Nicholas Oudart

Nicholas Oudart (died 1681) was a Flemish career official and courtier, who acted as secretary to Charles I and Charles II of England, and to William of Orange in the Netherlands.

Life Oudart was born in Mechelin, and was brought to England by Sir Henry Wotton for his household. He was created M.A. at Oxford on 13 August 1636, and was incorporated at Cambridge in 1639. He went on to study medicine and was created M.B. at Oxford on 31 January 1642.

In 1640, Oudart was at The Hague as secretary to Sir William Boswell, the English ambassador; in 1641 he became assistant secretary to Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State. In August 1647, Oudart was acting as amanuensis to Charles I; he attended the king in the conferences with the parliamentary commissioners at Newport, Isle of Wight, and wrote the king's despatch to his son Charles. A copy of Eikon Basilike, in the handwriting of Oudart, was used by the printer Richard Royston.

Family Oudart married in 1655 Eva, daughter of John François Tortarolis, a wealthy gentlewoman of Leyden whom Oudart married about 1655. Of three daughters of the marriage, Barbara married at the Temple Church, London in 1677 William Foster; Amelia Isabella married in 1689 Bartholomew Van Sittert; and Dorothy is not known to have married.