A look at the collection of portraits of prominent women in the court of Charles II of England.
King Charles II of England had an appetite for the ladies. Known for his numerous mistresses and abundance of bastards, nobody could deny that Charles appreciated the female form. His sister-in-law, Anne Hyde, the Duchess of York, also had an eye for female beauty. She commissioned the painter Sir Peter Lely to paint portraits of the prominent women of Charles’ court. Some of the ladies were noblewomen married to high ranking courtiers.
