Vulgar History - International, part 20： Hortense Mancini Becomes the King's Mistress (pt 3⧸6)

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to Vulgar History, a feminist women's history comedy podcast. My name is 0.73

00:00:16.500 Anne Foster and this is Hortense Mancini part three of four, I think. There might be

00:00:23.960 five or we might just do like a super special at the end to catch you up on what happened

00:00:27.720 to some of the supporting characters. But anyway, we're in the midst of it. So part one, we learned

00:00:32.780 about Hortense, her role as one of the Mazarinettes, the nieces of Cardinal Mazarin we heard about in

00:00:38.740 part one, her really profoundly awful child marriage to AC. Oh, actually, when you listen

00:00:46.240 to this podcast, I don't know if you think that like, I'm just a person who knows a lot of facts,

00:00:50.180 and I'm slowly every week telling you more of them. That's not true. What's happening is I spend

00:00:54.840 like a week or two learning facts and then I record a podcast about them. So I'm like two to

00:01:00.740 three weeks ahead of you vis-a-vis what do I know about a certain person. So while I was researching

00:01:06.360 this, I found some facts that clarified some things from previous episodes. So this is kind

00:01:10.120 of just a little PS to part one. A major thing that I learned during my research I've been doing

00:01:15.560 this week about Hortense during this period is that AC, her odious husband, who just kind of like

00:01:22.060 It's giving me like Terminator, what is it, like T-1000 or whatever, just like unrelentingly

00:01:27.440 never stopping trying to get her back, just like almost superhuman in his obsession with

00:01:33.600 her.

00:01:34.240 Anyway, the whole thing with Hortense is that she needs a man to support her because that 1.00

00:01:39.960 is the civilization in which she was living. 1.00

00:01:42.660 Women couldn't own property. 1.00

00:01:43.920 They couldn't have their own money. 1.00

00:01:44.640 Like even in her marriage, the only funds she had access to were for her own jewels.

00:01:48.820 but and I was thinking why is her story so what's different from other people for a lot of reasons 0.80

00:01:53.120 but one of them is that other women we've looked at I don't know like Latice Knowles or somebody

00:01:57.880 it's like when when the husband left like they found a new husband and figured things out but 1.00

00:02:02.620 like AC was still married to her so she couldn't find a husband she had to find kind of patrons or

00:02:08.080 like men who just kind of help her out and give her like a roof over her head and this is all

00:02:11.920 because Louis XIV would just never give permission for their marriage to end and what I learned this

00:02:18.420 week, I think, which explains kind of why Louis XIV just wouldn't do that, is that AC was the

00:02:25.080 richest man in France. And if you're like, wasn't the king the richest man in France? No, because

00:02:30.680 AC was one of Louis XIV's main creditors. He was the one who like gave the king money. He was like

00:02:36.560 the bank for him. So like Louis would never be able to cross him because he needed that money

00:02:42.880 from him. So anyway, that's some context that at least explained to me a bit like why Louis was so

00:02:47.100 wishy-washy about this and just like you know he felt for Hortense maybe because she was like he

00:02:52.700 remembered her and they were friends when they were younger or like leftover feelings of love

00:02:56.800 from when he was in love with her sister Marie so he his whole thing was just like you know what

00:03:02.060 sort it out amongst yourselves I'm not gonna step in what that meant for Hortense was she just had

00:03:06.100 to figure stuff out so part two we learned about her and Marie during the Roman muse era and that

00:03:12.540 ended with her going to deciding to go to England. This week, we're looking at what happened when she

00:03:18.240 went to England. And so one of the books I've been using throughout all of this, it's a really

00:03:22.400 good book that I absolutely recommend to you. Mistresses, Sex and Scandal at the Court of

00:03:26.280 Charles II by Linda Porter. And so Hortense has like two chapters in that book, which is great.

00:03:32.480 And it's a book that I appreciate. And also the fact that Hortense is like mostly known now as

00:03:39.520 like one of the mistresses of charles ii is wild to me on the level of like fredigan's tomb saying

00:03:45.260 a wife and mother it's like yeah this is a thing she did but she did like 25 other much more

00:03:52.440 interesting things anyway this week we're going to get into that era of her the um mistress of

00:03:57.780 charles ii era so the other sources i was still looking at it's great i'm really glad to have as

00:04:03.760 many sources as I do frankly anyone who gets involved with one of the British monarchs like

00:04:09.700 shout out to tits out brigade in the UK because like anything I need to research about English

00:04:18.960 history about British history like there is a book about it like there are historians who just like 0.89

00:04:24.580 it's like you know this person is like she was the housekeeper of like the third wife of whoever

00:04:30.360 it's just like there is a book about it if you're like I want to know about the history of like what

00:04:33.560 was the subway like in the year 1903 they're like well which route do you want to know like i have

00:04:37.620 the ticket like british people take your history real seriously and that's i appreciate it you know

00:04:44.920 just thinking back to some of the other episodes i've done this season like ronnie didda where

00:04:48.180 it's like well there's one source and it's in sanskrit so like let's find some people who

00:04:52.160 interpreted it for me for hortense there's a wealth of things but also a lot of them are like

00:04:58.080 she was the mistress of charles and it's like she was so much more than that anyway um i also

00:05:04.000 used this other book which also good also recommend the king's mistresses the liberated

00:05:07.640 lives of marie mancini princess colonna and her sister hortense duchess mazarin by elizabeth c

00:05:12.660 goldsmith this week i also looked at an article from history extra by r.e pritchard about the

00:05:19.500 sex scandals and betrayals at the court of charles ii and alisa nicholson who is an academic who

00:05:25.520 is like literally doing research on Hortense right now we connected over Twitter because I

00:05:31.460 think she was just like oh my god like she's been dedicating her like all of her research to this

00:05:36.820 and I'm just running out here being like hey do you want some merch that says Mez or Annette's

00:05:40.440 so like it's kind of like when I interviewed Shelly Puhak about Fred again and she was so

00:05:44.820 excited I had like in the merch store like a bag that said that's so Fred again it's like if you're

00:05:49.240 researching someone who is objectively kind of obscure and then someone like me comes along to

00:05:54.540 be like, woo, we love it. Like, you know, it's exciting for her and for me. Anyway, Annalisa

00:05:58.980 Nicholson shared with me an article that she wrote also for History Extra. Leading ladies,

00:06:03.300 the many mistresses of Charles II wielded real political power. So we're going to be talking

00:06:08.520 some stuff from that as well. And then because we're getting into Charles II, her Charles II

00:06:13.520 era, there's a lot of context. And you know, we're doing these like multi-part episodes,

00:06:17.640 which I really appreciate, and especially for this episode, because there's so many,

00:06:21.500 there's so much context that really helps explain what Hortense is doing and why and what so we're

00:06:26.800 going to be talking about Charles II some more the Rex Factor podcast which is like one of my

00:06:31.080 it's an influential podcast to me if you listen to it you can kind of see where the idea for

00:06:35.480 vulgar history came from what they did is um it's two men Graham and Allie in England and they the

00:06:41.200 first season they did every king of Britain like starting from back in like whatever Alfred the

00:06:47.160 great era and then the next season they did all the monarchs of scotland and now they're doing

00:06:52.480 all the um consorts anyway so i listened back to their episode about charles ii because that's

00:06:57.540 where i feel like oh the connection between them and this podcast is the fact that they do a scale

00:07:01.880 at the end with numerous categories and so the fredigand memorial scandalicious scale is kind

00:07:07.200 of was influenced by them and doing that anyway so throughout all my research i had this feeling

00:07:13.620 I'm just like why do I think Charles II is kind of awesome why do I have the sense that I just like

00:07:18.300 I kind of like him and a lot of it is from it's can be traced back to this Rex Factor podcast

00:07:24.220 where they especially compared to other monarchs that they had studied like we're going to talk

00:07:30.080 about Charles II in this episode full disclosure I have a crush on him now and I will be objective

00:07:35.980 but like it's getting into like Mark Anthony's thighs territory for me about Charles II I just

00:07:41.500 like in terms of historical English kings which is obviously like a problematic category of

00:07:48.940 colonial people I don't know I kind of fuck with him also lots of information from Wikipedia

00:07:54.680 and yeah so we're getting into Hortense her going to England phase this is not just her like this 0.93

00:08:03.240 is not just her England era because next week we're going to talk about what she did after she

00:08:07.460 would stop being the mistress of Charles II like she just went to England and stayed there 0.97

00:08:11.400 which is like good for her because she had been you know to recap she was in rome until she was

00:08:19.620 six and then went to france and she was trained up how to be like a court lady then she was married

00:08:23.840 off at age 14 to her stalker um and then she's just been spending what like seven eight years

00:08:29.500 just like on the run across europe like i'm happy for her to like sit down some roots you know like

00:08:35.820 just in terms of like maslow's hierarchy of needs it's like if you don't have a home like if you

00:08:42.520 don't know where you're going to go at the end of every day with a roof over your head you can't

00:08:46.200 you don't have time to even start thinking about your like other psychological issues or whatever

00:08:52.100 anyway as per all of her trips it took she did not go as the crow flies from shonberry to england

00:08:59.940 this wasn't just because she like liked to travel leisurely which she did but also because she had

00:09:06.340 to avoid france altogether because ac's people were everywhere um and as soon as he heard that

00:09:11.900 she had left he would send people to chase after her which is why she left without warning and with

00:09:16.580 only a few servants and without telling anyone that she was leaving so she could have a bit of

00:09:19.660 a head start and by now she traveled around europe so much she had connections in various cities

00:09:23.680 because she had the superpower of like everyone she met ever fell in love with her so she could

00:09:28.140 like she had friends in different places admirers places she could go and stay and she was also so

00:09:33.460 famous now because of the whole thing with like the pictures of her everybody was like selling

00:09:39.220 oh there's a story i don't think i have it in here i'll i'll give you all the details next so

00:09:43.200 you can have more time to research but there's there's one point like two people broke into a

00:09:47.060 duel over a picture of her like she was so famous so even if she went to a place where people she

00:09:52.560 hadn't met them before like they would know who she was because she was so beautiful and also 1.00

00:09:57.160 wearing pants in terms of the pants i was thinking this week like so she wore pants to escape in the 1.00

00:10:03.760 first place remember she had like the pants under her dress and then from now on to the rest of her 1.00

00:10:08.080 life she just kind of like would alternate skirt sometimes pants some other times which some 0.96

00:10:13.440 scholars say like this is a hint towards her bisexuality and i would say a stronger hint

00:10:18.040 towards her bisexuality is her having affairs with people of different genders but if you think about

00:10:23.800 me or maybe you also I don't know sometimes I like to wear a skirt sometimes I like to wear pants

00:10:30.160 I like to have the options I think Hortense was just like I like having the options not just a 0.67

00:10:35.240 skirt every day anyway she was also I think very tall one of the sources I read said that so she's

00:10:40.520 like I'm just picturing kind of like an Angelina Jolie type person who's traveling around who's

00:10:45.320 just like so striking looking and tall and beautiful it's just like even if you don't

00:10:51.320 know if she's the famous Hortense Mancini, you're just like, ooh, who's that? Anyway, so the news

00:10:55.780 about where she went, she knew it would be published in the gazettes, etc. So just kind of

00:10:59.900 knowing that she had to make a plan so that AC wouldn't read in those gazettes and be able to

00:11:04.400 like cut her off somewhere. So and she's also traveling across, frankly, a continent in the

00:11:08.980 midst of various wars going through countries where she may or may not speak the language. So

00:11:13.100 like, yeah, she took a minute to get to England. For all those reasons I just listed. Interestingly,

00:11:19.680 so we have a re-emergence of a character from a previous episode so her friend from the first time

00:11:27.040 she was trapped in a convent and who was also maybe her lover do you remember Marie Sidonie

00:11:32.120 de Coursel who was the one they would like run around pulling pranks and stuff in like the first 0.95

00:11:36.680 convent and then Marie Sidonie had been trying to separate from her husband as well and then like

00:11:42.640 helped her with her legal stuff and things and they were like friends so Marie Sidonie had also 1.00

00:11:46.840 just left her husband again. Because the first time we saw Marie Sidonie, their friendship kind

00:11:53.700 of ended when Marie Sidonie got back with her husband, and then she couldn't help Hortense 0.99

00:11:56.960 extricate herself from AC anymore. So she just left her own husband again, and had to escape. 1.00

00:12:02.300 And so she was going through Europe kind of like two weeks behind Hortense, like by coincidence,

00:12:06.420 not like following her. Although I have to say, Marie Sidonie, kind of a hater. So she passed

00:12:12.480 through Geneva, Switzerland, two weeks after Hortense had been there. Marie Sidonie wrote,

00:12:18.020 It is a great misfortune to find oneself pursued to all corners of the world, but what is

00:12:21.920 extraordinary is that this woman triumphs over all her disgraces with an excess of folly that

00:12:26.320 has never been seen. After experiencing this misfortune, she thinks only of pleasure. Arriving

00:12:31.320 here, she was on horseback wearing a wig and feathers, with 20 men in her escort talking

00:12:36.200 only of violins and hunting parties, in short, anything that gives pleasure. So Marie Sidonie

00:12:41.220 is just like she thinks Hortense should be more serious about something but like I think Hortense 1.00

00:12:48.300 needs to find pleasure where she can find it because see what I was saying about five minutes 0.60

00:12:52.220 ago her life has been chaotically stressful this whole time and I respect that Hortense was just 1.00

00:12:56.780 like she's on the run but she's like guess what I like hunting parties guess what I like violence

00:13:01.160 like let's just like have fun you don't just because you're in a shitty situation doesn't 1.00

00:13:05.500 mean she has to be like sad 24 7 so anyway forget the haters and marie cedoni pops up a few more

00:13:12.640 times mostly just like writing just haterade about hortense so i don't know is that evidence

00:13:17.680 that they were lovers or that they weren't lovers or but like everybody like hortense nobody was

00:13:23.940 just average in their feelings about her people either like hated her intensely or were like

00:13:30.340 dedicated their life to being in love with her like that is the effect she had on people

00:13:34.400 like honestly a superpower or a curse so she accepted that her life was now public like that

00:13:42.940 maybe wasn't the life she would have chosen but she knew that it was and so she said to her benefit

00:13:47.020 to try and better her chances to live independently and to get rid of ac for good by like leaning into

00:13:54.040 the fame that she now had at this point just the way that she traveled on on horseback like in 0.94

00:14:00.340 pants so she wasn't projecting the image like maybe marie sydney thought she should of like 1.00

00:14:05.100 you know like a poor woman victim who's you know like a deer being chased by hunters she was like 0.82

00:14:11.140 she herself is the hunter hey i don't know if you can hear the meow my cat hepburn is just here

00:14:17.880 she's like all about hortense apparently so hortense recast herself as diana the hunter

00:14:24.240 and i mean it's a fair comparison she had been painted a bunch of times like and would be more

00:14:29.700 like dana the hunter she liked hunting she was good at it she wore pants and so she just kind

00:14:35.740 of showed up to be like hey guess what it's me i'm here and i'm in charge of my life she finally

00:14:41.640 arrived in england on what is called a packet boat which is at which i looked up and from what

00:14:46.580 i can understand it's like a cargo slash mail ship so like not a big or glamorous type thing

00:14:53.020 and she's traveling with her like small group of servants like we've got nenon is there mustafa

00:14:58.220 is there just kind of like her small entourage the sea it was very stormy not a super glamorous

00:15:06.580 arrival and that's kind of the thing about her too it's like she's not just pretending to be

00:15:12.540 this like pants wearing you know heroine from a novel she's like living the life so she's along

00:15:18.180 with six or seven servants and kind of everyone when she arrived everyone was excited to have her 1.00

00:15:24.340 around. She arrived on, let me see. So yeah, so she kind of like washed up on shore on the ship

00:15:31.380 and then made her way to London where she arrived New Year's Eve, 1665 on horseback, wet and muddy.

00:15:37.680 And at first she was mistaken for a postal courier because she was wearing pants and also a long

00:15:42.240 cloak. And I guess she was like covered in mud. It was quite an entrance. Everybody wrote about 0.96

00:15:46.840 like, oh my God, she's here. The most famous, beautiful woman in all of Europe. She arrived

00:15:51.400 on a horse in pants they were like she is the new queen of the amazons etc and so she was famous 0.85

00:15:57.700 when she arrived um because like we talked about last time her memoirs had been published in

00:16:02.660 english but also just like the gazettes talking about like her trip and what she was doing

00:16:06.820 everyone knew that she was there and they're all kind of like what's she doing there

00:16:10.200 and what she was doing there at its base level was she was basically a refugee seeking asylum

00:16:16.260 which was a situation that the king Charles II would recognize from his own years on the run

00:16:22.620 um you know hiding in a tree etc but also she had a couple reasons people like is this why

00:16:28.480 she's here so one of the reasons she was there was because Charles II is the king his wife is

00:16:33.980 Catherine of Braganza we'll talk about her in a bit and he had not had any legitimate children

00:16:40.100 he'd had a lot of illegitimate children which we're also going to talk about so his heir at

00:16:45.160 this point slash i mean spoiler forever is his younger brother james so there's kind of like

00:16:50.960 there's the king and then there's the duke who is james who is his heir james is the one who's

00:16:57.820 the father of i'm just re-reminding myself of all this so james charles's brother his from his first

00:17:04.640 wife his children are mary who becomes mary from william and mary and ann who's ann the first who

00:17:11.100 I did a podcast episode about. Mary of Medina is his second wife, who is the daughter of one of

00:17:17.360 the Mazarinettes. So Mary of Medina is Hortensis' cousin's daughter. So there's a family relationship 0.91

00:17:25.300 there. Mary of Medina also like 17 years old, pregnant. So it's like, or maybe Hortensis is

00:17:30.040 just in town to like be with her cousin for sure. But everybody also knew that King Charles was,

00:17:35.780 he liked to fuck he had mistresses and he loved beautiful women so people are also like is you 0.99

00:17:41.680 here to seduce the king so evan's just kind of like what's she gonna do next like they're all 1.00

00:17:44.800 just really excited what she was in town for was she needed a roof over her head and some sort of

00:17:49.980 financial stability while she continued to sort out her legal separation from ac and i think i've

00:17:56.780 told you this several times already like she needed a man who's gonna be her patron who's 0.53

00:18:00.720 going to pay for her and give her a home. And that person did end up being Charles II. But before we

00:18:07.200 explain how they reconnected, let's just catch up with what Charles II had been up to in the last

00:18:13.000 17 years, since these two last saw each other. Interestingly, 17 years. Also the period of time

00:18:19.020 when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, between their first and second engagement. So it's kind of,

00:18:25.200 it's a little Jay Fleck situation. So to recap, Charles II had been on the run, hiding in a tree,

00:18:32.820 shoes didn't fit him, sexy young Captain Cook. Oh, I was going to talk about this. So also,

00:18:37.820 I described last time his aesthetic is kind of like a sexy young Captain Hook with like the long

00:18:42.500 black hair and that kind of that kind of look. Turns out, so I learned from Tits Oak Brigade 0.65

00:18:47.220 member Rachel, that canonically actually in the actual book, Peter Pan, like the original book,

00:18:52.440 it says Captain Hook intentionally dressed like Charles II. Like maybe he was from that era,

00:18:58.200 but then like time is weird in Neverland or whatever. So there's a reason why I think of

00:19:03.620 him looking like a sexy young Captain Hook. And in fact, Captain Hook looks like an older Charles

00:19:08.280 II. So Charles had tried to marry Hortense, like every man in the world at that time.

00:19:13.800 He was denied by Mazarin. And then against everyone's expectations, he like became King

00:19:19.100 of England again. So that was 16 years ago. He took over after the whole Oliver Cromwell thing

00:19:24.720 where like Oliver Cromwell took over, had Charles's dad beheaded. And then Cromwell took over

00:19:30.680 and he was like, here's what's going to happen. There's going to be not Christmas. We're not

00:19:34.620 going to have hot cross buns. There's not going to be theater. No one's going to have any fun

00:19:38.900 and kind of a Puritan type situation. When Charles II came back, he was just like, here's

00:19:46.120 what we're going to do have plays have christmas have hot cross month and all the people who were 0.96

00:19:51.560 more in the crummel sort of mindset moved over to america and became the puritans and that's where

00:20:00.380 the evangelicals come from in america so anyway the people left over in england so charles ii was

00:20:07.760 he he oversaw what was called the restoration period which is like not just the restoration

00:20:12.480 like of the monarchy but also the restoration of like theater and fun so in the rex factor

00:20:19.720 podcast about this and they they talk about this when they get into their like scoring part of

00:20:24.200 things like king charles is known now as like the merry monarch because he had like mistresses and

00:20:29.420 he like brought theater back and stuff but like he had a really a really steep task ahead of him

00:20:36.000 which is just like to make people fuck with the monarchy again in england after having not had it

00:20:42.660 for a long time like he just needed to come in and be kind of like chill and cool and like make 0.82

00:20:47.280 everybody be okay with it being a monarchy again and guess what he succeeded because guess what

00:20:52.760 it still is a monarchy yeah so his brother james was uh catholic um and charles was kind of like

00:21:00.600 tempted by Catholicism like spoiler on his deathbed he became Catholic also so he like

00:21:05.920 personally was cool with people being Catholics and also Protestants but you know like the law

00:21:11.560 was not cool to Catholics anyway Charles had been through a lot he had been on the run his

00:21:17.620 father had been executed he had to like what all the things we talked about before hiding in a tree

00:21:23.400 so he's just kind of like after all that happened he came back and he's a king now he's like guess

00:21:26.980 what I'm gonna do have fun and this is where he reminds me I can see where he and Hortense would 0.96

00:21:31.760 get along because she'd also been through the shit and she was like that's not gonna stop me 0.96

00:21:34.780 from like going to a party having a nice time playing some card games so Charles II tall sexy 0.96

00:21:42.020 now Captain Hook age Captain Hook I guess I'm gonna put a portrait I'm gonna share it on Instagram

00:21:46.940 so if you're following me or if you're not following me just go or just google portraits

00:21:50.900 of Charles II because I think when I saw the like the portrait made of him age 30 when he became

00:21:56.240 king he's sitting there and it's like got the most like big dick energy i've ever seen in a

00:22:02.880 oldie time portrait of a king even more than henry the eighth um henry the eighth i feel like 0.97

00:22:08.660 overcompensating dick energy james is just like i don't know like i'm gonna say i have a little 0.98

00:22:14.820 crush so yeah he took over he's tall he's gorgeous and he likes to fuck and he's just like here's 0.99

00:22:21.540 what's happening everyone's gonna fuck everyone and we're just gonna have a nice time and everyone's 0.99

00:22:26.420 like okay great so um some of the stuff we're gonna get into vis-a-vis everyone fucking everyone 0.98

00:22:33.600 this is like i don't know like this story a lot of it feels so contemporary to me like hortense

00:22:39.880 like the kind of celebrity she has it's giving me like julia fox you know it's like a person who is

00:22:45.360 just like people are intrigued by them they're kind of like a muse like even just like her on

00:22:51.420 the run like the domestic violence of it it's like anyway so much of this feels contemporary

00:22:56.780 to me but the court of king charles ii is like i had to just turn a switch in my head where i'm

00:23:04.060 just thinking of a kind of like cleopatra times in the sense of just you know how cleopatra it's

00:23:09.060 like well this is a world in which um she just married her brother and everyone's cool with it

00:23:14.740 so like let's just get on with it king charles's court is a place where it's like everyone is 0.93

00:23:19.800 fucking everyone very young people like teenage age people are involved in this sometimes somebody 0.96

00:23:28.180 will take a lover who is like the child of their previous lover like there's just like that's 0.99

00:23:34.160 what's happening and I don't want to sit here in 2022 and like judge this so I'm just going to

00:23:40.560 kind of like present it kind of like here's what it was like so in that context here's what was

00:23:46.020 going on. I don't want to apply a current understanding to this specific area. Anyway,

00:23:52.540 you'll see what I mean soon. But just like, everyone's fucking everyone. And that's just 0.99

00:23:58.520 what it's like. So let's just tell the story. Okay, so Charles was known as the Mary monarch.

00:24:05.200 Because like, so many people have been through some shit, he had a good perspective on life. 0.88

00:24:09.080 and was just like he you know like christina he just knew like you can't just be business all the 0.99

00:24:16.220 time pleasure also important so here's some other facts about charles besides the fucking 0.61

00:24:21.260 1666 i've talked about on this podcast before that was a really bad year in england that was

00:24:31.740 the year there was eam the plague village i did the pandemic super special so plague broke out

00:24:37.740 and then also there was notably the great fire of london charles is the king and this is where

00:24:43.500 he i don't okay i saw the porter of charles and i was just like oh my like this guy has got like

00:24:50.020 bde what's going on but then i read about him like hiding a tree and stuff and i'm like oh

00:24:54.480 this is like a guy who like he's interesting he's not he like gets shit done anyway so he steps up

00:25:02.300 in the face of this fire in a way that not every English monarch would have, not the way that many

00:25:09.360 of our contemporary leaders have in similar situations. So June 1665, how timely is this?

00:25:16.500 It was unbearably hot. This encouraged, oh my god, this is all so familiar. It encouraged the

00:25:23.260 growth in, oh sorry, this is, I'm reading highlights from an article from historyanswers.co.uk

00:25:30.120 written by Derek Wilson about Charles II and the Great Fire of London. So it was really hot,

00:25:35.860 which encouraged the growth and spread of viruses bearing disease. And the viruses thrived,

00:25:40.520 particularly wherever people lived together in cramped and unhygienic conditions.

00:25:44.320 By the end of June 1665, 600 deaths from bubonic plague had been registered in London.

00:25:49.520 This was merely a prelude. By September, 30,000 deaths were reported for the plague had done its

00:25:56.020 worst, probably three times that number had perished in London alone. So like, this is what's

00:26:01.540 going on. Bodies tumbled into mass graves, infected households locked in to prevent the spread of

00:26:06.280 contagion. By the end of the year, the plague had run its course, just kind of like everyone who's

00:26:10.660 going to die had died, I guess. But the treasury was empty. I don't even know what war they're in.

00:26:17.060 It was going badly. Charles was just kind of like, no wonder he had a nice time when he could,

00:26:22.660 like this is the world he was like the king of anyway so some preachers were like all the shitty 0.99

00:26:27.700 stuff is happening it's because our king likes to fuck but whatever so a fire began on a dark 0.99

00:26:33.680 sunday morning in a baker's oven in pudding lane near london bridge samuel peeps who is a famous 0.99

00:26:40.100 writer right um roused himself at 7 a.m oh samuel peeps i'm just remembering from the whole book i

00:26:46.340 read about this year he was the one it's like his record of the fire is a lot of what we know

00:26:50.240 so he woke up at 7 a.m and he was not overly concerned by what he could see from his window

00:26:54.820 only when news of the devastation arrived from alarmed messengers did he walk to the tower of 0.94

00:27:00.280 london to get a better vantage point at which point he realized oh shit let's see he took a 0.95

00:27:05.360 boat and rode himself or had himself rode by someone else to under london bridge london bridge 0.62

00:27:10.980 was on fire this is where the song came from presumably and so then he grasped the stand of

00:27:17.860 catastrophe. A strong east wind was driving the flames into the heart of London. Citizens were

00:27:22.200 swarming the riverbank to get themselves and their possessions into boats. So Peeps went to

00:27:26.820 Westminster, where he found Charles, who was unaware of the crisis because the bend of the

00:27:31.680 river obscured his view of the city. And it's kind of like, oh, what's he going to do? And this is

00:27:36.720 where it's just like, guess what? Let's write a leadership book about being a good leader. Because

00:27:41.700 he was like, I'm gonna deal with this and not pretend it's not happening. So he sent word to

00:27:47.540 the mayor ordering him to pull down buildings in order to slow down the spread of the fire,

00:27:51.460 and he promised to send troops to help this. In the afternoon, Charles personally went downriver

00:27:56.120 to see the disaster for himself, where he went ashore and he talked with a crowd of refugees,

00:28:01.700 getting information. He urged everyone that what they needed to do was just pull down buildings 1.00

00:28:06.720 in the path of where the fire was spreading, because it's like, yeah, I know that's your

00:28:10.400 house, but if we can just make the fire, that's how we're going to make the fire stop. He had some

00:28:14.640 good firefighting instincts when he was doing this he was less than 100 meters from the blaze

00:28:19.840 but appeared careless of the danger and his eagerness to help and this is why i think

00:28:23.520 maybe because he had lived on the run for so long he like he got it you know he was like he had lived

00:28:30.000 in the real world in a way that other kings before and since have not so he was just like

00:28:35.220 he wasn't hiding in a bunker he was just like out there doing the stuff so he organized a group of

00:28:40.920 people like soldiers and volunteers were dispatched to do whatever was necessary he spent most of that

00:28:46.740 day monday preventing what would have been another tragedy which was the strong wind was carrying a

00:28:51.280 rain of sparks towards westminster and there's a possibility that the palace and all the government

00:28:55.440 offices might be might catch on fire so he personally again he's like in this doing this

00:29:00.940 he personally supervised the fire breaks were put up and he sent out teams smothering embers

00:29:07.660 had reached the western end of fleet street so next day tuesday him and his brother james i'm

00:29:13.300 ordinarily not a fan but in this case james also showing up so they were both on the scene they

00:29:19.220 rode to and fro urging on the firefighters and sometimes dismounting to join the chains of

00:29:24.200 people passing buckets of water he also carried a pouch of gold coins to give spontaneous rewards

00:29:29.640 to men who he saw like really standing out with their helpfulness this article says charles was

00:29:34.500 everywhere for more than 30 hours without a break he rode around the northern parts of london

00:29:39.020 which had so far avoided the fire he sent word downriver to the dockyard for bread to be brought

00:29:44.000 from the navy stores to feed the homeless and destitute he gave orders for the relief of the

00:29:48.540 hundreds of citizens gathered in makeshift camps he set up a relief fund by the time he returned

00:29:54.340 to westminster palace his clothes were wet and muddy and his face black from soot yeah you know

00:30:00.480 in a situation like this is what's her name the Jacinda Arden he's like a leader who like gets it 0.84

00:30:07.000 and like takes things seriously and like does shit instead of just being like I don't know what 0.98

00:30:11.440 do my like advisors think like what do the people who give me money think he's in the shit and this 0.99

00:30:16.320 is where like I respect this about him yeah so people flocked from other parts of England to try

00:30:23.980 and help offer help to people like so many people were suddenly homeless let's see so even when

00:30:30.060 Charles is like we need to like you know blow up some of these houses we need to like to stop the

00:30:35.500 fire the tracks people own the house it's like no but that's my house and it's just like that's 0.82

00:30:39.220 the sort of shitty people you see around also today um who are just being like no I don't want

00:30:44.320 to like whatever like not whatever we're dealing with COVID monkeypox is on the scene you know 0.99

00:30:51.900 there's assholes out there but there's also people like Charles who are just like getting shit done 0.94

00:30:55.660 so this is just like a day-by-day situation by Thursday the wind had finally died down 0.99

00:31:00.060 that and the blowing up of the houses which finally people agreed to do had brought to speed

00:31:06.060 their response and so the great fire was brought under control but vigilance was still needed

00:31:11.380 occasional burst of flame shot up from the smoldering embers so the king again he's not 0.99

00:31:16.780 just like great i'm just gonna just go and like fuck some people no he's like he went to the 0.97

00:31:21.760 tower of london and he oversaw destruction of wooden buildings within the tower of london 0.99

00:31:25.380 because there was a possibility that the wind would change and then that could cause a secondary

00:31:29.680 blaze in the part of the tower of london where they like kept gunpowder stored which would have

00:31:34.600 been a real unimaginable situation so yeah and this is where people are just kind of like

00:31:41.780 we like our king like this is like a good king yeah like being on site helping people out like

00:31:48.160 knowing what to do like this is this might have been part of where like the restoration of the

00:31:53.020 monarchy like because he was just like you want to have a king like how about a guy who like is

00:31:57.700 on the scene like throwing buckets of water on fire like legitimately helping out anyway but then

00:32:03.780 as we've also seen in recent eras it's like somebody could be on like really good at the

00:32:09.440 first part of a crisis but like what are they gonna do next so the situation he's faced with

00:32:13.600 now was like reconstructing the city and whether that would go well and he was like keen to get in

00:32:21.080 with this after the fire 383 acres of the city lay in ruins 13,000 houses 89 churches had been

00:32:30.200 reduced to rubble the challenge was massive again because Charles had had this unconventional life

00:32:38.220 for like a king when he was like on the run traveling he had visited lots of cities in other

00:32:45.260 parts of Europe so he was like what if we rebuilt London but made it be like cool what if we made

00:32:51.420 it be like this is kind of like this is like Christina of Sweden wishes this is how I think

00:32:56.240 she saw herself as a monarch but Charles was like actually doing it he's like what if we make London

00:33:00.080 like a phoenix rising he had a genuine interest in architecture and some skill and talent about it

00:33:07.060 so a committee was set up he attended a lot of their meetings he had like a vision for the new

00:33:13.280 city to just like build houses out of stone and brick anyway there was enough money for that

00:33:20.240 whatever he found an architect called sir christopher wren who shared his aesthetic

00:33:26.120 preferences for the baroque and classical revival fashions prevailing on the continent

00:33:30.700 so the king supported these drawings but anyway again there just wasn't money for it because they

00:33:37.640 had just been like through war and a giant war anyway the rebuilding got underway quickly

00:33:43.680 So this is where it says St. Paul's give hints of what might have been.

00:33:48.000 So St. Paul's Cathedral, Tateswood Brigade London, let me know.

00:33:51.200 Is that a cool looking building?

00:33:52.740 Maybe.

00:33:53.560 Anyway, so Sir Christopher Wren designed some other churches.

00:33:56.740 And yeah, so in 1674, London presented the king with freedom of the city of London,

00:34:03.420 who is the only reigning monarch ever to have received this honor.

00:34:06.700 So here's the thing.

00:34:07.840 He's great.

00:34:08.720 In this situation, did great.

00:34:11.500 Also, he was king.

00:34:12.300 he changed the rules so that now women could act in plays instead of just only men being allowed

00:34:18.340 to be actors he also funded a lot of science stuff and then this is sorry this is like i 0.79

00:34:25.540 considered should i do a so this asshole charles ii and i might but i think it might be more like 0.96

00:34:29.620 so this dream boat or maybe more like so this asshole question mark i'm not sure it's just 0.94

00:34:35.100 there's so many stories about him and i want you to understand what he was like so you understand 0.86

00:34:41.340 what his relationship was like with Hortense this is another story that I could not tell you

00:34:46.880 so this is the saga of Charles II and Thomas Blood the jewel thief this is another story where like

00:34:54.380 the guys in Rex Hector were saying like Charles like he just had a good perspective of like

00:34:59.260 the world and life you know like other kings which is not to say that other kings I don't know

00:35:05.620 it's like because of the life he had lived he had a broader perspective of like everything than so

00:35:10.940 many other kings had had because they hadn't had this like forced gap year during which they were

00:35:15.520 almost killed so anyway like if you think about i'm just gonna always say henry the eighth because

00:35:20.560 that's like the one that everyone knows but it's like when you think about henry the eighth if

00:35:23.120 someone tried to steal the crown jewels while henry the eighth was king henry the eighth would

00:35:26.360 have like cut off their head or whatever even elizabeth would have done that but what did

00:35:30.200 charles ii do when someone tried to steal the crown jewels was like ho ho i admire your moxie

00:35:35.460 young man and like gave him money and a job so here's what happened the source for this although

00:35:42.180 lots of people have written about it is an article from history-uk.com written by ben johnson so

00:35:47.240 thomas blood was an irish man born in county meath in 1618 the son of a prosperous blacksmith 0.74

00:35:55.280 this is like maybe i'll do a sew this asshole thomas blood because i'm just like i can't tell 0.94

00:36:00.260 you everything about thomas but i'm just gonna stick to the jewel heist thing but he was an 0.98

00:36:03.420 adventurer he was an irish nationalist he was involved in a lot of anti-king attempted revolutions

00:36:11.580 there's one point where he was like had been sent to like assassinate charles ii but then he saw him

00:36:16.960 bathing in a river and he was just like he's too hot i can't do it understandable so um one day in

00:36:22.940 1671 thomas blood so he decided he was going to steal the crown jewels so he disguised himself as

00:36:28.300 parson and so anyone just like now i think could like go to see the crown jewels on display they're

00:36:34.780 just like in a museum or whatever so the guy who like watched over them was called edwards

00:36:42.060 and edwards like lived just above where the crown jewels were on display and it was a blood went

00:36:47.660 down became friendly with edwards then he returned at a later date with his wife as they were leaving

00:36:52.500 mrs blood claimed to have a violent stomach ache and she was taken to edwards's apartment just

00:36:57.480 above where the crown jewels are to rest um the great fall so thomas blood again disguised as

00:37:03.700 parson blood returned a few days later with four pairs of white gloves for mrs edwards in

00:37:08.120 appreciation for their kindness to his wife so the edwards family and parson blood became close

00:37:14.600 friends and met frequently edwards had a pretty daughter and parson blood proposed a meeting

00:37:19.840 between his wealthy nephew and edwards's daughter so these two families are just like aren't we

00:37:24.280 great friends ho ho on may 9th 1671 blood arrived at 7 a.m with his quote nephew and two other men

00:37:32.440 while the nephew was getting to know edward's daughter the others in the party expressed a

00:37:36.920 desire to see the crown jewels so edwards led the way downstairs and unlocked their door to the room

00:37:41.600 where they were kept at that moment blood knocked edwards unconscious with a mallet and stabbed him

00:37:46.520 with the sword so the like the grill i guess that means kind of like the cage around the crown jewels

00:37:54.100 was removed the crown orb and scepter were taken out but you can't just like walk around with a

00:37:59.340 giant crown it's like pretty big so he already had the mallet for smacking him with and so they

00:38:04.200 flattened the crown with a mallet stuffed it into a bag um and then stuffed the orb down blood's

00:38:09.480 breeches which i'm gonna assume were like a pantaloons situation just like a lot of fabric

00:38:14.620 you wouldn't notice there's an orb in them the scepter was too long to go in the bag so blood's

00:38:19.400 brother-in-law tried to saw it in half which did not work at this point edwards who had been knocked

00:38:24.640 out with a mallet and stabbed not dead he regained consciousness and began to shout murder treason

00:38:29.200 so blood and his accomplices dropped the scepter attempted to get away but blood was arrested as

00:38:34.540 he tried to leave oh this is at the tower of london okay as he tried to leave he unsuccessfully

00:38:39.300 tried to shoot one of the guards so he's put into custody immediately and he refused to answer

00:38:44.140 questions repeating stubbornly i'll answer to none but the king himself because he knew that

00:38:49.200 the king had a reputation for liking bold scoundrels and he thought that his considerable

00:38:54.540 irish charm would save his neck as it had done several times before in his life again i'll tell 0.99

00:39:00.240 the whole story of thomas blood on patreon and so this asshole also there there is like another 0.66

00:39:06.800 article i write about this was suggesting that thomas blood might have been secretly at this

00:39:10.640 been a secret sexy spy for the king which would also be like why he only wanted to talk to the

00:39:15.880 king like the king potentially had hired him to steal the jewels because he needed money

00:39:19.620 unclear anyway blued was taken for questioning by king charles and also his brother james

00:39:26.940 king charles was apparently amused by blood's audacity so blood told him the crown jewels were

00:39:33.540 not worth the 100 000 pounds they were valued at but only 6 000 pounds the king asked blood what if

00:39:39.300 I should give you your life. And Blood replied, I would endeavor to deserve it, sire. And he was

00:39:44.420 in fact pardoned. And he was also given Irish lands worth 500 pounds a year. And I think some

00:39:50.980 sort of job. Maybe this is when he became a spy. Anyway, he became a familiar figure around London

00:39:55.740 and made frequent appearances at a royal court. Edwards, recovered from his wounds, was rewarded

00:40:01.020 by the king and lived to a ripe old age, recounting his part in the story of the theft of the jewels

00:40:05.280 to all visitors to the tower but this story besides just being like a great heist based story

00:40:10.640 is also just showing how charles was like hashtag not like other kings he's just like he he respected

00:40:17.700 people who were interesting people with a good story he was more i don't know open-minded or

00:40:24.480 something he was just more like he saw the big picture of stuff more so than just like here's

00:40:28.760 the rules and everyone should follow them blah blah blah so the merry monarch we're gonna get 0.62

00:40:33.600 into the fucking around part so his court was known for his royal court was known for so like 0.71

00:40:40.840 when he came over to be king and he like one being king again like there'd been a lot of other people 0.90

00:40:46.480 in exile at the same time as him other like royal supporters and they all came back too and they

00:40:51.140 were kind of like young hot people who had been like in france and wherever this whole time and

00:40:56.100 they brought back with them a lot of admiration for the stuff that they had experienced in france

00:40:59.880 so and one of the things that they had learned about in france and remember this is like the

00:41:05.560 closest england and france were to date like even now because james's mom i think was french it's

00:41:14.660 like his mom was the sister of louis the 14th's mom or something like that so like they're really

00:41:19.100 really close his sister oh fun fact so his sister henrietta was married to philippe who is as we

00:41:25.780 discussed in the Maidine episode. Prince Philippe is the trans sister of Louis XIV. So that is

00:41:33.620 Charles's sister-in-law. Anyway, so the courts are like very, very connected. And he's like,

00:41:39.800 he spent a lot of time in France. And he's just like, let's, why don't we just like do things

00:41:43.380 more like France? Like this is an opportunity, like the restoration, let's just like change

00:41:46.520 some stuff around. So he created a new official role of the royal mistress. So like other English

00:41:54.820 monarchs had had mistresses before obviously um again henry the eighth like even before he started

00:42:00.920 marrying all the people there was what's her name the one you know the one who had henry fitzroy 0.92

00:42:08.020 bessie blount is that right anyway like kings had had mistresses before but that was just kind

00:42:15.100 of like on the down low sort of thing but james wanted to have like the official role of royal

00:42:19.880 mistress who like gets her own apartments and like has political power which is like what france did 0.98

00:42:24.800 yeah in France official royal mistresses had long been given an official title and a position with

00:42:29.900 political power so being the mistress of the king was not like when we get to the scandalous score

00:42:36.580 for Hortense remember that's the main character of this episode not Charles this is just like

00:42:42.440 a diversion being mistress being the royal mistress was not a scandalous thing it's just

00:42:47.840 kind of like here's what's up also in France correct me if I'm wrong French tits of brigade

00:42:51.980 members I think there was a thing where like it didn't matter who is the mother of the kid like

00:42:57.180 if the mistress had a son that son could like become king whereas in England it's like it has

00:43:01.580 to be the child of the official wife speaking of official wives so Charles's wife was Catherine

00:43:07.000 of Braganza who is from Portugal and one of the things that is notable about her is that so

00:43:15.160 portugal was among the first like western european countries to begin interacting with india so

00:43:24.660 colonizing them but also trading with them so the portuguese the vasco de gamma was like a

00:43:29.480 portuguese explorer who went to india so portugal and india at this point we're talking about had

00:43:35.260 a relationship and the people who from portugal had gone to india they were like oh my god chai

00:43:39.700 is great we love drinking chai like let's just have some black tea for pleasure like people in

00:43:45.720 Portugal had you know tea was like a medical thing but it wasn't like let's just drink tea

00:43:49.580 because it tastes good and this is a fun thing to do but then they learn about chai so then

00:43:54.620 chai made its way from India to Portugal so it's like all the rage in Portugal Catherine

00:44:00.100 Braganza made her way from Portugal to England and so she brought with her the habit of drinking tea

00:44:05.820 with sugar and so because the queen was drinking like black tea with sugar everybody wanted to be

00:44:11.880 like her and that's why people in england started drinking tea and now here we are as a society

00:44:16.940 and drinking tea is such a like major part of like english culture it's all it all happened

00:44:23.800 here catherine braganza slash the portuguese conquest of india so the whole thing he's like

00:44:30.400 I want to have an official royal mistress too. Catherine Bergenza is like, fine. Everyone is

00:44:35.780 cool with it. This is not like a weird thing to do because all the people around him like had

00:44:39.760 been in France and like they got it. So the history of official mistress had been a thing

00:44:44.360 in France since like the medieval era. And it was a much sought after role, both for women wanting

00:44:51.140 power and also for the family members who want power via their like female relative who was the 0.93

00:44:56.240 mistress. So Annalisa Nicholson, the person who's doing a whole study of Hortense, she wrote that

00:45:03.360 the job offered financial and social opportunities not only to the mistress herself, but also to her 1.00

00:45:07.800 relatives, carving out a space for female agency in a patriarchal institution. So this is because, 0.99

00:45:14.660 you know, in like other kings we've talked about on this podcast, like side note, did you know

00:45:18.760 Hortense is the 50th person we've talked about? No wonder I can't remember people's names from

00:45:24.460 past episodes 50 anyway we've talked about other situations where it was like an important the like

00:45:30.320 master of the chamber pot or whatever and that was like closer you were to the monarch when they

00:45:36.440 were like in a vulnerable situation like the more you could get your point of view across to them 0.97

00:45:40.900 so the mistress being the person who like goes to bed and like has sex with the king like that

00:45:45.020 was a person who could like communicate political suggestions from the people who supported the 0.81

00:45:50.260 mistress. So when we think about, or when I think about the stereotypes that we have today about

00:45:56.200 like, you know, rich men who have mistresses or whatever, it often seems like it's like some sort

00:46:01.640 of, I don't know, like really young woman, like maybe some sort of like airhead type person,

00:46:07.360 like all respect to airhead type people. But it tends to be, it's the same as when you see

00:46:12.520 like Scott Disick or whoever, like dating some like 19 year old, you're like, oh,

00:46:16.540 you're with that person who's like maybe a cool person but not because they're so intelligent

00:46:21.760 it's like you're with them because they're young and hot so that's often what we think a mistress

00:46:26.160 is like but charles in this french style was looking for a mistress his official mistresses

00:46:32.540 where people were interesting um they got involved in philanthropy they're all smart they're all

00:46:38.740 clever so i promise like we are getting to hortense but this is just like setting the scene

00:46:44.280 for Hortense when she becomes a mistress. And you need to know about the other mistresses to 0.94

00:46:49.080 understand her role as a mistress. So here's a real short history of the other women who were

00:46:55.240 mistresses before her. Barbara Villiers was her name when she was born. She got married. She became

00:47:01.940 Barbara Palmer. So she grew up among the royalists who, so like as a teen, she was attending like

00:47:10.100 super secret sexy royalist meetings about like trying to get Charles to be the king again.

00:47:14.280 I say, let's do a royal diaries type book about her as a teen. So she married Roger Palmer,

00:47:21.260 who's also a royalist, and then they hung out. This is during the era when Charles was in

00:47:25.440 The Hague. And this is where they became lovers. Even though she was married, because again,

00:47:32.040 that was just like, don't worry about it. That's just how things happen. So when Charles became

00:47:37.140 king again, she came over like already his lover and she was given rooms at the royal palace. Like

00:47:41.900 everyone knew she was his lover. It was not a super secret, sexy scandal. It was like a very

00:47:46.280 out in the open, non-secret, sexy, non-scandal. So personality-wise, she's known for being very

00:47:53.640 passionate, very demanding, being insatiable both sexually and financially. She was violent-tempered 0.98

00:48:00.080 and dominated Charles in court life. That's just like what some people say. I think she sounds 0.58

00:48:04.460 pretty great. Not to say that she wasn't like that, but a lot of people only think about how

00:48:09.240 she was like that. She also had other lovers besides Charles, who was cool with that, because

00:48:14.120 just everyone is fucking everyone. And it's like, don't worry about it. So she was not popular. 0.99

00:48:20.020 A lot of the courtiers, because of how much money and power Charles gave her, and how she flaunted 0.98

00:48:25.100 the money around. She had children by him. She had children by other people, maybe, or maybe by him.

00:48:32.580 She claimed they're all by him, because you get more money if you say it's the king's child. 0.55

00:48:36.200 Anyway, her power and influence over the king eventually declined because of her overbearing 1.00

00:48:41.160 behavior, her unpopularity, and just the sheer expense of paying her gambling debts. And so she 1.00

00:48:47.360 spent less time at court as Charles kind of like got over her and other mistresses superseded her. 0.91

00:48:54.620 The next one was Mole Davis, who was an actress. So Mole had been put in Charles's way by Barbara's 1.00

00:49:01.000 cousin who didn't like barbara and wanted to replace her with a pawn of his own so this cousin

00:49:08.320 seems to go around to like see like who are the most because remember actresses is like a new job

00:49:12.420 you could have so he went around to at least two different actresses being like hey how much would

00:49:16.600 have to pay you to become the king's new mistress and mole gave the lower bid so he chose her so

00:49:23.360 when charles made mole so like her name is mall like i've not seen this as a name m-o-l-l is her 0.99

00:49:29.380 name gangster's mole and so this was i think this was maybe a scandalous situation because she was 1.00

00:49:34.500 like an actress which was like at that point like basically seen like a sex worker and also just like 1.00

00:49:41.200 a commoner anyway she's given an annuity of 200 pounds a year rooms to live in the palace so when 0.90

00:49:47.020 they became lovers she retired from acting performing only occasionally at court and she

00:49:51.700 gave birth to a daughter in 1669 named lady mary tudor but then another actress cut charles aside

00:49:58.580 and stole him away from Maul. And this was maybe his most famous mistress, Nell Gwyn. So Nell Gwyn

00:50:04.220 famously started off just like before she's even an actress. She was like selling oranges

00:50:08.340 to crowds at London theater, but then she's a good actress. And she was actually the other woman 1.00

00:50:14.160 that Barbara's cousin had tried to get to be the mistress, but she asked for too much money.

00:50:17.940 But then she caught the King's attention all on her own because they were seated near one another

00:50:21.780 during a play and they exchanged smoldery gazes and it was on. So unlike Mole, Nell kept acting

00:50:29.300 in plays even after she became the king's mistress, which was like shocking, but it made even more

00:50:34.360 people come to see her plays because people wanted to see not just this like famous talented actress,

00:50:38.760 but they want to see like the king's mistress. She had a son by him named Charles and still kept

00:50:44.220 acting, which was even more shocking because she was now the mother of a royal child, but she was 0.99

00:50:48.720 just like fuck off i like acting here's what's happening she eventually did retire but remain 0.98

00:50:54.860 involved in drama when she became the patron to afra ben who is the first woman in england to make 0.99

00:51:01.520 her living by being a writer and who is maybe also a spy and will maybe be the subject of a vulgar

00:51:07.600 history episode someday and who will appear in this story again anyway so this is what's happening

00:51:14.100 charles is just like got his mistress's meanwhile over in france louis the 14th

00:51:18.720 like saw this happening and he wanted to install a mistress who answered to him to be sort of like

00:51:24.040 a mistress slash spy so he could like keep an eye on charles to see what was going on and this leads

00:51:30.240 us to louise de carouille louise de carouille so louise had first met charles when she was a lady

00:51:40.540 in waiting to his sister henrietta who i just told you henrietta was married to uh prince philippe

00:51:47.620 So, but then Henrietta died and Charles was like so sad about it.

00:51:51.360 He would like mourn her for a year.

00:51:52.660 This is like the genuine sorrow at his sister's death is another thing.

00:51:56.420 Like, I don't know.

00:51:56.900 It's like, what is it?

00:51:57.840 The bar is on the ground in terms of like men in these stories, especially kings being

00:52:01.700 like, okay, people.

00:52:02.740 But I'm just like, Charles had like a understandable human reaction.

00:52:07.080 Like, look at this.

00:52:09.100 Anyway, so he had met Louise when she was a lady in waiting to his sister.

00:52:13.480 And then after Henrietta died, he asked Louis if he could bring Louise over from France to be

00:52:18.000 waiting to his wife, Catherine of Braganza. And Louis, sorry, there's Louis XIV, the king.

00:52:23.880 Louise is the woman. So Louis XIV knew that this basically meant Charles wanted to make Louise

00:52:30.580 his new official mistress. So he like quickly put her on the royal payroll and paid her with

00:52:35.340 jewels and luxuries for being his agent in England and reporting back to him. And in fact,

00:52:39.380 louise came over and like pretty much right away became his official mistress because she was

00:52:43.360 french she was distressed disliked and distrusted by people in england like charles was surrounded

00:52:49.340 by these kind of like francophile catholic sympathizers but like the regular ordinary

00:52:54.340 people were like not not fond of louise for her whole french thing and the fact how she was

00:52:59.340 obviously a spy the hatred let's see the hatred they felt for her was not just because of her

00:53:05.780 france but because of her notorious promiscuity which again it's like but i think everyone was 0.99

00:53:10.920 fucking with everyone so anyway one of his nicknames for her was fubs which means plump 0.99

00:53:16.920 or chubby but it was kind of like thick t-h-i-c-c it was like a compliment it's like hey fubs because 0.99

00:53:26.100 like uh so the female form was very much in like the form of like a curvaceous woman was very much

00:53:33.640 in fashion at this point so in 1682 the royal yacht hms fubs or sorry hmy fubs in reference to

00:53:41.900 her nickname was built like imagine imagine prince william or somebody nowadays like having a personal

00:53:49.700 yacht that he calls like the hms thick like charles is hilarious anyway so people who did not like

00:53:58.760 friends didn't like how much influence she was having over charles and they wanted to replace

00:54:02.240 her with a new royal mistress who wouldn't be so loyal to France like if only they could find 1.00

00:54:08.000 someone who is beautiful clever but who like for some reason didn't like the king of France maybe 0.99

00:54:14.500 because he wouldn't let her divorce her terrible husband so a guy called Ralph Montague so a guy

00:54:22.700 named Ralph Montague who had known Hortense when she was spending time at the French court thought

00:54:28.280 of her immediately he's like what about this woman this like Angelina Jolie like super powered 1.00

00:54:33.180 hot person and he heard that she needed a new place to live and someone to pay for her lifestyle 0.99

00:54:38.740 and he was like this is perfect that is how and why Hortense was invited over to England

00:54:46.960 I guess that's it for this week like there's just so much to get into I just the context I think is

00:54:53.460 so important but there's also so many good stories to tell you why am I apologizing it's like I'm

00:54:57.780 sorry, there's going to be more episodes. So yeah, next week we're going to pick up with like

00:55:02.460 Hortense becomes the mistress of Charles II. So stay tuned for that. Thank you for listening to

00:55:09.740 Vulgar History. Oh, also I did ask in Hortense part one, and because I'm like a few weeks ahead

00:55:16.580 in recording, I'm just able to say this now, but I asked like, what are some other like famous

00:55:21.560 groups of sisters? Like, like the Mazarinettes. And so a couple of suggestions I got, um, a few

00:55:26.960 people mention the Mitford sisters. There's also the Gabor sisters, like Zsa Zsa, Gabor, and her

00:55:33.580 sisters. There's also the Schuyler sisters from American history, but also best known from

00:55:39.200 Hamilton. Those are all great suggestions, but I don't think anyone, like the Mazarinettes were 0.99

00:55:45.060 really a singular sort of thing. Oh, also, if you go to vulgarhistory.store, where there's all the

00:55:50.940 vulgar history merch i've got a new design there that is les masarinettes which i think is cute

00:55:57.060 it's there's a mug stickers uh cropped hoodie t-shirt other things yeah it's got sort of like

00:56:03.420 an astrology-esque look to it which will make more sense to you when i talk more about the

00:56:09.980 connection between especially marie mancini and astrology and then also the younger sister marianne

00:56:17.020 Anyway, if you're into the Mezzarinettes, 0.81

00:56:19.440 cute new merch there at vulgarhistory.store.

00:56:21.400 Remember, if you're buying anything there,

00:56:23.380 if you use code TITSOUT,

00:56:24.840 you get free US shipping or TITSOUT10 for 10% off.

00:56:29.040 Yeah, keep sending me feedback,

00:56:31.080 suggestions of people for future episodes.

00:56:32.840 There's a contact little button at vulgarhistory.com.

00:56:36.780 You can also send me a message on Instagram

00:56:39.260 where I'm at vulgarhistorypod

00:56:41.100 and Twitter at vulgarhistory.

00:56:43.700 If you want to hear the inevitable, 0.92

00:56:45.560 so this asshole question mark about charles ii but also thomas blude and other people that's

00:56:52.260 going to be at if you join the patreon so patreon.com and foster writers that's where i do 0.90

00:56:57.280 about every month or so so this asshole episode the most recent one that i think will be out

00:57:01.960 by the time you hear this is about cardinal mazarin himself but there's a lot of interesting 0.79

00:57:07.420 men in this story that's also where we have episodes of vulgar peace theater where i'm

00:57:12.360 joined by Lennon Wood Johnson and Alison Epstein to talk about movies, costume dramas. The most

00:57:18.060 recent one we did there was The Girl King, which is a movie about Christina of Sweden. And then

00:57:22.780 the next one we're going to be doing is the Les Miserables movie starring Hugh Jackman. Anyway,

00:57:27.680 so if you join the Patreon for at least $5 a month, you get access to those. But also,

00:57:31.680 I don't think I mentioned this in a minute. If you join the Patreon at as low a price as a dollar a

00:57:37.000 month, then you get early access to episodes of Vulgar History. So it's usually like four or five

00:57:40.640 days early so if you just can't wait to hear what happens next to Hortense you can support me there

00:57:45.260 on Patreon yeah so next week we're going to be talking more about Hortense this is the story

00:57:50.480 that just keeps on giving it's like it's like everything I feel about her the same way as when

00:57:56.240 I first read about Francis Howard I'm just like this story has everything I love in a historical

00:58:02.320 story and it just like it's just unrelenting the amount of cool stuff there is to talk to you about

00:58:06.960 honestly i thought i was gonna get further through my notes today i did not but yeah next week we're

00:58:13.140 gonna learn all about hortense's time as the mistress of charles ii and that's not where her 0.99

00:58:19.680 story ends so until next time keep your pants on keep your tits out um stay strong and i'll talk 0.98

00:58:27.040 to you again next week vulgar history is hosted written and researched by ann foster and edited 1.00

00:58:32.700 by Christina Luma.

00:58:43.420 The war is over

00:58:45.740 and both sides lost.

00:58:47.880 Kingdoms were reduced

00:58:48.900 to cinders

00:58:49.720 and armies scattered

00:58:51.320 like bones in the dust.

00:58:53.340 Now the survivors

00:58:54.500 claw to what's left

00:58:56.120 of a broken world

00:58:57.360 praying the darkness

00:58:58.860 chooses someone else tonight.

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00:59:22.000 This is what it felt like to play RPGs in the 80s

00:59:24.440 And man, it is so good to be back

00:59:26.700 Join the Glass Cannon Podcast

00:59:28.020 As we plunge into the shadow dark

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00:59:34.120 with the podcast version dropping the next day.

00:59:37.500 See what everybody's talking about

00:59:38.800 and join us in the dark.

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Vulgar History - August 03, 2022

International, part 20： Hortense Mancini Becomes the King's Mistress (pt 3⧸6)

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