CLARE, JOHN, the peasant poet of Northamptonshire, born near Peterborough; wrote “Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery,” which attracted attention, and even admiration, and at length with others brought him a small annuity, which he wasted in speculation; fell into despondency, and died in a lunatic asylum (1793-1864).

CLARE, ST., a virgin and abbess, born at Assisi; the founder of the Order of Poor Clares (1193-1253).  Festival, Aug. 12.

CLAREMONT, a mansion in Surrey, 14 m.  SW. of London, built by Lord Clive, where Princess Charlotte lived and died, as also Louis Philippe after his flight from France; is now the property of the Queen, and the residence of the Duchess of Albany.

CLARENCE, DUKE OF, brother of Edward IV.; convicted of treason, he was condemned to death, and being allowed to choose the manner of his death, is said to have elected to die by drowning in a butt of Malmsey wine (1459-1478).

CLARENCEUX, or CLARENCIEUX, the provincial king-at-arms, whose jurisdiction extends from and includes all England S. of the Trent.

CLARENDON, a place 2 m.  SE. of Salisbury, where the magnates of England, both lay and clerical, met in 1164 under Henry II. and issued a set of ordinances, called the Constitutions of Clarendon, 16 in number, to limit the power of the Church and assert the rights of the crown in ecclesiastical affairs.

CLARENDON, EDWARD HYDE, Earl of, sat in the Short Parliament and the Long on the popular side, but during the Civil War became a devoted Royalist; was from 1641 one of the chief advisers of the king; on the failure of the royal cause, took refuge first in Jersey, and then in Holland with the Prince of Wales; contributed to the Restoration; came back with Charles, and became Lord Chancellor; fell into disfavour, and quitted England in 1667; died at Rouen; wrote, among other works, a “History of the Great Rebellion,” dignifiedly written, though often carelessly, but full of graphic touches and characterisations especially of contemporaries; it has been called an “epical composition,” as showing a sense of the central story and its unfolding.  “Few historians,” adds Prof.  Saintsbury, “can describe a given event with more vividness.  Not one in all the long list of the great practitioners of the art has such skill in the personal character” (1608-1674).

CLARENDON, GEORGE VILLIERS, EARL OF, a Whig statesman; served as a cabinet minister under Lord Melbourne, Lord John Russell twice, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Gladstone; held the office of Foreign Secretary under the three preceding; was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland at the time of the potato failure, and represented Britain at the Congress of Paris; died in harness, deeply lamented both at home and abroad (1800-1870).

CLARETIE, JULES, a French journalist, novelist, dramatic author, and critic, born at Limoges; has published some 40 volumes of causeries, history, and fiction; appointed Director of the Theatre Francais in 1893; b. 1840.