The New Student's Reference Work/Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of

Clar′endon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, historian and statesman, was born Feb. 18, 1608, at Dinton, England. When young, he had such gay companions as Ben Jonson and his lifelong friend, Falkland, and, as he himself said: “He never thought himself so good a man as when he was the worst in the company.” As a member of the short and long parliaments he sided against the king, Charles I, but in 1641 drew back and thenceforth supported Charles, composing his answer to the Grand Remonstrance and advising him in the troublous times which followed.

Under Charles II he was high chancellor. His efforts were directed to the restoring of the kingdom to the condition of things which existed 20 years earlier. He looked with equal sourness on Charles' vices and religious toleration, displeased Cavalier and Puritan alike, and was blamed for the sale of the fortress of Dunkirk to France and even with the Great Fire and the Great Plague. Impeached for high treason, in 1667, he spent the remainder of his life in exile. His History of the Rebellion in England is an apology for the course of himself and Charles I, rather than a fair and impartial history. He died in France in 1674.