Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, the First Earl of Clarendon was born on February 18, 1609. He was a well-known English historian and statesman and was also grandfather to two of England's future Queens, Mary II and Anne.
The third son on the family, Hyde was born to Henry Hyde of Dinton and Pourton, Wiltshire. Henry Hyde came from a long line of distinguished families from Norbury, Cheshire.
After failing to be accepted at Magdalen College, Edward Hyde pursued his education at Magdalen Hall in Oxford instead. He enrolled there in 1622 and graduated BA in 1626.
His family had originally hoped for Edward to continue on to service in the Church of England but with the untimely deaths of his two elder brothers, he was the only heir to his father's estate. Consequently, he abandoned his plans for a religious calling and entered the Middle Temple to pursue law studies.
At the Middle Temple, Edward was drawn more to general reading and discourses with the many prominent intellectuals and writers that proliferated in the learning institution than in the tedious study of law publications. These associations would prove invaluable to Hyde throughout his entire life and even after many years he would be grateful for the many exceptional people he met there. Among the distinguished literary and academic minds he had the fortune to meet at Middle Temple were: Ben Jonson, Selden, Waller, Hales, and the esteemed Lord Falkland. Along with the wide range of published material that he voraciously read for all those years, these men were the major influences to Hyde's later career.
Hyde married his first wife Anne in the year 1629. She was the daughter of Sir George Ayliff and sadly, shortly after the wedding (a mere six months after, in fact) Anne passed away. Hyde remarried soon after that in 1634, this time to Sir Thomas Aylesbury's daughter Frances. A daughter was born to the couple and this girl was named Anne.
In 1633, Edward Hyde began his law practice and immediately made a name for himself with his excellence in the field. Although he owed much of his career success to his own exceptional ability, his marriages had made him many friends among the powerful people in society and he was appointed keeper of the writs and rolls of the common pleas in December of 1634. He also gained the approval of William Laud for his satisfactory handling of the petition of the London merchants against Portland.
During much of the lifespan of the Short and Long Parliaments, Hyde was a bit of a vocal critic of the then King of England, Charles II. Hyde however later aligned himself with the royalty and was subsequently made an adviser to the King. He later fell into disfavour with the king and as a result, Hyde was not a key player in Charles' bid to regain control of the throne in 1649. He reconciled with the king later on however when Charles was exiled.
Edward Hyde was also famously known for The Clarendon Code, a document that campaigned for the domination of the Church of England.
Edward Hyde died in December 9, 1674.
Original Authors: Doods Pangburn
Edit Update Authors: RPN
Updated On: 17/04/2007
