to various repositories of state papers. From the documents in the office of the clerk of the parliament he was apparently allowed to take almost anything he pleased. He also had access to the Paper Office, to take copies. He applied to the Duke of Ormonde for documents relating to Ireland, and obtained permission to copy some of the papers. Lord Guilford communicated to him extracts from the memoirs of the Earl of Manchester, and he at least planned to obtain help from the Earl of Macclesfield, one of the last survivors of the king's generals. Nalson in these ways brought together a collection of primary sources and original documents illustrating the history of the period between 1638 and 1660. On his death it all remained in the possession of his family. The collection was gradually broken up. Some of the Irish transcripts came into the hands of Thomas Carte, and a considerable number of the parliamentary papers were abstracted by Thomas Tanner. These portions of the collection are in the Bodleian Library. Twenty-two volumes came to Welbeck Abbey; four volumes were purchased by the British Museum in 1846, and four others went missing. Some documents from Nalson's collection were printed by Zachary Grey in his answer to Daniel Neal's History of the Puritans (1737-9), and others by Francis Peck in his Desiderata Curiosa (1735). The Common Interest of King & People (1678) argues for monarchy, but in part on a utilitarian basis. Nalson's only other historical work was A True Copy of the Journal of the High Court of Justice for the Trial of K. Charles I (1684). Nalson is notable for making the claim that Cardinal Richelieu of France was involved in secretly stoking the initial stages of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the unrest of Scottish Covenanters in the Bishops' Wars during the reign of Charles I of England. For Nalson, the motivation for Richelieu to do this (even supporting a Radical Protestant revolt) was to keep England tied down with various domestic divisions so that is could not uphold the balance of power in Europe. He claims that John Pym had in his possession a letter confirming the involvement of Richelieu in these affairs, but chose not to publish it and blame Charles I instead. Notes References 1638 births 1686 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests 17th-century English historians English male non-fiction writers Alumni of St