Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, PC (2 June 163831 October 1709) was an English aristocrat and politician. He held high office at the beginning of the reign of his brother-in-law, King James II.

Early life He was the eldest son of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, and his second wife, Frances Aylesbury. He was thus a brother of Anne Hyde (first wife of the future James II of England), and maternal uncle to both Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. Both he and his brother Laurence Hyde were brought up partly at Antwerp and Breda, by their mother. Clarendon before 1660 made use of Henry as copyist, decipherer, and confidential secretary, in his correspondence with distant royalists.

Under Charles II

Soon after the return of his family to England, in 1660, Hyde married Theodosia Capell, daughter of Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham, and Elizabeth Morrison, and sister of Mary Capell, Duchess of Beaufort. She died in 1661, and in 1670, he married secondly to Flower Backhouse, daughter of William Backhouse and Anne Richards, and widow of William Bishop and Sir William Backhouse (kinsman of her father), gaining the manor and house of Swallowfield Park, Berkshire, where he rebuilt the house. Later she was First Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Anne. Queen Anne later took a dislike to her aunt, no doubt influenced by her best friend, Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; Sarah detested Flower, whom she called "the madwoman". Hyde had the courtesy title Lord Cornbury, from 1661. He was Member of Parliament for Wiltshire, until 1674. He had a fine collection of medals, and was the author of the History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church at Winchester, continued by Samuel Gale, London, 1715.