H Y D E. 
614 
fstion of a hiftory of the tranfaftions in which he had 
borne a part. He alio drew up and publithed an anfwer 
to the parliament’s declaration of February 1647, againft 
lending any more addreffes to the king. In 1648 he was 
ordered to attend the prince at Paris; but, as he had in 
the mean time proceeded to Holland, fir Edward embarked 
for Dunkirk. He found the prince at the Hague, where 
news arrived of the king’s death. A refolution being 
then taken in the young king’s council of fending an 
embaffy to Spain, Hyde, with lord Cottington, were nomi¬ 
nated the ambaffadors, and arrived at Madrid towards the 
end of 1649. When their attendance in that capital was 
no longer ufeful, Hyde returned to Paris, where he found 
great differences prevailing between the queen-mother 
and the duke of York. The king’s court at the Hague 
was not in a better ftate of union; and he found fo little 
good to be done by a perfonal attendance, that he ob¬ 
tained leave to retire to Antwerp, where his wife and 
children were, with whom he lived in a ftudious and do- 
meftic retreat, fuited to his reduced circumftances. The 
alignment of a houfe rent-free at Breda, by the princefs 
of Orange, induced him to remove to that city. That 
princefs alfo manifeffed her kindnefs to his family by 
propofing to take his daughter for one of her maids of 
honour; to which,, by his own account, he was very dif¬ 
ficultly brought to confent, and not till he looked upon 
the matter “ as having fome marks of divine providence 
in it.” Juft before the king’s reftoration in 1657, he was 
appointed to the poll of lord high-chancellor of England. 
At the reftoration, the chancellor might be considered 
as the king’s firft and moft confidential minifter; and it 
is agreed that he difplayed great wifdom and integrity in 
fettling the many difficult affairs, public and private, 
which this event brought for decifion. He is particularly 
praifed for rejecting the propofal of railing a great Hand¬ 
ing revenue, which would have made the king independent 
of future parliaments ; and for the earneftnefs with which 
he proceeded to dilband the army. He alfo moderated 
the forward zeal of the royalifts, and checked their appe¬ 
tite for revenge. His honours naturally role with his 
power-, in 1660 he was created a peer, and elected chan¬ 
cellor of the univerfity of Oxford; and in 1661 he was 
advanced to the titles of vifcount Cornbury and earl of 
Clarendon. He alfo received various grants from the 
crown, which rendered his eftate adequate to his dignity. 
Many difquiets, however, accompanied his elevation; 
and it was eafily feen that the envy againft a new man, 
together with the unyielding ftriftnefs of his morals and 
principles, would raife a ftorm of enmity againft him in 
a court fo licentious, and compofed of fuch difcordant 
ingredients. 
A fiiort time after the king’s return, a circumftance of 
great delicacy occurred, which was likely to have a pow¬ 
erful influence upon his future fortune. His daughter, 
in her fituation with the princefs of Orange, had attrafted 
the notice of the duke of York ; who, failing of fuccefs 
in an attempt to obtain her favours upon eafy terms, had 
entered into a private contraft of marriage with her. 
She returned to her father’s houfe in a ftate of pregnancy; 
and having, with a proper fpirit, infilled upon an avowal 
of her marriage from the duke, who had meanly wilhed 
to keep it fecret, it became neceffary to inform the king 
of the affair. The chancellor was at the fame time made 
acquainted with it, and his behaviour on the occafion 
does not redound to his honour. By liis own account, 
his paffion made him forget all decency and humanity. 
He faid before the council, “that he had much rather 
his daughter fhould be the duke’s whore than his wife,” 
and advifed “ that the king Ihould immediately caufe the 
woman to be fent to the Tower, and to be call into a 
dungeon under fo ftrift a guard, that no perfon Ihould 
be admitted to come to her ; and that an aft of parliament 
Ihould be immediately paffed for the cutting off her 
head.” No wonder that fuch extravagant brutality Ihould, 
with many, have paffed for afling a part, and that he 
Ihould be fufpefted of having been privy to the whole 
affair. It is moft probable, however, that he had no pre¬ 
vious knowledge of it; and that, as he fays, “ he looked 
upon himfelf as a ruined perfon,” and expefted “ the 
king’s indignation to fall upon him as the contriver of 
that indignity to the crown.” It may be added, that his 
high notions of royalty were likely enough to make him 
regard with real horror the alliance of one of fo inferior 
a rank with the prefumptive heir to the crown. The 
king behaved with great jultice and propriety in the bu- 
finefs; and though the duke bafely denied his marriage, 
and even encouraged fcandalous reports againft his wife, 
and the queen-mother exprefled the utmoft rage at the 
conneftion, fire was at length acknowledged as duchefs 
of York, and eventually gave two queens to England. 
If this alliance ftrengthened the chancellor’s intereft 
with the crown, it expofed him to additional envy and 
ill-will from the courtiers; and, notyrithflanding the. ge¬ 
neral integrity and ability of his public conduft, feveral 
things occurred to make him unpopular with the nation, 
and at length odious to the king. His oppofition to a 
bili for liberty of confcience, and his affiftance to the 
hierarchy in their perfecuting i'chemes, brought upon him 
the enmity of all the feftaries, and the difpleafure of the 
king, who wiftied to obtain fome indulgences for the 
papifts. The bad fuccefs of the Dutch war, though he 
had oppofed it, was made a charge againft him ; and he 
unwifely aggravated the public difeontents by building a 
magnificent houfe during the moft calamitous periods. 
The ftatelinefs of carriage which he affumed was preju¬ 
dicial to him; and, ftill more, the true dignity with which 
he refufed all communication with the royal miftreffes. 
Nor could the freedom with which he admonilhed the 
king of his mifeonduft fail to injure him, with a mailer 
who was radically corrupt in his own principles, and had 
little elleem for virtue in others. Notwithstanding all 
his faithful fervices to the crown, he was therefore, without 
reluftance, given up as a facrifice to the national odium; 
and, in Auguft 1667, he was required to refign the great 
feal, and removed from all offices of public trull. This was 
followed by an attack upon him in the houfe of commons by 
Mr. Seymour, which produced an impeachment of high- 
treafon, confifting of feventeen articles, carried to the bar of 
the houfe of lords. That houfe refufed to commit him upon 
the charge; and, during the debates upon this head, he re¬ 
ceived the king’s commands to withdraw from the king¬ 
dom. The apology which he fent to the houfe of lords 
upon his departure was voted a libel, and burnt by the 
common hangman; and a bill of banilhment was palled 
againft him as a fugitive from jullice. He landed at 
Calais, and was proceeding to Rouen, when he was met 
by an order from the court of France inftantly to quit 
its territories. A fit of ficknefs rendered this impoffible, 
and he finally obtained permiffion to refide in that coun¬ 
try. Being on his way from Rouen to Avignon, at the 
town of Evreux, he was very near lofing his life through 
the outrage of fome Englilh feamen, who broke into his 
lodgings, and gave him a wound in his head. They had 
been taught that it was the chancellor who had defrauded 
them of their pay, and they partook of the hatred againft 
him on other accounts. He was with difficulty rel’cued 
out of their hands; but the French court apologifed to 
him for the accident, and puniffied the perpetrators. He 
proceeded to Montpellier, where he was treated with 
much refpeft during a refidence of four years, which he 
employed in a vindication of his conduft, and in other 
writings. He afterwards paffed fome time at Moulins, 
and finally removed to Rouen, where he died in Decem¬ 
ber 1674. His body was brought to England, and interred 
in Weltminfter abbey. He left feveral children, of whom 
his eldeft Ion Henry fucceeded him in his title. 
Lord Clarendon, befides various occafional writings 
upon public topics, was the author of The Hiftory of the 
Grand Rebellion, 3 vols. folio, 6 vols. 8vo. to which was 
added his Life,.and a Continuation of his Hiftory, 2 vols. 
8 vo. 
