Nicolaes Maes Dordrecht 1634 - 1693 Amsterdam

Laurence Hyde was born in March 1641, the second son of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon. In 1665 after the return of his family to England at the Restoration, he married Lady Henrietta, daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington. In 1676, Rochester was made ambassador-extraordinary to John III, King of Poland. He made many visits to The Netherlands, where in 1677 he was one of the ambassador-mediators at the Congress of Nijmegen. It was no doubt during one of these trips that he was painted by Maes. By November of the same year he was appointed first Lord of the Treasury and a privy councillor. He became leader of the High Anglican Tories in 1680 and a year later was created Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth and Earl of Rochester.