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 Rh 343; Nicholas Papers, i. 138). On the Protector's death Hyde instructed the king's friends not to stir till some other party rose, then to arm and embody themselves without mentioning the king, and to oppose whichever party was most irreconcilable to his cause. When the Long parliament had succeeded Richard Cromwell, the king's friends were bidden to try to set the army and the parliament by the ears (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 411, 436, 482). The zeal of the royalist leaders in England obliged the king to sanction a rising in August 1659. The date fixed was earlier than Hyde's policy had contemplated, but the fear lest some vigorous dictator should seize power, and the hope of restoring the king without foreign help, reconciled him to the attempt. After its failure he went back to his old policy. 'To have a little patience to sit still till they are in blood' was his advice when Monck and Lambert quarrelled; to obstruct a settlement and demand a free parliament his counsel when the Rump was again restored (ib. iii. 436, 530, 534).

Of Hyde's activity between Cromwell's death and the Restoration the thirteen volumes of his correspondence during that period give ample proof. The heads of all sections of the royalists made their reports to him, and he restrained their impatience, quieted their jealousies, and induced them to work together. He superintended the negotiations, and sanctioned the bargains by which opponents of influence were won to favour the king's return (ib. iii. 417, 443, 497, 673;, Own Time, i. 61). Hyde's aim was, as it had been throughout, to restore the monarchy, not merely to restore the king. A powerful party wished to impose on Charles II the conditions offered to his father in 1648. Left to himself, Charles might have consented. But, during the negotiations with the levellers in 1656, Hyde had suggested to Ormonde the expedient which the king finally adopted. `When they are obstinate to insist on an unreasonable proposition that you find it necessary to consent to, let it be with this clause, "If a free parliament shall think fit to ask the same of his majesty"' (Clarendon State Papers, iii. 289). By the declaration of Breda the exceptions to the general amnesty, the limits to toleration, and the ownership of forfeited lands, were left, in accordance with this advice, to be determined by parliament. If the adoption of Hyde's policy rendered some of the king's promises illusory, it insured the co-operation of the two powers whose opposition had caused the civil war.

On the eve of the Restoration an attempt was made to exclude Hyde from power. Catholics and presbyterians regarded him as their greatest enemy, and the French ambassador, Bourdeaux, backed their efforts for his removal. A party in the convention claimed for parliament the appointment of the great officers of state, and wished to deprive Hyde of the chancellorship. But he was strongly supported by the constitutional royalists, and the intrigue completely failed. Hyde entered London with the king, and took his seat in the court of chancery on 1 June 1660 (, Lives of the Chancellors, iii. 187). As the king's most trusted adviser he became virtually head of the government. He was the most important member of the secret committee of six, which, although styled the committee for foreign affairs, was consulted on all important business before it came to the privy council (Cont. of Life, § 46). For a time he continued to hold the chancellorship of the exchequer, but surrendered it finally to Lord Ashley (13 May 1661;, iii. 191). Ormonde urged Hyde to resign the chancellorship also, in order to devote himself entirely to the management of public business and to closer attendance on the king. He refused, on the ground that `England would not bear a favourite, nor any one man who should out of his ambition engross to himself the disposition of public affairs,' adding that `first minister was a title so newly translated out of French into English, that it was not enough understood to be liked' (ib. p. 85).

On 3 Nov. 1660 Hyde was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Hyde of Hindon, and at the coronation was further created Viscount Cornbury and Earl of Clarendon (20 April, 1661;, ii. 81). The king gave him 20,000l. to support his new dignity, and offered him also a grant of ten thousand acres in the great level of the Fens. Clarendon declined the land, saying that if he allowed the king to be so profuse to himself he could not prevent extravagant bounties to others. But he accepted at various times smaller estates: ten acres of land in Lambeth, twenty in Westminster, and three manors in Oxfordshire forfeited by the attainder of Sir John Danvers [q.v.] In 1662 he was granted, without his knowledge, 20,000l. in rents due from certain lands in Ireland, but never received more than 6,000l. of this sum, and contracted embarrassing obligations in consequence. Though public opinion accused him of avarice, and several articles of his impeachment allege pecuniary corruption, it is plain that Clarendon made no attempt to enrich himself. Charles mocked at his scruples, but the legitimate profits of the chancellorship were large, and they 