Clarendon
Clarendon names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Clarendon CONSTITUTIONS OF, a code of laws adopted in the 10th year of Henry II
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
CONSTITUTIONS OF, a code of laws adopted in the 10th year of Henry II. (January, 1164), at a council of prelates and barons held at the village of Clarendon, Wiltshire. These laws, which were finally digested into 16 articles, were brought forward by the king as "the ancient customs of the realm," and were enacted as such by the council, but they really involved a great scheme of administrative reform in the assertion of the supremacy of the State over clergy and laity alike. The power of the ecclesiastical courts was restricted, the crown secured the right of interference in elections to ecclesiastical offices, appeals to Rome were made dependent on the king's leave, ecclesiastical dignitaries were deprived of their freedom to leave the country without the royal permission, etc. Becket signed them, but retracted his signature on the refusal of Pope Alexander III. to countenance them. Becket's murder followed, and to effect a reconciliation with the pope Henry promised the amendment of the Constitutions of Clarendon. They were accordingly modified in 1176 at but they are not the less to be regarded as containing the germ of the ecclesiastical policy of Henry VIII.
Clarendon EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
EDWARD HYDE, EARL OF, Lord High Chancellor of England; born in Dinton, Wiltshire, in 1608. During the civil wars he zealously attached himself to the royal cause, was made successively chancellor of the exchequer and privy councillor, and was the chief adviser of the king. After the failure of the royalist arms he took refuge in Jersey, and then joined Prince Charles in Holland. He contributed to the Restoration, accompanied Charles II. to London, and was made Lord Chancellor. In his judicial capacity his conduct was irreproachable, and he was the defender of his country's freedom against the abuses of the royal power; but he at length became unpopular, was removed from his high employments, and banished by act of Parliament. His "History of the Rebellion," though considered by some as a partial, inaccurate, and untrustworthy narrative, is one of the most remarkable works in the literature of his time. His daughter Anne was married to the Duke of York, afterward James II., and two daughters, Anne and Mary, the fruit of this marriage, both ascended the English throne. He died in Rouen in 1674.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both of Collier's 1921 entries still stand on the essentials: the Constitutions were put to a council at Clarendon in January 1164, Becket assented and then recanted, and Henry II gave ground after the murder — though modern accounts date that retreat to his reconciliation with the papal legates at Avranches in 1172 rather than to 1176. What Collier's calls "the village of Clarendon, Wiltshire" was in fact a great royal hunting palace, and its ruins east of Salisbury were excavated in the 1930s, giving archaeologists the physical setting of the council the entry describes. On Edward Hyde, the facts are unaltered, and historians still argue about the partiality Collier's already flagged; scholarship since has shown the History of the Rebellion to be a splice of his 1640s draft and the autobiography written in exile, which explains some of its unevenness. The Oxford University Press imprint Clarendon Press, founded on profits from the book, keeps his name in print to this day.
Written for this edition, 2026.