Hyde Earl Of Clarendon

A Practical Guide to Working With Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–1673), is best known as the author of History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, a six-volume narrative of the English Civil War that remains one of the most important primary sources for the period. He also served as Lord Chancellor under Charles II. If you are looking at his work for research or reference, the path is straightforward but has a few traps that catch people off guard. The standard edition is the Oxford Classical Texts version of the History of the Rebellion, edited by W.D. Macray. It runs to seven volumes in the standard Clarendon Press reprint. There is also the single-volume "abridged" edition used by many undergraduates, but it cuts roughly forty percent of the original text. If you are doing serious work, do not use the abridged version. I learned this the hard way trying to cross-reference a passage about the fall of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford, and spending two hours tracking down where the omission happened. For free access, the Internet Archives hosts multiple scanned editions, including the 1888 six-volume Oxford University Press edition. The HathiTrust repository also carries digitized copies of the 1702 original edition and later reprints. Search by the full title "The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England" and filter by date range to avoid the worst OCR quality on the older scans.

The Latin works, particularly Animadversiones and the fragments of his younger writings, are available through the British Library's digital catalogue. The digitization quality varies significantly between manuscripts. Some folios are illegible. Always have a microfilm or high-resolution facsimile as a backup if you are citing specific passages from the Latin texts.

Navigating the Major Works

Clarendon's History of the Rebellion covers events from the accession of Charles I through 1642. It stops abruptly there. This is not an editorial choice by modern publishers. Clarendon simply never finished the narrative past that point. The continuation into the later war years was completed by William Sanderson and published separately. If your research extends into 1643 or beyond, you need Sanderson's continuation alongside Clarendon's original text. They do not blend seamlessly because the authorship changes mid-thought. His other significant work is The Life and Times of King Charles I. This is less a formal biography and more a political apologia written after the Restoration. It is extremely useful for understanding how the Royalist side framed events, but it should never be treated as neutral testimony. Clarendon was actively justifying his own role in the king's counsel. He shapes the narrative to make his advice look prescient and consistent, even when the historical record shows he was often second-guessing himself.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

One issue that comes up repeatedly is the dating of events. Clarendon wrote his history largely from memory after years of exile. He frequently misdates speeches and parliamentary proceedings by weeks or months. When I was compiling a timeline of the Long Parliament's proceedings, I found that Clarendon's chronology of the Grand Remonstrance debate was off by approximately three weeks compared to the journals of the House of Commons. I resolved it by checking the Journal of the House of Commons alongside his account and flagging every date he gets wrong. You will need to do this systematically if you are citing him for chronological purposes. Another problem is the treatment of Parliamentary figures. Clarendon portrays his opponents with remarkable consistency as either fools or villains. This is not accidental. He wrote the history as a partisan document, intended to shape the historical record in favor of the Royalist cause. Read him for what the Royalists believed and said, but verify every factual claim against independent sources. The Parliamentary journals, the autobiographies of opposition figures like John Pym and Nathaniel Fiennes, and the diaries of contemporary observers all contradict Clarendon on key points. The modern critical edition with extensive annotations is the best starting point for anyone serious about this material. It exists in multiple volumes covering different sections of the text. The annotations alone will save you considerable time tracking down textual variants and contextual information.

Where Clarendon Falls Short

The main limitation of working with Clarendon's History of the Rebellion is that it simply does not cover the full conflict. It ends at 1642. There is no easy way around this. You must combine it with other sources for the complete picture. Secondary works that synthesize Clarendon with Parliamentary records and other contemporary accounts are much more practical for general reference. The Oxford Historical Series publications on the Civil War period handle this integration well and are freely available through most academic library systems. If you need the complete legal and constitutional perspective from the Royalist side, Clarendon's Great Maxims and Vindication provide additional material, though they are less narrative and more argumentative. They are useful for understanding the theoretical framework behind Royalist resistance to Parliament, but they should be read alongside the actual statutes and parliamentary ordinances they respond to. Clarendon's legal arguments make more sense when you can see the exact text he was interpreting.