that'll show 'em
Exclusive: Majority of British people found to have ‘shockingly little’ knowledge about Black British history
“Emancipate!” That was the cry of socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg who was born a Polish Jew and devoted her life to improving the plight of workers around the world through her political the…
Sometimes it can seem as though the more we think we know a historical figure, the less we actually do. Helen Keller? We’ve all seen (or think we’ve seen) some version of The Miracle Worker, right?—even if we haven’t actually read Keller’s autobiography. And Mark Twain?
A new book features a century of photos of people picking up yarn and a pair of needles and getting their knit on.
While I am one of the BIGGEST proponents for using technology in the class, I have noticed that kids are not as social as they used to be when it comes to simple things like playing games together. My son, who is autistic, can play by himself on computers, iPads, and his Nintendo DS.…
Most of us know almost all of the names on this list, no matter whether we learned them in elementary school or saw a very interesting {{DIS:History Channel}} documentary about them. Abraham Lincoln, Jesse James, Harriet Tubman, and more are all some of the most iconic figures from American history.
Originally posted on Weebly 12/28/2012 When I had finally finished my Constitutional Convention unit I wanted a really great culminating a...
Civil War - WTF Fun Fact
History is an endless source of adventure — just picture the bold battles, revolutionary events, and celebrated figures of our past. Sure, they might seem distant at first, but they also offer great insight into what shaped our world today.
Who are the most influential figures in American history? We asked 10 eminent historians. The result, collected here, is The Atlantic’s 100 picks. (More on America’s most influential filmmakers, musicians, critics, architects, and poets—and how we put these lists together—below.)
Eleanor "Nell" Gwyn (or Gwynn or Gwynne) (1650 - 14 November 1687), was one of the earliest English actresses to receive prominent recognition, and a long-time mistress of King Charles II. Called "pretty, witty Nell" by Samuel Pepys, she has been called a living embodiment of the spirit of Restoration England and has come to be considered a folk heroine, with a story echoing the rags-to-royalty tale of Cinderella. Elizabeth Howe, in The First English Actresses, says she was "the most famous Restoration actress of all time, possessed of an extraordinary comic talent."[1] By Charles, Nell had two sons, Charles Beauclerk (1670-1726) and James Beauclerk (1671-1680). Charles was the first Earl of Burford, later Duke of St. Albans. Very little is reliably known about Nell Gwyn's background. Her mother was Helena (or perhaps Eleanor) Gwyn, née Smith; contemporaries referred to her as "Old Madam Gwyn" or simply "Madam Gwyn". Madam Gwyn was born within the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, and is thought to have lived most of her life in the city. She is believed by most Gwyn biographers to have been low-born; Beauclerk calls this conjecture, based solely on what is known of her later life. Nell Gwyn's father was, according to most sources, Thomas Gwyn, a Captain in the Cavalier Army during the English Civil War.[2] Three cities make the claim to be Nell Gwyn's birthplace: Hereford, London (specifically Covent Garden), and Oxford. Evidence for any one of the three is scarce.[3] The fact that "Gwyn" is a name of Welsh origin might support Hereford, as its county is on the border with Wales; The Dictionary of National Biography notes a traditional belief that she was born there in Pipe Well Lane, renamed to Gwynne Street in the 19th century. London is the simplest choice, perhaps, since Nell's mother was born there and that is where she raised her children. Alexander Smith's 1715 Lives of the Court Beauties says she was born in Coal Yard Alley in Covent Garden and other biographies, including Wilson's, have followed suit. Beauclerk pieces together circumstantial evidence to favor an Oxford birth. The location may remain a mystery, but the time does not: a horoscope cast for Nell Gwyn pinpoints it as Saturday 2 February 1650, at six o'clock in the morning.[4] One way or another, Nell's father seems to have been out of the picture by the time of her childhood in Covent Garden, and her mother was left in a low situation. Old Madam Gwyn was by most accounts an obese brandy-swigging alcoholic whose business was running a bawdy house (a brothel). There, or in the bawdy house of one Madam Ross, Nell would spend at least some time. It is possible she worked herself as a child prostitute; Peter Thomson, in the Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, says it is "probable". A rare mention of her upbringing from the source herself might be seen to contradict the idea: A 1667 entry in Samuel Pepys' diary records, second-hand, Here Mrs. Pierce tells me [...] that Nelly and Beck Marshall, falling out the other day, the latter called the other my Lord Buckhurst's whore. Nell answered then, "I was but one man's whore, though I was brought up in a bawdy-house to fill strong waters to the guests; and you are a whore to three or four, though a Presbyter's praying daughter!" which was very pretty.[5] It is not out of the question that Gwyn was merely echoing the satirists of the day, if she said this at all. Various anonymous verses are the only other sources describing her childhood occupations: bawdyhouse servant, street hawker of herring, oysters or turnips, and cinder-girl have all been put forth.[6] Tradition has her growing up in Coal Yard Alley, a poor slum off Drury Lane. Around 1662, Nell is said to have taken a lover by the name of Duncan or Dungan. Their relationship lasted perhaps two years and was reported with obscenity-laced acidity in several later satires. ("For either with expense of purse or p---k, / At length the weary fool grew Nelly-sick".[7]) Duncan provided Gwyn with rooms at a tavern in Maypole Alley, and the satires also say he was involved in securing Nell a job at the theatre being built nearby. Charles II had been restored to the English throne in 1660, after a decade of protectorate rule by the Cromwells, when pastimes regarded as frivolous, including theatre, had been banned. One of Charles' early acts as King was to license the formation of two acting companies, and in 1663 the King's Company, led by Thomas Killigrew, opened a new playhouse, the Theatre in Bridges Street (later rebuilt and renamed the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane). Mary Meggs, a former prostitute nicknamed "Orange Moll" and a friend of Madam Gwyn's, had been granted the licence to "vend, utter and sell oranges, lemons, fruit, sweetmeats and all manner of fruiterers and confectioners wares" within the theatre.[8] Orange Moll hired Nell and her older sister Rose as "orange-girls", selling the small, sweet "china" oranges to the audience inside the theatre for a sixpence each. The work exposed her to multiple aspects of theatre life and to London's higher society: this was after all the "King's playhouse" and Charles frequently enough attended the performances. The orange-girls would also serve as messengers between men in the audience and actresses backstage; they received monetary tips for this role and certainly some of these messages would end in sexual assignations. Whether this activity rose to the level of pimping may be a matter of semantics. Some sources think it also likely that Gwyn prostituted herself during her time as an orange-girl. The new theatres were the first in England to feature actresses; earlier, women's parts were played by boys or men. Gwyn joined the rank of actresses at Bridges Street when she was fourteen, less than a year after becoming an orange-girl. If her good looks, strong clear voice, and lively wit were responsible for catching the eye of Killigrew, she still had to prove herself clever enough to succeed as an actress. This was no mean task in the Restoration theatre; the limited pool of audience members meant that very short runs were the norm for plays and fifty different productions might be mounted in the nine-month season lasting from September to June.[10] Gwyn was illiterate her entire life (signing her initials "E.G." would be the extent of her ability to read or write), adding an extra complication to the memorisation of her lines. Late in 1667, George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham took on the role of unofficial manager for Gwyn's love life. He aimed to provide King Charles II someone who would move aside Barbara Palmer, his principal current mistress (and Buckingham's cousin), moving Buckingham closer to King's ear. The plan failed; reportedly, Gwyn asked £500 a year to be kept and this was rejected as too dear a price. Buckingham had a backup, though: he was also involved in successful maneuvers to match the King with Moll Davis, an actress with the rival Duke's Company.[25] Davis would be Nell's first rival for the King. Several anonymous satires from the time relate a tale of Gwyn, with the help of her friend Aphra Behn, slipping a powerful laxative into Davis' tea-time cakes before an evening when she was expected in the king's bed.[26] Romance between the King and Gwyn began in April of 1668, if the stories are correct: Gwyn was attending a performance of George Etherege's She Wou'd if She Cou'd at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the next box was the King, who from accounts was more interested in flirting with Nell than watching the play. Charles invited Nell and her date (a Mr. Villiers, a cousin of Buckingham's) to supper, along with his brother James, the Duke of York. The anecdote turns charming if perhaps apocryphal at this point: the King, after supper, discovered that he had no money on him; nor did his brother. Gwyn had to foot the bill. "Od's fish!" she exclaimed, in an imitation of the King's manner of speaking, "but this is the poorest company I ever was in!"[27] Previously having been the mistress of Charles Hart and Charles Sackville, she jokingly titled the King "her Charles the Third". By the summer of 1668, Gwyn's affair with the King was well-known, though there was little reason to believe it would last for long. She continued to act at the King's House, her new notoriety drawing larger crowds and encouraging the playwrights to craft more roles specifically for her. June 1668 found her in Dryden's An Evening's Love, or The Mock Astrologer, and in July she played in Lacy's The Old Troop. This was a farce about a company of Cavalier soldiers during the English Civil War, based on Lacy's own experiences. Possibly, Nell Gwyn's father had served in the same company, and Gwyn's part — the company whore — was based on her own mother.[28] As her commitment to the king increased, though, her acting career slowed, and she had no recorded parts between January and June of 1669, when she played Valeria in Dryden's very successful tragedy Tyrannick Love.[29] King Charles II had a considerable number of mistresses through his life, both short affairs and committed arrangements. He also had a wife, the Queen consort Catherine of Braganza, who was in an awkward position in several ways: made pregnant, she consistently miscarried, and she had little or no say over Charles' choice to have mistresses. This had come to a head shortly after their 1662 marriage, in a confrontation between Catherine and Barbara Palmer that became known as the "Bedchamber crisis". Ostracised at court and with most of her retinue sent back to her home nation of Portugal, Catherine had been left with little choice but to acquiesce to Charles' mistresses being granted semi-official standing. During Gwyn's first years with Charles, there was little competition in the way of other mistresses: Barbara Palmer was on her way out in most respects certainly in terms of age and looks and others, such as Moll Davis, kept quietly away from the spotlight of public appearances or Whitehall. Nell gave birth to her first son, Charles, on 8 May 1670. This was the King's seventh son — by five separate mistresses. In February 1671, Nell moved into a brick townhouse at 79 Pall Mall.[32] The property was owned by the crown and its current resident was instructed to transfer the lease to Gwyn. It would be her main residence for the rest of her life. Gwyn seemed unsatisfied with being a leasee only – in 1673 we are told in a letter of Joseph Williamson that "Madam Gwinn complains she has no house yett." Gwyn is said to have complained that "she had always conveyed free under the Crown, and always would; and would not accept [the house] till it was conveyed free to her by an Act of Parliament." In 1676, Gwyn would in fact be granted the freehold to the property, which would remain in her family until 1693; as of 1960 the property was still the only one on the south side of Pall Mall not owned by the Crown. Nell Gwyn gave birth to her second child by the King, James, on 25 December 1671. Sent to school in Paris when he was six, he would die there in 1681. The circumstances of the child's life in Paris and the cause of his death are both unknown, one of the few clues being that he died "of a sore leg", which Beauclerk (p. 300) speculates could mean anything from an accident to poison. There are two variations about how the elder of her two children by Charles was given the Earldom of Burford, both of which are unverifiable: The first (and most popular) is that when Charles was six years old, on the arrival of the King, Nell said, "Come here, you little bastard, and say hello to your father." When the King protested her calling Charles that, she replied, "Your Majesty has given me no other name by which to call him." In response, Charles made him the Earl of Burford. Another is that Nell grabbed Charles and hung him out of a window (or over a river) and threatened to drop him unless Charles was granted a peerage. The King cried out "God save the Earl of Burford!" and subsequently officially created the peerage, saving his son's life. On 21 December 1676, a warrant was passed for "a grant to Charles Beauclerc, the King's natural son, and to the heirs male of his body, of the dignities of Baron of Heddington, co.Oxford, and Earl of Burford in the same county, with remainder to his brother, James Beauclerc, and the heirs male of his body." [33] A few weeks later, James was given "the title of Lord Beauclerc, with the place and precedence of the eldest son of an earl." [33] Shortly afterwards, the King granted Burford House, on the edge of the Home Park in Windsor, to Nell and their son. She lived there when the King was in residence at the Castle. In addition to the properties mentioned above, Nell had a summer residence on the site of what is now 61-63 King's Cross Road, which enjoyed later popularity as the Bagnigge Wells Spa. According to the London Encyclopedia (Macmillan, 1983) she "entertained Charles II here with little concerts and breakfasts". An inscribed stone of 1680, saved and reinserted in the front wall of the present building, shows a carved mask which is probably a reference to her stage career. Just after the death of Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans at the turn of the year, on 5 January 1684, King Charles granted his son Charles, Earl of Burford, the title of Duke of St Albans, gave him an allowance of £1,000 a year, and granted him the offices of Chief Ranger of Enfield Chace and Master of the Hawks in reversion (i. e. after the death of the current incumbents). King Charles died on 6 February 1685. James II, obeying his brother's deathbed wish, "Let not poor Nelly starve," eventually paid most of Gwyn's debts off and gave her a pension of 1500 pounds a year. He also paid off the mortgage on Gwyn's Nottinghamshire lodge in Bestwood, which would remain in the Beauclerk family until 1940.[35] At the same time, James applied pressure to Nell and her son Charles to convert to Roman Catholicism, something she resisted. In March of 1687, Gwyn suffered a stroke that left her paralysed on one side. In May, a second stroke left her confined to the bed in her Pall Mall house; she made out her will on 9 July. Nell Gwyn died on 14 November 1687, at ten in the evening, less than three years after the King's death. She was 37 years old. Although she left considerable debts, she left a legacy to the Newgate prisoners in London. She was buried in the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London, after a funeral in which Thomas Tenison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, preached a sermon on the text of Luke 15:7 "Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."
The story of the self-made man embodies the goal of every man: to become the captain of his own destiny.
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Sappho short biography | Lesbos her place of birth | her poetry and what we can know about this early female poet.
Here are 3 ways how Marie Curie would ask women in STEM fields to meet the challenge of overcoming impediments to a woman’s success.
You know their inspiring—and infamous—stories. But did these awesome historical figures ever really exist? The jury's still out.
Abandoned and imprisoned, this real-life Amazon took back the life she had stolen away.
History is replete with tales of evil people performing evil acts. Sadly they are so many in number that Listverse has been able to feature many top 10 lists of evil humans - men, women, and even children. This list looks at ten people from history who were especially cruel and who, in many cases, are remembered for that reason alone.
Novelist. Born in the parish of Cripplegate, as Daniel Foe, adding the 'de' latter, for effect. Published 'Robinson Crusoe' in 1719, considered by some to be the first novel in English. His grave with monument is in Bunhill Fields.
