At this time each year people from all over the world visit the famous flower festival in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, an institution founded in 1692 by Charles II “for the succour and relief of veterans broken by age and war”.
The first such hospital was Dublin’s Royal Hospital in Kilmainham (1690), whose earliest residents included veterans of the Battle of the Boyne.
The arms of the Dublin hospital are preserved on the organ screen of Chelsea’s magnificent chapel.
The story of the Chelsea Hospital has a cautionary lesson about how people can be misunderstood and misrepresented. In the Great Hall there is a wooden panel commemorating past benefactors and, surprisingly perhaps to some, at the top of the list is the name of Nell Gwynne, known to most people as one the mistresses of Charles II. It is believed that she came from a poor background where prostitution was common, but after the Cromwellian era theatres and other forms of what the puritans had considered “frivolous entertainment”’ reopened, and for the first time women were permitted to take to the stage.
Nell Gwynne, still in her teens, seized the opportunity and was so successful on the stage that she became well known and in time romantically involved with a number of influential people and ultimately the king himself.
But there was more to her than that. Tradition has it that she was troubled by the plight of soldiers who had survived the English Civil War and asked Charles to help.
She needed land to build and there is an intriguing story that when the king asked her how much land was required she showed him a small handkerchief. Somewhat bemused he agreed and told his officials to see to it.
However, when she met officials, she placed her small handkerchief on a map of London and thus secured the substantial property people know today.
Her life was sad at times: she lost her youngest child when he was nine and her mother died in a drowning accident. She herself died at the young age of 37.
It is clear that there was genuine warmth in her relationship with the king and it is said that on his death bed he said, “Let not poor Nelly starve,” and his son James ensured that she was provided for. It was no less than she deserved because, no matter what anyone says of her, there was a lot of goodness in Nell Gwynne.
There is an increasing tendency in today’s world to rush to judgement especially by the so-called popular media with its aggressive and violent language. Jesus not only warned against judging others but gave a good reason for not doing so: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Not an attractive prospect for any of us.
In Beginner's Mind, Franciscan priest Richard Rohr cautions: "Don't judge, don't label, don't rush to judgment. You don't usually know other people's real motives or intentions. You hardly know your own . . . Forget all your certitude all your labels, all your explanations, whereby you put this person in this box, this group is going to heaven, this race is superior to that race. Just forget it. It's largely a waste of time. It's usually your ego projecting itself, announcing itself, and protecting itself. It has little to do with objective reality or real love of the truth."
It has been said that the Fall of Adam was a fall upwards because by accepting the frailty of our humanity we discover the forgiving love of God.
The American actor and writer Martin Lawrence found that to be true in his own life: “I’m most proud of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me, in my life. He’s given me the vision to truly see that you can fall down, but you can still get back up. Hopefully I’ll learn from my mistakes and have the opportunity to strengthen and improve the next thing I do.”