half the children born

12:52

into this community wouldn't make

12:54

it to toddlerhood. That's where

12:57

Nell was brought. who

12:59

even was now's mama. Again,

13:01

a gray area. Helena

13:03

Smith has been reported to be

13:05

a, the illegitimate daughter of

13:07

a nobleman. b, the

13:09

impoverished but gentle woman daughter of

13:11

a clergyman, c,

13:14

literally account follower, IEA

13:16

prostitute who goes where the soldiers go

13:18

in order to ply their trade.

13:20

And Oxford had been a rallying

13:22

place for Royalists, and it was certainly

13:24

full of customers. No

13:26

one No. No.

13:28

Really? And we don't even know if they were

13:30

married. I mean, it's highly probable

13:32

that She just took his

13:34

name because she was pregnant with his

13:36

child. And the sadderists

13:39

of Nell's future life seemed

13:41

to think it's hilarious

13:43

to say that Ma, Gwen,

13:46

couldn't tell who Nell's father was because she

13:48

have had too many customers. to really

13:50

know. Regardless of who or what

13:52

Maguen was before she returned to

13:54

London, she was faced with some grim

13:56

realities. The economic options

13:58

open to her were domestic

14:00

service, which, as the mother of two

14:02

children, was likely impossible,

14:05

marriage, but alas, she's already

14:07

married. So there's another closed door

14:09

or the inevitable third option

14:12

of sex work or

14:14

associated trades in the

14:16

underworld of the city. I've read

14:18

statistics that one in six,

14:20

that's the high end or one in ten

14:22

unmarried women in London were

14:24

prostitutes the year that

14:26

Maguen brought her children back to London

14:29

because that's literally all you

14:31

could do. It always strikes me as

14:33

funny we read these stories about English

14:35

speaking people and they look, you

14:37

know, like people now and we

14:39

don't think that it's a different culture.

14:41

so we don't talk about it, but this is a

14:43

very different culture than our

14:45

world today, you know,

14:47

that women, this is just what they

14:49

did and Yes, it was looked down upon, but

14:51

it was also how they fed their families.

14:54

Will some tales have her

14:56

working as a barmaid at TAvern called

14:58

the Rose Tavern at

15:00

Russell and Katherine Street. I didn't

15:02

look that up on Google. I'd say,

15:04

I mean, maybe I should. It is

15:06

Becky here from the future during the editing

15:08

process. I went ahead and looked it up.

15:10

And normally, I would just leave it be,

15:12

but it's too good. It's just

15:14

too good not to tell you right now.

15:16

At the corner, two

15:18

day of Russell and Katherine

15:20

Street is a candy store whose name

15:22

appropriately enough is sugar,

15:25

sin. Yeah.

15:27

Just a little gift from the universe to

15:29

us. Okay. And now quickly

15:31

on with the show. And she

15:33

was also probably the

15:35

go between between the patrons

15:37

and some associates some

15:39

ladies of negotiable affection that used the

15:42

rooms upstairs. So

15:44

there's a whole distinction to be made

15:46

that she wasn't a brothel keeper. She

15:48

kept a body house and like the

15:50

differences the ladies either did or didn't live

15:52

in, but functionally it served the same purpose.

15:54

Right. Later it would be said of

15:56

Nell's childhood that she was, quote,

15:58

brought up in a body house to fill strong

16:01

waters to the gentleman. Both

16:03

sisters at some point likely when

16:05

they were very very small worked

16:07

in the tavern, There's also

16:09

a strong possibility that both

16:11

of them took a turn at being

16:14

oyster girls or perhaps

16:16

selling turnips or herings,

16:18

some kind of food stuff, on the

16:20

streets. You know, they

16:22

would have their baskets and then they would

16:24

have their street call oysters,

16:26

oysters, oysters, fresh oysters, or

16:28

remember that song molly Malone?

16:30

No. A

16:33

live o. a song. No. I don't

16:35

remember that one. You don't remember that

16:37

song? No. What's it from?

16:40

Okay. Everyone write in. I know.

16:42

I'm so Sorry. I gotta sing it. In Dublin's

16:44

Fair City, where girls are so pretty,

16:46

there once was a girl named Molly Malone.

16:48

I don't remember the middle, but then

16:50

she's like, She would walk through with her basket,

16:52

yelling cockles, and must stay now

16:54

live. A live. Oh, I recognize it

16:56

now, but I have no idea what it's from.

16:58

Well, so she's one of those

17:00

girls. So you'd get a stock

17:02

from the fishmonger and you'd have to pay for it ahead

17:04

of time, I think. but you'd get a

17:06

stock and then you'd go around and retail

17:09

it out. Everyone loved

17:12

loved oysters. They

17:12

were cheap protein. They

17:14

were plentiful. And thing is

17:17

everyone liked them. From the very

17:19

very very high upper crust in

17:21

the fancy oyster houses,

17:23

where the silent waiters brought you

17:25

your vinegar and pepper in fancy individual

17:29

containers to the street vendors who set up trussle

17:31

tables in the street and you could sprinkle your

17:33

oysters with the communal vinegar bottle.

17:35

To those girls were walked around with their

17:37

baskets, the cheapest option. I

17:39

don't know if they had condiments or not, not clear.

17:41

Mhmm. But nevertheless, it's like the hot

17:43

dog of its era. Everybody indulged

17:46

at some level. some oysters.

17:49

In accounts from her time

17:51

later, she was called Cinder Nell

17:53

because it's believed that she also

17:56

sold Cinders. because they were used as

17:58

very cheap and weak

18:00

fuel. But it was just something she could go

18:02

and clear out cinders from

18:04

a fire and then go sell them to

18:06

someone else that could maybe

18:08

light them. They're just scraping to make

18:10

a living here. I mean, quite literally.

18:12

If the girls were indeed street

18:15

vendors, that was the best

18:17

possible training for Nell's future career.

18:19

It required a lot of

18:21

extra version. To approach

18:23

strangers, you had to have a

18:25

carrying voice, you had to have good

18:27

projection, you had to have personality, so

18:29

the customers would come find you and come

18:31

back. I mean, you had to persuade

18:33

people to buy the stock or you would

18:35

be out of your money, you

18:37

know. Mhmm. they could keep one sixth of

18:39

what they sold in money.

18:41

Seems very specific. Yeah. No

18:43

kidding. So that was Nell's education.

18:45

she was illiterate. She never went to any

18:47

kind of schooling. She couldn't

18:49

read words, but she could certainly

18:52

read people at a very

18:54

young age. and she knew how to charm them.

18:56

Just as a little girl. Now,

18:58

people are pretty certain that sister

19:00

Rose became a prostitute.

19:02

in a nearby brothel by the time she was about

19:04

thirteen or fourteen and

19:07

also unclear, but very

19:10

possible and I'm even going to move

19:12

to probable that Nell

19:15

joined in in that business young

19:17

as the age of nine or ten.

19:19

I'm not joking. She was

19:21

an uncommonly beautiful child

19:23

in a very poor area

19:25

with a turbulent and often alcoholic

19:28

mother for protection. I just don't

19:30

know that she had much of a chance to get

19:32

out of there unscathed if you

19:34

know what I mean. These two sins,

19:37

in particular, alcohol and

19:40

prostitution, were ones that the

19:42

Puritan rulers hadn't ever managed to

19:44

stand out by the way. They are

19:46

persistent and underground

19:48

and sometimes so

19:50

pervasive that there is us

19:52

nothing to do, but to shove them into one

19:54

area and pretend you don't see it. And

19:56

that's what the puritans decided to do.

19:58

This is in the puritan

19:59

commonwealth. which is what England was called. But

20:02

where Nell is growing up, it's just a

20:04

little dot of seedy underside.

20:07

But

20:07

the Hurray.

20:08

When Nell was ten years old,

20:10

parliament invited King Charles the

20:12

second back from exile.

20:15

Cromwell had died about a year and a half ago, and

20:17

his son just could not hold

20:19

things together. Part of the

20:22

deal was that power would be shared by

20:24

parliament and the crown, a

20:26

constitutional rather than absolute

20:28

monarchy. Also, Charles

20:30

the second agreed to pardon or

20:32

at least tolerate anyone

20:34

who'd fought against him unless

20:36

they had signed the death warrant against his

20:38

father and then you were for the chop.

20:40

That's reasonable, sir. Sign here, please.

20:43

Notably, Oliver Cromwell's

20:45

body was exhumed by order

20:47

of the king chained

20:49

for public display, and then

20:51

thrown into a pit, except

20:53

his head, which stayed on display on

20:55

a Pike outside Westminster Hall

20:58

for a number of decades, as a

21:00

warning to revolutionaries everywhere.

21:03

Mhmm. The Charles that came

21:06

back to rule England was not this

21:09

dandy. You know, he was a guy that had been

21:11

in war. He was

21:13

leading revolts against

21:15

England except Cromwell's army

21:17

just kept spanking them. Really,

21:20

he didn't have a lot of money. The

21:22

whole family had

21:24

been pretty much palace

21:26

surfing, you know, from one state to

21:28

another of people they knew, they

21:30

didn't have much. And that's the guy

21:32

that came back Charles the second had

21:34

left England when he was a boy of

21:36

nineteen, a privileged young man and

21:38

he was now a man of thirty who had

21:40

been through terror, betrayal,

21:43

exile, deprivation, war, and

21:45

seen quite a bit, unwillingly

21:48

of how the other half lived.

21:50

and he often noted that it was the

21:52

poorest people who dug deep to help

21:54

a stranger. And his Catholic subjects

21:57

who had treated him better than his

21:59

peers, like other

22:02

monarchs of Europe, and he never

22:04

forgot. He never forgot their kindness.

22:07

And that pretty much explains his

22:09

religious tolerance. In

22:11

addition, he just really didn't want

22:13

any war. One

22:15

thing the king did bring back

22:17

from style was Mary Old England.

22:19

Let's spell it MERRIE

22:22

Mary Old England, which

22:24

is a different word. Some said

22:26

it was immoral, his whole thing.

22:29

He said, obviously, we

22:31

only live once the music

22:33

was back. The dancing, the colors, you can take a

22:35

walk on a Sunday and not pay a fine

22:37

remarkable. His court was

22:39

known for its loud and

22:41

wild behavior. One

22:43

described it as a

22:45

pendulum. The puritans are on one

22:47

side and now whoosh, we

22:49

swung all the way to the

22:51

other side. Luckily, for

22:53

the person that said that the very first

22:55

clock that had a pendulum had

22:57

only been invented four years

22:59

before. So perfect. I

23:01

don't even know what to tell you. Pray. It could

23:03

be the symbol. Charles the second got

23:05

the nickname, the Mary Monarch. Now that's just with

23:07

the y. Sorry. Uh-huh. And

23:10

people kept kind of holding their

23:12

breasts a little. Like, is God gonna

23:14

throw a thunderbolt down here?

23:16

And they were cautiously creeping out to

23:18

join the joyful return to regular

23:20

old life. He was

23:22

known for his religious tolerance,

23:24

his political savvy. He was the

23:26

patron of scientists and

23:29

artists and writers. and

23:31

his tendency to

23:32

mistress having immediately.

23:34

I mean, I'm talking the

23:36

day he got there, like,

23:38

the day arrived. And that

23:40

night, everyone was gonna hold him

23:41

at banquet, and he's like, no thanks. He took

23:43

up with one noblewoman, one

23:46

Barbara Palmer. I'm talking

23:48

the night. of his banquet. I

23:50

can't say that's bad. I went to Brennan's

23:52

for brunch instead of going to my

23:54

graduation ceremony from college. It's like, oh,

23:56

church service. I did go

23:58

to Catholic University, church service. No. So Charles and

23:59

I are agreement there, but I did not have

24:02

a child nine months afterwards.

24:04

and he did. It was perfect timing.

24:08

Ultimately, Barbara Palmer had more power than

24:10

the actual queen who had

24:12

been a from Portugal.

24:14

Remember that we had talked during the

24:16

Marie Antoinette podcast about

24:18

how Marie Antoinette's husband

24:20

never took an official mistress

24:22

and everyone was sort of bewildered. Walking

24:25

around, there's no May Trace

24:27

on titre or official mistress

24:30

favors of, like, where's the pipeline? I

24:32

don't get it. And they're kind of freaking out. Well,

24:34

it's like the power structure. Emery

24:37

Antoinette Court was all messed up. Well Charles the

24:39

second brought that foreign concept of an

24:41

official mistress back from France

24:43

with him along with

24:45

the fork Oddly enough.

24:49

Not seen since Roman times in England

24:51

now back in all the rage.

24:54

You know, the more religious among his subjects saw it

24:56

as suspect and immoral. Did

24:58

God not give us hands with which to hold

25:00

our food and wipe our butts?

25:03

I mean, come on, gross. And the tablecloths,

25:06

I mean it. They would just wipe their

25:08

dirty, greasy hands on

25:10

the tablecloths. every day. No wonder they had

25:12

so many laundresses. But what the fork did

25:14

this have to do with Melkwen? Oh

25:16

my god. I

25:19

had to say thank you. Okay.

25:22

Honestly, for an

25:24

Elguin in her decrepit

25:26

area of town, life likely went

25:28

on very similarly to the

25:30

way it had always done in

25:32

let's just call it the underworld

25:35

except for one major

25:37

thing that happened two months after

25:39

the king came back. It's really one

25:41

of the very first things that Charles

25:44

did he reopened the theaters. They had

25:46

been closed for eighteen years. That

25:48

would be more than Nell's life.

25:50

She'd never knew life with the theater.

25:53

he had enjoyed the theater when he was

25:55

in other countries in France

25:57

in particular, and he wanted that level

25:59

of

25:59

entertainment in

26:02

England. He commissioned two

26:04

theaters

26:04

to open, two different

26:07

official theaters. They were called Patton

26:09

theaters. They had his blessing

26:11

and legal protection as

26:13

the only license except

26:15

no substitute's theaters. Now

26:17

there were other theaters that

26:19

were opening up they could do comedies and like

26:22

Vaudville kind of shows, but

26:24

those theaters were for

26:26

the lower classes. They were not

26:29

for Charles and his friends,

26:31

and that's the kind of entertainment he

26:33

wanted. So there's two theaters. One

26:35

is The King's Company. It's the

26:37

Royal Theatre on Drury Lane.

26:39

Gee, that sounds so familiar. I hear the muffin man

26:41

lives there. The

26:44

other theater was

26:46

the Dukes Theatre and

26:48

that was under the patronage of Charles' brother

26:51

James, the duke of

26:53

York. So the duke's house and

26:55

the theater royal. And

26:59

shock me shock me shock me with

27:01

that deviant behavior. For the

27:03

first time, women could

27:05

perform in the

27:07

public theater. know more would all of

27:09

the women's parts be played by men

27:11

like they had been in

27:13

Shakespeare's time. The official royal patent

27:15

said this, quote, And for as

27:17

much as many plays formerly

27:19

acted, do contain several

27:21

profane, obscene, and scurrilous

27:23

passages and the woman's parts

27:25

therein have been acted by men in the habit

27:27

of women, we do permit

27:30

and give leave that all women's

27:33

parts to be acted in

27:35

either the said two companies for

27:37

the time to come may

27:39

be performed by

27:42

women. May by such

27:44

reformation be esteemed

27:46

not only harmless delights,

27:48

but useful and instructive representations

27:51

of human life. So make it look like

27:53

a real life. Don't have a guy up there dressed in

27:56

drag. Thomas Kiliger's Theatre

27:58

opened in May of

27:59

Sixteen's sixty three, and one of Nell's

28:02

momma's friends had got the coveted

28:04

license to sell fruit in candy

28:06

during the performances. Mary

28:08

Meggs was her name, but everyone called

28:10

her orange moll. Mollie

28:13

being a common nickname at the time for

28:15

Mary. Moll needed some

28:17

pretty saleswomen who could market her

28:19

wares to the theater audience and give them

28:21

a bit of cheek by way of

28:23

entertainment. It took brains. It

28:25

took bravery. and she knew just who

28:27

to choose. Thirteen year old Nell and her

28:29

sister Rose were hired to stand

28:31

with their backs to the stage in this

28:33

little passageway between the

28:35

orchestra and the pit and

28:37

call their wares during a break

28:39

in the action. Little Nell, she had

28:41

curly reddish hair and dimples

28:43

She had a very charming personality. The

28:46

orange girls work six days a week. The

28:48

theater was closed on Sundays. They

28:50

wore a little white smocks over their

28:52

dresses and a handkerchief at their necks,

28:54

they sold only on the lower levels

28:57

because oranges on the upper levels could be

28:59

used as projectiles. by

29:01

the peasants in the cheap seats. Right.

29:03

The box seats weren't

29:05

that high up in the wall. Remember,

29:08

like, if If you were to imagine, say, on

29:10

opera theater, you think of these boxes

29:12

like twenty feet in the air. No, no, they were

29:14

still very close to the action. Unfortunately,

29:16

the further you got back in the back seats,

29:18

the worse you could hear the actors,

29:20

but you sure could see the orange

29:22

girls. About seven hundred people per

29:25

night came to the plays. So

29:27

everyone can see, but maybe

29:29

not here. Yeah. Dute

29:32

would literally wander back stage and

29:34

harass the actors,

29:37

especially the women. I'm sorry to

29:39

say, for quite some time, male

29:41

members of the audience could just

29:43

go back into the dressing area

29:45

and grab hold of them. That's

29:48

unfortunate, really. And so they fell in

29:50

love with these women on the stage and then

29:52

felt like oh, these are these are

29:54

free public access ladies

29:56

-- Mhmm. -- and they would go back and just

29:58

get all up in their business. Now

30:00

some women may not have disapproved

30:03

of that because one

30:05

of the venues to escape

30:07

a life of poverty

30:09

was to join the theater and find a

30:11

rich protector. And one

30:13

of the side businesses these orange

30:15

girls could do was run

30:18

messages back and forth to facilitate

30:20

those type of arrangements. It

30:22

was a lucrative sideline to

30:24

selling oranges and probably made

30:26

them significantly more money. Nell

30:28

kind of had one of those arrangements herself

30:30

because around this time, she

30:32

had her first I don't wanna

30:34

call him a boyfriend. protector in

30:36

a man named Robert Duncan,

30:39

and she had moved out of her mother's

30:41

place and into rooms that he had

30:43

rented for her above a pub

30:45

right down the street from the theater called the

30:48

cock and pie. Now that

30:50

would be maybe peacock

30:52

pie. which was an

30:54

old timey dish or cockarrel, a

30:56

young rooster, or maybe a magpie,

30:59

which was right on the sign. So

31:01

the cock and pie pub is

31:03

probably not as naughty of a title

31:05

as it sounds. Well, and

31:07

I think E. O. Pie was a

31:09

very common thing to have in a pub

31:12

too. Yeah. And also cockfighting would happen in pub -- Right. --

31:14

too. So cock and pie is

31:16

like a very popular thing.

31:18

I'm sorry. I'm getting silly.

31:21

Yes. Let's talk innuendo for

31:23

the rest of the show. You know what? Nell would

31:25

not approve of innuendo. She'd just

31:27

say the word. That's

31:29

right. That's true. So we,

31:31

in the modern day, are

31:33

completely astonished that a twelve or thirteen

31:35

year old girl, has a grown man as

31:37

her, quote, protector who

31:40

takes her away from her mother's house and sets

31:42

her up in her own apartment. Who

31:44

met her at her work, most likely.

31:46

What

31:46

work? Not sure.

31:48

Okay. I

31:49

would like to show you a horrible fact. The

31:52

age of consent in England

31:54

was twelve. When people

31:56

got together and started to

31:58

talk about it, In eighteen seventy five, they decided that

32:01

the age had to be raised, and

32:03

they raised it to

32:05

thirteen. Wow. That is such

32:07

an improvement. Well, the theater

32:09

itself was a messy

32:11

business. People were always yelling,

32:14

dueling, not joking, bantering with the

32:16

orange girls. By

32:18

the way, during the performance, is anyone paying

32:20

attention to my artist? You

32:23

know how now we say that somebody has

32:25

a mouth like a sailor or in my house, mouth like

32:27

a chef. Back

32:30

in Nel's day, they

32:32

said that someone had

32:35

a mouth like an orange

32:37

girl. So she had a very colorful

32:39

vocabulary.

32:53

The History Text is brought to you

32:55

by progressive insurance. Whether you

32:58

love true crime or comedy,

33:00

celebrity interviews, news,

33:02

women's history Street, you call the

33:04

shots on what's in your podcast queue.

33:06

And guess what? Now you can call them on

33:08

your auto insurance too with the name your

33:10

price tool from Progressive. works

33:12

just the way it sounds. You tell progressive

33:14

how much you wanna pay for car insurance, and

33:16

they'll show you coverage options that

33:19

fit your budget. Get your quote today at

33:21

progressive dot com to join over

33:23

twenty seven million drivers who

33:25

trust Progressive. Progressive

33:27

casualty insurance company and

33:29

affiliates. price and coverage match limited

33:31

by state law.

33:43

So here she is,

33:46

this saucy orange girl in the front

33:48

of the theater, and mister Killigrew,

33:50

the owner of the theater, was in the

33:52

audience one fateful day

33:54

and Talend spotted the fourteen year old Nell

33:56

for a fast track to the stage.

33:58

The two leading men of

34:00

the king's company. Charles Hart

34:02

and John Lacey were two actors who

34:04

were charged with training Nell to be

34:06

an actress. Charles Hart was the

34:10

leading man And John Lacey was kind of a comedian and a

34:12

dancer. And they could teach her

34:14

different things. They taught her how to

34:16

use the stage

34:18

as an or they taught her

34:20

how to deliver different styles of lines because they did different

34:22

kinds of plays. Sometimes there might be

34:24

a comedy, the next one might be

34:28

drama, and they had to

34:30

be delivered in different ways. And the lines that she was learning wore

34:32

these plays that they were going to perform,

34:34

she was a literate So

34:37

they were giving her the lines and she was

34:40

just memorizing the plays.

34:42

That's

34:42

remarkable to me. That's

34:44

even to this day, of course, how you would teach a child actor.

34:47

So it's not completely

34:48

unheard of, but what patients

34:52

that was because this is like summer stock theater. And I don't know

34:54

if anyone here has ever been in summer stock, but

34:56

you basically rehearsed one thing during the day.

34:59

and out the other thing in the

35:02

evening. You're constantly doing at least two

35:04

plays a day in your head.

35:06

And during this time period, plays didn't

35:08

last very long. Mm-mm.

35:10

Sometimes they only lasted, like, let's look and see if

35:12

the audience reacts. And if it didn't

35:14

go, it was over.

35:16

And that's the end for that play.

35:18

So I'm glad you spent your whole evening memorizing all these lines. Yeah. But that's okay because

35:20

we're gonna have you memorize some more for

35:22

this new production. We're gonna start in three

35:26

days. their repertoire. They're keeping these plays in their head

35:28

in case they have to perform them

35:30

again for whatever reasons.

35:32

And she was able to keep all that in

35:34

her head. She was able

35:36

to use all the things that she had

35:38

learned as an oyster girl, as

35:40

an orange girl, surviving

35:42

on the streets, charm

35:44

people with her voice and her mannerisms,

35:46

and she had that x factor

35:48

that people looked at her on the

35:51

stage when there was other people there. She was

35:53

the one that everybody was looking at,

35:55

and she's picking it up really

35:57

fast. I'm sorry

35:58

to say that

35:59

someone else was looking at

36:02

her, one of her tutors.

36:04

Mister Charles himself, Charles

36:06

Hart, the main actor at the

36:08

king's company, took her under his wing and

36:11

offered her his protection. In

36:13

the parlance of the

36:15

restoration that meant, He removed her

36:17

from her current lodging, her in his lodgings,

36:20

split his salary with her, and

36:24

in exchange for certain

36:26

services became her protector.

36:28

And gross, etcetera, and

36:30

the only positive thing I can see about

36:32

that is he out

36:34

his territory and saved

36:36

her from the other

36:38

circling weirdos. Yeah.

36:40

That's a good point. And he

36:43

was thirty to her fourteen. So that's

36:46

a pretty big age gap. Although, at

36:48

the time, it

36:50

wasn't his significant as it might be to us. Again, there's that

36:52

cultural thing. We have to learn their

36:54

culture. Actors at this time

36:56

began to be associated with

36:58

certain roles. or

37:00

certain types of roles, they began to be

37:02

stars. People would come out to

37:05

see their favorites regardless of

37:07

what the play was. I'm reminded of

37:10

the silent movie era. Mhmm. Where there was just

37:12

that sheer volume of titles you

37:14

couldn't get too attached to the movie because there

37:16

was gonna be another one on Friday, you know.

37:18

Okay. So you'd come out to see

37:20

Mary Pickford or Douglas

37:22

Fairbanks or or whoever you wanna come see your favorite, whatever they're

37:24

doing, you know. Mhmm. Meg Ryan

37:26

in sleepless in

37:28

Seattle in

37:30

shop around the corner. She always find the same kind of person, you know. Right.

37:32

So that kind of thing, it's not

37:34

unheard of. But now Gwen began to

37:38

become known. Shortly after her first appearance on the

37:40

stage, just her hair helped, her mannerisms

37:42

helped, and she and

37:45

her friend, man friend, Charles

37:48

Hart soon became famous for sort

37:50

of a bantering antagonistic couple act.

37:52

Well, they fell in love at

37:54

the end. It's kind of like

37:56

hat burn and what's his name? Spencer Tracy, that's exactly

37:58

what I was just gonna say. That

38:01

witty banter and that

38:03

comfortable camaraderie that

38:06

they had which quite frankly was probably

38:08

developed off stage and under the

38:10

covers. Comedy was where her talents

38:12

truly lay.

38:14

skill and improv often came in handy. You know,

38:16

the sheer number of plays that you

38:18

were expected to do. Sometimes if you're

38:20

on stage and you forgot a line,

38:23

didn't it help if you were good and quick

38:25

on the uptake, you know, and could play

38:27

it off. The audience didn't know. The audience

38:29

was not familiar with these

38:31

plays. Most of the time. So if you made something up

38:33

with a convincing or a it's probably fine.

38:36

That totally makes sense because you just

38:38

deliver the line that you think should go there

38:40

with conviction.

38:42

Right. And part of the schtick of

38:44

Restoration comedy is that now played

38:46

a character within a character, functionally.

38:50

So She played now who would bring the audience into

38:52

the joke with her

38:54

a lot. You know, no

38:57

one else could make the

39:00

audience a part of the action like

39:02

she could. It seemed like

39:04

everyone knew her. Everyone was her friend.

39:06

It was just like she had

39:08

that indefinable report with the audience. Right. She kind of

39:10

broke the fourth wall in some ways. You

39:12

know, just a quick glance out to

39:14

the audience, she

39:16

connected with them. It was like, if you and I, good

39:18

friends, had a look that we

39:20

understood, she's doing the same thing

39:23

with an entire audience. Right.

39:26

Dyerist Samuel Peeps wrote

39:28

that he had seen pretty

39:31

witty no and became sort

39:33

of medium obsessed with her a disturbing way.

39:35

Can't wait for you to read the parts of his diary.

39:38

It is worth reading. We're gonna give you a

39:40

link about it.

39:42

The secretary system will blow you away, though I'm

39:44

warning you now. And probably give

39:46

you a nice uncomfortable

39:48

foundation to put Nell's life in

39:50

perspective, honestly.

39:52

if this is how the average middle class man on the street was thinking about

39:54

women and life in general -- Mhmm. --

39:56

help all the women. Help them all.

39:59

You know? Nonetheless,

40:00

he kept the diary for a number

40:02

of years and wrote both about mundane

40:04

things and major events because he

40:07

worked for the government. And

40:10

so His diary gives you a great picture of what life was like

40:12

in Restoration London from his place

40:14

right in the middle, and he

40:16

had a lot to write about.

40:19

Beginning with the hijinks of the

40:21

king and his court. Charles was

40:23

doing a lot of king

40:25

duties. He also has, at this

40:27

point, taken a wife, he has to.

40:29

He needs an heir. The wife's that he

40:32

chose was Katherine of

40:34

Bricanza. She was a twenty four year old

40:36

Portuguese princess, whose own

40:38

father, King John the fourth,

40:40

he was kind of like Charles and that he took

40:42

a really circuitous route to

40:44

the throne He had been

40:46

a duke who staged an uprising against the former Spanish rule,

40:48

but this alliance with

40:51

Portugal gave England trade

40:54

routes to India and

40:56

Morocco. And in Katherine's

40:58

case, she also came with a very

41:00

healthy dowry. which at

41:02

this point Charles really needed

41:04

to. Not to but to find a point on

41:06

it, she was also

41:08

a Catholic. So it was almost like he was

41:10

putting his money where his mouth is when it

41:12

came to tolerance of

41:16

Catholic religion. Right. because there's king and queen

41:18

Catholic. You know, who's gonna complain.

41:20

Nobody. Everybody.

41:23

Now, somebody that did complain was

41:26

Katherine's mother. Charles was

41:28

already known as having

41:30

a lot of mistresses. At

41:33

the time that they married, he had five children

41:35

that he recognized by four different women.

41:37

And he was having

41:39

his second child with

41:41

his favorite mistress, the former

41:44

Barbara Palmer, who is now the

41:46

countess of Castlemain and

41:49

still married to her husband, the new Earl

41:51

of Castlemain. But they're having

41:53

a very healthy

41:56

relationship, and they were even

41:58

together the day

41:59

that Katherine

41:59

arrived from Portugal to

42:02

England. Katherine's mother was

42:04

fully aware of how active Charles

42:07

was with other women. And she said, Catherine Dunn said,

42:09

do not tolerate this. You have to put

42:11

your foot down. You are going

42:13

to be queen. You have to

42:15

tell him to stop all this

42:18

shenanigans with all these other women. But

42:20

Katherine didn't really have the backbone

42:22

for that. And when

42:24

Charles came to her with his number

42:26

one lady Barbara, wanting

42:28

Barbara to have a status position

42:30

in court as the lady of the bed chamber to the

42:33

new queen. Poor Catherine didn't know

42:35

what to do. She just fainted

42:37

dead away. Like, literally, she fainted

42:40

and started crying and

42:42

kinda tried to hold out and he

42:44

just kept taking things away from her. Like,

42:47

all the people that spoke her language, he sent them

42:50

away, and eventually she just said

42:52

fine, fine, give this

42:54

woman the job that

42:56

she wants. I want peace in my house. And that was

42:58

kind of Katherine's first step to

43:00

acceptance of the life of

43:02

her husband.

43:04

Well, you know, it's very sad, and I think

43:06

the humiliation was great,

43:09

especially for a young princess

43:11

with really no support in

43:13

her new country. Mhmm. I don't certainly think it was

43:16

unprecedented. I mean, there was a series

43:18

of, imagine, you know, Jane

43:20

Seymour and And Berlin were

43:22

both made to honor and

43:24

Veragon. So it happens

43:26

has happened. Uh-huh. It's

43:28

not awesome. No. And again,

43:31

there's this double standard in society that men is a status symbol

43:33

for them to have a mistress, but to

43:35

be the actual mistress isn't,

43:38

you know, great.

43:40

So Barbara was extraordinarily

43:44

cunning and driven and wanted more

43:46

power. So she was

43:48

probably playing head games on

43:50

Charles. She was actually

43:52

increasingly as her

43:54

career grew famous for

43:56

being and I quote, the

43:58

uncrowned queen of

44:00

England. She interfered in

44:02

politics like

44:04

nobody's business maybe someday we'll cover her from her side. We're gonna

44:06

paint her probably to be the evil

44:08

stepsister from a Disney movie

44:10

or whatever. because of how

44:12

we do. We're always on the side of our

44:14

subject. But, you know,

44:16

there's a lot of humanity in her

44:18

too. Everyone's struggling to

44:20

survive. You know? Yeah.

44:22

So that was just

44:23

her particular road. Yes.

44:26

So relations within court

44:29

or fraud. And soon, war

44:32

broke out again still

44:34

with the Netherlands, mostly

44:37

about trade routes. This is

44:39

the series of wars, in fact, that turned New

44:41

Amsterdam into New York for a little place

44:43

in history. Nice. Named after

44:45

Charles II, Sprobro, the

44:49

Duke of York. Yep. So there's this

44:51

stress, this worldwide conflict

44:54

stress underlying

44:56

the next decades, honestly, off and on,

44:59

with the king trying to navigate

45:01

major conflicts with major

45:03

enemies in the

45:06

world. But this right here at this time period,

45:08

like he needed other things to

45:10

worry about, was one of the very

45:14

acute times in that period that there was

45:16

active and vicious combat

45:18

happening. Now, hard on the heels

45:21

of this trouble, a silent killer began

45:23

stalking England brought there by the

45:26

rats from the ships

45:28

of war. of war

45:30

the plague had hit England. If

45:32

you contracted it, there was headache and

45:35

vomiting and fever. you had

45:37

a thirty percent chance of

45:40

death. And if it was in the house that you were

45:42

in, the house was marked on the

45:44

outside and sealed up. So

45:46

everybody is stuck really stuck

45:48

in the house. There's no walking

45:50

at sunset or anything. We do

45:52

have a good account of what London was

45:54

like because Peeps in his capacity as an

45:56

essential worker at the naval office,

45:59

remember the war was still

46:01

happening, he gives a

46:04

full account of the grim deserted streets with the

46:06

dreaded red crosses over the

46:08

doors sealed up by the authorities

46:10

after an

46:12

infection. the screams and cries of the people inside that were

46:14

muffled, people that were walking down the

46:16

street just collapsing, right and left

46:18

as you walk down the street,

46:21

in left because there were people to

46:23

take care of them all the time.

46:25

The smell grew exponentially

46:28

so bad that you could almost

46:30

not smell it anymore. It was a terrible

46:32

terrible death, and it

46:34

was terrible to witness. London

46:37

streets became deserted as people succumbed or fled.

46:40

And that's exactly what the king did. The

46:42

king and his court fled to

46:44

Oxford where it

46:46

was safer and

46:48

his theater company, The King's

46:50

Theatre, that troop which Nell is

46:52

a part of, followed him to

46:54

Oxford. So she and her mother

46:56

were in Oxford during the plague time safe, but

46:59

not performing as much as she had

47:01

been when they were

47:04

in London. During the period of time, when the theaters were

47:06

closed in June and the

47:08

onset of winter, the

47:10

year Nell

47:12

was fifteen, one in

47:14

five lenders were dead of

47:16

the plague. That's twenty percent of

47:19

the citizens gone. So not only a significant loss

47:21

of life, that's cultural

47:24

trauma. You know, surely

47:26

everyone left new someone that didn't

47:28

make it. and the

47:30

cleanup which I will not get into

47:32

also quite, quite terrible.

47:34

The court came back to

47:36

London in February after

47:38

the cleansing nature of a

47:40

cold hard winter. And

47:42

the gears are kind of grinding

47:45

back into action. Nel's career came roaring back

47:47

as the theater opened. She turned

47:50

sixteen Net Spring and by now

47:52

had famous playwrights

47:54

writing parts

47:56

and plays just for her to play to her comedic

47:58

strengths. Much has been made of

48:00

how she was no good in a tragedy.

48:04

And I need to explain a little

48:06

bit about that. So

48:08

in a comedy, it's kind of a free for

48:10

all. You know? Like, a comedy was loose

48:13

by nature. But in classic

48:16

tragedy, there were some conventions that

48:18

Nell's free style of

48:20

acting ran up against. And

48:22

let's call it choreography.

48:24

Certain words had to be said

48:26

with certain hand gestures. Certain

48:28

gestures indicated sadness. Certain

48:31

and what indicated that I will overcome, you know,

48:33

and there was another whole language you had to learn. The

48:36

tone of voice was different. And I've said

48:38

this and I don't remember

48:40

in what

48:40

said before, but there

48:42

was someone

48:43

during fiddler in the roof who

48:45

literally said her line like this.

48:47

But papa, I don't want

48:49

to marry him and then clasped

48:52

her hands on her

48:54

heart. Now, she would have done well

48:57

in Restoration London. That's what it was. It was a little

48:59

stiffer. There was not so much

49:02

scope for the imagination.

49:04

If you

49:06

ask me, by the way, this tradition came back to silent

49:08

film era. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

49:10

It was in it was language audiences

49:12

had been primed to understand.

49:16

This reminds me of a situation I just heard of on

49:18

the office ladies. Okay? So, you

49:20

know, the office -- Mhmm. -- by about

49:22

season three, I mean, they didn't have

49:25

marks they didn't really improv, but it was pretty loose. And

49:27

they made a lot of different takes and blah blah blah

49:29

and played around. And then

49:32

toward the end after Steve Carell had

49:34

left, they imported James

49:36

Spader. You know James Spader. Like,

49:38

everyone's bad heart drop from pretty impingement.

49:42

Blaine. Blaine, they could shoot a planes

49:44

or whatever. Bad guy. So that guy

49:46

came in and he's a great actor

49:48

and very professional, but he always wanted

49:50

to rehearse. But where is

49:52

my mark? what are my motivations? And they're like, we don't really do

49:54

that. Yeah. When's rehearsal? They're

49:56

like, we

49:58

don't have and he

50:00

they did not really mesh, you know. Right.

50:02

And that's kind of what happened with Nell and

50:04

tragedy. Like,

50:06

everybody's good. but

50:08

nothing's translating. You know? It just wasn't

50:10

a good fit. Well, she was good

50:12

at like you said, improvisation

50:14

but she was really good at taking

50:16

little comments that weaving them into the

50:20

dialogue that

50:22

were actually comments about society, you know, gossip that

50:24

she had heard about society. She

50:26

availed it and stuck it

50:29

in there. There was even a point where she looked

50:31

fully at, you know, broke the fourth wall, looked at

50:33

the audience and said, I know you

50:36

in your

50:38

serious plays as I hate serious parts.

50:40

So is it Nell or is

50:42

it Nell's character? Well, that was the

50:44

joy. That was the thrill. Like,

50:46

you thought Nell was giving you

50:48

a little backstage knowledge. Like, another strange

50:51

convention of comedy at

50:54

this time played to some of her other strengths. For

50:58

some reason, reason this

51:01

The female characters on stage would often

51:03

have to appear in male

51:06

clothes as a

51:08

plot device. And what

51:10

were male clothes at the time? Well, sort

51:12

of short pantaloons and

51:15

skin tie tights A real lady person

51:17

in skin type tights on stage be

51:20

still my beating heart.

51:22

Well, Nell had some of the best legs in

51:24

the biz. Yeah.

51:26

That's right. They were actually called

51:28

Breaches rolls and they

51:30

loved putting Nell into them because

51:32

she didn't mind flashing a little

51:35

you know, it's covered by fabric, but as

51:37

far as everybody is concerned, she's

51:40

flashing her legs. They're seeing

51:42

thigh. Oh my goodness. No wonder

51:44

Dude sent messages in

51:46

jewels backstage, Nell had

51:48

literally blown their

51:50

minds. Mhmm. Part of her job

51:52

was actually very similar

51:54

to actors today is

51:56

getting their brand out there and going out and

51:58

being seen in public. you know, there was

52:00

no entertainment tonight or

52:02

whatever. Mhmm. But there

52:04

were the scandal rags. And if

52:06

they were seen out, doing things, dressed

52:08

fancy, you know, they were just building

52:10

up their persona and making

52:12

themselves even more popular. And that's

52:14

something that

52:16

now excelled at. Also, she was just

52:18

kind of herself out the

52:20

exact herself that they saw

52:23

on stage, you know. Right.

52:25

So when they saw her, they're like, oh, I

52:27

know her. We talked just yesterday.

52:29

Right. She knows me.

52:31

Yeah. That's right. And they knew that she was one of them.

52:33

You know, yes, the theater

52:36

audiences were more of the

52:38

upper classes. But she

52:40

came from the streets, she was a common person,

52:42

and she never was putting on airs.

52:44

So she was relatable

52:46

to a lot of people. So while

52:48

Nell's career was really on

52:51

fire, something else was on

52:53

fire too. In September of sixteen

52:55

sixty six, a fire

52:58

started in putting Lane in a bakery that began

53:00

to spread, fanned by a strong

53:02

east wind it burned for four days.

53:05

and ended up eating up most of the old city

53:08

of London within the walls,

53:10

sparing only kind of a a

53:12

crescent at

53:14

the northeast right by the tower

53:16

of London and and up,

53:18

largely due to the soldiers in the tower

53:20

blowing things up to create a

53:22

firebreak. Mhmm. That's what

53:24

saved them. we learned on our field trip to London that

53:26

the city of London

53:28

within the walls was a separate

53:31

was the independent place. Like

53:34

Washington DC kind of --

53:35

Mhmm. -- and they

53:36

resisted for far too long

53:38

the king's offers of help from

53:41

the army. People were sort of

53:43

in denial for a long time. They would

53:45

kind of scurry from block to

53:48

block until it finally became absolutely clear

53:50

they needed to get out of the city

53:52

center, out of the walls entirely. And then,

53:54

of course, it was a battle between

53:56

outgoing refugees and incoming firefighters.

53:59

Well, the official death toll from

54:01

the fire of Linden was

54:04

eight, and pretty much no one

54:06

believes that. Historians now take exception to that

54:08

very very small number

54:10

because they say the

54:12

extreme heat from this well

54:14

fueled fire could have

54:16

consumed everything. I mean, even people

54:18

and left absolutely no

54:20

trace. Right.

54:22

Plus, there was a lot of misinformation in in

54:24

very late realization of the

54:26

people's danger. And a lot more

54:29

people were likely trapped than

54:31

were reported, you know. Yeah. And these

54:34

houses were so close together and they were

54:36

families. A lot of them, like

54:38

Nells, the one she grew

54:40

up in, So if Nell and her sister and her mom had perished in a

54:42

fire with nothing to show for it, would

54:44

anybody have missed them? You know, how

54:46

can you count them if you don't even think

54:48

about them? Does that make

54:50

sense? Right. No. That makes total sense.

54:52

Yeah. Also, about two

54:54

hundred thousand more people were

54:56

now homeless. without shelter

54:58

or food. And winter was coming,

55:00

not in the Game of Thrones sense,

55:03

like actual human winter. was coming.

55:05

Mhmm. Yeah. And so do we count those refugees?

55:07

Do we count people who starved to death?

55:09

Because they didn't have any food?

55:11

Well, the king wanted those

55:14

people to move on

55:16

out. And that's not as catalyst as it

55:18

sounds. I mean, there wasn't a

55:20

way to house them, so he issued

55:22

an eDIC that all towns must accept those refugees and

55:24

assist in their housing. So, I mean,

55:26

that's what you can do on the fly, you know.

55:28

Right. Well, of course, the theaters were

55:30

closed. Again,

55:32

while he dealt with this crisis. And there were

55:34

great plans to rebuild in a more majestic

55:37

style, you know, like been

55:40

rebuilt, but the legalities of

55:42

property rights and seizure were just

55:44

too troublesome and the English weren't

55:47

standing for it. No. This is my land. Okay.

55:50

Fair enough. They did widen the streets.

55:52

They forbade the use of

55:54

wooden construction. There are a

55:56

handful of existing buildings left from the

55:58

Great Fire of London. Most are

56:00

made of stone or were wooden

56:02

buildings that had been protected within

56:04

stone walls. Some were

56:06

wooden buildings, notably the

56:08

old curiosity shot made so

56:10

famous by Charles Dickens that

56:12

just missed annihilation by a matter

56:14

of yards. We'll give you a link

56:16

to a map of them if that's a quest you'd like

56:18

to go on. But mostly, as you

56:20

looked around, it was unbelievable

56:22

and complete

56:24

destruction. rumors caught fire now that the Catholics from the southern

56:26

Netherlands had started this fire

56:30

on purpose. and stoked

56:32

the flames of anti Catholic

56:34

sentiment in England. I really cannot

56:36

say enough how dangerous it was to

56:38

be a Catholic right here after

56:40

the fire. And for a couple

56:42

of centuries, really. It was not

56:44

awesome because of this. Every tragedy

56:47

needs scape goat, I guess. And people just

56:49

simultaneously quote, knew that it was a fire

56:51

at Faironor's bakery. They got

56:53

out of control. At some

56:56

level, they yes, indeed. But

56:58

they also, quote, knew that the

57:00

Catholics probably said it on purpose in that

57:02

bakery to trick us. into thinking it

57:04

was simply a bakery fire.

57:06

Right? I'm like, oh my gosh. Or at

57:08

least they were happy it happened.

57:10

Fork

57:11

them. Let's fight. So there is

57:13

a societal

57:14

and recurrence of religious

57:16

violence happening from about now,

57:18

unfortunate because we were so

57:22

close. to pull in ourselves together. There was

57:24

another rivalry that was heating up, rivalry

57:26

between the two theater companies.

57:30

Duke's company versus King's company. The Duke's company

57:33

had its own personable

57:35

comedy actress, one

57:38

Moll Davis. sort of

57:40

directly competing with our

57:42

Nell for the prime spot in their company.

57:44

Now Nell actually may have been

57:46

talent spotted to go up against

57:48

existing mall. That's where people

57:50

think. Like, mister Kelly Girl

57:52

was sitting in his audience and went,

57:54

oh, there's one. Yep. And he was

57:56

looking, you know, when you're shopping for

57:58

something particular in the thrift store. You

57:59

see it? Yeah. And I

58:01

think he had I need

58:03

someone like this. in his mind

58:05

and then immediately saw Nell right in front of

58:08

him. Interesting. Like, she was

58:10

his spelling word. Nell.

58:12

Do you know what I mean? Yeah. No. I know what

58:14

you mean. So Paul Davis performed in his show in front of

58:16

the king, and she had a very

58:18

famous song. And here are

58:21

some of the lyrics. My

58:23

lodging is on the cold ground and very

58:25

hard is my fair, but that which troubles

58:27

me most is the unkindness

58:29

of my dear. yet still I cry. Oh, turn

58:31

love and I prudy love, turn to me

58:34

for thou art the man that I long

58:36

for and

58:38

elect. What remedy? Okay. That song

58:41

won her, if not the heart,

58:43

at least the bed of a

58:46

king. he took as mistress everyone

58:48

fell apart and out

58:51

and out commoner Barbara

58:54

Palmer had been born a gentleman's daughter and her

58:57

husband is a baron. Who

58:59

is this person? Right. The upper

59:01

crust kind of god

59:04

boggled. but you know what I like about her. She has no

59:06

interest in politics at the king

59:08

and she has no interest in

59:11

bossing me around. and I

59:13

can see him pointing at his eye and pointing

59:16

straight at Barbara Palmer.

59:18

Gimme a break. Yeah. Gimme a

59:21

break. Right. Right. Nel was

59:24

irritated at that attention that

59:26

was given her rival. So now her rival

59:28

has the attention of the king and

59:31

also the attention of the public.

59:33

You know, that's a big deal. And so now I had

59:35

a playwriter friend write a pretty

59:37

mean girl rebuttal to

59:39

Mall Davis's famous song.

59:42

And I am sorry to say she was mocking

59:44

Paul Davis's fuller figure.

59:46

But every single person

59:49

who heard this new to whom and of what

59:51

it referred. Here's Nell's version. My

59:54

lodging, it is on the cold boards and

59:56

wonderful heart is my fair, but

59:58

that which troubles me

59:59

most is the fatness of my

1:00:02

dear. And still I cry, oh, melt

1:00:04

love and I pray thee now melt

1:00:06

a pace. For thou art the man I should long for, if

1:00:08

we're not for my

1:00:10

greas. the So

1:00:14

no Gwen. as my mother would give her the middle

1:00:16

name. Now Eldridge Quinn.

1:00:18

What are you saying? Well,

1:00:22

you know, that figure won her the love of a king, not

1:00:24

the love, two hundred pounds a

1:00:26

year, jewels, and a house.

1:00:30

and curtain. Well, the Dutch attacked

1:00:32

the English Navy. They set fire to

1:00:34

a lot of ships and stole a

1:00:37

famous one. And again, King Charles' first

1:00:40

instinct was to close down the theaters. That

1:00:42

seems to be his instant reaction

1:00:44

to any crisis. And so

1:00:46

back at Nell's house, her

1:00:48

protector Charles Hart had taken

1:00:50

up with the king's

1:00:52

mistress, Barbara.

1:00:54

or she had revenge taken up with the most famous

1:00:56

actor in town. See

1:00:59

Kingboyfriend, Aytu, conductor

1:01:02

Dive, for my bedfellow. That's kind of like what it was.

1:01:04

Yeah. I just wanna throw in here

1:01:06

that Barbara has a lot of friends

1:01:10

like Charles, and

1:01:12

like the king. But is

1:01:14

this city correct? No. That

1:01:16

was direct, but otherwise, she's

1:01:18

fairly indiscriminate. you know, it's like,

1:01:20

oh, I like the way your eyes are

1:01:22

flirting at me, come to

1:01:24

bed. You know? Well, and let me

1:01:26

tell you this. So she

1:01:28

had at least six living

1:01:30

children. And the first

1:01:32

five are recognized by the king

1:01:34

and in some cases, enobled by

1:01:36

him, but he was in no way a hundred percent certain any

1:01:38

of those children, 23andMe, not

1:01:40

yet having been invented. Work

1:01:43

is at all She actually

1:01:46

bullied and cajoled him into recognizing each

1:01:48

and every one of them. By the time they

1:01:50

got to the sixth one, I'm jumping way way

1:01:52

ahead, but just to put it here because it

1:01:55

fits her way. By the time

1:01:57

they got to the sixth one, he

1:01:59

put up a fight. And they had

1:02:01

a pretty major halo rumb below about it, you know. Mhmm. But the first

1:02:03

five, he's like, yeah. Okay.

1:02:05

You know? Yeah. That's

1:02:07

right. Yeah. That's that's right.

1:02:10

Son of a cat. That's

1:02:12

right. Well, gross and dang

1:02:14

for everyone, by the way, it

1:02:16

just seems like a mess, but Nell had never lacked

1:02:18

admirers. And rather than put up with

1:02:20

whatever entangled nonsense this was pretending

1:02:22

to be in her house right now,

1:02:24

she was not

1:02:26

about it. She reached out to a young nobleman who had admired

1:02:28

her Charles Lord Buckhurst,

1:02:30

member of parliament, gentleman of the

1:02:32

king's bed chamber, and soon

1:02:34

gentlemen of Knowles bedchamber. Oh, so clever. So

1:02:39

because of war, theaters

1:02:42

were closed, and the troop was kind of scattered

1:02:44

around. It was summertime. And

1:02:47

now and Charles the second

1:02:49

as she called him, That's

1:02:51

a little confusing for us since

1:02:53

there literally is a Charles the

1:02:55

second king on the throne,

1:02:57

mister Bigwig himself. So

1:03:00

Buckhurst is her Charles the

1:03:02

second, and guess who was her Charles

1:03:04

the third? Charles

1:03:06

the second. That's later, spoiler alert. As for

1:03:08

Buckhurst, life with him was nothing but

1:03:10

a party. Well, they and so they

1:03:12

kind of took up

1:03:14

together. They entertained.

1:03:16

They had parties. They froliced quite

1:03:18

a bit. They went to a fashionable

1:03:20

spa town called Epsom. Yes,

1:03:23

the same as Epsom salts.

1:03:25

So she and Buckhurst went there

1:03:27

and then peeps the creep,

1:03:29

stalk her, literally took

1:03:31

his wife there casually on purpose to catch a

1:03:33

glimpse of Nell. He wrote about it in his

1:03:36

diary and disapprovingly

1:03:38

referred to Nell and Buckers

1:03:41

keeping a merry house. You're just jealous.

1:03:43

Yeah. Oh, totally. And Kirst was

1:03:45

a seriously drunken frat

1:03:48

bro of the kings. He was about a

1:03:50

decade younger and ran with this group

1:03:52

of dudes called The Wits, but they were

1:03:54

I were they? I mean, they

1:03:57

Some of them did right plays, but they also

1:03:59

peed off of balconies onto people

1:04:01

and, like -- Yeah. -- ran naked down the

1:04:03

street. They were they were us by the way.

1:04:05

And they always got bailed out by the king.

1:04:08

Right? Well so

1:04:10

anyway, that's the kind of guy he

1:04:12

was. Yeah. Badly behaved,

1:04:14

charming handsome, prep school boy with powerful parents, you Yeah.

1:04:16

Anyway, now that seventeen was pulled into

1:04:18

this whirlwind adventure, it's her

1:04:20

first peak behind the curtain.

1:04:23

at wealth and privilege and he paid for nice

1:04:26

clothes and they had the finest of

1:04:28

foods and there were

1:04:30

no responsibilities. And, I mean,

1:04:32

everybody needs a break like that a little bit.

1:04:34

I mean, that does sound fun.

1:04:36

I don't know about the peeing off the

1:04:38

buildings and stuff. Well, that was before

1:04:40

he met her. He's not that man

1:04:42

anymore. Oh, yes. Like I said, for he was later,

1:04:44

but just, like, might be there right now. He's, like,

1:04:46

taking a break from all that. Just because

1:04:48

of now, After a few months, Nell was

1:04:50

back, you know, they

1:04:52

used to fight all the time and word

1:04:54

is, oh, you know, he threw her

1:04:56

out because spent too much money. The fact is it was just it was

1:04:58

time. And she came back and there's only so

1:05:00

much of that you can take, plus he was kind of

1:05:02

unreliable and

1:05:04

she came back and went back to her theater company and they welcomed

1:05:06

her back with open arms. But

1:05:08

Hearst had been a lot. which

1:05:12

she sort of knew, honestly, but why now

1:05:14

now that the wheels are turning from

1:05:16

the throne of the stage. Could

1:05:19

she not shop around for another

1:05:22

protector with all of his

1:05:24

good qualities, i. e. free

1:05:26

spending and

1:05:28

connections? but none of his bad qualities. One

1:05:30

with a little bit of staying power.

1:05:48

Why choose proven quality sleep from sleep number? Because

1:05:50

it's fall and leave piles scenic

1:05:52

drives, all of that is better

1:05:54

with a great night sleep. Bekit

1:05:57

and I both get our great night sleep on sleep number three

1:05:59

sixty smart bed. Mine is set at a perfect for

1:06:01

me sleep number of

1:06:04

eighty Every morning, my sleep number app gives me a sleepIQ score.

1:06:06

And this morning, I started around

1:06:08

the house going, I got a ninety

1:06:12

I know. It was super annoying. But I had heard that sleepIQ sleepers

1:06:14

who sleep in a pitch black bedroom

1:06:16

are most stressful overall and

1:06:19

achieve higher sleepIQ scores

1:06:22

than those who sleep with any light on in their bedroom.

1:06:24

Why choose proven quality sleep from

1:06:26

sleep number? Because every great

1:06:28

day starts the night before. and

1:06:31

now save thirty percent on the sleep

1:06:33

number three sixty special edition smart

1:06:36

bed plus special financing for a

1:06:38

limited time. only at sleep

1:06:40

number stores or sleep number dot com slash six.

1:06:42

Subject to credit approval, minimum monthly

1:06:45

payments required sees fleet

1:06:47

number dot com for

1:06:50

details.

1:06:56

Poll Court

1:06:58

was retiring to

1:07:00

a spa

1:07:02

town called Tumberidge Wells. in

1:07:05

order for the queen to drink the healing waters

1:07:08

and ideally produce an heir to the

1:07:10

throne despite

1:07:12

his numerous and public affairs and many many illegitimate

1:07:14

children, King Charles II,

1:07:16

was very loyal in

1:07:18

many ways to

1:07:20

his wife. at least to

1:07:22

her status. He would never put her

1:07:24

aside or divorce her. He stayed

1:07:26

by her side when she was ill. The

1:07:28

queen herself had been moved to invite

1:07:30

both the Duke company and

1:07:32

the king's company to entertain the court

1:07:34

while they were visiting there. There

1:07:36

were two notable incidents

1:07:38

during that trip to Tembridge wells

1:07:40

and they have entered the realm

1:07:43

of folklore and rumor, but say a

1:07:45

lot about the characters

1:07:48

involved. as people say, all of the people

1:07:51

acted characteristically in these

1:07:53

stories, so they might be

1:07:55

true. Mall Davis, was

1:07:58

evidently bragging here and there about

1:07:59

a ring the king had given her. Her

1:08:02

address is this, that the

1:08:04

king, me, me, me, me,

1:08:06

me, me. and she was irritating

1:08:08

the denizens of both theater companies and the courts.

1:08:10

Actually, the Queen and

1:08:14

Barbara Palmer had actually walked out of

1:08:16

her performance of hers

1:08:18

for her pornographic dancing.

1:08:20

People were over

1:08:22

her a little bit. Yeah. anti

1:08:24

mall at the moment. So here's

1:08:26

the story. Now mall was bragging because

1:08:28

she was going to have

1:08:31

dinner with the king. That's

1:08:34

right, dinner with their clothes on,

1:08:36

and now could not take it

1:08:38

anymore. So she invited mall to tea.

1:08:41

A little backstory now had become very good friends with a

1:08:43

female up and coming writer she was writing

1:08:48

plays Her name is Afra Ben,

1:08:50

and she was also a spy. And I'm not gonna say anything else about her because

1:08:52

we have to

1:08:55

cover her, but Afra had

1:08:57

given Nell a powder from the Jollop weed. And Nell took this

1:09:00

powder and put

1:09:02

it in mall's snack. So

1:09:06

I looked at this weed

1:09:08

or root. I'm not sure which part of

1:09:11

the plant. The powder was from, up

1:09:13

in an old pharmacopia just to see what the heck we were dealing

1:09:15

with. And I just want to read you the information that

1:09:18

it provides for the

1:09:20

physician. Job

1:09:23

is an irritant, which operates

1:09:25

energetically, occasioning profuse liquid

1:09:28

stools with

1:09:30

griping, useful in all cases where it

1:09:32

is desirable to produce the energetic

1:09:34

influence on the bowels or to

1:09:37

obtain large evacuations.

1:09:38

evacuated. Nell

1:09:41

was just

1:09:42

patting herself on

1:09:44

the back as

1:09:47

she's watching mall consume all of

1:09:49

these pastries that she had given her, waving

1:09:51

goodbye to her, have a nice date with the king knowing

1:09:55

full well that that evening That

1:09:57

there were going to be a

1:09:59

profuse

1:10:00

evacuation.

1:10:04

Now, what do

1:10:05

you think about this? I mean, poisoning your romantic rival

1:10:07

is actually not very cool. Can I agree? Yes.

1:10:10

I actually wrote there. Not cool

1:10:12

now. That's

1:10:14

what I wrote in my name. I mean, everyone was kind of

1:10:17

sick and hurt not that it excuses,

1:10:19

you know, giving someone drugs.

1:10:22

Actually, given in quantity could have killed her -- Right.

1:10:24

-- didn't, Hooray. But it's

1:10:26

all fun in games until

1:10:28

someone -- Yes. -- and

1:10:30

Dumberrs the bathroom. You know? or bridesmaids. Oh,

1:10:32

I forgot that was in that movie. That

1:10:35

was yeah. I never laughed

1:10:38

so hard. I So Nell thought it was funny and

1:10:40

Susan thought it was funny. What

1:10:42

were you? Everyone. Buddy, on

1:10:45

the screen that at like in real life, I

1:10:47

would feel terrible. It wasn't cool

1:10:49

now. Clever but

1:10:50

not cool.

1:10:51

Well,

1:10:52

let's move on to a slightly

1:10:55

better story. Again, unconfirmed, but characteristic

1:10:57

of all parties. Nell was

1:10:59

at the theater watching

1:11:01

the other company the dukes company. She was not

1:11:03

on deck at the moment. And

1:11:06

she encountered the king and

1:11:08

his little bro pretending

1:11:10

to be incognito, but come

1:11:12

on. Yeah. They repaired

1:11:14

to a tavern afterwards for drinking

1:11:16

and dining. And when it

1:11:18

came time to pay the bill,

1:11:22

There was that comedy stand by of

1:11:24

Pat England's pockets. The king looked at

1:11:26

his brother. The brother looked at the

1:11:28

king. They didn't have any money. Of

1:11:30

course not. So now looked at both of them

1:11:33

and then because she's an actress,

1:11:35

she mimicked the king using

1:11:37

one of his favorite

1:11:39

phrases and said, odd fish. This is the

1:11:42

poorest company I ever was in as she paid the bill.

1:11:46

Now that's funny. Well, That is began the

1:11:48

relationship between Nell and the king. At

1:11:50

first, it was sort of a friend's

1:11:55

with benefits situation, I think.

1:11:57

But as the influence of

1:11:59

Barbara Palmer waned, her

1:12:03

political machinations and her temper had

1:12:05

sort of finally got to him a little.

1:12:07

Nell was in the ascendancy. More

1:12:09

and more people flocked to see the king's mistress in her

1:12:11

theater. She received top billing, she

1:12:14

received a private dressing

1:12:16

room. the attention

1:12:18

was intoxicating. As Nell's star was rising even higher as she had

1:12:21

this relationship with

1:12:24

the king, she

1:12:26

switched from being miss Nel Gwen to missus. Now the name missus

1:12:28

wasn't used at the time

1:12:30

just to meet a married person,

1:12:35

It was used as a title of respectability, and a

1:12:37

miss was suggested to be

1:12:39

a looser woman. Much was

1:12:41

made at the time of

1:12:44

Nell's faithfulness to the king.

1:12:46

It was actually kind of the butt of jokes in marked contrast to Barbara's history,

1:12:49

which I

1:12:52

would say is normal. Right? Like,

1:12:54

to be loyal to one's boyfriend, though it certainly did not go the other way

1:12:59

more on that in a minute. No

1:13:01

and everyone started to refer to herself as his country

1:13:04

mistress. She taught

1:13:06

him how to fish or

1:13:09

did she because he was not having very good

1:13:11

luck. And so she had him distracted by

1:13:15

looking at something and then got out of their picnic basket, fried fish and

1:13:17

put them on the end of his

1:13:19

line. So that he was successful at

1:13:21

last but not fooled and he

1:13:23

thought that was Yes. They

1:13:25

went to the races. They wandered the towns in their old clothes and talked

1:13:28

to the

1:13:32

villagers. The king had Christopher Ren build her

1:13:34

a house in hay market for the racing. They swam in the river

1:13:36

fleet, which in

1:13:39

those days before San invitation, I'm

1:13:41

gonna say no, thank you. Mm-mm. Yeah. Especially

1:13:43

because there's no antibiotics either.

1:13:46

That's true. Charles

1:13:48

found her uncomplicated, fun. She was a

1:13:50

breezy person who saw him as a

1:13:54

man, a powerful man.

1:13:56

But a man, I mean, she

1:13:58

called his little brother, the Duke of York, called him dismal Jimmy. And

1:14:01

dismal Jimmy does

1:14:04

not really have a sense of humor,

1:14:06

but also still kind of liked her in that introvert way that people do. Like, I

1:14:08

will consent to be

1:14:11

in your orbit. Right. That

1:14:13

for him was might as well

1:14:15

like, you. And importantly, now had

1:14:18

zero opinions on policy. really

1:14:22

or how he should conduct himself on the world stage. Painter began to capture her portrait.

1:14:25

Was it a

1:14:28

true likeness I

1:14:30

don't know, but King Charles had

1:14:32

a relatively unclothed portrait of her hidden behind

1:14:34

a more respectable portrait in his chamber and

1:14:39

one Creeper Peeps had that same

1:14:42

picture behind a picture

1:14:44

at his workplace. She

1:14:46

was like a gas station

1:14:48

calendar She was completely

1:14:50

naked. What are you talking about? She's relatively unclosed.

1:14:52

She, like, had a piece

1:14:54

of fabric, and that was it.

1:14:59

That's true. Well, anyway, she was such

1:15:01

a fixture in his life like

1:15:03

a known, notable, regular

1:15:06

part of his existence. that

1:15:09

when the king's sister known as Monette who had grown up

1:15:11

at the court in France and she was

1:15:15

now a duchess, brought Nell gifts

1:15:18

and greetings. She also brought trouble though she didn't

1:15:23

ever know it. One of Monette's ladies

1:15:26

in waiting, a noble woman by the name of Louise De Caraway attracted

1:15:28

the king's attention.

1:15:31

No hijinks in suit, and

1:15:34

the lady left the country.

1:15:36

Yeah. Just wait

1:15:37

a minute. But now didn't have

1:15:39

to get involved in any of that

1:15:41

drama because she was pregnant. She was

1:15:43

pregnant with Charles' child and on May

1:15:45

eighth sixteen seventy at the

1:15:47

age of twenty, she

1:15:49

gave birth to the

1:15:52

king's son naming him Charles, one of

1:15:54

four sons of the king named Charles.

1:15:56

No. We say

1:15:59

that but you know how

1:16:01

many descendants of Queen Victoria are named to Victoria? A lot. Yes. Okay.

1:16:03

I mean, it makes sense. You name a child after

1:16:05

their father. It's very

1:16:08

traditional. Yeah. The

1:16:10

gifts for this baby rolled in from aristocrats from all over.

1:16:12

ambassadors in England

1:16:15

were giving her gifts for

1:16:19

this baby. That's how recognized she is

1:16:21

as his mistress. That's right.

1:16:23

And sadly, queen

1:16:25

Kath Thrienne is having miscarriage

1:16:28

after miscarriage, and she just

1:16:30

is unable to carry a

1:16:32

child to term. Young

1:16:34

Charles baby Charles was not given

1:16:36

a surname, not even the Fitzroy,

1:16:38

which means son of the king. The

1:16:40

code name that some of his

1:16:43

other half brothers and sisters were given at birth. Very interesting. Well,

1:16:48

Shortly after Charles' sister had returned home

1:16:50

to France, she died suddenly and her household was dispersed. Now,

1:16:56

possibly the French king saw

1:16:58

an opportunity because he wrote later, the English king is greatly influenced by his

1:17:01

women. So maybe

1:17:04

he placed Louise

1:17:06

here or maybe Charles reached out asking about Louise to care away. But either

1:17:11

way, she arrived soon

1:17:14

to be installed both in the

1:17:16

English queen's household. What a pattern -- Mhmm.

1:17:18

-- and also in King Charles' bed. I

1:17:20

don't get

1:17:23

any of this. Okay. And I guess maybe

1:17:25

no one was in love, but did no

1:17:27

one have feelings? Well,

1:17:30

okay. Luiz was very close to Pinette. She was

1:17:32

in her household for a very long

1:17:34

time. So Charles and Louise were

1:17:37

able to grieve together in a way that

1:17:39

Twin Katherine or Nell couldn't

1:17:41

support Charles during this

1:17:44

time. So I think

1:17:46

that's one of the reasons that they were drawn together.

1:17:48

And do I think the king

1:17:50

of France was behind it? Absolutely.

1:17:53

There's no question in my mind.

1:17:55

Yeah. Well, and know, maybe Nell did

1:17:57

have feelings of some sort,

1:18:00

number one for

1:18:03

self preservation because she looks at what has just

1:18:06

happened here and well, okay. Then so she decided

1:18:09

she was gonna go back to the

1:18:11

stage even as the mother of the king's child. And when asked

1:18:13

about it, she said, well, I

1:18:15

need to earn

1:18:18

money to live. Oh, said

1:18:20

the public. Was it a tactic?

1:18:22

I don't know. Yes, we know.

1:18:24

We know. And Charles bought

1:18:27

it. And he also bought her

1:18:29

a house. He rented her a house first. And then he

1:18:31

bought her a house -- Mhmm. -- across

1:18:33

the park from his

1:18:35

palace at Whitehall and

1:18:38

secured her a pension, tactic effective. Now for her entire life, it had to hustle

1:18:41

to, you

1:18:44

know, just survive and put

1:18:46

food on her table and clothes on her back. So going back to the theater, I think probably

1:18:48

had a lot of

1:18:50

appeal because she could feel

1:18:54

independent in case something would

1:18:56

happen where the king would dump her.

1:18:58

Because at this point, the king and

1:19:01

Barbara's relationship is

1:19:03

really fizzling out but he is such

1:19:05

a guy he gives her yet another title. At this point, his

1:19:07

parting gift to her is

1:19:10

the title of duchess of

1:19:12

Cleveland. and

1:19:14

he had given her Henry VIII's non

1:19:16

such palace, as well as a pension, and

1:19:18

he let her keep them. None

1:19:20

such palace, we always oh,

1:19:23

it was and it doesn't exist anymore. You

1:19:26

know why it doesn't exist? Because Barbara had it taken apart

1:19:28

piece by piece and

1:19:31

sold

1:19:31

to raise money. Mhmm.

1:19:32

So Barbara

1:19:33

is responsible for the death of that palace

1:19:35

of Henry the eights that we

1:19:37

will never see. Right. So we

1:19:39

don't like her. in

1:19:42

this story. When it's her story, we'll

1:19:44

love her. Yeah. I see where she

1:19:46

had to do that. She needed money.

1:19:49

Well, no. left her house lively with

1:19:51

musicians and actors and poets and writers. And the atmosphere was jolly

1:19:54

and light and the

1:19:57

King was drawn there to escape the

1:19:59

formalities of his palace and his court. So I guess Nell was

1:20:01

his what vacation girlfriend?

1:20:03

I don't know. There

1:20:07

were plenty of servants there to take care of them, a

1:20:09

nice garden, room for entertaining,

1:20:11

she took to

1:20:14

redecorating, like a duck to water. I mean, she'd never

1:20:16

had that opportunity before. Right. And

1:20:18

the major piece of furniture that

1:20:20

she had installed in her house was

1:20:22

custom made for the king and for

1:20:24

now. It was a bad

1:20:27

made of silver with carvings

1:20:30

of cupids and birds and the king. Some of the more cynical observers

1:20:32

wondered if she was

1:20:35

putting her money into valuable

1:20:39

metals because it was a pretty heavy bed.

1:20:41

Mhmm. And that's a way to

1:20:43

secure your future in

1:20:45

case something happened, but Whatever. She didn't care. It was

1:20:47

a one of a kind thing for a one of

1:20:49

a kind relationship. That's right. She even had

1:20:52

a pan

1:20:54

made that you put hot coals in and run it in the sheets

1:20:56

to warm up the sheets before you get into

1:20:58

it and it was made out of silver

1:21:00

and it was inscribed

1:21:02

and it said, fear God

1:21:05

serve the king. Oh, there you go.

1:21:07

She had she had floor to ceiling mirrors put in her reception area. I

1:21:09

mean, she liked

1:21:12

the sparkles. There's

1:21:14

no questions. She loved that bling. No. It was kind of

1:21:15

smart hair too. wanted to own the house on

1:21:18

paper, you know. She knew that the

1:21:20

king had

1:21:23

bought it so she could live there, but she wanted her name

1:21:25

on the deed. Her thinking was

1:21:27

that she wanted it to

1:21:30

be free from the crown

1:21:32

because she had been free with the

1:21:34

crown. And it took a couple years, but eventually the house

1:21:36

was put in

1:21:39

her own name solely. So

1:21:41

Nell did retire from her career in the theater at the

1:21:43

tender age of twenty one. We're

1:21:46

still at twenty one.

1:21:49

And within a year, she gave

1:21:51

birth her son his That's Probro, also

1:21:54

known as Disney Jimmy, You

1:21:58

know, I have to say he was probably touched by

1:22:00

that at some level. He was equal

1:22:02

parts absolutely repelled and intrigued by

1:22:05

her. Yeah. I know. Poor old thing.

1:22:07

Yeah. There was, however, a definite rivalry

1:22:10

between the Noble Louise

1:22:12

De Caraway and the

1:22:15

Orange Girl, Nell. Nell love

1:22:17

to poke at her and call her cartwheel like, whatever, or A

1:22:19

lot of people called her missus farewell

1:22:22

because they couldn't say her actual French

1:22:24

name. And

1:22:27

then anytime her taunts made the lady upset, she

1:22:30

would call her the weeping Willow.

1:22:32

But Louise

1:22:34

got her own back because Louise was given a suite of twenty

1:22:36

four rooms

1:22:37

at Whitehall Palace, Louise had been

1:22:39

made a

1:22:39

duchess. And it didn't

1:22:42

really matter that the public

1:22:45

hated Louise. The general public had hated Barbara

1:22:47

too. And now Louise, both

1:22:50

Catholic for one thing,

1:22:53

and not relatable for another. The people hated

1:22:55

Louise so much that at one point they saw

1:22:57

the king's carriage going through

1:23:00

the streets and

1:23:03

they started yelling at it thinking that

1:23:05

Louise was in it. Catholic core.

1:23:07

Catholic core. And it's

1:23:09

now in the carriage.

1:23:12

Not Louise, So she has

1:23:14

a driver stop. She pops her head out and she says, pray good people be I

1:23:17

am the

1:23:20

protestant or. And with that,

1:23:22

the crowd just started cheering. This was their girl. They were so happy.

1:23:24

That's how she was

1:23:27

viewed by the public. they

1:23:30

loved her. I just think it's so funny that

1:23:33

she talked to them like that. It just

1:23:35

asked for a laugh. Well, she's one

1:23:37

of them. You know, she's used to

1:23:39

talking to crowds from stage. It's like

1:23:41

one of hericides from the stage. The court, for the most

1:23:43

part, hated Louise too. By the

1:23:45

way, as an instrument

1:23:47

of the French, Another

1:23:50

diarist this time, a noble woman named Matam Stephanie wrote of Caraway.

1:23:52

Caraway saw well her

1:23:55

way and has made everything

1:23:58

she wished for come to pass. She wanted to

1:24:01

be the mistress of the king of England

1:24:03

and behold, he now shares her couch

1:24:05

before the eyes of the whole court. She wanted

1:24:07

to be rich and she's heaping up treasures and making herself

1:24:09

feared and courted, but she did

1:24:11

not foresee that a low actress was

1:24:13

to cross her path and to which

1:24:16

the king She's powerless to detach him.

1:24:18

He divides his money, his time, and his health between the pair.

1:24:20

The low actress is

1:24:22

as proud as the duchess.

1:24:25

whom she jeers at mimics and makes game of. She

1:24:27

braves her to her face and often takes the king away from her

1:24:29

and boast that she is the best

1:24:31

love of the two. She's

1:24:34

young of madcap Gaiti, brazen

1:24:36

debauched and ready with it.

1:24:39

That would take that as

1:24:41

such a compliment. A tiny bit

1:24:43

more Louise News. Once Louise thought

1:24:45

she was gonna be witty

1:24:48

and bring the heat And

1:24:50

so she looked at Nell one Nell a gown enough be a

1:24:52

queen. To Rich

1:24:56

Nell said, You

1:24:58

are right madam, and I

1:25:00

am whole enough to be a

1:25:02

duchess, and then she

1:25:03

courtsied

1:25:05

to the duchess. people

1:25:06

would not give Louise precedents sometimes.

1:25:09

She's a duchess, but

1:25:12

often women,

1:25:14

especially would say right to her face titles

1:25:16

that are the result of prostitution

1:25:18

are not recognized in polite society.

1:25:21

Uh-huh. Also, the king gave her syphilis. Poor Louise has had

1:25:23

a hard time. I know. Louise

1:25:25

was having a

1:25:28

tough time. but

1:25:30

laughing all the way to the

1:25:32

bank, I guess, decide what's important. Now something else

1:25:34

Louise got, both Louise' son and Barbara's eldest son

1:25:39

were made dukes, but not Nels.

1:25:41

Nels' son, for years, they

1:25:43

didn't even have last

1:25:45

names. They were just master Charles and

1:25:47

master James. And while she may

1:25:50

have wanted a title for

1:25:52

herself, she needed them

1:25:54

her sons to have titles.

1:25:56

and Charles could give them because

1:25:58

they were also his sons. Now Charles is very active in the lives

1:26:03

of these kids. one day he had come

1:26:06

over and Nell said to her son, Charles, come here you little bastard.

1:26:08

Your father wants

1:26:11

to see you. And Charles called her out

1:26:13

on it. You're calling our son a bastard. And she said, your majesty has

1:26:16

given me no other

1:26:18

name with which to call

1:26:20

him. A month later,

1:26:22

he was given the title of Earl of Burford Baron Heddington with a

1:26:26

surname of Bo Claire.

1:26:30

The younger son James was

1:26:32

not given a title. Maybe Charles had plans

1:26:34

to do that later, but he wasn't

1:26:36

a Fitzroy, and he wasn't a

1:26:38

Fitz Charles. he got to share the last name of his brother,

1:26:40

that being Bo Claire, so

1:26:42

James Bo Claire. So now

1:26:45

kept going to the theater as an audience

1:26:47

member and everyone would stand up and

1:26:49

cheer on stage two. In fact,

1:26:51

the theaters waved her

1:26:53

ticket fee She was so lucrative a draw, she brought

1:26:56

her wealthy friends, and she

1:26:58

brought the public. The livelier

1:27:00

members of court would all end

1:27:02

up at Nell's house alongside the livelier members of

1:27:04

the theater. How awesome is that? Sounds

1:27:06

like the best kind of rooftop party

1:27:09

in New York

1:27:11

City. It does. she loved to entertain.

1:27:13

She threw what she called supper parties. Peeps wrote out the menu for

1:27:16

one that

1:27:19

he had attended. Frickacy of rabbit and chickens, a

1:27:21

leg of mutton, boiled, three carp on a dish, a great

1:27:24

dish of side of

1:27:26

lamb, a dish of roasted

1:27:28

pigeons, a dish

1:27:30

of four Lobsters, three tarts, and a lamprey pie, a dish of

1:27:36

anchovies, All served on

1:27:38

Nell's solid silver serving pieces, embossed with the initials

1:27:43

e g. her

1:27:45

own initials. She had them

1:27:47

all over her silver. And you know,

1:27:49

people are seriously lacking in fiber. That's a

1:27:51

protein. And vitamin Like,

1:27:54

all

1:27:55

vitamins. Yeah. Maybe the

1:27:57

vegetables and

1:27:58

fruits were too

1:28:00

low to mention. and

1:28:02

the protein was the start of

1:28:04

the day, but I'm like, there's a garden out back,

1:28:06

you know. Yeah. Go eat a nestercym or something.

1:28:11

Holy moly. I always wonder that about old menus. Yeah.

1:28:13

I know I know but Elizabeth

1:28:15

the first was

1:28:18

very fond of but they called Salitt, SALLET

1:28:21

Mhmm. So maybe that had vegetables

1:28:23

in it or maybe it was

1:28:25

just a whole bunch of fish

1:28:27

eyes

1:28:27

with dressing. Who

1:28:29

knows? I don't know. But she is throwing

1:28:31

these parties, and Charles is there with

1:28:34

her at these parties.

1:28:37

And Charles is using her house as a

1:28:39

secret meeting place because Whitehall where he

1:28:42

lived, every room had

1:28:44

ears. but

1:28:46

at Nell's house, it didn't. So if

1:28:48

he ever needed to talk to somebody on

1:28:50

the sly, he just invited him over

1:28:52

to Nell's house, and she got

1:28:55

out her silver service. Well, nevertheless, peep this next sentence.

1:29:00

the

1:29:01

king got hold of a new

1:29:03

noble mistress? Yes. Which freaked Louise

1:29:08

out excessively But no, not

1:29:10

at all. It seems like she had her reputation. She had her house. She had her pension.

1:29:12

She had her people.

1:29:15

And this new lady wasn't

1:29:18

notorious bedhopper. So equal there, who

1:29:21

cares about a title, she can't claim

1:29:23

to be better than me. Right. She's nice

1:29:25

enough. What does it matter to

1:29:27

me? She actually dressed mockingly in

1:29:30

black to mourn Louise'

1:29:32

career. Yes.

1:29:36

She threw a lot of those

1:29:38

morning events where she

1:29:39

was in mourning for different

1:29:41

things, you know, just sliant back

1:29:43

by the king's personal life

1:29:46

at this point. Barbara

1:29:48

is

1:29:48

not so much around as

1:29:50

being paid, where her children were

1:29:52

there, He still had the queen

1:29:54

taking up his house. He still had Louise. He had this new woman named Hortense. And then

1:29:59

he had no. and he had the war in the background and he had all kind

1:30:01

of madness and the king's personal life was

1:30:03

sort of a circus. It's

1:30:06

his own fault. we can say. But once he asked Mel about it,

1:30:08

what should I do about all of

1:30:10

this, especially the battle between Louise

1:30:13

and Hortons? And

1:30:16

she said, to him.

1:30:18

Just put away your

1:30:20

codpiece, sir. Oh,

1:30:22

like that to a

1:30:24

king. problem solved. This is why he liked

1:30:26

her so much. I think she was casual and generous and and mostly

1:30:31

cheerful, you know. Here is, I am

1:30:33

just now thinking about this. Okay. So everyone else

1:30:35

is striving striving

1:30:39

striving striving And at any can look around her life

1:30:41

as it is. And then remember

1:30:43

how she grew

1:30:45

up, you know, and the difference she's realizing how very

1:30:47

good she had it. Mhmm. I think

1:30:50

at at every point. Yes. She

1:30:52

appreciated what she had,

1:30:54

whereas these other people were

1:30:56

social climbing and wealth climbing and she's

1:30:59

thinking I'm the luckiest person in the

1:31:03

world. are climbing. I'm at the top as far

1:31:05

as I'm concerned. It's a nice view from

1:31:08

here. You

1:31:10

know what I find? The big hero of this story. I'm just gonna throw here

1:31:12

is Queen Katherine. Because

1:31:14

she's tolerating all these

1:31:17

women. She's actually developing

1:31:19

a friendship with Nell. which

1:31:21

tells me a lot about not only Katherine, but about how Nell is with people,

1:31:23

you know? And Katherine

1:31:26

can see how much her

1:31:30

husband truly loves this woman. For whatever reason he's with all those others, but he's

1:31:32

himself and he's

1:31:35

a nice person and The

1:31:38

version of him with Nell is when she

1:31:40

liked. Yeah. I just keep wondering, man,

1:31:42

wouldn't that be a good scene in

1:31:45

a movie? I almost wonder, you know,

1:31:47

people do know when there's sincerity. I think -- Yeah. -- and I

1:31:49

think that Nell and the queen

1:31:51

had a similar Gosh.

1:31:55

They were so dissimilar, though. I mean, I know.

1:31:58

Yeah. But they had a similar

1:32:00

gentleness when it came to when the chips

1:32:02

were down. We know where the ones are.

1:32:04

Yeah. Yeah. And,

1:32:06

you know, the other women were out for themselves, and Katherine knew like

1:32:08

Katherine, was out to

1:32:11

keep protect the king. Yeah.

1:32:14

Yeah. Her the heart was in it. You said that

1:32:16

you could see that in a movie. I see this

1:32:19

as a series, a

1:32:19

television series. like

1:32:22

the tutors. There's so

1:32:23

many ways you can go with this. There's so many players, so many story lines, and

1:32:26

you can, you know,

1:32:29

show some nipple here and again. Season one would be fully Barbara though. It would

1:32:31

be Like, now not even come in oh,

1:32:34

I guess, on the stage. Yeah.

1:32:36

Yeah. So

1:32:39

Nell's doing, you know, developing herself and Barbara's

1:32:41

doing whatever it is.

1:32:44

Barbara does. We

1:32:47

all know. Taking charge of the

1:32:49

country. Yes. Get on this

1:32:51

HBO. That's right. Well, At

1:32:54

twenty nine, Nell suffered a blow. Her mother died. Unfortunately,

1:33:00

it was Not a very

1:33:02

dignified death. She was drowned in a ditch while walking

1:33:07

home in created, although it did get softened in

1:33:09

the public press to a fish pond. Mhmm. Later historians

1:33:12

are pretty sure it was a

1:33:14

ditch in the side of the road.

1:33:16

Yeah. Well, Nell's mother

1:33:18

had been cruel in some ways while Nell was a child. Nell was still

1:33:20

devoted to her.

1:33:23

So she decided for

1:33:26

her funeral. She would just go big. Like,

1:33:28

she had been in mourning as a joke. She was

1:33:30

just gonna throw this huge funeral for her mother.

1:33:34

a very elaborate funeral

1:33:36

procession starting from Cologuard Ali, which

1:33:38

is where they were when

1:33:40

Nell was a child, passed

1:33:42

the royal theater through Covington

1:33:45

to the church that

1:33:47

Maguen had attended as

1:33:49

this entourage that includes

1:33:51

all of Nell's friends, including Charles I and

1:33:53

Charles II and her theater

1:33:56

friends, as it stopped

1:33:58

at each of these locations, they

1:34:00

would pass out beer to the

1:34:02

people that were standing in the streets so that everybody could toast Ma I

1:34:08

love it. She's like, this is what

1:34:10

my mother would love. A stage production including beer. That's right. That's

1:34:13

right. I just wanna

1:34:15

be very clear that the

1:34:17

Charles to Susan referred

1:34:19

to is not the king.

1:34:22

Oh, right. Right. Yeah. So

1:34:24

Nells Charles the first, Charles Hart, and

1:34:26

Nells Charles the second. Yeah. As a matter of fact, we didn't mention

1:34:28

this before. And

1:34:31

Nell jokingly calls k, Charles

1:34:33

the second, Charles the third. Right. Because he's the third

1:34:35

Charles that she's had. So

1:34:38

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. hilarious.

1:34:42

very, very. Maguen was buried

1:34:44

at the church and now had a

1:34:46

monument made for her and it

1:34:48

said here lies interred the body

1:34:50

of Helen Agwinn, born in this parish who

1:34:53

departed this life twentieth of

1:34:55

July sixteen seventy

1:34:58

nine, in the fifty sixth year of

1:35:00

her age. She was fifty six.

1:35:02

I'm surprised she lived this long.

1:35:05

Yeah. She really

1:35:07

did suffer from alcoholism and a hard

1:35:10

life. Yeah. I am surprised she made it this long. I definitely

1:35:12

think, no, having

1:35:15

financially supported her, for

1:35:17

for a number of years, you know, providing food and

1:35:19

shelter helped extend her life

1:35:23

a bit. Yeah. So that

1:35:25

was definitely a tragedy, one that perhaps one might

1:35:28

have anticipated a

1:35:31

certain but it was the death of her

1:35:34

younger son, James, away with his

1:35:36

tutor in

1:35:39

Paris, age nine, That was the truest tragedy

1:35:42

of her life. This boy had been born on Christmas day, and often

1:35:44

there was a giant celebration

1:35:46

with the king celebrating both missed

1:35:50

day and this child's birthday. And for the rest of her days, this holiday gave her a stab

1:35:52

of pain. It was

1:35:54

too much to

1:35:55

bear. Mhmm.

1:35:57

And there's so much mystery

1:35:59

surrounding why James was in

1:36:02

Paris. Nobody knows what school

1:36:04

he attended. It sounds like he'd

1:36:06

gone to school at a very young

1:36:08

age, even younger than normal, to

1:36:10

be sent away to school. And

1:36:12

the only information we have of

1:36:14

his death is that he died of a sore leg. An infection?

1:36:17

Or Yeah. That's how I that's

1:36:19

what I thought. But we

1:36:21

don't know where he's

1:36:24