The King's Bed by Don Jordan

Author:Don Jordan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus
Published: 2016-04-30T16:00:00+00:00

* The children were: Lady Anne FitzRoy, 1661; Charles FitzRoy, 1662; Henry FitzRoy, 1663; Charlotte FitzRoy, 1664; George FitzRoy, 1665.

13

THEATRICAL RIVALS

The year 1668 began with scandal and proceeded to rioting, with mobs on the streets of London protesting at the licentiousness of the court.

In January, gossip spread regarding one of the King’s mistresses. It was reported that Moll Davis had quit the stage to become Charles’s full-time concubine. The irrepressible Pepys learned the news from actress Elizabeth Knepp. She informed him that a house had been furnished for the actress, ‘the king being in love with’ Moll. Soon Moll was seen sporting a ring rumoured to have cost the enormous sum of £600. As for Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth revealed that it had been some time since the King had sent for her.

And so it looked as if Moll had well and truly won the battle of the actresses, although in January the King was reported by Samuel Pepys to have sent ‘several times for Nelly’. It isn’t known if these invitations were merely for the purpose of being entertained by Nell’s singing and dancing, or for something more intimate, but it’s thought that Nell was not yet the King’s mistress.

In the New Year, the court had made another of its periodic visits to Tunbridge Wells, the spa town forty miles from London famous for its medicinal mineral waters and bracing social scene. The King and Queen had a particular motive in going to ‘the Wells’ as the waters were said to have properties that encouraged conception.

While the Queen still hoped for pregnancy, there were entertainments to divert the royal party from their previous disappointments. The theatre companies had learned that it was good for business to put on shows at Tunbridge Wells during the summer season. Even during the winter, the stars would turn up to give solo performances or appear with much reduced companies of players. And so in the cold days of early 1668, Moll Davis went to the Wells. She had a song-and-dance routine entitled ‘My Lodging is on the Cold Ground’, which she performed in front of the King and Queen in such a brazenly come-hither manner that the Queen got up and left the room. The King also rose and took Moll to bed. John Downes, the theatre’s prompt, in his memoirs remarked that the performance had been so effective it had ‘raised the fair songstress from the cold ground to the bed royal’.

The King’s love life was proceeding so urgently that Pepys found it hard to keep up. On 14 January, he recorded the gossip on the previous night’s entertainment at a command performance in front of the King. According to the diarist’s informants, various gentlemen and ladies of the court, including the Duke of Monmouth, performed a play called The Indian Emperor. Among those present were the King, ‘my lady Castlmayne’ and Moll, who flashed about the famous jewel-encrusted ring – now said to have cost £700 – while telling everyone it was a present from the King.

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