Sir Edward Nicholas to the King. May it please yo' most excellent Matie, Being yesterday at Oatlands to attend the Queenes com'aunds, her Matie gaue me this paper inclos'd, with comaund to send it this day to yo' Matie: it was brought to ye Queene by y Lady Carlile,' who saith she had it from ye Lo. Mandeville.' I confesse it were not amise to have it published, but I had rather it should be donne by any other hand than yo' Maties or y Queenes, & therefore I could wishe yo' Matie I shall would conceale it for a day or 2, by wch tyme I know there wilbe other coppies of it sent into Scotland. The late crosse orders, & vnusuall passages in P'liam't a little before y Recesse, are so distastfull to y wiser sorte, as it hath taken off y edge of their confidence in parliamentary proceedings, & I verily beleeve, that if y Houses (when they next meete) This was the Dowager Carlisle, Lady Lucy Percy, second wife, and, at this date, widow of James Hay, first Earl of Carlisle; a famous woman in her time, celebrated by Waller and others, and supposed to have become as intimate with Pym as she had previously been with Strafford. Clarendon accuses her of perplexing the King's affairs, and what Nicholas states of her above seems to exhibit an equal readiness to perplex the affairs of Parliament. But, being upwards of forty, she had now perhaps wholly given up amatory for political intrigues. 2 Son to the first Earl of Manchester of the Montague family, and formerly a personal friend of the King, having accompanied him on his romantic journey to Spain. The nature of the paper here alluded to, may be surmised from the fact that Lord Mandeville was at this time an active member of the Parliament party, and deep in the counsels and confidence of Pym. In the preceding year he had been one of the Commissioners to arrange all causes of dispute with Scotland. He was now best known, however, as the Lord Kimbolton, having at this period been called to the Upper House for his father's barony, though retaining the title of Viscount Mandeville by courtesy. A little later, he was impeached with the five members. His brother, Walter Montague, was a bigoted Catholic priest, Abbot of Pontoise, in France, and Confessor to the Queen after the death of Father Phillips; he is further noticed in subsequent letters. It were not amiss that some of my seruaunts met lykewais to countermynd ther Plots, to w'ch end speake with shall approove of what was then done, it will loose them ye reverence that hath bene heretofore paid to Parliamets. I heare there are divers meetings att Chelsey att ye Lo. Mandevilles house & elsewhere by Pym' and others, to consult what is best to be donne at their next meeting in P'liam': & I beleeve they will in yo first place fall on some plausible thing, that may redintegrate them in ye people's good opinion, wch is their anchor-hold & only interest; & (if I am not my Wyfe & much misinformed) that wilbe either vpon Papists, or vpon some Act for expunging of Officers and Counsellors here according to ye Scottish pcedent, or on both together, & therefore it will import yo Mate, by some serious and faithfull advise, to doe some thing to anticipate or prevent them before their next meeting. receaue her directions. Yesterday at Oatlands I understood that Sr. Jo. Berkeley & Capt. O'Neale were come over, & that they had bene the day before privately at Waybridge: I was bould then to deliver my opinion to ye Queene, that I did beleeve if they continued in England they would be arrested (thoughe yo P’liam't sit not) by vertue of ye warrant, that was given att first to ye Sarjant at Armes (attending y Com'ons House) to attache them. Her Matie seemed This was a very short time previous to the City riots, and the affair of the London apprentices. Subsequently the City found it necessary to check those riots, and Venn, one of their members, having exerted himself to keep the peace, a party pamphlet observed that the rioters would have proceeded to the Mansion House, "but by the providence of God, and the great wisdom of Captain Ven, they were prevented." 2 O'Neale was deeply implicated in what was called the Army Plot; the conspiracy for bringing up the English army against the Parliament, before referred to (ante, p. 56), in which Percy, Wilmot, Goring, Ashburnham, and several others were engaged. May, in his History of the Parliament, p. 65 (Mason's edition), calls O'Neale an Irishman and a Papist; and states that he was committed to the Tower, but escaped before trial. Berkeley was an officer of high rank, always active in the King's service, and is repeatedly mentioned by Clarendon, particularly as Governor of Exeter, which he was obliged to surrender to the Parliamentary forces. (when 1 tould it to her) to app hend noe lesse, & will I believe take order that notice may be given to them of ye danger of it, but her Mate for ye pesent said she knew not where they were. I wonder at this, for all thurd day to her. The Queene being now every day in expectac'on this last of le" from yo' Matie (having receaved non since tues- Month euery day last) doth forbeare to write by this dispatch. at furthest I Wee know not ye importance of y affaires there have written that deteyne yo' Matie soe long, but it is by those that wishe best to yo' service here, thought very necessary that yo' Matie should hasten to be here as soone as may be possible before ye 20th of 8ber; and if yo' Mate leaue behinde you some Councellors that you carryed hence, it is thought yo' Councells here will not prosper the worse, nor be the lesse secreat, only it may be yo' Matie may thereby deprive some menc'oned in ye paper inclosed of their wonted intelligence,' I beseech yo' Mati to vouchsafe to advertise me whether this come safe to yo' Royall hands, & to burne it, that it may never rise in iudgement against, Yo' sacred Maties Most humble & obedient servaunt, THORPE, 27 Sepbris, 1641. EDEN. 2 Oct. Sir Edward Nicholas to the King. May it please yo' most excellent Ma, I had noe sooner sent away my packet on Munday last but I receaved yo' Mates apostile of ye 20th p'sent, &wth it a le' to ye Queene, weh I forthw p'sented to her royall hand, & yesterday I receaved yo' Mate apostile of y 23 of this moneth, & instantly sent away yo' Mati let' to the Queene, & that to my Lo. Keeper. I tould y Queene that yo' Mae had Tell her that blamed me, that in severall of my dispaches there amends is was no le' from her Ma, for we she hath now made abondant 1 The allusion to the elder Vane is manifest here. The Treasurer, however, was now in his northern seat at Raby, having temporarily left the king. this doble satisfaction. |