Oxford Inscriptions: Statue on Clarendon Building
EDWARDUS COMES CLARENDONIAE
Summus Angliae Summus Academiae /
Cancellarius
[Edward, Earl of Clarendon, the highest Chancellor of England and of the University]
(This inscription on the new plinth of 1947 presumably matches the original of 1721)
From 1660 to 1667 Edward Hyde, first Earl of Clarendon (1609–1674) served simultaneously as Lord Chancellor to Charles II and as Chancellor of the University of Oxford. The statue is holding a heavily embroidered bag inscribed CR (Carolus Rex) containing the Great Seal of England.
His son presented the University with the copyright of the first Earl's book The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, begun in the year 1641 (published in Oxford in three volumes between 1702 and 1704), and the proceeds largely paid for the Clarendon Building in Broad Street, built in 1711–13 to house the University's printing press, which became known as the Clarendon Press.
The first Earl of Clarendon's daughter Anne Hyde married King James II, and hence the Earl was grandfather to both Queen Mary II (who reigned from 1689 to 1694) and her sister Queen Anne (who reigned from 1707 to 1715). Their statues are on the front of University College and can be seen here.
The above half sculpture of the First Earl of Clarendon has been attributed to Francis Bird and is made of cast lead. It was originally erected in 1721 in the central clamshell niche on the first floor of the south side of the building above the central walkway (right).
In 1933 the curved window shown in that photograph was cut into the niche to provide additional daylight. Clarendon's statue blocked out most of the light from that window, but a proposal to locate it to its persent position failed.
It was removed in 1939, apparently for safety, and then in 1947 it was moved to its present location on the west side of the building on a new plinth to fit the narrower niche.
A planning application was approved in July 2023 to remove this statue for conservation work and to install a new structural framing to the statue before its replacement (23/01131/LBC). It will have the historic stone-coloured paint finish that has disappeared over the last 300 years.
The Nine Muses on top of the Clarendon Building
The planning application relating to this statue also includes the restoration/replacement of the Nine Muses who stand on the roof of the Clarendon Building: full details here.