make untrue confessions against her. He seems to have ingeniously defended himself against the accusation of betraying her, by explaining that such confessions as he was induced to make were really more beneficial to her than absolute silence. The fact, however, that he received his liberty while she was condemned seems to indicate that with him the main consideration was his own safety. Nau sent certain papers to Mary from London in vindication of his conduct, and she forwarded them for examination to the Duke of Guise, who declared his conviction that the suspicions against Nau were not justified (manuscript in British Museum, Cottonian Library, Calig. D. fol. 89 b, quoted in Stevenson's preface to Nau, Hist. of Mary Stewart). The general impression among the friends of Mary was, however, that Nau had betrayed her. It was also stated that he had taken advantage of his opportunities, as manager of Mary's finance, to enrich himself; that when taken prisoner at Chartley, Staffordshire, twenty thousand livres, all in hard cash, were found in his wardrobe, together with thirty costly mantles; that when he crossed over to France he carried with him ten thousand livres, and that he had property in France amounting to one hundred thousand livres, all amassed within twelve years (‘La Morte de la Royne d'Écosse,’ in Jebb, Collections, ii. 661).
Nau was set at liberty about 7 Sept. 1587 (Cal. State Papers, Dom. Ser. 1581–90, p. 424), and immediately crossed over to France. On his return he was nominated councillor and intendant of finances, and on 1 July 1600 secretary in ordinary of the chamber of the king. By Henry IV he was ennobled by letters dated at Fontainebleau in May 1605. In the same year he visited England, when he addressed a memorial to James I in vindication of his conduct in reference to Mary Stuart.
By his wife, Anne du Jardin, Nau had a son, James, and three daughters, Claude, Martha, and Mary. During his residence at Chartley he vainly paid addresses, in 1586, to Bessie Pierrepoint, who was in attendance on the Queen of Scots (ib. Scott. Ser. passim).
A manuscript in the British Museum entitled ‘An Historical Treatise concerning the Affairs of Scotland, chiefly in Vindication of Mary Queen of Scots’ (Caligula B. iv. 94–129), was published by Joseph Stevenson, S.J., as the work of Nau, under the title ‘History of Mary Stewart from the Murder of Riccio until her flight into England,’ Edinburgh, 1883. Mr. Stevenson is of opinion that it was authoritatively the work of Mary herself. He also states that Nau seems to have intended to write an account of the royal house of Stuart from the accession of King Robert II to his own time, and that with that view ‘he began his collections by translating into French the Latin history of Bishop Leslie’ (MS. Cot. Vesp. Calig. xvi. fol. 41, from A.D. 1436 to 1454), to which ‘he added a continuation, a few fragments of which remain.’ Besides his skill as a financier, Nau had special linguistic qualifications for Mary's service, could read and speak English and Italian, and was also a specially good latinist. He was reputed to be ‘quick spirited’ and ‘ready,’ but given to ostentation (Sadler, State Papers, ii. 523).
[Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser.; Hardwicke State Papers; Letters of Mary Stuart, ed. Labanoff; Sadler's State Papers; M. De La Chenaye-Desbois's Dictionnaire de La Noblesse, Paris, 1775; Stevenson's Preface to Nau's Hist. of Mary Stewart.]
NAUCHLAN (d. 452?), Scottish saint. [See Nathalan.]
NAUNTON, Sir ROBERT (1563–1635), politician, born at Alderton, Suffolk, in 1563, was eldest son of Henry Naunton of Alderton, by Elizabeth Ashby, and was grandson of William Naunton, whose wife Elizabeth was daughter of Sir Anthony Wingfield, K.G. Robert was educated at Cambridge, where he matriculated as a fellow-commoner of Trinity College. On 11 Nov. 1582 he was elected a scholar, graduating B.A. in the same year; he became on 2 Oct. 1585 a minor fellow, and on 15 March 1585–6 a major fellow, and proceeded M.A. soon afterwards. In 1589 Naunton accompanied his uncle William Ashby to Scotland, where Ashby was acting as English ambassador. Naunton seems to have carried messages between his uncle and the English government, and spent much of his time at court in London in July. He returned to Scotland in August; but Ashby died in the following January, and Naunton's connection with Scotland ceased. Settling again in Cambridge, he was elected a fellow of Trinity Hall in 1592, and was appointed public orator in 1594 (Le Neve, Fasti, iii. 614). Soon afterwards he attracted the attention of the Earl of Essex, who determined to fit him for a diplomatic appointment by sending him abroad to study continental politics and foreign languages. Essex obtained for him the position of travelling tutor to a youth named Vernon, and Naunton undertook, while he journeyed about Europe with his charge, to regularly send to Essex all the political intelligence he could scrape together. Writing to his patron from the Hague in November 1596, he complained that his
