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- Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
- 1609-1674. English politician and historian,
- chief adviser to Charles II 1651-67. A member
- of Parliament 1640, he joined the Royalist
- side 1641. The Clarendon Code (1661-65), a
- series of acts passed by the government, were
- directed at Nonconformists (or Dissenters)
- and were designed to secure the supremacy of
- the Church of England. In the Short and Long
- parliaments he attacked Charles I's
- unconstitutional actions and supported the
- impeachment of Charles's minister Strafford.
- In 1641 he broke with the revolutionary party
- and became one of the royal advisers. When
- civil war began he followed Charles to
- Oxford, and was knighted and made chancellor
- of the Exchequer. On the king's defeat in
- 1646 he followed Prince Charles to Jersey,
- where he began his History of the Rebellion,
- published 1702-04, which provides memorable
- portraits of his contemporaries. In 1651 he
- became chief adviser to the exiled Charles
- II. At the Restoration he was created earl of
- Clarendon, while his influence was further
- increased by the marriage of his daughter
- Anne to James, Duke of York. His moderation
- earned the hatred of the extremists, however,
- and he lost Charles's support by openly
- expressing disapproval of the king's private
- life. After the disasters of the Dutch war
- 1667, he went into exile. In retirement he
- wrote the History of the Rebellion and Civil
- Wars in England 1702-04.
-