Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English statesman who served as Lord Chancellor to King Charles II from 1658, two years before the Restoration of the Monarchy, until 1667. He was loyal to the king, built up the royalist cause, and served as the chief minister after 1660. He was one of the most important historians of England, as author of the most influential contemporary history of the Civil War, The History of the Rebellion . He was the maternal grandfather of two monarchs, Queen Mary II and Queen Anne. Wikipedia
“He had a head to contrive, a tongue to persuade, and a hand to execute any mischief.”
On John Hampden, History of the Rebellion. Vol. iii, Book vii. Section 84. Compare: "In every deed of mischief he had a heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute", Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap. xlviii.; "Heart to conceive the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute", Junius, letter xxxvii. Feb. 14, 1770.
