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, 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. In 1662 he was appointed private secretary to Queen Catherine, whose lord chamberlain he became in July 1665; in later years he may have regretted the appointment, as he and the Queen became embroiled in an almost interminable lawsuit over the arrears of her allowance. John Evelyn in 1664 helped him to plant Cornbury Park. He spoke on behalf of his father on his impeachment in 1667; and after his fall Lord Cornbury became an opponent of the court party and the Cabal Ministry, and attacked Buckingham and Arlington. On his father's death in 1674 he succeeded to the earldom of Clarendon. In 1680, the influence of his brother-in-law James, Duke of York, made him a privy councillor. Around the same time, he was named keeper of Denmark House and treasurer and receiver-general of the queen's revenues. At this time, and often, he had money troubles. The