Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon

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Henry Hyde 2nd Earl of Clarendon, (1638–1709), was the eldest son of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon and his wife Frances Aylesbury. He was thus a brother of Lady Anne Hyde, and maternal uncle to both Queen Mary II and Queen Anne.

After his father was banished, Henry (then Viscount Cornbury) opposed the court party. He lost his first wife in 1662 and four years later married Flower, the daughter of William Backhouse, the Rosicrucian philosopher, and they took up residence at her home, Swallowfield Park in Berkshire. In 1674, he succeeded to his father's title to become the second Earl of Clarendon. In 1685, Henry's brother-in-law, King James II, appointed him Lord Privy Seal. A few months later, he was made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. In 1687, Henry and his brother, the Earl of Rochester, fell from the king's favour and were dismissed.

In December 1688, Henry and his brother Lord Rochester joined the party of William of Orange during the Revolution of 1688. The following year, however, Henry refused to swear an oath of allegiance to William, and was imprisoned as a Jacobite for six months. He died in 1709; his son, Edward, Lord Cornbury, inherited his title. Henry's papers were published in 1828 as The Clarendon Papers.

External links

[Royal Berkshire History: Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon]

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