Primrose Deane, the Irish landscape-painter. Nattes worked as a topographical draughtsman, travelling all over Great Britain and also in France. His method of colouring causes his drawings to be ranked among the earliest examples of water-colour painting in this country, though there is little artistic merit in his productions. He published the following works, illustrated by himself: ‘Hibernia Depicta,’ 1802; ‘Scotia Depicta,’ 1804; ‘Select Views of Bath, Bristol, Malvern, Cheltenham, and Weymouth,’ 1805; ‘Bath Illustrated,’ 1806; ‘Views of Versailles, Paris, and St. Denis,’ 1809 (?). Other drawings of his were engraved for the ‘Beauties of England and Wales,’ the ‘Copperplate Magazine,’ and Howlett's ‘Views in the County of Lincoln.’ Nattes was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1782 to 1804. In the latter year he was one of the artists associated in the foundation of the ‘Old’ Society of Painters in Water-colours. He contributed to their exhibitions up to 1807, in which year he was convicted of having exhibited drawings that were not his own work. Nattes was therefore expelled from the society. He resumed exhibiting at the Royal Academy up to 1814, and died in London in 1822. He lived at No. 49 South Molton Street.
[Roget's History of the ‘Old Water-Colour’ Society; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]
NAU, CLAUDE de la BOISSELIERE (fl. 1574–1605), secretary of Mary Queen of Scots, was descended from an old French family originally settled in Touraine, but subsequently in Paris under the patronage of the house of Guise. He was educated for the law, and for some time practised in the courts of parliament. After acting as secretary to the Cardinal of Lorraine, he entered the service of the king of France, by whom he was made counsellor and auditor of the Chambre des Comptes (M. De La Chenaye-Desbois, Dictionnaire de la Noblesse, Paris, 1775, s.n.) On the death of Queen Mary's secretary Raullet, in 1574, he was, on the recommendation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, chosen to succeed him, and entered upon his duties in the spring of 1575. Mary was then a prisoner in the Earl of Shrewsbury's house at Sheffield. Besides succeeding to the secretarial duties of Raullet, he was entrusted with the management of the queen's accounts. He was also her confidant and adviser in all important matters of policy. He showed himself both zealous and able, but a letter to his brother in 1577 indicates also supreme devotion to his own personal interests. He advised his brother, for whom he was desirous to obtain the office of treasurer to the queen, whenever he talked to any of the king's servants about him, ‘to always complain of my stay here, and that I am losing in this prison my best years, and the reward of my services and all hopes of advancement’ (Leader, Captivity of Mary Stuart, p. 397).
In 1579 Nau was sent by Mary on a mission to Scotland, the removal of Morton from the regency having aroused hopes that her cause might win the support of the new advisers of the king of Scots. On 17 June he presented himself at the castle of Edinburgh, desiring to speak with the master of Gray, but was refused an audience (Moysie, Memoirs, p. 23). He therefore, on the 19th, passed to Stirling; but as the communication sent by Mary to King James was merely addressed ‘To our Son the Prince of Scotland,’ the king, with the advice of the privy council, declared ‘the said Franscheman unworthy of his Hienes presence or audience, and to deserve seveir puneisment for his presumptioun, meit to be execute presentlie upoun him war it nocht for the respect of his dearest suster, the Queene of England, and hir servand that accumpanyis him’ (Reg. P. C. Scotl. iii. 186). He again undertook a mission to Scotland after the final fall of Morton, leaving Sheffield on 4 Dec. 1581 (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. p. 932), and returning again on 3 Dec. 1582 (ib. p. 935). In 1584, after long negotiations, he was permitted an interview with Elizabeth, chiefly to present complaints of the Scottish queen against Lady Shrewsbury (Sadler, State Papers, ii. passim). After a favourable reception he returned to Wingfield on 29 Dec.
Nau, aided by his subordinate, Curle, was supposed to be the chief agent in carrying on the correspondence with Anthony Babington [q. v.] in connection with the conspiracy against Elizabeth. Both were apprehended, along with Mary Queen of Scots, on 8 Aug. 1586. They were sent up to London, and were several times examined as to their knowledge of the plot. Nau was stated to have confessed that Mary wrote the letter to Babington with her own hand (Cal. State Papers, Scott. Ser. p. 1010), and that he admitted her knowledge of the plot is substantially borne out by the report of the trial (evidence against Mary Queen of Scots in Hardwicke, State Papers, i. 224–57); but he nevertheless, on 10 Sept., addressed a memorial to Elizabeth, in which he protested that Mary ‘had no connection or concern with the designs of Babington and others’ (Labanoff, Letters of Mary Stuart, vii. 194–5). Mary asserted that Nau had been induced by threats of torture to
