Henry Hyde (Royalist)
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry Hyde was a Royalist merchant beheaded by Parliament for acting as an envoy for the exiled King Charles II.
He was the son of Lawrence Hyde
of Salisbury, Wiltshire, the attorney-general and MP.
Henry became a merchant and consul based for many years in Turkey. As a Royalist he was selected in 1650 by King Charles II, then in exile in France, to act as an envoy to the Turkish government to solicit their support for his cause. The official Parliamentarian ambassador, Sir Thomas Bendish
, strongly objected and prevailed on the Turks to arrest him and ship him back to England. There he was imprisoned in the Tower, charged with treason and tried by a Court made up from the House of Commons which found him guilty and sentenced him to death. He was beheaded, after kissing the executioner's axe, outside the Old Exchange in Cornhill, London on 4 Mar 1650 .
His body was buried in Salisbury cathedral where his epitaph is inscribed on a marble tablet.
He was the son of Lawrence Hyde
Lawrence Hyde (attorney-general)
Sir Lawrence Hyde was an English lawyer who was attorey-general to the consort of King James I. He sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1584 and 1611....
of Salisbury, Wiltshire, the attorney-general and MP.
Henry became a merchant and consul based for many years in Turkey. As a Royalist he was selected in 1650 by King Charles II, then in exile in France, to act as an envoy to the Turkish government to solicit their support for his cause. The official Parliamentarian ambassador, Sir Thomas Bendish
Thomas Bendish
Sir Thomas Bendish, 2nd Baronet , served as the English ambassador to the Ottoman sultanate in the mid-17th century.Son of Sir Thomas, 1st Baronet of Steeple Bumpstead in the county of Essex, Bendish the younger enrolled in Middle Temple in 1626, after earlier studying at St John's College, Cambridge...
, strongly objected and prevailed on the Turks to arrest him and ship him back to England. There he was imprisoned in the Tower, charged with treason and tried by a Court made up from the House of Commons which found him guilty and sentenced him to death. He was beheaded, after kissing the executioner's axe, outside the Old Exchange in Cornhill, London on 4 Mar 1650 .
His body was buried in Salisbury cathedral where his epitaph is inscribed on a marble tablet.