Laurence Hyde, an opponent of the Exclusion Bill that would have prevented James, Duke of York from acceding to the throne, had been created Earl of Rochester, Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth, and Baron Wotton Basset on November 29, 1682.

Compelled to join in arranging the treaty of 1681, by which Louis XIV agreed to pay a subsidy to Charles, he was simultaneously imploring William, Prince of Orange, to save Europe from the ambitions of the French monarch.

Rochester's enemy Lord Halifax had called for an inquiry into Rochester's stewardship of the finances and it was found that forty thousand pounds had been lost by mismanagement.

As a consequence, Rochester is removed from office in August 1684 and given the post Lord President of the Council, a more dignified but less lucrative and important office.

Halifax said: "I have seen people kicked down stairs but my Lord Rochester is the first person that I ever saw kicked up stairs". (Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second. Popular Edition in Two Volumes. Vol. I, p.136 (London: Longmans, 1889).)

The second son of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon and his wife, Frances Aylesbury, is a near contemporary of King Charles II of England.

He was baptized at St. Margaret's, Westminster on March 15, 1642, and following the Restoration, had sat as member of parliament, first for Newport, Cornwall and later for the University of Oxford, from 1660 to 1679.

He had been sent in 1661 on a complimentary embassy to Louis XIV of France, while he held the court post of Master of the Robes from 1662 to 1675.

He had in 1665 married Lady Henrietta Boyle (died 1687), daughter of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork.

When his father was impeached in 1667, Laurence had joined his elder brother, Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon, in defending him in Parliament, but the fall of Clarendon had not injured the fortunes of his sons.

They were united with the royal family through the marriage of their sister, Anne, with the future King James II, making her Duchess of York.

Laurence Hyde had been sent as ambassador to Poland in 1676; he then traveled to Vienna, whence he proceeded to Nijmegen to take part in the peace congress as one of the English representatives.

Having returned to England, he had entered the new parliament, which met early in 1679, as member for Wootton Bassett; in November 1679 he was appointed First Lord of the Treasury, and for a few years he was the principal adviser of Charles II.

The Earl of Rochester, appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, has not taken up this position; he is still President of the Council when James II becomes king in February 1685, and he is at once appointed to the important office of Lord Treasurer.

In spite of their family relationship and their long friendship, however, James and his Treasurer do not agree.

The king wishes to surround himself with Roman Catholic advisers; the Earl, on the other hand, looks with alarm on his master's leanings to that form of faith.

James tries to convert Rochester to Catholicism in 1686 and every audience Rochester has with the king is spent in arguments over the authority of the Church and the worship of images.

Rochester has interviews with Catholic divines in order to appear open-minded but he refuses to convert.

The king agrees to a conference between Catholic and Protestant divines in a formal disputation.

James allows Rochester to choose any Anglican ministers except John Tillotson and Edward Stillingfleet.

Rochester chooses two chaplains who happen to be in waiting, Simon Patrick and William Jane.

The conference is held in secret on November 30 at Whitehall and the divines discuss the real presence, with the Catholics taking on the burden of proof.

Patrick and Jane say little, with Rochester defending the Anglican position.

Rochester, at one point loseing his temper , angrily asks whether it is expected that he would convert on so frivolous grounds.

He then composes himself, knowing how much he is risking, and complements the divines and requests that he be given time to digest what has been said.

James knows now that Rochester does not intend to be convinced.

News of the conference leaks and Tory churchmen are shocked that Rochester might have wavered in his faith.

Rochester requests another conference and James consents.

Rochester lets it be known to influential Catholics at court that he will do everything they request (except convert) so long as he remains in office.

He tells them that as a Protestant he will prove more useful to them as a Catholic.

James, however, on December 17 calls Rochester into an audience and tells him that so high an office of Lord Treasurer cannot be held by a staunch Anglican under a Catholic monarch.

James asks him to think again on his refusal to convert.

Rochester will not convert to Catholicism and on January 4, 1687 he is dismissed.

However, he receives a pension of approximately four thousand pounds per annum and forty thousand pounds and estates from a convicted traitor.

James asks the Lord Lieutenants in October 1687 to provide three standard questions to all members of the Commission of the Peace: would they consent to the repeal of the Test Act and the penal laws; would they assist candidates who would do so; and would they accept the Declaration of Indulgence.

Rochester, as Lord Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, eagerly pursues this but is told by the county squires that they will send no man to Parliament who would vote away the safeguards of the Protestant religion.