Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of 1609-74
English statesman

Born in Dinton, near Salisbury, he sat in the Short Parliament of 1640 and the Long Parliament, where he criticized Charles I's unconstitutional actions and supported the impeachment of the Earl of Strafford. In 1641 he broke with the revolutionaries and became a royal adviser, and when the Civil War broke out he followed the monarch to Oxford. On the King's defeat in 1646 he joined Prince Charles (later Charles II) in Jersey. In 1651 he became chief adviser to Charles II in exile and on the Restoration he was created Earl of Clarendon. He further increased his influence by marrying his daughter Anne to the Duke of York in 1660. He introduced the 'Clarendon Code' to ensure the supremacy of the Church of England but his moderate policies were opposed by the extremists. He lost the confidence of Charles II when he criticized his private life, and the disasters of 1667, when the Dutch sailed up the Medway, confirmed his downfall. He was exiled to Rouen where he died, but was buried in Westminster Abbey, London.

Bibliography: B H G Wormald, Clarendon: Politics, History and Religion, 1640-1660 (1951)