As a politician and a historian, Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon, played a vital role in shaping both the events of his time and the perceptions of these events by his contemporaries and posterity. A proponent of reform early in the Long Parliament, he later wrote propaganda for King Charles I and became chancellor of the Exchequer; ultimately emerging as Charles II's chief adviser during the Interregnum, he played a key Royalist role in negotiating the Restoration of the Stuarts and served as lord chancellor of England from 1660 to 1667. Clarendon's writings, entirely in prose except for two early poems, are integrally connected with his immersion in the life and issues of his era. Although he was a prolific author who produced works on a variety of subjects, Clarendon's literary fame is based primarily on his History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England , a magisterial treatment...