The History of the Rebellion


Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, who was born February 18,
1608; at Dinton, Wilts, and who died at Rouen, 1674, was son
of a private gentleman and was educated at Oxford, afterwards
studying law under Chief Justice Nicholas Hyde, his uncle.
Early in his career he became distinguished in political life
in a stormy period, for, as a prominent member of the Long
Parliament, he espoused the popular cause. The outbreak of the
Civil War, however, threw his sympathies over to the other
side, and in 1642 King Charles knighted him and appointed him
Chancellor of the Exchequer. When Charles, Prince of Wales,
afterwards King Charles II., fled to Jersey after the great
defeat of his father at Naseby, he was accompanied by Hyde,
who, in the island, commenced his great work, "The History of
the Rebellion," and also issued a series of eloquently worded
papers which appeared in the king's name as replies to the
manifestoes of Parliament. After the Restoration he was
appointed High Chancellor of England and ennobled with the
title of Earl of Clarendon. But the ill success of the war
with Holland brought the earl into popular disfavour, and his
unpopularity was increased by the sale of Dunkirk to the
French. Court intrigues led to the loss of his offices and he
retreated to Calais. An apology which he sent to the Lords was
ordered to be burnt by the common hangman. For six years, till
his death in Rouen, he lived in exile, but he was honoured by
burial in Westminster Abbey. His private character in a
dissolute age was unimpeachable. Anne Hyde, daughter of the
earl, became Queen of England, as wife of James II., and was