🎧 Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II
Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧
•
24m
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.
Up Next in Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧
-
🎧 Sex and Socialism with Professor Kr...
Did people have better sex under socialism? The answer is probably yes, and Dan talks to Kristen Ghodsee to find out why, also discussing why young people are having less sex and the Soviet approach to gender equality. Image credit: Adam Jones
-
🎧 Sex in Pandemics
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...
-
🎧 The Road to American Politics
10 years after the expulsion of the British, leading US figures including Washington, Hamilton and Jefferson came together to draw up plans for governing the world's newest country. But what should the role of a President be and how should American politics function? I was thrilled to be joined b...
