Nell Gwyn ('Madam Elinora Gwÿnne')

1 portrait of Nell Gwyn

by Abraham de Blois, published by Nicolaes Visscher II, after Sir Peter Lely
mezzotint, (1670s)
8 1/4 in. x 6 1/4 in. (210 mm x 158 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D2543

Sitterback to top

Eleanor ('Nell') Gwyn (1651?-1687), Actress; mistress of Charles II. Sitter associated with 30 portraits.

Artistsback to top

Abraham de Blois (active 1679-1720), Engraver and mezzotinter. Artist or producer associated with 6 portraits.
Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), Portrait painter. Artist or producer associated with 843 portraits, Sitter in 19 portraits.
Nicolaes Visscher II (1649-1702), Publisher. Artist or producer associated with 20 portraits.

Subject/Themeback to top

Mezzotint

Events of 1670back to top

Current affairs

Charles II mistress, Barbara Villiers, is created Duchess of Cleveland and granted Nonsuch Palace including its sizeable grounds.
Actress and royal mistress, Nell Gwyn, gives birth to Charles II's son, Charles, who would later become, Duke of St. Albans.

Art and science

Tragicomedy, The Forc'd Marriage, by Aphra Behn, staged by the Duke's Company, starts Behn's career as a professional writer. The writer may have been a royalist spy towards the end of the interregnum.
Poet laureate, John Dryden, is made historiographer royal, a post he would hold for nearly 20 years.

International

Terms of a secret treaty between Charles II and Louis XIV are brought by Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans during a visit to Dover; upon England supplying the majority of military power for a war against Holland and Charles's official conversion to Catholicism, France would assist financially.

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