Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 16099 December 1674), was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief advisor to
Charles I during the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
, and
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
to
Charles II from 1660 to 1667.
Hyde largely avoided involvement in the political disputes of the 1630s until elected to the
Long Parliament in November 1640. Like many moderates, he felt attempts by Charles
to rule without
Parliament had gone too far but by 1642 felt its leaders were, in turn, seeking too much power. A devout believer in an
Episcopalian Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
, his opposition to
Puritan attempts to reform it drove much of his policy over the next two decades. He joined Charles in
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
shortly before the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
began in August 1642, and initially served as his senior political advisor. However, as the war turned against the
Royalists
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
, his rejection of attempts to build alliances with Scots
Covenanters or
Irish Catholics led to a decline in his influence.
In 1644, the future Charles II was placed in command of the
West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...
, with Hyde and his close friend
Sir Ralph Hopton
Ralph Hopton, 1st Baron Hopton, (159628 September 1652), was an English politician, soldier and landowner. During the 1642 to 1646 First English Civil War, he served as Royalist commander in the West Country, and was made Baron Hopton of Stra ...
as part of his Governing Council. When the Royalists surrendered in June 1646, Hyde went into exile with Charles, who became king after his father's execution in January 1649. He avoided participation in the
Second or
Third English Civil War, since both involved alliances with Scots and English
Presbyterians, instead serving as a diplomat in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
and
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
. After
The Restoration in 1660, Charles appointed him chancellor, while his daughter
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
married the future
James II, making him grandfather of two queens,
Mary II and
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
.
These links brought him both power and enemies, while Charles became increasingly irritated by his criticism; despite having limited responsibility for the disastrous 1665 to 1667
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...
, he was charged with treason and forced into permanent exile. He lived in Europe until his death in 1674, a period he used to complete ''
The History of the Rebellion'', now regarded as one of the most significant histories of the 1642 to 1646 civil war. First written as a defence of Charles I, it was extensively revised after 1667 and became far more critical and frank, particularly in its assessments of his contemporaries.
Personal details
Edward Hyde was born on 18 February 1609, at
Dinton, Wiltshire, sixth of nine children and third son of
Henry Hyde (1563–1634) and Mary Langford (1578–1661). His siblings included Anne (1597–?), Elizabeth (1599–?), Lawrence (1600–?), Henry (1601–1627), Mary (1603–?), Sibble (1605–?),
Susan (1607–1656) and Nicholas (1610–1611).
His father and two of his uncles were lawyers; although Henry retired after his marriage,
Nicholas Hyde became
Lord Chief Justice
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...
,
Lawrence
Lawrence may refer to:
Education Colleges and universities
* Lawrence Technological University, a university in Southfield, Michigan, United States
* Lawrence University, a liberal arts university in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States
Preparator ...
was
legal advisor to
Anne of Denmark, wife of
James I. Educated at
Gillingham School
Gillingham School is a coeducational school situated in Gillingham in North Dorset, England. Gillingham Grammar School can trace its foundation back to 1516. It was founded as a Free School, paid for out of the proceeds of land gifted to the sc ...
, in 1622 he was admitted to
Hertford College, Oxford, then known as Magdalen Hall, graduating in 1626. Originally intended for a career in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
, the death of his elder brothers left him as his father's heir, and instead, he entered the
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...
to study law.
He married twice, first in 1629 to Anne Ayliffe, who died six months later, then to
Frances Aylesbury in 1634. They had six children who survived infancy:
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
(1638–1709),
Laurence (1642–1711),
Edward (1645–1665), James (1650–1681),
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
(1638–1671), and Frances. As mother of two queens, Anne is the best remembered, but both Henry and Laurence had significant political careers, the latter being 'an exceptionally able politician'.
Career; pre 1640
Hyde later admitted he had limited interest in a legal career and declared that "next the immediate blessing and providence of God Almighty" he "owed all the little he knew and the little good that was in him to the friendships and conversation ... of the most excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age." These included
Ben Jonson,
John Selden
John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned ...
,
Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, FRS (3 March 1606 – 21 October 1687) was an English poet and politician who was Member of Parliament for various constituencies between 1624 and 1687, and one of the longest serving members of the English House of Commons.
S ...
,
John Hales and especially
Lord Falkland, who became his best friend.
The diarist
Samuel Pepys wrote thirty years later that he never knew anyone who could speak as well as Hyde. He was one of the most prominent members of the famous
Great Tew Circle, a group of intellectuals who gathered at Lord Falkland's country house
Great Tew,
Oxfordshire.
On 22 November 1633 he was
called to the bar and obtained quickly a good position and practice; "you may have great joy of your son Ned" his uncle the Attorney General assured his father. Both his marriages gained him influential friends, and in December 1634 he was made keeper of the writs and rolls of the
Court of Common Pleas
A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...
. His able conduct of the petition of the London merchants against
Lord Treasurer
The post of Lord High Treasurer or Lord Treasurer was an English government position and has been a British government position since the Acts of Union of 1707. A holder of the post would be the third-highest-ranked Great Officer of State i ...
Portland earned him the approval of Archbishop
William Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...
, with whom he developed a friendship, though Laud did not make friends easily and his religious views were very different from Hyde's. Hyde in his ''History'' explained that he admired Laud for his integrity and decency and excused his notorious rudeness and bad temper, partly because of Laud's humble origins and partly because Hyde recognised the same weaknesses in himself.
Career; 1640 to 1660
In April 1640, Hyde was elected Member of Parliament for both
Shaftesbury
Shaftesbury () is a town and civil parish in Dorset, England. It is situated on the A30 road, west of Salisbury, near the border with Wiltshire. It is the only significant hilltop settlement in Dorset, being built about above sea level on a ...
and
Wootton Bassett
Royal Wootton Bassett , formerly Wootton Bassett, is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, with a population of 11,043 in 2001, increasing to 11,385 in 2011. Situated in the north of the county, it lies to the west of the major ...
in the
Short Parliament and chose to sit for Wootton Bassett. In November 1640 he was elected MP for
Saltash
Saltash (Cornish: Essa) is a town and civil parish in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It had a population of 16,184 in 2011 census. Saltash faces the city of Plymouth over the River Tamar and is popularly known as "the Gateway to Corn ...
in the
Long Parliament, Hyde was at first a moderate critic of King
Charles I but became more supportive of the king after he began to accept reforming bills from Parliament. Hyde opposed legislation restricting the power of the King to appoint his own advisors, viewing it as unnecessary and an affront to the
royal prerogative. He gradually moved over towards the royalist side, championing the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
and opposing the execution of the
Earl of Strafford
Earl of Strafford is a title that has been created three times in English and British history.
The first creation was in the Peerage of England in January 1640 for Thomas Wentworth, the close advisor of King Charles I. He had already succe ...
, Charles's primary adviser. Following the
Grand Remonstrance
The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances presented to King Charles I of England by the English Parliament on 1 December 1641, but passed by the House of Commons on 22 November 1641, during the Long Parliament. It was one of the chief ...
of 1641, Hyde became an informal adviser to the King. He left London about 20 May 1642 and rejoined the king at
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
. In February 1643, Hyde was
knighted and was officially appointed to the
Privy Council; the following month he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Despite his own previous opposition to the King, he found it hard to forgive anyone, even a friend, who fought for Parliament, and he severed many personal friendships as a result. With the possible exception of
John Pym
John Pym (20 May 1584 – 8 December 1643) was an English politician, who helped establish the foundations of Parliamentary democracy. One of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War, his use ...
, he detested all the Parliamentarian leaders, describing
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
as "a brave bad man" and
John Hampden as a hypocrite, while
Oliver St. John's "foxes and wolves" speech, in favour of the attainder of Strafford, he considered to be the depth of barbarism. His view of the conflict and of his opponents was undoubtedly coloured by the death of his best friend
Lord Falkland at the
First Battle of Newbury
The First Battle of Newbury was a battle of the First English Civil War that was fought on 20 September 1643 between a Royalist army, under the personal command of King Charles, and a Parliamentarian force led by the Earl of Essex. Followin ...
in September 1643. Hyde mourned his death, which he called "a loss most infamous and execrable to all posterity", to the end of his own life.
In 1644, the Royalist-controlled
West Country
The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is a loosely defined area of South West England, usually taken to include all, some, or parts of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Bristol, and, less commonly, Wiltshire, Glo ...
was created a separate government under the
Prince of Wales, with Hyde appointed to his General Council. Partially intended by his opponents as a way to remove him from access to the king, Hyde found it difficult to control his military commanders, notably
George Goring, Lord Goring
George Goring, Lord Goring (14 July 1608 – 1657) was an English Royalist soldier. He was known by the courtesy title ''Lord Goring'' as the eldest son of the first Earl of Norwich.
Early life
Goring, the eldest son of George Goring, 1s ...
, who although a brave and capable cavalry general often refused to follow orders and whose ill-disciplined troops gained a reputation for looting and drunkenness. Hyde described him as a man who would "without hesitation have broken any trust, or performed any act of treachery...Of all his qualifications, dissimulation was his masterpiece; in which he so much excelled, that men were not ordinarily ashamed or out of countenance, in being but twice deceived by him".
After the Royalist defeat, he fled to
Jersey in 1646; his opposition to alliances with the Scots meant he was not closely involved with the 1648
Second English Civil War, which resulted in the execution of Charles I in January 1649. Despite their differences, he was horrified by the
Execution of Charles I
The execution of Charles I by beheading occurred on Tuesday, 30 January 1649 outside the Banqueting House on Whitehall. The execution was the culmination of political and military conflicts between the royalists and the parliamentarians in E ...
; he later described Charles as a man who had an excellent understanding but was not sufficiently confident of it himself, so that he often changed his opinion for a worse one, and "would follow the advice of a man who did not judge as well as himself".
During this period he began writing "
The History of the Rebellion" but following defeat in the
Third English Civil War in 1651, he resumed his position as advisor to
Charles II and was appointed
Lord Chancellor
The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. Th ...
on 13 January 1658. He also employed his sister Susanna as a Royalist agent; arrested in 1656, she was held in
Lambeth Palace prison, where she died soon after. Although other female spies are mentioned in his "History", she does not appear.
Career; 1660 to 1667
After the
Stuart Restoration
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to ...
in 1660, he returned to England and became even closer to the royal family through the marriage of his daughter
Anne
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
to the king's brother
James, Duke of York. Contemporaries naturally assumed that Hyde had arranged the royal marriage of his daughter, but modern historians, in general, accept his repeated claims that he had no hand in it, and that indeed it came as an unwelcome shock to him. He is supposed to have told Anne that he would rather see her dead than to so disgrace her family.
There were good reasons for his opposition, since he may have hoped to arrange a marriage for James with a foreign princess, and he was well aware that nobody regarded his daughter as a suitable royal match, a view Clarendon shared. On the personal level, he seems to have disliked James, whose impulsive attempt to repudiate the marriage can hardly have endeared him to his father-in-law. Anne enforced the rules of
etiquette governing such marriages with great strictness, and thus caused her parents some social embarrassment: as commoners, they were not permitted to sit down in Anne's presence, or to refer to her as their daughter. As
Cardinal Mazarin
Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...
remarked, the marriage damaged Hyde's reputation as a politician, whether he was responsible for it or not. On 3 November 1660, he was raised to the peerage as
Baron Hyde, of
Hindon in the County of Wiltshire, and the 20 April the next year, at the coronation, he was created
Viscount Cornbury and
Earl of Clarendon
Earl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776.
The family seat is Holywell House, near Swanmore, Hampshire.
First creation of the title
The title was created for the first time in the Peera ...
. He served as Chancellor of the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
from 1660 to 1667.
As effective
chief minister in the early years of the reign, he accepted the need to fulfil most of what had been promised in the
Declaration of Breda, which he had partly drafted. In particular, he worked hard to fulfil the promise of mercy to all the King's enemies, except the
regicides
Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
, and this was largely achieved in the
Act of Indemnity and Oblivion. Most other problems he was content to leave to Parliament, and in particular to the restored
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
; his speech welcoming the Lords' return shows his ingrained dislike of
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which people, the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choo ...
.
He played a key role in Charles' marriage to
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to King Charles II, which lasted from 21 May 1662 until his death on 6 February 1685. She ...
, with ultimately harmful consequences to himself. Clarendon liked and admired the Queen and disapproved of the King's openly maintaining his mistresses. The King however resented any interference with his private life. Catherine's failure to bear children was also damaging to Clarendon, given the nearness of his own grandchildren to the throne, although it is most unlikely, as was alleged, that Clarendon had planned deliberately for Charles to marry an infertile bride. He and Catherine remained on friendly terms; one of his last letters thanked her for her kindness to his family.
As Lord Chancellor, it is commonly thought that Clarendon was the author of the "
Clarendon Code
In English history, the penal laws were a series of laws that sought to uphold the establishment of the Church of England against Catholicism and Protestant nonconformists by imposing various forfeitures, civil penalties, and civil disabilities ...
", designed to preserve the supremacy of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
. In reality, he was not very heavily involved with its drafting and actually disapproved of much of its content. The "
Great Tew Circle" of which he had been a leading member prided itself on tolerance and respect for religious differences. The code was thus merely named after him as chief minister.
In 1663, he was one of eight
Lords Proprietor
A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary".
Origin
In the beginning of the European ...
given title to a huge tract of land in North America which became the
Province of Carolina. Shortly after this, an attempt was made to
impeach him by
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol
George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, (bapt. 5 November 161220 March 1677) was an English politician who as Lord Digby (a courtesy title) sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641, when he was raised to the House of Lords by a writ of ac ...
, a long-standing political opponent from the Civil War. He was accused of arranging for Charles to marry a woman he knew to be barren to secure the throne for the children of his daughter Anne, while his palatial new mansion in
Piccadilly was cited as evidence of corruption. He was also blamed for the
Sale of Dunkirk
The Sale of Dunkirk took place on when Charles II of England sold his sovereign rights to Dunkirk and Fort-Mardyck to his cousin Louis XIV of France.
Context
Dunkirk was occupied by English forces of the Protectorate in 1658, when it was captured ...
, and the cost of supporting the colony of
Tangiers
Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capi ...
, acquired along with
Bombay
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...
as part of Catherine's
dowry. The windows of
Clarendon House
Clarendon House was a town mansion which stood on Piccadilly in London, England, from the 1660s to the 1680s. It was built for the powerful politician Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and was the grandest private London residence of its ...
were broken, and a placard fixed to the house blaming Hyde for "Dunkirk, Tangiers and a barren Queen".
While these allegations were not taken seriously, and ended by damaging Bristol more than Hyde, he became increasingly unpopular with the public and with Charles, whom he subjected to frequent lectures on his shortcomings. His contempt for Charles' mistress
Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, earned him her enmity, and she worked with the future members of the
Cabal Ministry
The Cabal ministry or the CABAL refers to a group of high councillors of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to .
The term ''Cabal'' has a double meaning in this context. It refers to the fact that, for perhaps the first ...
to destroy him.
His authority was weakened by increasing ill-health, in particular attacks of
gout and back pain which became so severe that he was often incapacitated for months on end: Pepys records that early in 1665 he was forced to lie on a couch during Council meetings. Even neutrals began to see him as a liability, and when attempts to persuade him to retire failed, some spread false reports that he was anxious to step down. These included Sir
William Coventry
Sir William Coventry (4th October 162723 June 1686) was an English statesman.
Early life and Civil War
William was the son of the lord keeper Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry, by his second wife Elizabeth Aldersley. Coventry matriculated ...
who later admitted to
Samuel Pepys that he was largely responsible for these reports; he claimed this was because Clarendon's dominance of policy and refusal to consider alternatives made even their discussion impossible. In his memoirs, Clarendon makes clear his bitterness against Coventry for what he regarded as betrayal, which he contrasted with the loyalty shown by his brother
Henry
Henry may refer to:
People
*Henry (given name)
* Henry (surname)
* Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry
Royalty
* Portuguese royalty
** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...
.
Above all the military setbacks of the
Second Anglo-Dutch War
The Second Anglo-Dutch War or the Second Dutch War (4 March 1665 – 31 July 1667; nl, Tweede Engelse Oorlog "Second English War") was a conflict between England and the Dutch Republic partly for control over the seas and trade routes, whe ...
of 1665 to 1667, together with the disasters of the
Plague of 1665 and the
Great Fire of London, led to his downfall, and the successful Dutch
Raid on the Medway
The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English warships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At t ...
in June 1667 was the final blow to his career. Despite having opposed the war, unlike many of his accusers, he was removed from office; as he left
Whitehall Barbara Villiers shouted abuse at him to which he replied with simple dignity "Madam, pray remember that if you live, you will also be old".
[Fraser p.254]
At almost the same time he suffered a great personal blow when his wife died after a short illness: in a will drawn up the previous year, he described her as "my dearly beloved wife, who hath accompanied and assisted me in all my distresses". Clarendon was impeached by the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
for blatant violations of ''
Habeas Corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
'', for having sent prisoners out of England to places like
Jersey and holding them there without benefit of trial. He was forced to flee to France in November 1667. The King made it clear that he would not defend him, which betrayal of his old and loyal servant harmed Charles' reputation. Efforts to pass an
Act of Attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
against him failed, but an Act providing for his
banishment was passed in December and received the
royal assent
Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...
. Apart from Clarendon's son-in-law the Duke of York and Henry Coventry, few spoke in his defence. Clarendon was accompanied to France by his private chaplain and ally
William Levett, later Dean of Bristol.
Exile and death
The rest of Clarendon's life was passed in exile. He left Calais for Rouen on 25 December, returning on 21 January 1668, visiting the baths of Bourbon in April, thence to Avignon in June, residing from July 1668 till June 1671 at Montpellier, whence he proceeded to Moulins and to Rouen again in May 1674. His sudden banishment entailed great personal hardships. His health at the time of his flight was much impaired, and on arriving at Calais he fell dangerously ill; and
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
, anxious at this time to gain popularity in England, sent him peremptory and repeated orders to quit France. He suffered severely from gout, and during the greater part of his exile could not walk without the aid of two men. At Évreux, on 23 April 1668, he was the victim of a murderous assault by English sailors, who attributed to him the non-payment of their wages, and who were on the point of despatching him when he was rescued by the guard. For some time he was not allowed to see any of his children; even correspondence with him was rendered treasonable by the Act of Banishment; and it was not apparently until 1671, 1673, and 1674 that he received visits from his sons, the younger, Lawrence Hyde, being present with him at his death.
He spent his exile updating and expanding his ''History'', the classic account of the
Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and for which he is chiefly remembered today. The sale proceeds from this book were instrumental in building the
Clarendon Building
Clarendon Building is an early 18th-century neoclassical building of the University of Oxford. It is in Broad Street, Oxford, England, next to the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre and near the centre of the city. It was built between ...
and
Clarendon Fund at
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
He died in
Rouen, France, on 9 December 1674. Shortly after his death, his body was returned to England, and he was buried in a private ceremony in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
on 4 January 1675.
Portrayals in drama and fiction
Nigel Bruce
William Nigel Ernle Bruce (4 February 1895 – 8 October 1953) was a British character actor on stage and screen. He was best known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in a series of films and in the radio series ''The New Adventures of Sherlock ...
played Sir Edward Hyde in the 1947 film ''
The Exile'', with
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Charles II.
In the film ''
Cromwell'', Clarendon (called only Sir Edward Hyde in the film), is portrayed by
Nigel Stock as a sympathetic, conflicted man torn between Parliament and the king. He finally turns against Charles I altogether when the king pretends to accept Cromwell's terms of peace but secretly and treacherously plots to raise a Catholic army against Parliament and start a second civil war. Clarendon reluctantly, but bravely, gives testimony at the king's trial which is instrumental in condemning him to death.
In the 2003
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. The series portrayed Clarendon (referred to as 'Sir Edward Hyde' throughout) as acting in a paternalistic fashion towards Charles II, something the king comes to dislike. It is also intimated that he had arranged the marriage of Charles and
already knowing that she was infertile so that his granddaughters through his daughter Anne Hyde (who had married the future James II) would eventually inherit the throne of England.
In the 2004 film ''
. He is also a recurring character in the Thomas Chaloner series of mystery novels by
. All three authors show him in a fairly sympathetic light.
*''The history of Rebellion and Civil War in Ireland'' (1720)
*''A Collection of several tracts of Edward, Earl of Clarendon'', (1727)
*''Religion and Policy, and the Countenance and Assistance each should give to the other, with a Survey of the Power and Jurisdiction of the Pope in the dominion of other Princes'' (Oxford 1811, 2 volumes)
* ''History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England: Begun in the Year 1641'' by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (3 volumes) (1702–1704):
new edition, 1807.
by Clarendon (J. Sharpe, 1819)
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**''I Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon: An Account of the Chancellor's Life from his Birth to the Restoration in 1660''
**'' II Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon: A Continuation of the same, and of his History of the Grand Rebellion, from the Restoration to his Banishment in 1667''
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* Contains a list of Clarendon's works.
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* Brownley, Martine Watson. ''Clarendon & the Rhetoric of Historical Form'' (1985)
* Craik, Henry. ''The life of Edward, earl of Clarendon, lord high chancellor of England.'' (2 vol 1911
* Eustace, Timothy. "Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon," in Timothy Eustace, ed., ''Statesmen and Politicians of the Stuart Age'' (London, 1985). pp 157–78.
* Finlayson, Michael G. "Clarendon, Providence, and the Historical Revolution," ''Albion'' (1990) 22#4 pp 607–63
* Firth, Charles H. "Clarendon's 'History of the Rebellion,"' Parts 1, II, III, ''English Historical Review'' vol 19, nos. 73-75 (1904)
* Harris, R. W. ''Clarendon and the English Revolution'' (London, 1983).
* Hill, Christopher. "Clarendon and Civil the War." ''History Today'' (1953) 3#10 pp 695–703.
* Hill, Christopher. "Lord Clarendon and the Puritan Revolution," in Hill, ''Puritanism and Revolution'' (London, 1958)
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* Major, Philip ed. ''Clarendon Reconsidered: Law, Loyalty, Literature, 1640–1674'' (2017) topical essays by scholars
* Miller, G. E. ''Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon'' (Boston, 1983), as historical writer
* Richardson, R. C. ''The Debate on the English Revolution Revisited'' (London, 1988),
* Trevor-Roper, Hugh. "Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon" in Trevor-Roper, ''From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution '' (1992) pp 173–9
* Wormald, B. H. G. ''Clarendon, Politics, History & Religion, 1640-1660'' (1951
* Wormald, B. H. G. "How Hyde Became a Royalist," ''Cambridge Historical Journal'' 8#2 (1945), pp. 65–9
* ''The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, in which is included a Continuation of his History of the Grand Rebellion'' by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (Clarendon Press, 1827)
(1827)
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