Edward Nicholas
Sir Edward Nicholas (4 April 1593 – 1669) was an English office holder and politician who served as Secretary of State to Charles I and Charles II. He also sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1621 and 1629. He served as secretary to Edward la Zouche and the Duke of Buckingham and became a clerk of the Privy Council. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War and accompanied the court into exile, before assuming the post of Secretary of State on the Restoration.
Life
Nicholas was the eldest son of John Nicholas of a Wiltshire family. He was educated at Salisbury grammar school, Winchester College and Queen's College, Oxford.
After studying law at the Middle Temple, Nicholas became secretary to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche, warden, and admiral of the Cinque Ports, in 1618. In 1621, he was elected Member of Parliament for Winchelsea. He was re-elected MP for Winchelsea in 1624 for the Happy Parliament. When Zouche resigned his office of lord warden to the Duke of Buckingham, the Duke, upon Lord Zouch's recommendation, made Nicholas his secretary for the business of the Cinque ports on 9 December 1624 . In 1625 Nicholas became secretary to the admiralty; shortly afterwards he was appointed an extra clerk of the privy council with duties relating to admiralty business. In 1628 he was elected MP for Dover and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. Appended to a copy of Charles's speech at the dissolution of this parliament on 10 March 1629 is a poem of twenty-four verses in Nicholas's hand, beginning:
- The wisest king did wonder when he spide
- The nobles march on foot, their vassals ride
- His majestie may wonder now to see
- Some that would needs be king as well as he.
From 1635 to 1641 Nicholas was one of the clerks in ordinary to the council. In this situation he had much business to transact in connection with the levy of ship-money. When, in 1641, Charles I went to Scotland, he remained in London and was responsible for keeping the king informed of the proceedings of the parliament. When Charles returned to London, Nicholas was knighted, and appointed a privy councillor and a Secretary of State, in which capacity he attended the king while the court was at Oxford, and carried out the business of the Treaty of Uxbridge.
Throughout the Civil War Nicholas was one of Charles's wisest and most loyal advisers. He arranged the details of the king's surrender to the Scots, although he does not appear to have advised or even to have approved of the step. He also had the duty of treating for the capitulation of Oxford, which included permission for Nicholas himself to retire abroad with his family. He went to France, being recommended by the king to the confidence of the Prince of Wales.
After the king's death Nicholas remained on the continent concerting measures on behalf of the exiled Charles II with Hyde and other royalists, but the hostility of Queen Henrietta Maria deprived him of any real influence in the counsels of the young sovereign. He lived at The Hague and elsewhere in a state of poverty which hampered his power to serve Charles, but which the latter did nothing to relieve. Charles appointed him secretary of state while in exile in 1654. As an enthusiastic Royalist, in a letter dated 10 September 1657 and directed toward Sir Edward Hyde, Nicholas speaks of Cromwell,
... I conceive his Majesty should do well to set a good price on his head and all the heads of the chief commanders in Ireland and also in Scotland ...[1]
Nicholas returned to England at the Restoration and duly took office as Secretary of State along with William Morice, a former parliamentary supporter. Nicholas was soon retired, much against his own wishes, in favour of Charles's favourite Henry Bennet. He received a grant of money and the offer of a peerage, which he felt too poor to accept. He retired to a country seat in Surrey which he purchased from Carew Raleigh, son of Sir Walter Raleigh, and here he lived till his death in 1669.
Family
Nicholas married Jane Jay, a daughter of Henry Jay, an alderman of London and had several sons and daughters. His eldest son was Sir John Nicholas, a Clerk of the Signet and Clerk of the Privy Council.
His younger brother Matthew Nicholas (1594–1661) was successively Dean of Bristol, canon of Westminster and Dean of St Paul's. His country seat was at Sunninghill in Berkshire.
Correspondence
The collected correspondences of Nicholas were published in three volumes by the Royal Historical Society in 1920.
References
- ↑ 'The Nicholas Papers, Vol IV' p.13, London: Offices of the Society, 1920
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nicholas, Sir Edward". Encyclopædia Britannica. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 656.
Further reading
- Donald Nicholas (1955), Mr Secretary Nicholas (1593–1669), His Life and Letters
Shaw, William Arthur (1894). "Nicholas, Edward". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 40. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 430–435.
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by William Binge Thomas Godfrey |
Member of Parliament for Winchelsea 1621–1624 With: Thomas Finch 1621–1622 John Finch 1624 |
Succeeded by Roger Twysden |
| Preceded by Sir John Hippisley John Pringle |
Member of Parliament for Dover 1628–1629 With: Sir John Hippisley |
Succeeded by Parliament suspended until 1640 |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Sir Henry Vane |
Secretary of State 1641–1646 With: Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland 1642–1643 George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol 1643–1645 |
Vacant |
| Preceded by The Viscount Falkland |
Lord Privy Seal 1643–1644 |
Succeeded by The Earl of Bath |
| Preceded by Sir Peter Wyche |
Custos Rotulorum of Middlesex 1643–1646 |
Succeeded by Interregnum |
| Preceded by Interregnum |
Custos Rotulorum of Middlesex 1660–1669 |
Succeeded by The Earl of Craven |
| Preceded by — |
Secretary of State for the Southern Department 1660–1662 |
Succeeded by The Lord Arlington |