{"product_id":"mistresses","title":"Mistresses","description":"\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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eMistresses \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\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":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57315415097726,"sku":"NW9781509877072","price":11.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9781509877072.jpg?v=1778688001","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/mistresses","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}