Add MS 78264

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. XCVII (ff. 151). Correspondence of Charles I, Charles II, and other members of the royal family with Nicholas, etc.; 1641-1658. Partly copies, and cipher with decipher. Partly French. Most of the letters are printed in Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, ed. by William Bray, 1859, IV. The contents are as follows:-

1. ff. 1-100. Correspondence of Charles I with Nicholas, 8 Aug.-22 Nov. 1641, 30 Jan. 1644/5-24 Nov. 1648. Partly autograph, and scribal with autograph additions. Partly copy and cipher, deciphered. The king’s replies are often written on Nicholas’s originals, sometimes docketed by Charles ‘Yours Apostyled’. Also included are: (a) a letter of the King to Hyde, 7 Sept. 1641; - (b) a signed undertaking by the King to M. [Jean de] Montereul, French ambassador, concerning those who are to accompany him to the Scots, [1646]; - (c) an autograph memorandum rel. to the conditions under which he is to treat, [1647]; - (d) a later copy of a letter of Charles I to the Prince of Wales, from Hereford, 23 June 1645, printed in Clarendon’s History, X, 4; - (e) a warrant with sign manual, docketed ‘Charles to me [i.e. Nicholas] for my advise Concerning his Resolution to goe speedily to Holland’, 10 June 1648. Covers of seventeen of the letters of Charles I, 15 Aug.-18 Nov. 1641, were separated from the letters themselves, retained at West Horsley, and are now Egerton MS 2546. For a stray of 27 July 1647 see Huth sale, Sotheby, 12 June 1911, lot 38.

2. ff. 101-110. Correspondence, etc., of Charles II, partly as Prince of Wales, with Nicholas; 10 June 1648, 31 Jan. 1649/50-28 Sept. 1653, 12 Oct. 1662. Partly cipher, deciphered. Partly printed in Bray, IV, pp. 194-196, 201-203.

3. ff. 111-125. Eleven letters, etc., of Henrietta Maria to Nicholas; circa 5 Sept. 1641-circa 20 Nov. 1641 and n.d. Printed in Bray, IV, pp. 50 [rec. 19 Aug. 1641], 84 [rec. 5 Oct. 1641], 115 [rec. 8 Nov. 1641], 118 [rec. 10 Nov. 1641], 124 [rec. 12 Nov. 1641], 131 [rec. 20 Nov. 1641], and by R. A. Beddard, ‘Six unpublished letters of Queen Henrietta Maria’, British Library Journal, 25 (1999), pp. 129-143 [rec. 5 Sept., 1 Oct. 1641, and n.d.], with two warrants containing instructions to Nicholas to accompany the Prince to Calais, etc.; 9, 22 June 1648. Signed. Red wax armorial seals. One further letter is in Upcott’s album, Add. MS 78264 below.

4. f. 126. James, Duke of York, to Nicholas; Paris, 18 Nov. 1651. Printed in Bray, IV, pp. 200-201.

5. f. 127. Princess Mary of Orange to Nicholas; Breda, 21 July 1653. Printed in Bray, IV, pp. 201-202.

6. ff. 128-130. Prince Rupert to Nicholas; Bristol, 27 July 1645, and Frankfort, 6/16 June 1658.

7. ff. 131-151. Letters of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia to Nicholas; 31 Aug. 1654 N.S.-18 Jan. 1654/5. Several bear black wax armorial seals with cotton tags. Printed in Bray, IV, pp. 205-226.