Editing Edward Nicholas (section)

==Life==
Nicholas was the eldest son of John Nicholas of a [[Wiltshire]] family. He was educated at [[Salisbury Cathedral School|Salisbury grammar school]], [[Winchester College]], and [[Queen's College, Oxford]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Nicholas, Sir Edward|volume=19|page=656}}</ref>

After studying law at the [[Middle Temple]], in 1618 Nicholas became secretary to [[Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche]], lord warden and admiral of the [[Cinque Ports]].<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1621 he was elected as a [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Winchelsea (UK Parliament constituency)|Winchelsea]]. He was re-elected as one of the Members for Winchelsea in 1624 for what became known as the [[Happy Parliament]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}} Nicholas kept diaries of all the parliaments in which he sat. When Zouche resigned his office of lord warden to the [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham|Duke of Buckingham]], the Duke, upon Zouche's recommendation, on 9 December 1624 appointed Nicholas as his secretary for the business of the Cinque Ports. In 1625 Nicholas became the first holder of the office of [[Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty (Royal Navy)|Secretary to the Admiralty]]; shortly afterwards he was appointed an extra clerk of the [[Privy Council of England|privy council]], with duties relating to Admiralty business.<ref name="EB1911"/> In 1628 he was elected a Member for [[Dover (UK Parliament constituency)|Dover]] and sat until 1629, when King Charles decided to rule without parliament and in the event did so 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:

<blockquote>
: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.</blockquote>

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 of England|King Charles I]] went to [[Scotland]], he remained in London and was responsible for keeping the king informed of the proceedings of parliament. When Charles returned to London, Nicholas was knighted and appointed a [[Privy Council of England|privy councillor]] and a [[Secretary of State (England)|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]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

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 on 5 May 1646, 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 on 24 June 1646, 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 [[Charles II of England|Prince of Wales]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

In 1648 Nicholas wrote a pamphlet, [https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections/view/1201 ''An Apology for the Honorable Nation of the Jews''], which called for the [[Resettlement of the Jews in England|readmission of the Jews to England]]. It is one of the few examples of pro-admission writing that does not also call for the [[Conversion of the Jews (future event)|conversion of the Jews]] and is cited by [[Menasseh Ben Israel]] in his ''Humble Addresses'', although [[Cecil Roth]] wonders whether the pamphlet might actually have been written by a Jew.<ref>Scult, Mel (1978). [https://books.google.com/books?id=1tQUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA27 ''Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, Up to the Mid Nineteenth Century'']. Brill Archive. pps.27.</ref>

After the king's death, Nicholas remained on the continent, concerting measures on behalf of the exiled Charles II with [[Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon|Hyde]] and other royalists, but the hostility of [[Henrietta Maria of France|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 (England)|secretary of state]] while in exile in 1654.<ref name="EB1911"/> As an enthusiastic Royalist, in a letter dated 10 September 1657 to [[Sir Edward Hyde]], Nicholas speaks of [[Oliver Cromwell|Cromwell]],

<blockquote>... 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 ...<ref>'The Nicholas Papers, Vol IV' p.13, London: Offices of the Society, 1920</ref></blockquote>

[[File:West Horsley Place (geograph 5263391).jpg|thumb|West Horsley Place]]
Nicholas returned to England at the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] and duly took office as Secretary of State along with [[William Morice (Secretary of State)|William Morice]], a former parliamentary supporter. Nicholas was soon retired, much against his own wishes, in favour of Charles's favourite [[Henry Bennet, 1st Earl of Arlington|Henry Bennet]].{{Citation needed|date=August 2019}} 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 (the manor of West Horsley) which he purchased from [[Carew Raleigh (1605–1666)|Carew Raleigh]], son of Sir [[Walter Raleigh]], and there he lived till his death in 1669.<ref name="EB1911"/>