{"product_id":"9781509877072","title":"Mistresses : Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II","description":"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor:  Porter, Linda \u003c\/h3\u003e\u003ch4\u003eUnited Kingdom, Great Britain\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003ch5\u003ePublished on 15 April 2021 by Pan Macmillan (Picador) in the United Kingdom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePaperback | 304 pages, 16pp colour plates\u003cbr\u003e129 x 196 x 23 | 234g\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h5\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAccording 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMistresses 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 Kéroualle, 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cobham Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55491411018114,"sku":"9781509877072","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0569\/4567\/2367\/files\/9781509877072.jpg?v=1753746184","url":"https:\/\/www.cobhambooks.pro\/products\/9781509877072","provider":"Cobham Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}