Home > Laurence Hyde, 1st Earl of Rochester

The second son of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, he was a near contemporary of King Charles II of England. Following the Restoration, he sat as member of parliament, first for Newport, Cornwall and later for the University of Oxford, from 1660 to 1679. In 1661 he was sent on a complimentary embassy to Louis XIV of France, while he held the court post of Master of the Robes from 1662 to 1675. In 1665 he married Lady Henrietta Boyle (d. 1687Events March 19 The men under explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle murder him while searching for the mouth of the Mississippi River. July 5 Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica is published. December 31 The first Huguenots set sail), daughter of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork. When his father was impeached in 1667Events January 20 Poland cedes Kyiv, Smolensk, and eastern Ukraine to Russia in the Treaty of Andrusovo that put a final end to the Deluge, and Poland lost its status as a Central European power April 27 The blind, impoverished John Milton sells the copyr, Laurence joined his elder brother, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon , in defending him in parliament, but the fall of Clarendon did not injuriously affect the fortunes of his sons. They were united with the royal family through the marriage of their sister, AnneAnne Hyde ( 1637 March 31, 1671) was the daughter of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, the first wife of King James II of England, and the mother of two British queens, Anne and Mary. She was born, on either March 12 or March 22, 1637, at Windsor, her m, with the future King James IIJames II of England and VII of Scotland ( 14 October 1633 16 September 1701) became King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 6 February 1685. He would prove to be the last Catholic monarch to reign over England, Scotland or Ireland. His subjects distrus, making her Duchess of York. In 1676Events January 29 Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia First measurement of the speed of light, by Ole Romer Bacon's Rebellion Year in topic 1676 in literature 1676 in music 1676 in science Births May 8 Frederick I of Sweden Deaths July 22 Pope Clement X 167, Laurence Hyde was sent as ambassador to PolandThe Republic of Poland a country in Central Europe, lies between Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and the Baltic Sea, Lithuania and Russia (in the form of the Kaliningrad Oblast exclave) t; he then travelled to ViennaThis article is about the city and federal state in Austria. For other places or things called Vienna, see Vienna (disambiguation). Vienna ( German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austria's nine federal states Bundesland Wi, whence he proceeded to Nijmwegen to take part in the peace congress as one of the English representatives. Having returned to England, he entered the new parliament, which met early in 1679, as member for Wootton Bassett ; in November 1679 he was appointed First Lord of the Treasury, and for a few years he was the principal adviser of Charles II. In April 1681 he was created Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth, and in November following Earl of Rochester. Compelled to join in arranging the treaty of 1681, by which Louis XIV agreed to pay a subsidy to Charles, he was simultaneously imploring William, Prince of Orange, to save Europe from the ambitions of the French monarch. The conflict between his wishes and his interests may have soured his temper; he made himself so unpleasant to his colleagues that in August, 1684, he was moved from the treasury to the more dignified, but less influential, post of Lord President of the Council, a process which his enemy Halifax described as being "kicked upstairs." Although appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Rochester did not take up this position; he was still President of the Council when James II became king in February 1685, and he was at once appointed to the important office of Lord Treasurer. But in spite of their family relationship and their long friendship, James and his treasurer did not agree. The king wished to surround himself with Roman Catholic advisers; the Earl, on the other hand, looked with alarm on his master's leanings to that form of faith. In January 1687 he was removed from his office of treasurer, and compensated with a pension of £4000 a year and a gift of Irish lands.

After the revolution of 1688 Rochester appeared as a leader of the Tories, and he opposed the election of William and Mary as king and queen, raising his voice for the establishment of a regency on behalf of the exiled James. But he soon reconciled himself to the new order, perhaps because he could not retain his pension unless he took the oaths of allegiance. After this he was quickly in the royal favour and again a member of the Privy Council. He advised the queen in ecclesiastical matters, and returned to his former position as the leader of the High Church party. From December 1700 until February 1703 he was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, although he did not spend much time in that country, and the concluding years of his public life were mainly passed in championing the interests of the Church. In 1710 he was again made Lord President of the Council. On his death, he was succeeded by his only son, Henry ( 1672- 1758), who in 1724 inherited the earldom of Clarendon. When Henry died without issue on 10 December, 1758, all his titles became extinct.

Laurence Hyde had some learning and a share of his father's literary genius. The main employment of his old age was the preparation for the press of his father's History of the Rebellion, to which he wrote a preface. Like most of the men of his time, he drank deeply, and he was of an arrogant disposition and had a violent temper. In John Dryden's satire, Absalom and Achitophel, he is " Hushai," the friend of David in distress.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. 1911 Britannica