Moll Davis | |
|---|---|
 Portrait after Sir Peter Lely | |
| Born | c. 1648 Westminster, London, England |
| Died | 1708 London, England |
| Burial place | St Anne's Church, Soho, London |
| Occupations |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | Mary, Countess of Derwentwater |
Mary "Moll" Davis (c. 1648 – 1708), also spelt Davies or Davys, was a courtesan and mistress of King Charles II of England. She was an actress and entertainer before and during her role as royal mistress.
Mary Davis was born in Westminster, as a presumed illegitimate child of Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Berkshire. The eminent diarist Samuel Pepys wrote of Mary as "… a bastard of Collonell Howard, my Lord Barkeshire." [1] Her parentage is also attributed to Thomas' elder brother Charles Howard. [2] Mary's birth is often contradicted,[ who? ] though it is believed to be around 1648.
In 1663 Mary had installed herself as an actress in the Duke's Theatre Company, and boarded with the company's manager, Sir William Davenant. [3] There she quickly became a popular singer, dancer and comedian, [4] and began using the name "Moll". Although Samuel Pepys wrote good tidings about Moll, [5] [6] [7] his wife Elisabeth claimed her to be "the most impertinent slut in the world". [7]
Moll had met King Charles II in a theatre or a coffeehouse in 1667,[ citation needed ] and soon became his mistress—for her beauty and charm.[ citation needed ] As a mistress, she was said to have flaunted the wealth she acquired from her association with Charles and gained a reputation for vulgarity and greed. [8] She showed off her "mighty pretty fine coach" [9] and a ring worth £600. [8] Moll left the stage in 1668.
In 1669 Moll gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Mary. The father was King Charles himself. Shortly after the birth of the child, Charles dismissed Moll, possibly due to some chicanery caused by Nell Gwyn; a new rival for the king's affection. [8] In fact, Nell Gwyn and Moll Davis were such rivals for the king's affection that Nell purposely dropped a powerful laxative into a piece of cake Moll was to eat before she was to leave for the king's chamber. [10]
Moll, however, did not leave empty-handed: Charles awarded her an annual pension for life of £1,000. In January 1667–68, Pepys notes that the king had furnished a house specifically for Moll Davis, stating, "… in Suffolke Street most richly, which is a most infinite shame." [7] At the time this street belonged to a certain James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk, a nephew of Thomas Howard, the presumed father of Moll. She is given in the home rate books of 1672-3 but not earlier. [11]
As a celebrated actress and society lady, she was the subject of many portraits by the preeminent artist Sir Peter Lely. [12]
In October 1673 Moll Davis bought a new house in St James's Square, paying £1800. [13] Moll, listed as "Madam Davis", first appears in the ratebook for the year 1675 and lastly appears in 1687. [13] This house (which was surveyed by John Soane in 1799) was almost square and had three storeys, each with four evenly spaced windows, all dressed with a wide architrave and cornice. [13] The staircase hall was south of a large room in front, and two smaller rooms and a secondary staircase at the rear. There was a massive cross-wall, containing a few fireplaces. [13] It would now have been Number 22, St James's Square, if it had survived. [13] It was demolished in 1847 to make way for a new club house for the Army and Navy Club, having survived longer than any other of the other original houses in the square. [13]
In December 1686, Moll married the French musician and composer James Paisible—a member of James II's private musick. Sir George Etherege wrote scornfully of the marriage: "Mrs Davies has given proof of the great passion she always had for music, and Monsieur Peasible has another bass to thrum than that he played so well upon." [14]
The Paisibles joined James' court in exile at St Germain-en-Laye, but in 1693 returned to England, where Paisible became a composer to Prince George of Denmark, the husband of Princess Anne, heir to the throne. [15]
Moll died in London, at her home in Dean Street, in 1708. She was buried at St Anne's Church in Soho, on 24 February.
Moll's daughter, Mary, earned the title of countess and became an actress herself. [16]
"Restoration comedy" is English comedy written and performed in the Restoration period of 1660–1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for this. After public stage performances were banned for 18 years by the Puritan regime, reopening of the theatres in 1660 marked a renaissance of English drama. Sexually explicit language was encouraged by King Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by the rakish style of his court. Historian George Norman Clark argues:
The best-known fact about the Restoration drama is that it is immoral. The dramatists did not criticize the accepted morality about gambling, drink, love, and pleasure generally, or try, like the dramatists of our own time, to work out their own view of character and conduct. What they did was, according to their respective inclinations, to mock at all restraints. Some were gross, others delicately improper.... The dramatists did not merely say anything they liked: they also intended to glory in it and to shock those who did not like it.
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of venereal disease at the age of 33.
Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland, Countess of Castlemaine, was an English royal mistress of the Villiers family and perhaps the most notorious of the many mistresses of King Charles II of England, by whom she had five children, all of them acknowledged and subsequently ennobled. Barbara was the subject of many portraits, in particular by court painter Sir Peter Lely.
Philip Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Chesterfield PC FRS was a peer in the peerage of England.
Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield, formerly Lady Charlotte Fitzroy, was the illegitimate daughter of King Charles II of England by one of his best known mistresses, Barbara Villiers, 1st Duchess of Cleveland. Known for her beauty, Charlotte was married at age 12 to her husband, Edward Henry Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield, with whom she had a large family.
Eleanor Gwyn was a celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage, she became best known for being a long-time mistress of King Charles II of England.
Charles Sackville, 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex, KG was an English poet and courtier.
Henry Jermyn, 3rd Baron Jermyn and 1st Baron Dover, 1st Jacobite Earl of Dover PC was an English peer and supporter of James II.
Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford KG PC was a Royalist during the English Civil War.
Jacques Paisible, also known as James Peasable or James Paisible, was a French baroque composer and recorder virtuoso who lived and worked in London for about forty years.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was rebuilt in 1714, and used again as a theatre for a third period, 1714–1732. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
Mary Saunderson (1637–1712), later known as Mary Saunderson Betterton after her marriage to Thomas Betterton, was an actress and singer in England during the 1660s and 1690s. She is considered one of the first English actresses.
Charles II of England has been portrayed many times.
Mary Knep, also Knepp, Nepp, Knip, or Knipp, was an English actress and one of the first generation of female performers to appear on the public stage during the Restoration era.
The Mulberry-Garden is a comedy by Restoration poet and playwright Sir Charles Sedley (1639-1701) and was published in 1668
Lady Mary Tudor, Countess of Derwentwater was an actress and natural daughter of King Charles II of England by his mistress, Mary "Moll" Davies, an actress and singer.
Thomas Howard, 3rd Earl of Berkshire was an English peer, styled Hon. Thomas Howard until 1679. He was the second son of Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Berkshire.
Hester Davenport was a leading actress with the Duke's Company under the management of Sir William Davenant. Among the earliest English actresses, she was best known as "that faire & famous Comoedian call'd Roxalana," as diarist John Evelyn put it after seeing her on 9 January 1661/2. Her career ended when she married Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford (1627-1703) in 1662 or 1663. The couple had a son in 1664. Oxford soon deserted Davenport and his son Aubrey, marrying a fellow nobleman's daughter in January 1672. In a 1686 church court case, Oxford admitted the marriage ceremony with Davenport had been a sham.
Mary Knight was an English singer and poet.
Elizabeth Weaver, born Elizabeth Farley was an English actress in the King's Company from 1660 to 1683.
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