According to John Evelyn, the great diarist, Charles II was ‘addicted to women’. Charles' court is infamous for tales of licentiousness and promiscuity, and I was thrilled to be joined by Linda Porter who introduced me to Charles' impressive list of mistresses. There was Frances Teresa Stuart, ‘the prettiest girl in the world’, Barbara Villiers, an ill-tempered courtier, ‘pretty, witty’ Nell Gwynn, Moll Davis, who bore the last of the king’s fifteen illegitimate children and Louise de Kéroualle, the French aristocrat – and spy for Louis XIV. And trapped in the middle of it all was Queen Catherine, the Portuguese princess, who was far from the childless, forlorn and humiliated figure we have come to imagine. Linda argues that she was likeable and resilient, and a leading cultural figure of the day.
I invited Kate Lister to join me after the enormous popularity of her last appearance on the pod. But this time we talked about how our sexual habits are both dulled and invigorated in unprecedented times - wars, plagues, pandemics. We discussed licentious widows who let loose during plagues, the...
Dr Chris Laoutaris talked to Dan about Shakespeare and love at our History Hit Live event at the British academy. Their discussion doesn't just limit itself to love in the upstart crow's plays, but to his own personal affairs and sexual proclivities.
Suzie Grogan talks about the 'hidden illness' of World War One, now better known as shellshock or PTSD. Dan chats with her about the initial reception to cases of shellshock and how diagnoses changed as we understood the problem better over time.
