Volume 4

Diary and correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S. : to which is subjoined the private correspondence between King Charles I and Sir Edward Nicholas, and between Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon and Sir Richard Browne / edited from the original mss. at Wotton by William Bray.

  • John Evelyn
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diary and correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S. : to which is subjoined the private correspondence between King Charles I and Sir Edward Nicholas, and between Sir Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon and Sir Richard Browne / edited from the original mss. at Wotton by William Bray. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    75/534 (page 49)
    In this service he remained, discharging it at various places in France and Holland, till the treaty of Breda, when Charles went to Scotland. On his return, Nicholas again joined him at Aix ; and when the Restoration came, in 1660, he was continued as secretary. In October 1662, being then about seventy years of age, he finally resigned the secretaryship, in which he was succeeded by Bennet, afterwards Earl of Ar- lingtc n. He refused a peerage offered him by the king ; and retiring to his seat at West Horsley, in Surrey, an estate which he had purchased of Carew Raleigh, Esq. (son of Sir Walter), died there in September 1669. In the church of that parish are monuments erected to him and his descend- ants, who continued there till 1749. He left four sons. In 1641, it would appear from the letters now printed, he had a house at Thorpe, in Surrey. The reader of these letters will scarcely need to be told that he was not only a devoted servant of Charles I., but a diligent and faithful adviser, never scrupling to offer his opinion, and that a conscientious and honest one. It is to the king’s credit that he allowed him to do so, commending his openness, though unhappily for himself he did not always attend to the advice so given. It was Charles’s greatest mis- fortune to have had few counsellors so judicious, industrious, and experienced as Nicholas ; of such unimpeachable integ- rity, or of a temper so unambitious and averse to intrigue. The King to Sir Edward Nicholas. Nicolas, Your aduertisments to me,1 is so far from displeasing to me, that I comand you to continew it, & that as often as conuenientlie ye may. Deliuer thease incloseds. (I hope ye know by that yesterday that on [one] is to my Wyfe.) So 1 rest Your friend, Charles R. Eden. 15 Aug. 1641. Aduertise my Wyfe vpon euery dispache,that she may (if she will) wryt; & make one when & as often as she will comand you. 1 This letter is evidently the first sent by Charles to Sir Edward Nicholas, in answer to his first communication re- specting the proceeedings subsequent to the King’s departure. The royal journey was by no means agreeable to the Parlia- ment ; for, so late as the 7th of August, the Commons de- sired the Lords to join with them in an attempt to delay the King’s departure for fourteen days. Charles however, gave VOL. IV. u