Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 3.djvu/286

 266 CLARENDON II. 1674. 2. Henry (Hyde), Earl of Clarendon, fffc, ist s. and h., b. 2, and bap. 11 June 1638, at St. Margaret's, Westm. M.P. (Tory) for Lyme Regis June to Dec. 1660, for Wilts {styled Viscount Cornbury), 1661-74; was cr. M.A., Oxford, by diploma, 14 Feb. 1 660/1; K.B., 23 Apr. 1 661; Private Sec. to the Queen Consort, 1662; Lord Chamberlain to her, 1665-76; High Steward of Reading, 5 Feb. 1674; P.C., 8 Jan. to 21 Apr. 1679, resworn 26 May 1680, to 1689; Keeper of Somerset House, 1680; Treasurer to the Queen Consort, 1680-84; F.R.S., I Dec. 1684. He was in high favour with his br.-in-law, James II, to whom he was Lord Privy Seal, Feb. 1684/5 '^° Mar. 1686/7, ^^^ Lord Lieut, of Ireland, Sep. 1685 to Feb. 1686/7. High Steward of Salisbury, 1685; High Steward of the Univ. of Oxford, 1686 till his death; and Councillor to the Queen Consort, 1687. He was, however, with his son, among the earliest to desert the King in 1688, although he did not take any part under the new dynasty.() He m., istly, a few days before 26 Jan 1 660/1, Theodosia,() 3rd da. of Arthur (Capell), ist Baron Capell of Hadham, by Elizabeth, da. and h. of Sir Charles Morrison. She, who was bap. 3 Jan. 1 63 9/40, at Little Hadham, was bur. there (as Viscountess Cornbury) 22 Mar. the Restoration were equally distasteful to him, consequently the greater part of his honourable life was spent in exile. To this fact we owe his History of the Rebellion, which is his greatest claim to fame. In spite of its merits and its interesting studies of character, this great work cannot be said to form very attractive reading; the style is tiresome, and it has been truly said that " the diction is verbose and yet lacks variety." The following tale appears to be pure myth, at any rate the Editor can find no con- firmation of it, and it s primd facie incredible that the daughter of a man of position and importance should have been a barmaid and the widow of a publican — all before she was 17! "A pot-girl of Westminster married the master of the pot-house. After his death she consulted a lawyer named Hyde. Mr. Hyde married her. Mr. Hyde afterwards became Lord Chancellor with the title of Lord Clarendon, and his wife, the former pot-girl, bore him a daughter. This daughter married the Duke of York, and became the mother of Mary and Anne Stewart, both afterward Queens of Eng- land. It is evident that if Queens of England may have a barmaid for grandmother lesser mortals need not fret on the subject of ancestry." {England and the English, by Price Collier, 1 910, p. 54). V.G. (*) For a list of those "in arms for the Prince of Orange" (among whom he was), see vol. ii, Appendix H. No doubt he acted treasonably in going to the Prince of Orange's camp, which he did after his son had done so, and having been at first much upset at his son's defection. But many who did the like did not mean to depose James, but only to put pressure on him to act reasonably. As a matter of fact Clarendon himself refused to take the oaths to William as King, and is thereby distinguished from the common timeserver and traitor. "He was so true to the oath of allegiance that he had taken to King James .... that he did not close in the least with the Revolution, but stood firm to the last, though he almost wanted bread to eat." (Thomas Hearne, 3 Nov. 1709). V.G. (^) She was a great beauty. " The lovely Mrs. Hyde by long practise subdued her glances to such a languishing tenderness that her eyes never opened more than those of a Chinese." See introduction to the Court Beauties of the reign of Charles II, by Mrs. Jameson, where the authoress is speaking of the style of Lely's portraits.