Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
| Edward Hyde | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Earl of Clarendon | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 18 February 1609 Dinton, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 9 December 1674 (aged 65) Rouen, France |
| Spouse(s) | Anne Ayliffe (m. 1629 – her death six months later) Frances Aylesbury (m. 1634) |
| Mother | Mary Langford |
| Father | Henry Hyde |
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 1609 – 9 December 1674) was an English statesman who served as Lord Chancellor to King Charles II from 1658, two years before the Restoration of the Monarchy, until 1667. He was loyal to the king and built-up the royalist cause and served as the chief minister after 1660. He was one of the most important historians of England, as author of the most influential contemporary history of the Civil War, The History of the Rebellion (1702). He was the maternal grandfather of two monarchs, Queen Mary II and Queen Anne.
Hyde was the third son of Henry Hyde (d. 1634) of Dinton and Purton, both in Wiltshire, by his wife, Mary Langford, daughter and co-heiress of Edward Langford of Trowbridge. Henry's brother was Sir Lawrence Hyde, Attorney General. The family of Hyde was long established at Norbury in Cheshire. Hyde was fond of his mother and idolised his father, whom he called "the best father, the best friend, and the wisest man I have known." Clarendon's two cousins, Richard Rigby, Secretary of Jamaica, and his son, Richard Rigby, Chief Secretary of Ireland and Paymaster of the Army, were successful politicians in the succeeding generations.
He was educated at Gillingham School, and in 1622 entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, (now Hertford College, Oxford, where his portrait hangs in the hall), having been rejected by Magdalen College, Oxford, and graduated BA in 1626. Intended originally for holy orders in the Church of England, the death of two elder brothers made him his father's heir, and in 1625 he entered the Middle Temple to study law. His abilities were more conspicuous than his industry, and at the bar his time was devoted more to general reading and to the society of eminent scholars and writers than to the study of law treatises.
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