Both expedients proved ineffectual. The Oxford parliament was helpful in raising money, but useless in negotiating with the parliament at Westminster, while the king resented its independence and its demands for peace.
With the failure of Hyde's policy the king fell completely under the influence of less scrupulous and less constitutional advisers. On 4 March 1645 Hyde was despatched to Bristol as one of the council charged with the care of the prince of Wales and the government of the west. The king was anxious to place so trustworthy a servant near the prince, and glad no doubt to remove so strong an opponent of his Irish plans. Already Charles had given to Glamorgan 'those strange powers and instructions ' which Hyde subsequently pronounced to be 'inexcusable to justice, piety, and prudence' (Clarendon State Papers, ii. 337; Life, iii. 50; Rebellion, viii. 253).
The arrival of the prince in the west was followed by a series of disputes between his council and the local military commanders. Hyde, who was the moving spirit of the council, paints in the blackest colours the misconduct of Goring and Grenville; but the king's initial error in appointing semi-independent military commanders, and then setting a board of privy councillors to control them, was largely responsible for the failure of the campaign. Hyde complains bitterly that, but for the means used at court to diminish the power of the council, they would have raised the best army that had been in England since the rebellion began, and, with Hopton to command it, might have effected much (Lister, iii. 20; Rebellion, ix. 7 n, 43). But when Hopton at last took over the command of Goring' s 'dissolute, undisciplined, beaten army,' it was too late for success, and his defeat at Torrington (16 Feb. 1646) obliged the prince's councillors to provide for the safety of their charge.
The king had at first ordered the prince to take refuge in France, and then, on the remonstrance of his council, suggested Denmark. Hyde's aim was to keep the prince as long as possible in English territory, and as long as possible out of France. As no ship could be found fit for the Danish voyage, the prince and his council established themselves at Scilly (4 March 1646), and, when the parliamentary fleet rendered the islands untenable, removed to Jersey (17 April). On the pretext that Jersey was insecure, the queen at once ordered the prince to join her in France, and, against the advice of Hyde and his council, the prince obeyed (Clarendon State Papers, ii. 240, 352; Rebellion, x. 3-48). Hyde distrusted the French government, feared the influence of the queen, and was afraid of alienating English public opinion (Clarendon State Papers, ii. 235, 287).
Though Hyde's opposition to the queen in this matter was the main cause of her subsequent hostility to him, his policy was in other respects diametrically opposed to that which she advocated. She pressed the king to buy the support of the Scots by sacrificing the church. Hyde expected nothing good from their aid, and would not pay their price (ib. ii. 291, 339). He was equally hostile to her plans for restoring the king by French or foreign forces (ib. ii. 307, 329, 339). He was resolved not to sacrifice a foot of English territory, and signed a bond with Hopton, Capel, and Carteret to defend Jersey against Lord Jermyn's scheme for its sale to France (19 Oct. 1646; ib. ii. 279). During the king's negotiations with the parliament and the army Hyde's great fear was that Charles should concede too much. 'Let them,' he wrote, 'have all circumstantial 'temporary concessions, …. distribute as many personal obligations as can be expected, but take heed of removing landmarks and destroying foundations. … Either no peace can be made, or it must be upon the old foundations of government in church and state' (ib. ii. 326, 333, 379). Hyde faithfully practised the principles which he preached, declining either to make his peace with the parliament or to compound for his estate. 'We must play out the game,' he wrote, `with that courage as becomes gamesters who were first engaged by conscience against all motives and temptations of interest, and be to let the world know that we were carried on only by conscience ' (ib. iii. 24). Hyde was already in great straits for money. But he told Nicholas that they had no reason to blush for a poverty which was not brought upon them by their own faults (ib. ii. 310). Throughout the fourteen years of his exile he bore privation with the same cheerful courage.
During his residence in Jersey Hyde lived first in lodgings in St. Helier, and afterwards with Sir George Carteret in Elizabeth Castle. He occupied his enforced leisure by keeping up a voluminous correspondence, and by composing his 'History of the Rebellion,' which he began at Scilly on 18 March 1646. In a will drawn up on 4 April 1647 he directed that the unfinished manuscript should be delivered to Secretary Nicholas, who was to deal with it as the king should direct. If the king decided that any part of it should be published, Nicholas and other
