Few Lord Chancellors have defended the laws of England with greater steadfastness than Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon. Yet the House of Commons impeached him in 1667 for attempting to subvert those laws. Standing guardian over the English constitution, he was accused of plotting its ruin. Less guilty than Francis Bacon, he suffered a harsher fate. More innocent than Lord Keeper Finch, he endured the same painful banishment from the England he loved. On 11 November 1667 the House of Commons impeached him for high treason, and though they were unable to prove their accusation, they forced him, by the violence of their prosecution, to flee to France. It was his personal tragedy to suffer disgrace, calumny, and banishment though guilty of no crime.
