The History of the Rebellion

The History of the Rebellion by Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon is his account of the English Civil War. This work (originally published in 1702–1704 as The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England) was the first full-scale, detailed history of the Civil War and was written by a key player in the events contained within it.

Clarendon wrote the original History between 1646 and 1648, which only recorded events to March 1644. After his banishment, he wrote his autobiographical Life between 1668 and 1670. In 1671 he then revised the History by incorporating the Life into it and writing new sections covering events after March 1644.

Clarendon subtly advanced his own views of royalist strategy in the History. For example he disagreed with the royalist camp in Paris, headed by the Queen, who agreed with Charles' compromises over the Anglican Church to win the support of the Presbyterian Scots against Parliament. Clarendon strenuously opposed such alterations to the Church of England and thought that by negotiating away the episcopal character of the Church, Charles' advisers were destroying the cause for which they should have been fighting.

The History is influenced by his politics, and he denigrates the reasons for accepting religious compromises by denying that there was widespread Protestant disaffection with the Anglican Church prior to 1640; he attributes the little disaffection to a wicked faction.

The original publication of the History was part of a publishing war between supporters of the rival Roundheads and Cavaliers. The publication of the Roundhead Edmund Ludlow's Memoirs in 1698-1699 was a sensational success and led to a spate of Roundhead Civil War memoirs from the Whigs, especially the printer John Darby. In 1701 the Tories began a counter-attack by printing the Cavalier memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick, followed in the next year by the first volume of Clarendon's History and the memoirs of Sir Thomas Herbert. In his preface to the first volume of his father's work, Laurence Hyde wrote:

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