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Auction: 26066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 1051

King Charles I's Third-But-Last Letter to his Son, Prince Charles
1648 (25 November) letter signed with autograph subscription "Your Loving Father Charles R" from "Newport in Ye Isle of Wight" with integral address panel reading "To our Dearest Sonn the Prince of Wales", Prince Charles, the future King Charles II.

Letter reads: "Dearest Sonne. Wee send you the provisionally, because we see not yet how it wilbe with our affaires upon the conclusion of this Treaty, the success whereof is doubtful. You know well our just esteem of Secretary Nicholas, whom we have ever found a faithfull, affecconat & able servant, And are certain he wilbe so on all occasions to you also: Wherefore we would have you to esteeme & cherish him, and to lett him find (till God shalbe pleased to give us further means for such honest men's incourggemt) very freely your kindnesse & confidence, which will be most acceptable unto

Your Loving Father
Charles R"

Discreet reinforcement along the long folded edge; very fine and a most emotive and dramatic letter, written just shy of two months prior to his execution.

Offered together with 1641 (29 September) ALS from Nicholas to an unidentified correspondent regarding orders for disbanding a garrison and that "we have no certainty (as yet) when the King will be on his way for England and some say it will be about the eleventh of next month".

Notes: The treaty referred to in this letter is the Treaty of Newport which was sought by the Long Parliament with the King while on the Isle of Wight. In order that negotiations for the peaceable end that the Presbyterian parliamentarians so desired, King Charles has been released on parole from Carisbrooke and kept at a house in Newport on the agreement that they did not take longer than forty days.

When in fact they did exceed forty days, extensions were granted and negotiations lasted until the 27 November 1648, just two days after this letter was written.

The main sticking points for the King were that the Covenant was not to be accepted, and no Royalist leader should face punishment for their actions, but conceded on Presbytarianism being the religion of the state and that Parliament could rule the Militia for a further 10 years.

It seems that negotiations advanced well, albeit slowly, but those less sympathetic to the King's cause had simply lost patience. Commissary-General Henry Ireton pushed through the final imprisonment of King Charles and on the 1 December, just six days after this letter, the King was moved to Hust Castle on the mainland and by 13 December had annulled the Treaty of Newport and paved the way for the King's trial.

It has been recorded that this letter was likely sent with a further letter dated the same day, which resides in the Nicholas papers, in which he thanks Nicholas for his honourable service and requests that he performs the same to his son. Since the letter sold here is not present in the Nicholas Papers, one can assume it did in fact reach the Prince, unlike the last letter that the King penned.

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Estimate
£5,000 to £10,000

Starting price
£4000

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