Add MS 78654

EVELYN PAPERS. Vol. CCCCLXXXVII. Tracts relating to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, etc.; circa 1621-1626, n.d. At this period Sir Edward Nicholas was serving as secretary to Buckingham as Warden of the Cinque Ports; see Egerton MS 2544. For Nicholas papers in the present archive, see Add. MS 78264-78271:

1. ‘The Commons declaration, and Impeachmente agaynst the duke of Buckingham’, 8 May 1626. Printed in Rushworth’s Historical Collections (1721), I, pp. 303-351 passim. Numbered in ink ‘MS / (34)’ at head and ‘(2)’ at foot of first page. The hand is that of the ‘Feathery Scribe’ or his imitator.

2. Sir Henry Wotton and Edward Hyde, 1^st Earl of Clarendon: two tracts comparing Buckingham with Robert Devereux, 2^nd Earl of Essex; circa 1628-1641. Copies, partly imperfect., in two different hands. The general titlepage reads ‘Of Robert Devereux Earle of Essex And George Villiers Duke of Buckingham. A Parrallel written by S^r Henry Wotton. As alsoe the diference and Disparity written by Ed: Hide Gent.’. The second tract carries a separate titlepage reading, ‘The difference and disparity betweene y^e Estates and Condicions of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and Robert Devorex, Earle of Essex.’. Wotton’s tract was first published posthumously in 1641, and reissued, along with Hyde’s, in the 1685 edition of Reliquiae Wottonianae.