Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn: A Brief Chronology

1650 February – Eleanor Gwyn is born to Welsh parents Helena Smith and Captain Thomas Gwyn

Early 1650s – Nell’s father dies, leaving her mother to raise support young daughters, Nell and her sister Rose. A life of prostitution followed, and  before long MRs. Gwyn was running her own bawdy house.

1660 Charles II returns to London in the restoration of the monarchy

1660 August – Charles granted permission to the playwrights Sir William Davenant and Sir Thomas Killigrew to establish two separate companies Duke's and King's Companies, respectively.

1663 – A new theater built by Killigrew, between Bridges Street and Drury Lane, opens

1663 – Nell and her sister Rose obtain jobs as orange girls, from a friend of their mother, “Orange Moll” who was granted the license to sell fruit at the King’s Company theater. The job required the ability to banter with the audience as well as perform as a go-between between the gallants and masked ladies in the audience or actresses backstage. Nell excelled at this and created a name for herself.

1664 – Killligrew takes an interest in Nell and introduces her to two of his best actors John Lacy and Charles Hart. They took her under their wings and helped to train her for the stage.

1664 – Nell begins an affair with Charles Hart, her Charles I

1665 March – First recorded stage appearance as Montezuma’s daughter, Cydaria in Dryden’s Indian Emperor, a serious part, which she did not play very well.

1666 September – Great Fire of London burns down 80% of the city.

1666 November – Theatres reopen after the fire. Nell plays Lady Wealthy in James Howard's comedy The English Monsieur. Over the next four months, Nell plays 7-10 roles.

1667 – Nell plays Florimel in Dryden's Secret Love, or the Maiden Queen,  Pepy’s is so smitten with her performance that he writes: "so great a performance of a comical part was never, I believe, in the world before.....so done by Nell her merry part as cannot be better done in nature"

1667 – Begins a friendship with Aphra Behn that will last until her death.

1667 April–August – Nell has an affair with Charles, Lord Buckhurst (second Charles), who was one of the original court wits, a true gallant. He takes her away to the fashionable spa town of Epsom for the summer. A typical rake, he tires of her after a few months.

1667 – Nell plays Flora in Flora’s Vagaries.

1668 – Nell plays a prank on Moll Davis, a fellow actress and rival for the King’s affections. Knowing Moll will be dining with Charles that night, Nell feeds her some sweetmeats laced with a laxative.

1668 April – Nell goes to a play with a Mr. Villiers in the King’s box. Charles flirts with her all night and the three go out to dinner. Several accounts note that when it came time to pay, Charles had no money on him. In one story, Nell is said to have paid the bill herself, teasing the King, and using his favorite expletive in the process “Od’s fish! But this is the poorest company I ever was in!” She became his mistress soon after.

1668 Nell’s busiest year in the theater, as more playwrights wanted to write for her. She played Donna Jacinta in An Evening’s Love, Dol Troop in The Old Troop, Lysette in Damoiselles a la Mode, and as an amazon in Caitline’s Conspiracy.

1669 – Nell’s stage career is winding down

1670 – First son by Charles II, Charles Beauclerk born
1670 – Charles begins an affair with Louise de Keroualle, who Nell nicknames 'Squintabella' 
1670 December – Return to the stage as Almahide, queen of the Moors, in Dryden's The Conquest of Granada.

1671 – Second son by Charles, James Beauclerk, born.
1672 – King's theater burns down, reopens in a new building designed by Christopher Wren in 1674

1677 – Nell performs as Angelica Bianca in Behn’s Rover.

1679 – Aphra Behn dedicates her The Feign'd Courtesans to Nell noting "so well you bear the honours you were born for, with a greatness so unaffected, and affability so easy, an humour so soft, so far from pride or vanity..."
1679 – Mrs. Gwynn falls into a pond, presumably drunk, and drowns.
1680 - Eight year old James dies of "a sore leg".

1685 – Charles dies.

1687 – Nell dies at 37 from the pox.