For more than two centuries, Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury - royal governer of New York and New Jersey from 1702 to 1708 - has been a despised figure whose alleged transgressions ranged from looting the colonial treasury to public cross-dressing in New York City. Seeking to strip away the many layers of ""the Cornbury myth"", Patricia Bonomi offers a challenging reassessment of this intriguing figure, royal government, and of the rough and tumble political culture of the first British Empire.