Clarendon, George William Frederick Villiers, 4th earl of, 1800-1870, British statesman. He was ambassador (1833-39) to Spain during the difficult period of the Carlist war and then lord privy seal (1839-41). As lord lieutenant of Ireland (1847-52), he made efforts to ease disorder and distress during the famine. He was foreign secretary (1853-58) during the Crimean War, held together the French alliance with England, and was one of the negotiators of the Peace of Paris (1856). He was twice again foreign secretary (1865-66, 1868-70), and during the latter period he laid the foundation for the settlement of the Alabama claims of the United States.

Clarendon, Edward Hyde, 1st earl of, 1609-74, English statesman and historian. Elected (1640) to the Short and Long parliaments, he was at first associated with the opposition to Charles I and helped prepare the impeachment of the earl of Strafford. The increasing radicalism of the opposition, however, led him to offer his services to the king, whom he aided by drafting a reply to the Grand Remonstrance. After the outbreak of the civil war, Hyde was appointed (1643) chancellor of the exchequer, and he represented (1645) Charles in the unsuccessful Uxbridge negotiations to end the war. Hyde followed Prince Charles (later Charles II) into exile in 1646 and became one of his chief advisers. Pursuing Hyde's policy, Charles awaited the appearance of a strong, friendly faction in England and successfully negotiated his own restoration (1660) without foreign aid. After Charles's return to England, Hyde became (1660) lord chancellor and was created earl of Clarendon (1661). Clarendon hoped to achieve a lenient religious settlement that would conciliate the Puritans, but his wishes were overborne by the militantly Anglican Cavalier Parliament, which passed the unjustly named Clarendon Code. He was blamed by the public for the sale (1662) of Dunkirk to the French and for the second Dutch War (which he opposed), and he was unpopular with the licentious Restoration court. In 1667, Charles dismissed him from office, using him as a scapegoat for military failures and financial breakdown in the Dutch War. Impeachment proceedings were begun, and Clarendon fled England to live the remainder of his life in exile. As a statesman he was consistent and moderate, never wavering from his early views on constitutional monarchy but blind to new political forces created by the English civil war. Through the marriage (1660) of his daughter Anne to the duke of York (later James II), Clarendon was the grandfather of two queens, Mary II and Anne. His renowned History of the Rebellion (standard ed., 6 vol., 1888), written partly from memory and partly from documents, is an indispensable account of the civil war.

Clarendon, Constitutions of, 1164, articles issued by King Henry II of England at the Council of Clarendon defining the customs governing relations between church and state. In the anarchic conditions of the previous reign, the church had extended its jurisdiction in various ways, and it was the king's object to curb the growth of ecclesiastical power by securing the assent of the English prelates to this codification, which he claimed represented the practices followed during the reign of his grandfather, Henry I. The majority of the 16 articles dealt with church authority and the competence of ecclesiastical courts, while others defined the extent of papal authority in England; and they were in fact a fair statement of earlier customs. However, several articles were contrary to canon law, and controversy centered on two clauses in particular: that which provided for the secular punishment of clerics convicted of crime in the ecclesiastical courts (already a major point at issue between the king and the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas à Becket) and that which forbade appeals to Rome without royal consent. After much debate, the English prelates assented to the Constitutions at Clarendon, but after the pope had condemned the codification, Becket repudiated his agreement. When the bitter quarrel between the king and his archbishop ended (1170) in Becket's murder, Henry felt compelled to amend the Constitutions, explicitly revoking the two controversial clauses. However, for the most part the Constitutions of Clarendon remained in effect as part of the law of the land.

Clarendon Code, 1661-65, group of English statutes passed after the Restoration of Charles II to strengthen the position of the Church of England. The Corporation Act (1661) required all officers of incorporated municipalities to take communion according to the rites of the Church of England and to abjure the Presbyterian covenant. The Act of Uniformity (1662) required all ministers in England and Wales to use and subscribe to the Book of Common Prayer; nearly 2,000 ministers resigned rather than submit to this act. The Conventicle Act (1664) forbade the assembling of five or more persons for religious worship other than Anglican. The Five-Mile Act (1665) forbade any nonconforming preacher or teacher to come within 5 mi (8.1 km) of a city or corporate town where he had served as minister. These laws, named after Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, chief minister of Charles II at the time of their passage, decreased the following of numerous dissenting sects, especially the Presbyterians. Clarendon himself opposed their enactment, but after their passage he worked for their enforcement. Charles II, to court popularity with dissenters and to ease the position of Roman Catholics (with whom he was in sympathy), attempted to interfere with the operation of these laws by his unsuccessful declarations of indulgence in 1662 and 1672. As a political device to weaken the Whigs, the Clarendon Code was largely superseded by the Test Act of 1673, although some of the statutes, in modified form, remained in force for some time.

(born Jan. 12, 1800, London, Eng.—died June 27, 1870, London) British statesman. After serving as British ambassador to Spain (1833–39), he held various cabinet posts until Lord Aberdeen named him secretary of state for foreign affairs in 1853. Clarendon failed to prevent the outbreak of the Crimean War, and his performance during it was undistinguished, but he secured favourable terms for Britain at the Congress of Paris (1856). He continued in office under Lord Palmerston until 1858 and also served as foreign secretary under Earl Russell (1865–66) and William E. Gladstone (1868–70).

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(1164) Sixteen articles issued by King Henry II defining church-state relations in England. Designed to restrict ecclesiastical privileges and curb the power of the church courts, the constitutions provoked the famous quarrel between Henry and St. Thomas Becket. Among their controversial measures were the provisions that all revenues from vacant sees and monasteries reverted to the king, who had discretion in filling the vacant offices, and that clerics charged with serious crimes were to be tried in secular courts. Becket's martyrdom in 1170 forced Henry to moderate his attack on the clergy, but he did not repudiate the constitutions.

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(1661–65) Four acts, passed in England during the ministry of the earl of Clarendon, designed to cripple the power of the Nonconformists, or Dissenters. The first, the Corporation Act, forbade municipal office to those not taking the sacraments at a parish church; the Act of Conformity excluded them from church offices; the Conventicle Act made meetings for Nonconformist worship illegal; and the Five-Mile Act forbade Nonconformist ministers to live or visit within five miles of any place where they had ministered.

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