Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (18 February 1609 – 9 December 1674) was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.

Hyde was the third son of Henry Hyde of Dinton and Purton, Wiltshire (brother of Lawrence Hyde (attorney-general)), a member of a family for some time established at Norbury, Cheshire and his wife Mary Langford. He was initially educated at Gillingham School, and entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, (now Hertford College, Oxford, where his portrait hangs in the hall) in 1622, having been rejected by Magdalen College, and graduated BA in 1626. Intended originally for holy orders in the Church of England, the death of two elder brothers made him his father's heir, and in 1625 he entered the Middle Temple to study law. His abilities were more conspicuous than his industry, and at the bar his time was devoted more to general reading and to the society of eminent scholars and writers than to the study of law treatises.

This time was not wasted. In later years Clarendon declared "next the immediate blessing and providence of God Almighty" that he "owed all the little he knew and the little good that was in him to the friendships and conversation...of the most excellent men in their several kinds that lived in that age." These included Ben Jonson, Selden, Waller, Hales, and especially Lord Falkland; and from their influence and the wide reading in which he indulged, he doubtless drew the solid learning and literary talent which afterwards distinguished him.

There have been two "1st Earl of Clarendon":

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Earl of Clarendon is a title that has been created twice in British history, in 1661 and 1776. The title was created for the first time in the Peerage of England in 1661 for the statesman Edward Hyde, 1st Baron Hyde. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1643 to 1646 and Lord Chancellor from 1658 to 1667 and a close political adviser to Charles II, although he later fell out of favour and was forced into exile. Hyde had already been created Baron Hyde, of Hindon in the County of Wiltshire, in 1660, and was made Viscount Cornbury, in the County of Oxford, at the same time he was given the earldom. These titles were also in the Peerage of England. His second son the Hon. Laurence Hyde was also a politician and was created Earl of Rochester in 1682. Lord Clarendon's daughter Lady Anne Hyde married the future King James II and was the mother of Queen Mary II and Queen Anne.

Lord Clarendon was succeeded by his eldest son Henry, the second Earl. He was also a politician and served as Lord Privy Seal and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. His son, the third Earl, represented Wiltshire and Christchurch in the House of Commons and served as Governor of New York, before succeeding to the earldom; he had married Katherine, 8th Baroness Clifton, but she died in New York before becoming Countess. Their only son Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury, succeeded his mother as ninth Baron Clifton in 1706; he died ten years before his father, unmarried. The only daughter Lady Theodosia succeeded her elder brother as tenth Baroness Clifton (see the Baron Clifton for later history of this title).

Edward Hyde may refer to: