English statesman and historian Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1609 1674) was always loyal to his king, becoming a key figure for the Royalist cause and serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer after the Restoration in 1660. This three-volume detailed account was the most influential contemporary history of the English Civil War. The original publication of the History was part of a publishing war between supporters of the rival Roundheads and Cavaliers. The publication of the Roundhead Edmund Ludlow's Memoirs in 1698-1699 was a sensational success and led to a spate of Roundhead Civil War memoirs. In 1701 the Tories began a counter-attack by printing the Cavalier memoirs of Sir Philip Warwick, followed in the next year by the first volume of Clarendon's History and the memoirs of Sir Thomas Herbert, Gentleman of the Bedchamber to Charles I. Clarendon wrote portions of this work at different times with different objects. He wrote his original History between 1646 and 1648, but only recorded events to March 1644. Perhaps he hoped that his interpretation of recent errors would instruct the king or his son in the future.After being banished from England during the Commonwealth, he wrote his autobiographical Life between 1668 and 1670. He then revised the History in 1671 by incorporating the Life into it and writing new sections covering events after March 1644. It was his sons who offered the original manuscript to Oxford. After much editorial correction, the three-part work was published beginning in 1702.
