AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED BY KING CHARLES I TO HIS FRIEND SIR EDWARD NICHOLAS CHARLES I (1600-1649, King of Great Britain) and Sir Edward NICHOLAS (English politician and later Secretary of State to both Charles I and Charles II, 1593-1669)

Fine Autograph Note Signed "Your friend Charles R" asking "Nicolas, deliver these two letters with diligence, especially that to my Lord Keeper, So I rest ...", with autograph note on the verso "for your selfe", with a short endorsement by Nicholas in the adjacent panel, giving date and place of receipt "17th Aug 1641, P. 2/2. His Mats letr to me from Edinburg", inscribed by the King, "Eden, 17 August 1641" together with an Autograph Letter Signed by Sir Henry ELLIS(1777-1869, Librarian and Antiquarian) to Sir Henry HALFORD (1766-1844, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Physician Extraordinary to George III) sending him the letter "Lady Ellis desires I will lose no time in begging your acceptance of the short Letter of King Charles I to Secretary Nicholas, which I enclose. It was presented to me by Mr Bray the editor of Evelyn's Memoirs. I should like to show you a ruined Portrait which I have of Charles I. It consists of one of the three Heads of the Picture which Vandyke painted for the use of Bernini. What remains is good, and it has the Vandyke brown in it. Several persons who know more of the matter than I do consider it to have been originally one of the copies of that famous picture, made in Vadyke's house, and with his own colours ...", 1 side 4to., with original autograph envelope front with seal, British Museum, 20th January 1837, the two letters bound into a 20th century quarter red morocco binding, over marbled boards, 4to., with gilt lettering to spine King Charles I,

A rare handwritten note from King Charles I to Edward Nicholas, asking him to deliver two letters. One of the letters was to his Lord Keepe, Sir Edward LYTTLETON (1st Baron, 1589-1645, Chief Justice, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal from 1641). The recipient of the second letter, though not mentioned by name by Charles, was to his wife Queen Henrietta Maria.
This note was sent from Edinburgh while the King was in final negotiations with the victorious Scottish Covenanters, which culminated in the humiliating Treaty of London. In 1637, King Charles had tried to impose a new Prayer Book, based on that of the Church of England, on the Church of Scotland (the Kirk). The attempt aroused patriotic and religious outrage, and many Scots signed the National Covenant in protest. Negotiations continued into the middle of 1641. The King was in a weak position: there was civil unrest in London, and Parliament had impeached his two chief ministers, the Earl of Strafford and Archbishop Laud (they were later to be executed). He therefore made several unexpected concessions. The resolutions of the General Assemblies of the Kirk which abolished the office of bishop were ratified, the royal castles at Edinburgh and Dumbarton were to be used for defensive purposes only, no Scot would be censured or persecuted for signing the National Covenant and several other concessions.
The private correspondence between the King and Nicholas was published by William BRAY (1736-1832, Antiquary) as an addendum (Vol. 4) to his work 'The diary and correspondence of John Evelyn'. Bray had access to the original letters at Wotton, and during his research presumably put aside this covering note from King Charles I as a gift for Ellis.

Item Date:  1641

Stock No:  40705