The Perfect Royal Mistress (2007) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

• Eleanor - Nell- Gwynne: b. 1650, d.1687. Sixteen as the novel starts, Nell, born in the slums of Caol Yard Ally, London, and brought up in a brothel, is determined NOT to follow her mother and sister's steps into the oldest profession. Copper colored curls, green eyes, a sassy tongue, and a quick wit help to make her way from a lowly orange seller to actress and beyond
• Helena Gwynne: Nell's drunken, gluttonous mother. A whore plying her trade on Pudding Lane
• Rose Gwynne: Nell's older sister, stole and became a prostitute to enable Nell and her to survive - freed from Newgate prison for theft by Charles' order, but weakened and with a lingering cough from her year-long stay in prison
• Patrick Gound: barman of the Cock & Pye
• Charles II of England: b. 1630, became Protestant King of England in 1660, d. 1685. Haunted by nightmares of his royal father's beheading, and his own long poverty-ridden exile, pleasure-seeking Charles is always looking for a woman with an honest heart whom he can love and will love him back for himself. Tall, handsome, sentimental, ebony mustached and swarthy complexioned athlete with a ceaseless appetite for women. Medici background.
• George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Kings oldest and closest friend, who craves power and control. Schemes with everyone. He is the only one who stands up to the king, and tells him the truth - often to his own detriment."more greed than sense, and more ambition than lust"
• James, the Duke of York: Charles II's brother and heir, though he is Catholic. England's Lord High Admiral.
• Earl of Arlington: Secretary of State. Opponent and enemy of Buckingham for power. Tight-faced little man, unscrupulously ambitious
• Barbara Palmer, Lady Castlemaine: Charles' honey-haired, powerful long-time mistress and mother to six of his children. Acquisitive and demanding. Has lovers among Charles' closest friends and family
• Lady Frances Stuart: Young woman resisting Charles attempts to bed her. Elopes with the Duke of Richmond.
• Moll Davies: Bawdy actress at the Duke's Theater, mistress to Charles, and mother to a son of his. Behaves like a Maypole Alley whore - reminds Nell that a mistress's place is never fully secure
• James Scott, Duke of Monmouth: Charles' oldest illegitimate son whose mother, Lucy Walter is dead, youthful lover of Lady Castlemaine, often projected as a prospective heir, if he could be made legitimate
• Queen Catherine: plain-faced, small-boned, barren Portuguese wife of Charles II - unable to bear a living child and heir to the throne despite frequent pregnancies and subsequent miscarriages. Religious Catholic with unrelenting prayers.
• Thomas Clifford: Protege of the Duke of Buckingham
• Earl of Clarendon: gout-ridden, cantankerous Lord Chancellor who was a great supporter of Charles II's father, Charles I. His Daughter Anne is married to the King's brother, James.
• John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale: Rough-tongued, barrel-chested Scottish Duke, Part of Charles II's Privy Council
• Orange Moll - Mary Meggs: Organizes the girls to sell produce outside and inside The King's Theater. Gives Nell a chance to work inside where the sales and profits are higher.
• Thomas Killigrew: Playwright and manager of the King's Theater
• Mr. Charles Hart: Star, lead actor and a principal manager at the King's Theater. Boasts he is grandnephew of William Shakespeare. Abuses Nell
• Richard Bell: Gofer and street crown actor at the King's Theater who befriends and helps Nell
• Mr. John Dryden: Playwright for the King's Theater
• Charles Sackville, Lord Buckhurst: Kind, auburn-haired, blue-eyed, handsome dandy, but also a dissolute, rogue, but with a kind heart. Son of an old and distinguished family.
• Louis XIV: King of France
• Minette - Princess Henrietta Anne: Charles II and James' sister, married to the brother of the King of France, the Duke of Orléans - who is a perverted husband to her. Charles's favorite relative; they share a very close brother-sister bond
• William Chaffinch: Keeper of Charles II's Privy Closet, procurer of his ladies of the night. He and his wife, Mary, who is a royal seamstress who befriend Nell
• Beck Marshall: Actress at the King's Theater who befriends Nell.
• John Wilmont, Lord Rochester: a libertine and reprobate. Friend of Lord Buckhurst. Poet of sexually explicite nature, appreciated by Charles II
• Sir Charles Sedley: One of Buckhurst's dissolute crowd, a wealthy libertine
• Sir Thomas Ogle: One of Buckhurst's dissolute crowd, wealthy libertine
• Jeddy: a motherless little black girl of Lord Buckhurst's given to Nell, does not speak, comes to be like a daughter to Nell
• Captain John Cassells: guardsman to the king's eldest son, the Duke of Monmouth, and suitor to Nell's sister Rose
• Louise de Kéroualle: Chaste, haughty French girl, of an impoverished noble family, one of Minette's ladies. Later sent to England for Charles. Wants to be his Queen...but only bears his child. Court thinks her a French spy and call her the "Carwell woman," Nells calls her the "Weeping Willow" - one of Nell's only real rivals
• Thomas Osborne, Earl of Danby: Replaced Thomas Clifford as Lord High Treasurer after the Test Act
• Hortense Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin: Adolescent love of Charles II and the first woman he had wanted to marry. One of his three main mistresses

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• London: in 1666, a year after the Plague, and immediately after the Great Fire.
• Drury Lane: London theater district
• King's Theater: on Drury Lane - a great stone and brick building
• Cock & Pye: Tavern where Nell rents a small garret under the eaves
• Whitehall Palace: King's palace in London
• Newmarket: Race track town where the nobility go to get out of London's heat
• Hampton Court: Palace originally built for Cardinal Wolsey which passed to Henry VIII. about 12 miles SW of London in Richmond upon Thames
• Bath: fashionable spa town where people go to take the waters

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Diane Haeger (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813.54

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

More Books Like This edit see section history