The Earl of Clarendon | |
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_(after)_-_Sir_Edward_Hyde_(1609%25E2%2580%25931674)%2c_1st_Earl_of_Clarendon_-_1257076_-_National_Trust.jpg) Portrait byPeter Lely | |
| First Lord of the Treasury | |
| In office 19 June 1660 – 8 September 1660 | |
| Monarch | Charles II of England |
| Preceded by | Francis Cottington, 1st Baron Cottington (Lord High Treasurer) |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton |
| Lord Chancellor | |
| In office 1660–1667 | |
| Preceded by | Vacant (last held bySir Edward Herbert) |
| Succeeded by | Orlando Bridgeman |
| Chancellor, University of Oxford | |
| In office 1660–1667 | |
| Member of theLong Parliament forSaltash | |
| In office November 1640 – August 1642 (disbarred) | |
| Member of theShort Parliament forWootton Bassett | |
| In office April 1640 – May 1640 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1609-02-18)18 February 1609 Dinton, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 9 December 1674(1674-12-09) (aged 65) Rouen, France |
| Resting place | Westminster Abbey[1] |
| Spouses | |
| Relations | Mary II of England (granddaughter) Anne, Queen of Great Britain (granddaughter) |
| Children | Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester Edward Hyde James Hyde Anne, Duchess of York Frances Hyde |
| Parent(s) | Henry Hyde Mary Langford |
| Alma mater | Hertford College, Oxford |
| Occupation |
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| Signature | .png) |
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of ClarendonPC JP (18 February 1609 – 9 December 1674) was an English statesman, lawyer, diplomat and historian who served as chief adviser toCharles I during theFirst English Civil War, andLord Chancellor toCharles II from 1660 to 1667.
Hyde largely avoided involvement in the political disputes of the 1630s until elected to theLong Parliament in November 1640. Like many moderates he felt attempts by Charles I torule without Parliament had gone too far, but by 1642 feltParliament's leaders were, in turn, seeking too much power. A devout believer in anEpiscopalianChurch of England, his opposition toPuritan attempts to reform it drove much of his policy over the next two decades. He joined Charles inYork shortly before theFirst English Civil War began in August 1642, and initially served as his senior political advisor. However, as the war turned against theRoyalists, his rejection of attempts to build alliances with ScotsCovenanters orIrish Catholics led to a decline in his influence.
In 1644, the King's son, the future Charles II, was placed in command of theWest Country, with Hyde and his close friend SirRalph Hopton as part of his Governing Council. When the Royalists surrendered in June 1646, Hyde went into exile with the younger Charles, who (from the royalist perspective) became king after his father's execution in January 1649. Hyde avoided participation in theSecond orThird English Civil War, for both involved alliances with Scots and EnglishPresbyterians; instead he served as a diplomat in Paris andMadrid. Afterthe Restoration in 1660, Charles II appointed himLord Chancellor andEarl of Clarendon, while Hyde's daughterAnne married the futureJames II, making him grandfather of two queens,Mary II andAnne.
Lord Clarendon's links to the King brought him both power and enemies, while Charles became increasingly irritated by his criticism. Despite having limited responsibility for the disastrousSecond Anglo-Dutch War (1665–1667), Clarendon was charged with treason and forced into permanent exile. He lived in continental Europe until his death in 1674; during this period he completedThe 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 franker, particularly in its assessments of his contemporaries.
Edward Hyde was born on 18 February 1609, atDinton, Wiltshire, sixth of nine children and third son ofHenry Hyde and Mary Langford. His father and two of his uncles were lawyers; although Henry retired after his marriage,Nicholas Hyde becameLord Chief Justice,Lawrence waslegal advisor toAnne of Denmark, wife ofJames I.[2] Educated atGillingham School,[3] in 1622 Hyde was admitted toHertford College, Oxford, then known as Magdalen Hall, graduating in 1626. He was originally intended for a career in theChurch of England, but the death of his elder brothers left him as his father's heir, and instead, he entered theMiddle Temple to study law.[4]
He married twice, first in 1629 to Anne Ayliffe, who died six months later from smallpox, then toFrances Aylesbury in 1634. They had six children who survived infancy:Henry (1638–1709),Laurence (1642–1711),Edward (1645–1665), James (1650–1681),Anne (1637–1671), and Frances, who marriedThomas Keightley. 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".[5]
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."[6] These includedBen Jonson,John Selden,Edmund Waller,John Hales and especiallyLord Falkland,[4] who became his best friend.[7]
Hyde was one of the most prominent members of the famousGreat Tew Circle, a group of intellectuals who gathered at Lord Falkland's country houseGreat Tew in Oxfordshire.[8]
On 22 November 1633 he wascalled to the bar and obtained quickly a good position and practice;[4] "you may have great joy of your son Ned" his uncle the Attorney General assured his father.[9] Both his marriages gained him influential friends, and in December 1634 he was made keeper of the writs and rolls of theCourt of Common Pleas. His able conduct of the petition of the London merchants againstLord Treasurer Portland earned him the approval of ArchbishopWilliam Laud,[4] with whom he developed a friendship, though Laud did not make friends easily and his religious views were very different from Hyde's.[10] Hyde in hisHistory 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.[10]
In April 1640, Hyde was elected Member of Parliament for bothShaftesbury andWootton Bassett in theShort Parliament and chose to sit for Wootton Bassett. In November 1640 he was elected MP forSaltash in theLong Parliament,[11] Hyde was at first a moderate critic of KingCharles 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 theroyal prerogative.[12] He gradually moved over towards the royalist side, championing theChurch of England and opposing the execution of theEarl of Strafford, Charles's primary adviser. Following theGrand Remonstrance of 1641, Hyde became an informal adviser to the King. He left London about 20 May 1642 and rejoined the King atYork.[13] In February 1643, Hyde wasknighted and was officially appointed to thePrivy Council; the following month he was madeChancellor of the Exchequer.[14]
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 ofJohn Pym, he detested all the Parliamentarian leaders, describingOliver Cromwell as "a brave bad man" andJohn Hampden as a hypocrite, whileOliver 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 friendLucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland at theFirst Battle of Newbury 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.[15]
In 1644, the Royalist-controlledWest Country was created a separate government under thePrince of Wales, with Hyde appointed to his General Council; this was partly intended by his opponents as a way to remove him from access to the King. Hyde found it difficult to control his military commanders, notablyGeorge Goring, Lord Goring, 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.[16] He described Goring 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".[17]
After the Royalist defeat, Hyde fled toJersey in 1646; his opposition to alliances with the Scots meant he was not closely involved with the 1648Second English Civil War, which resulted in theexecution of Charles I in January 1649. Despite their differences, he was horrified by the execution; 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".[18]
During this period Hyde began writingThe History of the Rebellion, but following defeat in theThird English Civil War in 1651, he resumed his position as advisor to Charles II and was appointedLord Chancellor on 13 January 1658.[19] He also employed his sister Susanna as a Royalist agent; arrested in 1656, she was held inLambeth Palace prison, where she died soon afterward. Although other female spies are mentioned in hisHistory, she does not appear.[20]
After theStuart Restoration in 1660, he returned to England and became even closer to the royal family through the marriage of his daughterAnne to the King's brotherJames, 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.[21]
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 ofetiquette 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. AsCardinal Mazarin remarked, the marriage damaged Hyde's reputation as a politician, whether he was responsible for it or not.[21] On 3 November 1660, he was raised to the peerage asBaron Hyde, ofHindon in the County of Wiltshire, and on 20 April the next year, at the coronation, he was created Viscount Cornbury andEarl of Clarendon.[22] He served as Chancellor of theUniversity of Oxford from 1660 to 1667.[23]
As effectivechief minister in the early years of the reign, he accepted the need to fulfil most of what had been promised in theDeclaration 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 theregicides, and this was largely achieved in theAct of Indemnity and Oblivion. Most other problems he was content to leave to Parliament, and in particular to the restoredHouse of Lords; his speech welcoming the Lords' return shows his ingrained dislike of democracy.[24]
He played a key role in Charles' marriage toCatherine of Braganza, 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 also was 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.[25] He and Catherine remained on friendly terms; one of his last letters thanked her for her kindness to his family.[26]
As Lord Chancellor, it is commonly thought that Clarendon was the author of the "Clarendon Code", designed to preserve the supremacy of theChurch of England. 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.[27]
In 1663, he was one of eightLords Proprietor given title to a huge tract of land in North America which became theProvince of Carolina.[28] Shortly after this, an attempt was made toimpeach him byGeorge Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, a longstanding political opponent from the Civil War. He was accused of arranging for Charles to marry a woman he knew to be barren in order to secure the throne for the children of his daughter Anne, whileClarendon House, his palatial new mansion inPiccadilly, was cited as evidence of corruption. He was also blamed for theSale of Dunkirk, and the cost of supporting the colony ofTangiers, acquired along withBombay as part of Catherine'sdowry. The windows of Clarendon House were broken, and a placard fixed to the house blaming Hyde for "Dunkirk, Tangiers and a barren Queen".[29]
While these allegations were not taken seriously, and ended by damaging Bristol more than Hyde,[30] he became increasingly unpopular with the public and with Charles, whom he subjected to frequent lectures on his shortcomings.[31] His contempt for Charles' mistressBarbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland, earned him her enmity, and she worked with the future members of theCabal ministry to destroy him.[32]
His authority was weakened by increasing ill-health, in particular attacks ofgout and back pain[33] that became so severe that he was often incapacitated for months on end:Samuel Pepys records that early in 1665 Hyde 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 SirWilliam Coventry who later admitted toSamuel 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.[34] 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 brotherHenry.[35]
Above all, the military setbacks of theSecond Anglo-Dutch War of 1665 to 1667, together with the disasters of thePlague of 1665 and theGreat Fire of London, led to his downfall, and the successful Dutchraid on the Medway in June 1667 was the final blow to his career.[36] Despite having opposed the war, unlike many of his accusers, he was removed from office; as he leftWhitehall, 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".[37]
| Earl of Clarendon Act 1667 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act for banishing and disenabling the Earl of Clarendon. |
| Citation |
|
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 19 December 1667 |
| Commencement | 10 October 1667[c] |
| Repealed | 30 July 1948 |
| Other legislation | |
| Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1948 |
Status: Repealed | |
| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
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".[38] Clarendon was impeached by theHouse of Commons for blatant violations ofHabeas Corpus, for having sent prisoners out of England to places likeJersey and holding them there without benefit of trial. He was forced to flee toFrance in November 1667. The King made it clear that he would not defend him, and this betrayal of his old and loyal servant harmed Charles's reputation. Efforts to pass anAct of Attainder against him failed, but an Act providing for hisbanishment (19 & 20 Cha. 2. c. 2) was passed in December and received theroyal assent. Apart from the Duke of York (Clarendon's son-in-law) and Henry Coventry, few spoke in his defence. Clarendon was accompanied to France by his private chaplain and allyWilliam Levett, later Dean of Bristol.[39]
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The rest of Clarendon's life was passed in exile. He leftCalais forRouen on 25 December, returning on 21 January 1668, visiting the baths of Bourbon in April, thence toAvignon in June, residing from July 1668 till June 1671 atMontpellier, whence he proceeded toMoulins 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; andLouis XIV, 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. AtÉvreux, 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.[41]
He spent his exile updating and expanding hisHistory, the classic account of theWars of the Three Kingdoms,[41] and for which he is chiefly remembered today. The sale proceeds from this book were instrumental in building theClarendon Building andClarendon Fund atOxford University Press.[42] During his exile, he also wrote his autobiography, a number of essays, a work on David'spsalms, and a critique ofThomas Hobbes's bookLeviathan.[43]
The diarist Samuel Pepys wrote thirty years later that he never knew anyone who could speak as well as Hyde.
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 inWestminster Abbey on 4 January 1675.[44]
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_-_The_Disgrace_of_Lord_Clarendon%2c_after_his_Last_Interview_with_the_King_-_Scene_at_Whitehall_Palace%2c_in_1667_(replica)_-_N00431_-_National_Gallery.jpg)
Nigel Bruce played Sir Edward Hyde in the 1947 filmThe Exile, withDouglas Fairbanks, Jr. as Charles II.
In the filmCromwell, Clarendon (called only Sir Edward Hyde in the film), is portrayed byNigel Stock as a sympathetic yet 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 (where in real life he was not present) which is instrumental in condemning him to death.
In the 2003BBC TV mini-seriesCharles II: The Power and The Passion, Clarendon was played by actorIan McDiarmid. 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 andCatherine of Braganza 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 filmStage Beauty, starringBilly Crudup andClaire Danes, Clarendon (again referred to simply as Edward Hyde) is played byEdward Fox.
In fiction, Clarendon is a minor character inAn Instance of the Fingerpost byIain Pears and inAct of Oblivion (2022) byRobert Harris. He is also a recurring character in the Thomas Chaloner series of mystery novels bySusanna Gregory. All three authors show him in a fairly sympathetic light.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911), "Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of",Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 6 (11th ed.), Cambridge University Press, pp. 428–434
| Parliament of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant | Member of Parliament forShaftesbury 1640 With:William Whitaker | Succeeded by |
| Vacant | Member of Parliament forWootton Bassett 1640 With:Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forSaltash 1640–1642 With:George Buller (MP) | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1643–1646 | Interregnum |
| Vacant Title last held by Sir Edward Herbert | Lord Chancellor 1658–1667 | Succeeded by Orlando Bridgeman (Lord Keeper) |
| Preceded by The Lord Cottington (Lord High Treasurer) | First Lord of the Treasury 1660 | Succeeded by The Earl of Southampton (Lord High Treasurer) |
| Vacant Interregnum | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1660–1661 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1660–1667 | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire 1663–1668 | Succeeded by |
| Vacant Title last held by The Duke of Ormonde | Lord High Steward 1666 | Vacant Title next held by The Lord Finch |
| Preceded by | Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire 1667–1668 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of England | ||
| New creation | Earl of Clarendon 1661–1674 | Succeeded by |
| Baron Hyde 1660–1674 | ||
Chancellors of the exchequer under theHouse of Stuart (1603–1649; 1660–1714) | ||
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| James I (1603–1625) |
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| Charles I (1625–1649) |
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| Charles II (1660–1685) |
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| James II (1685–1688) |
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| William &Mary (1689–1694) |
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| William III (1694–1702) |
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| Anne (1702–1714) |
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