Mistresses. Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II: Linda Porter

According to the great diarist, John Evelyn, Charles II was `addicted to women`, and throughout his long reign a great many succumbed to his charms. Clever, urbane and handsome, Charles presided over a hedonistic court, in which licence and licentiousness prevailed.

Mistresses is the story of the women who shared Charles`s bed, each of whom wielded influence on both the politics and cultural life of the country. From the young king-in-exile`s first mistress and mother to his first child, Lucy Walter, to the promiscuous and ill-tempered courtier, Barbara Villiers. From Frances Teresa Stuart, `the prettiest girl in the world` to history`s most famous orange-seller, `pretty, witty` Nell Gwynn and to her fellow-actress, Moll Davis, who bore the last of the king`s fifteen illegitimate children. From Louise de Keroualle, the French aristocrat - and spy for Louis XIV - to the sexually ambiguous Hortense Mancini. Here, too, is the forlorn and humiliated Queen Catherine, the Portuguese princess who was Charles`s childless queen.

Drawing on a wide variety of original sources, including material in private archives, Linda Porter paints a vivid picture of these women and of Restoration England, an era that was both glamorous and sordid.