Henry Vane the Younger
Encyclopedia
Sir Henry Vane son of Henry Vane the Elder
(often referred to as Harry Vane to distinguish him from his father), was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor. He was briefly present in North America
, serving one term as the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and supported the creation of Roger Williams'
Rhode Island Colony
and Harvard College
. A proponent of religious tolerance, he returned to England in 1637 following the Antinomian
controversy that led to the banning of Anne Hutchinson
from Massachusetts.
He was a leading Parliamentarian
during the English Civil War
and worked closely with Oliver Cromwell
. He played no part in the execution of King Charles I
, and refused to take oaths that expressed approval of the act. Vane served on the Council of State that functioned as the government executive during the Interregnum, but split with Cromwell over issues of governance and removed himself from power when Cromwell dissolved Parliament in 1653. He returned to power during the short-lived Commonwealth period in 1659–1660, and was arrested under orders from King Charles II
following his restoration to the throne
. After long debate, Vane was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act
, and was thus denied amnesty granted to most people for their roles in the Civil War and Interregnum.
Although he was formally granted clemency by Charles II, he was charged with high treason by Parliament in 1662. In a court proceeding in which he was denied counsel and the opportunity to properly prepare a defence, he was convicted by a partisan jury. Charles withdrew his earlier clemency, and Vane was beheaded on Tower Hill on 14 June 1662.
Vane was recognised by his political peers as a competent administrator and a wily and persuasive negotiator and politician. His politics was driven by a desire for religious tolerance in an era when governments were used to establish official churches and suppress dissenting views. Although his views were in a small minority, he was able to successfully build coalitions to advance his agenda. His actions were often ultimately divisive, and contributed to both the rise and downfall of the English Commonwealth. His books and pamphlets written on political and religious subjects are still analyzed today, and Vane is remembered in Massachusetts
and Rhode Island
as an early champion of religious freedom.
, Essex
. He was the eldest child of Sir Henry Vane the Elder
, who came from the landed gentry, and Frances Darcy, who came from minor nobility. The elder Vane used the family's money to purchase positions at court, rising by 1629 to be Comptroller of the Household
. Vane was educated at Westminster School
, where his classmates included Arthur Heselrige and Thomas Scot
, two other men who would figure prominently in English politics. Vane's friend and biographer George Sikes wrote that Vane was "[ignorant] of God" and of a temperament that made him "acceptable to those they call good fellows", but that he had a religious awakening at 14 or 15, after which he "and his former jolly company came to a parting blow." Vane then enrolled at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he studied in spite of his refusal to take the necessary matriculation oaths. He then traveled to Europe, where he was reported to be studying at Leiden and possibly in France and at Geneva
.
Vane's father had been upset by his open adoption of Puritan
views, fearing this would hamper his opportunities for advancement at court. In 1631 he sent the young Vane to Vienna
as an assistant to Robert Anstruther, the English ambassador. This was apparently a quite privileged role, for Vane's writings of the time include messages written in French
and in cipher
. During this trip the elder Vane was sent to negotiate with Swedish King Gustavus
for an alliance; King Charles' unwillingness to act in the matter meant the effort was in vain. He was introduced to the king after returning to England, and encouraged by his father to seek a position in the privy chamber
. His father engaged in numerous attempts to get him to give up his nonconformist
views, without success. In order to worship as he chose, Vane then decided to go the New World
, joining the Puritan migration
.
, arriving in Boston
in October 1635 on a ship also carrying John Winthrop the Younger and Hugh Peter. The elder John Winthrop
described Vane as "a young gentleman of excellent parts", and by the following month he had already been admitted as a freeman
in the colony. He began playing a role in its judicial administration, deciding whether legal disputes had sufficient merit to be heard by a full court. Vane was instrumental in brokering the resolution to a dispute between the elder Winthrop and Thomas Dudley
concerning matters of judicial conduct. In the spring of 1637 Vane was elected governor of the colony, succeeding John Haynes
. The situation he faced was complex, with issues on religious, political and military fronts. His biographers describe his term in office as "disastrous".
The colony was split over the actions and beliefs of Anne Hutchinson
. She had come with her husband and children to the colony in 1634, and began holding Bible sessions at home, gaining a wide audience and sharing her opinions that the colonial leaders labeled as Antinomianism
, the view that existing laws and practices were not necessary for salvation. Most of the older colonial leadership, including Dudley and Winthrop, espoused a more Legalist
view. Vane was a supporter of Hutchinson, as was at first the influential pastor John Cotton, and this was the faction that propelled Vane into the governor's seat in 1636. Vane, however, immediately alienated some of the colonists by insisting on flying the English flag over Boston's fort
. The flag had recently been the subject of controversy, since its depiction of the Cross of St George
was seen by many colonists as a symbol of papacy, and John Endecott
had notoriously cut the cross out of the Salem
militia's flag. Vane's popularity went down further when he learned in December 1636 that there were issues in England requiring his presence, and he attempted to resign. Although the court of assistants accepted his resignation, he withdrew it upon the request of the congregation of the Boston church.
During Vane's tenure a dispute with the Pequot
tribe of present-day southeastern Connecticut
boiled over into war
. In 1636 the boat of a Massachusetts trader named John Oldham was found near Block Island
, overrun by Indians. Further examination by the discoverers (after the Indians fled in canoes) uncovered Oldham's body on board. The attackers were at the time believed to be from tribes affiliated with the Narragansetts
, but Narragansett leaders claimed that those responsible had fled to the protection of the Pequots. The Pequots were aggressively expansionist in their dealings with the surrounding native tribes (including the Narragansett), but had until then generally kept the peace with nearby English colonists. Massachusetts authorities were already angry that the Pequots had failed to turn over men implicated in the killing of another trader on the Connecticut River
; the slaying of Oldham led to calls for action. Despite the fact that Roger Williams
had warned him that the Narragansetts were more likely responsible for Oldham's slaying, Governor Vane in August 1636 placed John Endecott at the head of a 90 man force to extract justice from the Pequots. Endecott's heavy-handed expedition did little more than destroy Pequot settlements, and sparked a military backlash. The Pequots struck back at settlements recently established
on the Connecticut River by colonists from Massachusetts, and at the Saybrook Colony
of the younger John Winthrop. In April 1637 the ostensibly pacifist Vane called a session of the general court that authorized the colonial militia to assist the other New England colonies in continuing the war, which resulted in the destruction of the Pequots as a tribal entity.
Vane lost his position to the elder John Winthrop in the 1637 election. The contentious election was marked by a sharp disagreement over the treatment of John Wheelwright
, another Hutchinson supporter. Winthrop won in part because the location of the vote was moved to Cambridge
, reducing the power of Vane's Boston support. In the aftermath of the election Anne Hutchinson was put on trial, and eventually banished from the colony. Many of her followers seriously considered leaving after the election. At the urging of Roger Williams, some of these people, including Hutchinson, founded the settlement of Portsmouth
on Aquidneck Island
in the Narragansett Bay
(later named Rhode Island and joined to Providence to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
). Vane decided to return to England, apparently with the notion that he would acquire a royal governorship to trump the colonial administration. Before his departure, he published A Brief Answer to a Certain Declaration, a response to Winthrop's defense of the Act of Exclusion; this act was passed after the election to restrict the immigration of people with views not conforming to the colony's religious orthodoxy.
Despite their political differences, Vane and Winthrop developed an epistolary relationship in the following years. Vane's legacy from his time in the New World includes the colonial legislation appropriating £400 for the establishment of an institute of higher learning now known as Harvard University
, and his support of Roger Williams in the acquisition of Aquidneck Island from the local Indians that resulted in the formal beginnings of Rhode Island. The surviving accounts do not say that Vane provide the funds for the acquisition; Williams credits Vane as being "an instrument in the hand of God for procuring this island".
According to historian Michael Winship, Vane's experiences in Massachusetts significantly radicalized his religious views, in which he came to believe that clergy of all types, including Puritan ministers, "were the second beast of Revelations
13:11", "pretending to visible Saintship". This conviction drove his political activities in England, where he sought to minimize the power and influence of all types of clergy. Biographer Violet Rowe writes that "Vane's guiding principles in religious policy seem to have been two: a rooted distrust of clerical power, whether of bishops or presbyter
s, and a belief that the State should abstain from interference in church matters altogether."
Vane's stance can be seen in the way the first Rhode Island patent was drafted in 1643, when he sat on the Parliamentary committee charged with colonial affairs. Unique among all of the early English colonial charters, it contains provisions guaranteeing freedom of religion. (Vane assisted Roger Williams again in 1652, when the latter sought a confirmation of the Rhode Island charter and the revocation of a conflicting charter that had been issued to William Coddington
.)
and his father, a position as Treasurer of the Royal Navy
in 1639. In this position he had the personally distasteful yet highly profitable task of collecting the hated ship money
(a tax to support the Navy imposed by Charles I without Parliamentary approval). In June 1640 he was awarded a knighthood by King Charles. He married Frances Wray, daughter of Sir Christopher Wray
, on 1 July 1640, after which his father settled upon him most of the family's holdings. These included Fairlawn in Kent
, and Raby Castle
, where Vane would make his home. According to his biographers, the relationship with Frances was anchored by shared spiritual goals and intimacy, and was happy and fulfilling.
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The connection with the admiralty secured for him election to the Short
and Long
Parliaments representing Hull
. Vane had already formed or renewed associations with prominent opponents of Charles' policies, including John Pym
and John Hampden
. In the Short Parliament he was noted to be "capable of managing great affairs", with a "penetrating judgment" and an "easy and graceful manner of speaking." With others like Nathaniel Fiennes
, he represented a younger generation of Puritans in the leadership of the Long Parliament that effectively managed affairs: as identified by Clarendon
in his history, these included Hampden, Pym, and Oliver St John
in the Commons
, and Earl of Bedford
and Viscount Saye and Sele
in the Lords
.
Vane was instrumental in the 1641 impeachment and execution of the Earl of Strafford
, a member of the Privy Council
. Vane discovered some confidential notes his father had made of a council meeting, and passed them to John Pym. The wording in those notes could be interpreted to mean that Strafford had proposed that Charles use the Irish Army to subjugate England. The evidence against Strafford was weak, and the impeachment failed. Pym consequently orchestrated the passage of a bill of attainder
against Strafford, who was then executed in May 1641. The illicit means by which Pym acquired the notes caused a rift between the Vanes that only healed when the elder Vane eventually came to oppose the king.
In the Root and Branch
petition debate in the Commons, from December 1640 and into 1641, Vane supported, as did Nathaniel Fiennes, the call for radical reforms in the Church of England, a position that put Vane in opposition to his father. Amid a sea of complaints about church governance, he and Fiennes in February 1641 were added to a committee that had been established the previous November to draft a report on the state of the kingdom. Their efforts led Vane to introduce the Root and Branch Bill in May 1641. The debate on the bill was acrimonious, and resulted in a clear indication of parliamentary support for church reform. In its wake mobs invaded churches, removing "scandalous images" and other signs of "popery". Vane made an impassioned speech that brought him to the front of his faction, claiming episcopacy (the governing structure of the Church of England) was a corrupt doctrine "hastening us back again to Rome." The bill died without a vote in August, when more critical matters arose to occupy Parliament. When Charles went to Scotland to rally Scottish forces to the royalist cause, the Commons began drafting what became known as the Grand Remonstrance
. Many historians have claimed Vane had a role in drafting some of its language; this matter is disputed, but either way Vane did not participate in the debate. Narrowly passed by the Commons in November 1641, the document catalogued many grievances against the king and church, and served to further polarize political affairs. The king refused to enact any of the requested reforms. Upon his return from Scotland, the king also deprived both Vanes, father and son, of their administrative posts, in revenge for their roles in the execution of Strafford.
, the last substantive set of demands made by Parliament prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War
. After hostilities began that June with the Siege of Hull
, Vane was given a seat on the Committee of Safety
, which oversaw Parliamentary military activities.
After the failure of the Root and Branch Bill, Parliament in 1643 called together the Westminster Assembly of Divines, a body of lay politicians, lords, and clergy whose purpose was to reform church governance. Vane sat on this body, which met periodically until 1648, as one of the lay representatives of the Independent
faction. Not long after its first meeting in July, Vane was sent at the head of a Parliamentary commission seeking military assistance from the Scots. The Scots, who had been opposed to Charles in the Bishop's Wars (1639–40) over religious issues, were willing to assist the English Parliament if the latter were willing to allow the extension of the Presbyterian
system of church polity to England. Vane was opposed to both Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism, but found a way to finesse an agreement. He proposed that the agreement, which covered a combination of religious and political topics, be called the Solemn League and Covenant
, and he introduced slippery language into the agreement concerning "the example of the best Reformed churches". This language permitted the Scots to believe that their ideas would be adopted, while the English could interpret it to mean that English (i.e. Independent) practices could be adopted. The league and covenant were eventually approved by authorities in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and paved the way for Scottish entry into the war.
Following Vane's success in negotiating the Scottish agreement, the death of John Pym at the end of 1643 propelled Vane into the leadership of Parliament, along with Oliver St John, Henry Marten
, and Arthur Heselrige. He promoted, and became a chief member of, the Committee of Both Kingdoms
, established in February 1644 as a point were English and Scottish authorities could coordinate war activities. Vane was then sent to York
in June 1644, then besieged
by three Parliament armies, to urge Sir Thomas Fairfax
and the Earl of Manchester
to divert some of those forces to face Prince Rupert of the Rhine
, who had recently taken Liverpool
and was pillaging properties of Parliamentary supporters in Lancashire
. While there he also proposed to the generals the establishment of a government without the king. This idea was roundly rejected by the old guard generals who believed Charles could still be accommodated, but found support with the rising star of Oliver Cromwell
.
On 13 September 1644 Vane acted with St John and Cromwell in the Commons to set up a "Grand Committee for the Accommodation", designed to find a compromise on religious issues dividing the Westminster Assembly
. He sought in its debate to identify loopholes for religious tolerance on behalf of the Independents. This exposed Vane's opposition to Presbyterianism, and created a rift between the pro-war Independents, led by Vane and Cromwell, and the pro-peace Scots and other supporters of Presbyterianism. The latter included the Earl of Essex
, whose failures in the west of England reduced popular support for his cause, even as the military success of Cromwell at Marston Moor
raised his profile. Robert Baillie
, on the realization that the Parliamentary Independents, despite previous claims of support by Vane, were not on the side of the Scots, wrote "Sir Henry Vane and The Solicitor [St John]... without any regard for us, who have saved their nation and brought their two persons to the height of power now they enjoy and use to our prejudice".
in a failed attempt
to negotiate peace. Vane and the Independents were seen by some as a principal reason for the failure of these talks, because the Scots and Charles were prepared to agree on issues of church polity and doctrine and the Independents were not. The talks, which lasted from late January through most of February 1645, were overshadowed by the execution after impeachment by attainder of Archbishop Laud.
Parliament began discussing a reorganization of its military as early as November 1644, in part to remove some poorly-performing commanders, and to eliminate the regional character of the existing forces. In debate that principally divided the Commons from the Lords, Vane and Cromwell supported passage of the Self-denying Ordinance
, forbidding military officers from serving in Parliament, and the establishment of the New Model Army
, which would be capable of fighting anywhere in the country. The provisions of the Self-denying Ordinance also extended to individuals (like Vane) who held civil service posts, but included exceptions for those (like Vane) who had been turned out office by Charles and restored by Parliament. Vane then began drawing on fees and stipends that he had previously refused, and failed to pay half of his treasurer's fees to Parliament, as required by the law.
Following the decisive Parliamentary victory at Naseby
in June 1645, the first phase of the civil war
was effectively over, but it dragged on for another year, before Charles surrendered to Scottish army commanders. During this time, a new political faction began to rise within the military. Known as Levellers
and led by John Lilburne
and others, this populist force was in favour of greater press freedoms, and was opposed to at least some of the privileges of the aristocracy, including the existence of the House of Lords.
In January 1646, amid ongoing peace negotiations, Charles attempted to separate the Independents from other factions by proposing in letters to Vane an alliance with his faction against the Presbyterians. Vane was not amused by this, and responded by pointing out that he preferred the rights of "tender consciences" to be granted by Parliament than by the duplicitous king (papers exposing the king's negotiating positions as facades had been captured at Naseby, and had largely silenced the Royalist elements in Parliament). The Vane estates were not spared in the maelstrom of war; Vane's father reported that Raby Castle had been "visited four times", suffering damages of £16,000. In September 1645, the Vanes succeeded in getting Parliamentary approval to fortify Raby.
, and Sir Philip Stapleton, was slightly stronger than the Independents. They proceeded to introduce legislation hostile to the views on religious tolerance held by Vane and Independents in the army. Vane apparently came to realize that the Presbyterian actions posed a threat equal to that of the Episcopalians, and that military action, having sidelined the latter, might also work against the former. There was also mutual distrust between Vane and the Levellers, because Vane held the somewhat aristocratic view that voting rights should be reserved to the propertied gentry. The Independents attempted to negotiate terms favourable to them with Charles, but these were unsuccessful.
In 1647 Vane and Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the army's Independents, came to work closely together. The Presbyterian majority sought to disband the army to reduce the threat of those Independents, but issues over pay (which was in arrears), widows' pensions, and other grievances, prompted the Presbyterians to enter into negotiations with the army. A bitter debate over an army petition led Levellers to charge the Independents, Vane among them, with attempting to "oppress the people" and wanting to "hold the reigns of power ... not for a year, but forever." Cromwell was eventually able to appease the army, but a Parliamentary purge of Independent officers followed, and the army was ordered to disband. Some Parliamentary leaders also began negotiating with the Scots for the return of their army, this time to oppose the English army. The Parliament army mutinied, and under Cromwell's orders (possibly prompted by a warning from Vane) a detachment of troops seized Charles, who had been placed under a comfortable house arrest at Holmby. This forced the Presbyterian leadership to meet the army's demands for pay. They also established a commission to treat with the army, on which they placed Vane, presumably because of his influence with the military.
The negotiations between the army and Parliament were acrimonious. Mobs in Presbyterian-dominated London threatened Vane and other Independents. More than 50 Independent MPs, Vane among them, fled the city on 2 August for the protection of the army. The army then marched on London, with Vane and others at its head, and the Independents were again seated in Parliament. The Parliament then debated the army's Heads of Proposals
for fixing the term and powers of Parliament and church governance. Key among its terms of interest to Vane was one that effectively stripped the church, either Episcopal or Presbyterian, of any coercive powers. The Heads of Proposals was also sent to Charles, who indicated agreement to some of its terms and opposition to others, and proposed further negotiations.
The king's proposal split the Independents between those, such as Vane and Cromwell, who were willing to negotiate with the king, and those who were not. Reverend Hugh Peter spoke out in favor of the "non-addresses" (i.e. no longer negotiating with the king), as did the Levellers. John Lilburne was particularly critical, saying "I clearly see Cromwell's and Vane's designs, which is to keep the poor people everlastingly (if they can) in bondage and slavery." In November 1647, while the debate continued, Charles escaped his confinement at Hampton Court and made his way to the Isle of Wight
. There he was recaptured and imprisoned in Carisbrook Castle. Offered proposals by the Scots and the Independents, he chose alliance with the Scots. Sectional violence between royalists, Presbyterians, and Independents, spread throughout the country, although the army maintained a tenuous peace in London.
. In the tumult, Vane appeared at times to be in opposition to some of the Independent factions, even having a falling out (quickly healed) with Cromwell, and many factions came to distrust him. Despite this he was one of the Parliamentary representatives for negotiations with Charles
at Newport
in September 1648. He was widely blamed for the failure of those negotiations over his insistence on "an unbounded liberty of conscience".
In the debates of late 1648 concerning the king's fate, Vane argued that the Parliament should constitute a government without the king "to make themselves the happiest nation and people in the world." His forceful speech on 2 December suggesting that the king would need to be eliminated as a political force was opposed by others, including Nathaniel Fiennes, who claimed that the concessions the king had made to date were sufficient that an agreement might be reached. Others suggested that rather than dividing the house by opposition to the king, it be divided by separating those who had gained in the war from those who had not, and that financial contributions be made from one group to the other. After an impassioned conciliatory speech by William Prynne
, Parliament finally voted on 5 December that the king's concessions were sufficient, but Clement Walker
and other opponents of Vane whispered that both Vanes had abused their positions of power during the war for profit. Walker compiled a long list of MPs he claimed had acted corruptly, but Vane was not on it. Instead, Walker charged the Vanes with benefiting by buying at a discount "sleeping pensions", or debts owed by the public purse to individuals, and then pursuing payment of them to enrich themselves. There is today no substantive way to assess the validity of Walker's charges.
On 6 December, the military stepped in to take control of matters. Troops led by Thomas Pride
surrounded the Houses of Parliament, and systematically arrested arriving MPs who had been supportive of negotiation with the king. Vane did not appear that day—he either was aware of what was going to happen, or he may have stayed away because his side had lost the vote. This action, known as "Pride's Purge
", resulted in the exclusion of more than 140 MPs. The Parliament that sat became known as the Rump Parliament
, and its first main order of business was the trial and execution of King Charles. During this process Vane refused to attend Parliament, although he was present as a spectator when the trial began on 20 January 1649. He later claimed to oppose putting the king on trial because of "tenderness of blood", and continued to fulfill the duties of his government posts, signing admiralty papers on the day Charles was executed.
. As a leading member of the committee overseeing the navy (where he was joined by schoolmate Thomas Scot), he directed affairs in the naval First Anglo-Dutch War
(1652–1654). After the navy's disastrous performance against the Dutch in 1652, Vane headed the committee that reformed the navy, drafting new Articles of War
and formally codifying naval law. Vane's reforms were instrumental in the navy's successes later in the war. He was also involved in foreign diplomacy, going on a mission to France (whose purpose is unknown) in 1652 to meet with Cardinal de Retz
, and traveling again to Scotland to organize the government there after Cromwell's victories in the Third English Civil War
.
Vane was also active in domestic affairs. He sat on a committee that disposed of Charles I's art collection, and made many enemies in his role on the committees for Compounding and Sequestration
. These committees, on which Vane had also sat in the 1640s, were responsible for the distribution of assets seized from royalists and other government opponents, and for negotiating with those who had failed to pay taxes and other government charges. Some of the enemies he made while engaged in this work would one day sit in judgment against him.
The process by which the Parliament carried out the duties of the executive was cumbersome, and this became an issue with Cromwell and the army, who sought the ability to act more decisively. This attitude drove a wedge between Cromwell and Vane. Under pressure from Cromwell for new elections, the Parliament began to consider proposals for electoral reform. In January 1653 a committee headed by Vane made one such proposal. It called for suffrage
to be allowed on the basis of property ownership, and it specifically sought to eliminate a number of so-called "rotten boroughs", which had small numbers of voters and were controlled by wealthy patrons. The proposal also called for some of the current members, whose republican credentials were deemed suitable, to retain their seats, so that the fledgling commonwealth might, as Harry Marten put it, would be shepherded by "the mother that brought it forth". This latter clause was specifically proposed at the urging of the army by Vane, who realised that those who were charged with its implementation would be able to retain power. However, Cromwell, seeking a general election, was opposed to this scheme, and the two sides were unable to reconcile.
Although Parliamentary leaders, Vane among them, had promised Cromwell on 19 April 1653 to delay action on the election bill, Vane was likely one of the ringleaders that sought to have the bill enacted the next day before Cromwell could react. Cromwell was however alerted by a supporter, and interrupted the proceedings that would otherwise have passed the bill. Bringing troops into the chamber, he put an end to the debate, saying "You are no Parliament. I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your sitting." Vane protested, "This is not honest; yea, it is against morality and common honesty", to which Cromwell shouted in response, "O Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry Vane; the Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane!" This ended the commonwealth, and Cromwell began to rule as Lord Protector
. Vane, "daily missed and courted for his assistance", was invited to sit on Cromwell's council, but refused.
Effectively in retirement, Vane wrote the Retired Man's Meditations, published in 1655 amid rumors that Vane was fomenting rebellion against Cromwell, principally among Quakers and Fifth Monarchists
. This work, a jargon-laden religious treatise in which Vane wanders between literal and symbolic interpretation of Biblical scriptures, was treated by contemporaries and later analysts, including David Hume
, as "absolutely unintelligible" and "cloudily formed". The same year, after Cromwell called for a fast day to consider methods by which his government might be improved, Vane wrote A Healing Question. In this more carefully structured political work, he proposed a new form of government, insisting as before upon a Parliament supreme over the Army. He was encouraged to publish it by Charles Fleetwood
, who had shown it to Cromwell. In a postscript to the work Vane wrote the words "the good old cause
", a coinage that became a rallying cry in the next few years for Vane's group of republicans.
A Healing Question was seen by John Thurloe
, Cromwell's Secretary of State, as a thinly-veiled attack on Cromwell, and its publication prompted a number of opposition political groups to step up their activities. Rumors circulated that protests raised by fringe religious groups like the Anabaptists and Quakers were due to Vane's involvement, prompting Cromwell's council to issue an order on 29 July 1656, summoning Vane to appear. Vane was ordered to post a bond of £5,000 "to do nothing to the prejudice of the present government and the peace of the Commonwealth", but refused. He was arrested shortly afterward and imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle
. While there he addressed a letter to Cromwell in which he repudiated the extra-parliamentary authority Cromwell had assumed. Vane was released, still unrepentant, on 31 December 1656.
During Vane's retirment he established a religious teaching group, which resulted in a group of admirers known as "Vanists". The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter
classified Seekers
, Ranters, Behmenists and Vanists together, as religious wild men. He also cultivated pamphleteers and other surrogates to promote his political views. Henry Stubbe, introduced to Vane by Westminster head Richard Busby
, became a supporter, and defended him in his Essay in Defence of the Good Old Cause, and in Malice Rebuked (1659).
succeeded him as Lord Protector. The younger Cromwell lacked the political and military skills of his father, and the political factionalism of the earlier Commonwealth began to resurface. When elections were called for a new parliament in December 1659, Cromwell attempted to prevent the election of both royalists and republicans. Vane, as a leader of the republican faction, was specifically targeted, but managed to win election representing Whitchurch
. In the parliament's session
, the republicans questioned Cromwell's claim to power, argued in favour of limiting it, and spoke against the veto power of the Cromwellian House of Lords
, which was packed with supporters of the protector. The republicans were unsuccessful in enacting any substantive changes.
Vane formed an alliance with a group of republican military officers known as the Wallingford House party
, who met secretly in violation of laws enacted to limit military participation in political matters. The Cromwellian factions in the parliament overreached in their attempts to control republican sentiment in the military, and Cromwell was forced to dissolve the parliament in April 1659. Cromwell, with little support in the military, abdicated several days later. Following a purge of pro-Cromwell supporters from the military and a widespread pamphleteering campaign, Cromwell's council recalled the Rump Parliament in May.
In the reconstituted Rump Parliament, Vane was appointed to the new council of state. He also served as commissioner for the appointment of army officers, managed foreign affairs, and examined the state of the government's finances, which were found to be in dismal condition. Through his work General John Lambert
was sent to quell Booth's Rebellion, a royalist uprising in August 1659. Lambert's support of non-mainstream religious views like Quakerism, however, ensured his political downfall. After he and other officers were stripped of their command by Parliament in October, they rallied their troops and marched on Parliament, forcibly dissolving it. A committee of safety was formed, composed of the army grandees, and including Vane. He agreed to serve in part because he feared the republican cause was destined to fail without army support. This committee only served until December, when the advance of General George Monck's army from Scotland led to the melting away of Lambert's military support, and the restoration of the full Long Parliament. For taking part in the committee of safety, Vane was expelled (over vocal objections from allies like Heselrige) from the Commons, and ordered into house arrest at Raby Castle. He went to Raby in February 1660, but only stayed there briefly, and eventually returned to his house at Hampstead.
During the tumultuous year of the late 1650s proposals for how the government should be structured and how powers should be balanced were widely debated, in private, in public debates in Parliament, and through the publication of pamphlets. Vane used all of these methods to promote his ideas. In 1660 he published A Needful Corrective or Balance in Popular Government. This open letter was essentially a response to James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana
, a 1656 treatise describing Harrington's view of a utopian government, which included limitations on property ownership and a legislature with an elected upper chamber. Harrington's thesis was that power arose from property ownership, and concentrated land ownership led to oligarchic
and monarchic forms of government. Vane disagreed with this, arguing instead that power came from godliness, and presented a somewhat apocalyptic
argument in support of his idea. Vane supporter Henry Stubbe stated openly in October 1659 that permanent Senators would be required. These proposals caused a terminal split in Vane's alliance with Heselrige, whose followers mostly deserted Vane.
as king, and he was restored to the throne
on 29 May 1660. In order to minimize acts of reprisal and vengeance for acts taken during the Interregnum, the parliament passed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act
, under whose terms most actions were forgiven. Specific exceptions were made for those directly involved in the regicide, and after long debate, Vane was also named as an exception. The act was not passed until August 1660, and Vane was arrested on 1 July 1660 on the orders of the king and imprisoned in the Tower of London
. The parliament, after passing the Indemnity Act, petitioned Charles to grant clemency to Vane and others, asking that his life might be spared. This petition was granted.
Despite the clemency, Vane remained in the Tower, and the income from his estates was seized. He suffered the privations of the prison, and was unable to discharge debts that ran to £10,000. He was transferred to the Isles of Scilly
in October 1661 in order to limit access to him by potential conspirators who might be scheming to free him. He continued to write, principally on religious themes, seeking to come to terms with the political state of affairs and his condition. According to The People's Case Stated, written by Vane in this time, power originated with God, but resided primarily with the people: "The power which is directive, and states and ascertains the morality of the rule of obedience, is in the hand of God; but the original, from whence all just power arises, which is magistratical and co-ercitive, is from the will or free gift of the people, who may either keep the power in themselves or give up their subjection and will in the hand of another." King and people were bound by "the fundamental constitution or compact", which if the king violated, the people might return to their original right and freedom.
Following Vane's move to Scilly, the Cavalier Parliament
passed a resolution in November 1661 demanding his return to the Tower for trial. Charles temporized, and in January 1662 the Parliament renewed the demand. Vane was moved back to the Tower in April 1662, and on 2 June 1662 he was arraigned on charges of high treason
against Charles II. The trial began on 6 June before the Court of King's Bench, with four judges headed by Lord Chief Justice Robert Foster
presiding, and with the king's attorney general Sir Geoffrey Palmer
prosecuting. As was typical of those accused of treason, Vane was denied legal representation. He defended himself against charges of making war against the king during the civil war by asserting the sovereign power of parliament. Accused of imagining the death of the king in 1659, he argued that it was not possible to commit treason against a king not in possession of the crown. When the prosecution argued that the king was always in de jure possession, Vane pointed out that this rendered invalid the charges that he conspired to keep Charles II from exercising his power. The judges stepped in to point out this was irrelevant. The jury, which was packed with royalists, convicted him after thirty minutes of debate.
Vane attempted to appeal his conviction, and tried to get the magistrates to sign a Bill of Exclusion in which Vane catalogued all the problems he saw with his trial. However, the magistrates refused. Informed of Vane's conduct before and during the trial, Charles II now felt that Vane was too dangerous a man to be left alive, and retracted his clemency. (Unlike Vane, John Lambert at his trial had thrown himself on the mercy of the court, and was consequenty exiled to Guernsey
after his conviction.) Although Vane had been sentenced to the commoner's death of being hung and then drawn and quartered, Charles was persuaded to grant him the gentleman's death of beheading. On 14 June 1662 Vane was taken to Tower Hill and beheaded. Noted diarist Samuel Pepys
was there and recorded the event:
In his final days Vane had made his peace with God, and had also carefully prepared the speech he intended to make at the execution. In order to preserve the speech, he gave copies to close friends who visited him in those days, which were later printed. Many viewed him as a martyr for continuing to espouse his cause, and some thought the king had lost more than he gained by having him executed. His body was returned to his family, who interred him in the church at Shipbourne
, near the family estate of Fairlawn in Kent.
, had children, and succeeded to his father's estates. He was created Baron Barnard
by William III
.
A number of Vane's speeches to Parliament and other bodies were printed during his lifetime or shortly after, including The Speech Intended to Have been Spoken on the Scaffold, published in 1662.
Vane's other printed works include:
The last work contains, in addition to his last speech and details relating to the trial, The People's Case Stated, The Valley of Jehoshaphat, and Meditations concerning Man's Life.
Some contemporary works were incorrectly attributed to him. Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, assigns to Vane credit for one speech in support of the Self-Denying Ordinance; later historians find this attribution spurious. The Speech against Richard Cromwell is probably the composition of a later writer, while The Light Shining out of Darkness may have been written by Henry Stubbe.
's "Sonnet 17", written in 1652 in praise of Vane, and presented to Vane that year.
Vane's religious writings were found difficult to understand, even baffling, by readers as varied as Richard Baxter
, the Earl of Clarendon, Gilbert Burnet
and David Hume
, and continue to be seen so today. Civil War historian Blair Worden
comments that "Vane's opaque political ideas and religious beliefs are now barely intelligible", and biographer David Parnham writes "He presented himself as a 'witness' of light, as a spiritualist, as one dispensing advanced wisdoms in the epistemological setting of an imminent and apocalyptic age of the Spirit".
Vane's reputation was at its height in the nineteenth century, especially in the United States. English historian John Andrew Doyle
wrote of Vane that he had acquired "a more dazzling reputation than has been granted to the lofty public spirit and statesmanlike forsight of Winthrop." William Wordsworth
referenced Vane in his sonnet Great Men Have Been Among Us (1802). Charles Dickens
included the exchange between Vane and Cromwell at the end of the Rump Parliament
in his A Child's History of England
, part-published in the early 1850s. In English Traits (1856), Ralph Waldo Emerson
placed Vane on a list of historical English greats. Sean Gabb
, a modern British libertarian, notes that Vane was in the vanguard on issues of religious freedom. Although he was "among a small and easily defeated minority", his successors 150 years later "were responsible for the clearest and most solid safeguards of civil and religious freedom ever adopted into a constitution."
James Kendall Hosmer, editing Winthrop's Journal in 1908, wrote of Vane:
Contemporary history of the Civil War and Interregnum by a royalist. Ten volume history covering 17th century England up to the Civil War. Three volume history of the English Civil War. Three volume history of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Biography and other materials published in the wake of Vane's execution.
Henry Vane the Elder
Sir Henry Vane, the elder was an English politician and secretary of state.-Origins and education:Vane was born on 18 February 1589, the eldest son of Henry Vane or Fane of Hadlow, Kent, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Roger Twysden of East Peckham, Kent...
(often referred to as Harry Vane to distinguish him from his father), was an English politician, statesman, and colonial governor. He was briefly present in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, serving one term as the Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and supported the creation of Roger Williams'
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
Rhode Island Colony
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...
and Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
. A proponent of religious tolerance, he returned to England in 1637 following the Antinomian
Antinomianism
Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....
controversy that led to the banning of Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
from Massachusetts.
He was a leading Parliamentarian
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
during the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and worked closely with Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
. He played no part in the execution of King Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
, and refused to take oaths that expressed approval of the act. Vane served on the Council of State that functioned as the government executive during the Interregnum, but split with Cromwell over issues of governance and removed himself from power when Cromwell dissolved Parliament in 1653. He returned to power during the short-lived Commonwealth period in 1659–1660, and was arrested under orders from King Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
following his restoration to the throne
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
. After long debate, Vane was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act
Indemnity and Oblivion Act
The Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660 is an Act of the Parliament of England , the long title of which is "An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion"....
, and was thus denied amnesty granted to most people for their roles in the Civil War and Interregnum.
Although he was formally granted clemency by Charles II, he was charged with high treason by Parliament in 1662. In a court proceeding in which he was denied counsel and the opportunity to properly prepare a defence, he was convicted by a partisan jury. Charles withdrew his earlier clemency, and Vane was beheaded on Tower Hill on 14 June 1662.
Vane was recognised by his political peers as a competent administrator and a wily and persuasive negotiator and politician. His politics was driven by a desire for religious tolerance in an era when governments were used to establish official churches and suppress dissenting views. Although his views were in a small minority, he was able to successfully build coalitions to advance his agenda. His actions were often ultimately divisive, and contributed to both the rise and downfall of the English Commonwealth. His books and pamphlets written on political and religious subjects are still analyzed today, and Vane is remembered in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
as an early champion of religious freedom.
Early life
Henry Vane was baptised on 26 May 1613 at DebdenDebden, Uttlesford
Debden is a small rural village in the Uttlesford district of Essex in the East of England.It is located 4 miles from Saffron Walden and 17 miles from Cambridge.RAF Debden is nearby and played a role in the Second World War....
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. He was the eldest child of Sir Henry Vane the Elder
Henry Vane the Elder
Sir Henry Vane, the elder was an English politician and secretary of state.-Origins and education:Vane was born on 18 February 1589, the eldest son of Henry Vane or Fane of Hadlow, Kent, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Roger Twysden of East Peckham, Kent...
, who came from the landed gentry, and Frances Darcy, who came from minor nobility. The elder Vane used the family's money to purchase positions at court, rising by 1629 to be Comptroller of the Household
Comptroller of the Household
The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the English royal household, currently the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department, and often a cabinet member. He was an ex officio member of the Board of Green Cloth, until that body was abolished in the reform of the local...
. Vane was educated at Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
, where his classmates included Arthur Heselrige and Thomas Scot
Thomas Scot
Thomas Scot was an English Member of Parliament and one of the regicides of King Charles I.- Early life :In 1626 Thomas Scot married Alice Allinson of Chesterford in Essex. He was a lawyer in Buckinghamshire and grew to prominence as the treasurer of the region’s County Committee between 1644 to...
, two other men who would figure prominently in English politics. Vane's friend and biographer George Sikes wrote that Vane was "[ignorant] of God" and of a temperament that made him "acceptable to those they call good fellows", but that he had a religious awakening at 14 or 15, after which he "and his former jolly company came to a parting blow." Vane then enrolled at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, where he studied in spite of his refusal to take the necessary matriculation oaths. He then traveled to Europe, where he was reported to be studying at Leiden and possibly in France and at Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Vane's father had been upset by his open adoption of Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
views, fearing this would hamper his opportunities for advancement at court. In 1631 he sent the young Vane to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
as an assistant to Robert Anstruther, the English ambassador. This was apparently a quite privileged role, for Vane's writings of the time include messages written in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
and in cipher
Cipher
In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...
. During this trip the elder Vane was sent to negotiate with Swedish King Gustavus
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...
for an alliance; King Charles' unwillingness to act in the matter meant the effort was in vain. He was introduced to the king after returning to England, and encouraged by his father to seek a position in the privy chamber
Privy chamber
A Privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The gentlemen of the Privy chamber were servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King and Queen at court during their various activities, functions and entertainments....
. His father engaged in numerous attempts to get him to give up his nonconformist
Nonconformism
Nonconformity is the refusal to "conform" to, or follow, the governance and usages of the Church of England by the Protestant Christians of England and Wales.- Origins and use:...
views, without success. In order to worship as he chose, Vane then decided to go the New World
New World
The New World is one of the names used for the Western Hemisphere, specifically America and sometimes Oceania . The term originated in the late 15th century, when America had been recently discovered by European explorers, expanding the geographical horizon of the people of the European middle...
, joining the Puritan migration
Great Migration (Puritan)
The Puritan migration to New England was marked in its effects in the two decades from 1620 to 1640, after which it declined sharply for a while. The term Great Migration usually refers to the migration in this period of English settlers, primarily Puritans to Massachusetts and the warm islands of...
.
New England
Vane left for the Massachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the 17th century, in New England, situated around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston. The territory administered by the colony included much of present-day central New England, including portions...
, arriving in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in October 1635 on a ship also carrying John Winthrop the Younger and Hugh Peter. The elder John Winthrop
John Winthrop
John Winthrop was a wealthy English Puritan lawyer, and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the first major settlement in New England after Plymouth Colony. Winthrop led the first large wave of migrants from England in 1630, and served as governor for 12 of...
described Vane as "a young gentleman of excellent parts", and by the following month he had already been admitted as a freeman
Freeman (Colonial)
Freeman is a term which originated in 12th century Europe and is common as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times. In the Bay Colony, a man had to be a member of the Church to be a freeman. In Colonial Plymouth, a man did not need to be a member of the Church, but he had to be...
in the colony. He began playing a role in its judicial administration, deciding whether legal disputes had sufficient merit to be heard by a full court. Vane was instrumental in brokering the resolution to a dispute between the elder Winthrop and Thomas Dudley
Thomas Dudley
Thomas Dudley was a colonial magistrate who served several terms as governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Dudley was the chief founder of Newtowne, later Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built the town's first home...
concerning matters of judicial conduct. In the spring of 1637 Vane was elected governor of the colony, succeeding John Haynes
John Haynes
John Haynes , also sometimes spelled Haines, was a colonial magistrate and one of the founders of the Connecticut Colony...
. The situation he faced was complex, with issues on religious, political and military fronts. His biographers describe his term in office as "disastrous".
Anne Hutchinson
Anne Hutchinson was one of the most prominent women in colonial America, noted for her strong religious convictions, and for her stand against the staunch religious orthodoxy of 17th century Massachusetts...
. She had come with her husband and children to the colony in 1634, and began holding Bible sessions at home, gaining a wide audience and sharing her opinions that the colonial leaders labeled as Antinomianism
Antinomianism
Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....
, the view that existing laws and practices were not necessary for salvation. Most of the older colonial leadership, including Dudley and Winthrop, espoused a more Legalist
Legalism (theology)
Legalism, in Christian theology, is a sometimes-pejorative term referring to an over-emphasis on discipline of conduct, or legal ideas, usually implying an allegation of misguided rigour, pride, superficiality, the neglect of mercy, and ignorance of the grace of God or emphasizing the letter of...
view. Vane was a supporter of Hutchinson, as was at first the influential pastor John Cotton, and this was the faction that propelled Vane into the governor's seat in 1636. Vane, however, immediately alienated some of the colonists by insisting on flying the English flag over Boston's fort
Fort Independence (Massachusetts)
Fort Independence is a granite star fort that provided harbor defenses for Boston, Massachusetts. Located on Castle Island, Fort Independence is the oldest continuously fortified site of English origin in the United States. The first primitive fortification was placed on the site in 1634 and...
. The flag had recently been the subject of controversy, since its depiction of the Cross of St George
St George's Cross
St George's Cross is a red cross on a white background used as a symbolic reference to Saint George. The red cross on white was associated with St George from medieval times....
was seen by many colonists as a symbol of papacy, and John Endecott
John Endecott
John Endecott was an English colonial magistrate, soldier and the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. During all of his years in the colony but one, he held some form of civil, judicial, or military high office...
had notoriously cut the cross out of the Salem
Salem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
militia's flag. Vane's popularity went down further when he learned in December 1636 that there were issues in England requiring his presence, and he attempted to resign. Although the court of assistants accepted his resignation, he withdrew it upon the request of the congregation of the Boston church.
During Vane's tenure a dispute with the Pequot
Pequot
Pequot people are a tribe of Native Americans who, in the 17th century, inhabited much of what is now Connecticut. They were of the Algonquian language family. The Pequot War and Mystic massacre reduced the Pequot's sociopolitical influence in southern New England...
tribe of present-day southeastern Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
boiled over into war
Pequot War
The Pequot War was an armed conflict between 1634–1638 between the Pequot tribe against an alliance of the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook colonies who were aided by their Native American allies . Hundreds were killed; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery to the West Indies. ...
. In 1636 the boat of a Massachusetts trader named John Oldham was found near Block Island
Block Island
Block Island is part of the U.S. state of Rhode Island and is located in the Atlantic Ocean approximately south of the coast of Rhode Island, east of Montauk Point on Long Island, and is separated from the Rhode Island mainland by Block Island Sound. The United States Census Bureau defines Block...
, overrun by Indians. Further examination by the discoverers (after the Indians fled in canoes) uncovered Oldham's body on board. The attackers were at the time believed to be from tribes affiliated with the Narragansetts
Narragansett (tribe)
The Narragansett tribe are an Algonquian Native American tribe from Rhode Island. In 1983 they regained federal recognition as the Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode Island. In 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled against their request that the Department of Interior take land into trust...
, but Narragansett leaders claimed that those responsible had fled to the protection of the Pequots. The Pequots were aggressively expansionist in their dealings with the surrounding native tribes (including the Narragansett), but had until then generally kept the peace with nearby English colonists. Massachusetts authorities were already angry that the Pequots had failed to turn over men implicated in the killing of another trader on the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
; the slaying of Oldham led to calls for action. Despite the fact that Roger Williams
Roger Williams (theologian)
Roger Williams was an English Protestant theologian who was an early proponent of religious freedom and the separation of church and state. In 1636, he began the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities. Williams started the first Baptist church in America,...
had warned him that the Narragansetts were more likely responsible for Oldham's slaying, Governor Vane in August 1636 placed John Endecott at the head of a 90 man force to extract justice from the Pequots. Endecott's heavy-handed expedition did little more than destroy Pequot settlements, and sparked a military backlash. The Pequots struck back at settlements recently established
Connecticut Colony
The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...
on the Connecticut River by colonists from Massachusetts, and at the Saybrook Colony
Saybrook Colony
The Saybrook Colony was established in late 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut River in present day Old Saybrook, Connecticut by John Winthrop, the Younger, son of John Winthrop, the Governor of Massachusetts. The former was designated Governor by the original settlers which included Colonel...
of the younger John Winthrop. In April 1637 the ostensibly pacifist Vane called a session of the general court that authorized the colonial militia to assist the other New England colonies in continuing the war, which resulted in the destruction of the Pequots as a tribal entity.
John Wheelwright
John Wheelwright was a clergyman in England and America.-Early life:...
, another Hutchinson supporter. Winthrop won in part because the location of the vote was moved to Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, reducing the power of Vane's Boston support. In the aftermath of the election Anne Hutchinson was put on trial, and eventually banished from the colony. Many of her followers seriously considered leaving after the election. At the urging of Roger Williams, some of these people, including Hutchinson, founded the settlement of Portsmouth
Portsmouth, Rhode Island
Portsmouth is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,389 at the 2010 U.S. Census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which, of it is land and of it is water. Most of its land area lies on Aquidneck...
on Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island
Aquidneck Island, located in the state of Rhode Island, is the largest island in Narragansett Bay. The island's official name is Rhode Island, and the common use of name "Aquidneck Island" helps distinguish the island from the state. The total land area is 97.9 km²...
in the Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay
Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound. Covering 147 mi2 , the Bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor, and includes a small archipelago...
(later named Rhode Island and joined to Providence to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was one of the original English Thirteen Colonies established on the east coast of North America that, after the American Revolution, became the modern U.S...
). Vane decided to return to England, apparently with the notion that he would acquire a royal governorship to trump the colonial administration. Before his departure, he published A Brief Answer to a Certain Declaration, a response to Winthrop's defense of the Act of Exclusion; this act was passed after the election to restrict the immigration of people with views not conforming to the colony's religious orthodoxy.
Despite their political differences, Vane and Winthrop developed an epistolary relationship in the following years. Vane's legacy from his time in the New World includes the colonial legislation appropriating £400 for the establishment of an institute of higher learning now known as Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and his support of Roger Williams in the acquisition of Aquidneck Island from the local Indians that resulted in the formal beginnings of Rhode Island. The surviving accounts do not say that Vane provide the funds for the acquisition; Williams credits Vane as being "an instrument in the hand of God for procuring this island".
According to historian Michael Winship, Vane's experiences in Massachusetts significantly radicalized his religious views, in which he came to believe that clergy of all types, including Puritan ministers, "were the second beast of Revelations
Book of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
13:11", "pretending to visible Saintship". This conviction drove his political activities in England, where he sought to minimize the power and influence of all types of clergy. Biographer Violet Rowe writes that "Vane's guiding principles in religious policy seem to have been two: a rooted distrust of clerical power, whether of bishops or presbyter
Presbyter
Presbyter in the New Testament refers to a leader in local Christian congregations, then a synonym of episkopos...
s, and a belief that the State should abstain from interference in church matters altogether."
Vane's stance can be seen in the way the first Rhode Island patent was drafted in 1643, when he sat on the Parliamentary committee charged with colonial affairs. Unique among all of the early English colonial charters, it contains provisions guaranteeing freedom of religion. (Vane assisted Roger Williams again in 1652, when the latter sought a confirmation of the Rhode Island charter and the revocation of a conflicting charter that had been issued to William Coddington
William Coddington
William Coddington was an early magistrate of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and later of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, serving as the Judge of Portsmouth, Judge of Newport, Governor of Portsmouth and Newport, Deputy Governor of the entire colony, and then Governor of the...
.)
Return to England
On his return to England, he procured, with the assistance of the Earl of NorthumberlandAlgernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland
Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, KG was an English military leader and a prominent supporter of constitutional monarchy.-Family background:...
and his father, a position as Treasurer of the Royal Navy
Treasurer of the Navy
The Treasurer of the Navy was an office in the British government between the mid-16th and early 19th century. The office-holder was responsible for the financial maintenance of the Royal Navy. The office was a political appointment, and frequently was held by up-and-coming young politicians who...
in 1639. In this position he had the personally distasteful yet highly profitable task of collecting the hated ship money
Ship money
Ship money refers to a tax that Charles I of England tried to levy without the consent of Parliament. This tax, which was only applied to coastal towns during a time of war, was intended to offset the cost of defending that part of the coast, and could be paid in actual ships or the equivalent value...
(a tax to support the Navy imposed by Charles I without Parliamentary approval). In June 1640 he was awarded a knighthood by King Charles. He married Frances Wray, daughter of Sir Christopher Wray
Christopher Wray (MP)
Sir Christopher Wray was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1646. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.-Life:...
, on 1 July 1640, after which his father settled upon him most of the family's holdings. These included Fairlawn in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, and Raby Castle
Raby Castle
Raby Castle is situated near Staindrop in County Durham and is one of the largest inhabited castles in England. The Grade I listed building has opulent eighteenth and nineteenth century interiors inside a largely unchanged, late medieval shell. It is the home and seat of John Vane, 11th Baron...
, where Vane would make his home. According to his biographers, the relationship with Frances was anchored by shared spiritual goals and intimacy, and was happy and fulfilling.
Short Parliament
The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that sat from 13 April to 5 May 1640 during the reign of King Charles I of England, so called because it lasted only three weeks....
and Long
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...
Parliaments representing Hull
Kingston upon Hull (UK Parliament constituency)
Kingston upon Hull, often simply referred to as Hull, was a parliamentary constituency in Yorkshire, electing two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, from 1305 until 1885...
. Vane had already formed or renewed associations with prominent opponents of Charles' policies, including John Pym
John Pym
John Pym was an English parliamentarian, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of James I and then Charles I.- Early life and education :...
and John Hampden
John Hampden
John Hampden was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, John Hampden (ca. 15951643) was an English politician, the eldest son of William Hampden, of Hampden House, Great Hampden in Buckinghamshire, John Hampden (ca. 15951643)...
. In the Short Parliament he was noted to be "capable of managing great affairs", with a "penetrating judgment" and an "easy and graceful manner of speaking." With others like Nathaniel Fiennes
Nathaniel Fiennes
Nathaniel Fiennes was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1659...
, he represented a younger generation of Puritans in the leadership of the Long Parliament that effectively managed affairs: as identified by Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...
in his history, these included Hampden, Pym, and Oliver St John
Oliver St John
Sir Oliver St John , was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1653. He supported the Parliamentary cause in the English Civil War.- Early life :...
in the Commons
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
, and Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford
Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford PC was an English politician. About 1631 he built the square of Covent Garden, with the piazza and church of St. Paul's, employing Inigo Jones as his architect...
and Viscount Saye and Sele
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele
William Fiennes, 1st Viscount Saye and Sele was born at the family home of Broughton Castle near Banbury, in Oxfordshire. He was the only son of Richard Fiennes, seventh Baron Saye and Sele...
in the Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
.
Vane was instrumental in the 1641 impeachment and execution of the Earl of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament and was a supporter of King Charles I. From 1632 to 1639 he instituted a harsh rule as Lord Deputy of Ireland...
, a member of the Privy Council
Privy council
A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the monarch's closest advisors to give confidential advice on...
. Vane discovered some confidential notes his father had made of a council meeting, and passed them to John Pym. The wording in those notes could be interpreted to mean that Strafford had proposed that Charles use the Irish Army to subjugate England. The evidence against Strafford was weak, and the impeachment failed. Pym consequently orchestrated the passage of a bill of attainder
Bill of attainder
A bill of attainder is an act of a legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a judicial trial.-English law:...
against Strafford, who was then executed in May 1641. The illicit means by which Pym acquired the notes caused a rift between the Vanes that only healed when the elder Vane eventually came to oppose the king.
In the Root and Branch
Root and Branch
The Root and Branch Petition was a petition presented to the Long Parliament on December 11, 1640. The petition had been signed by 15,000 Londoners and was presented to the English Parliament by a crowd of 1,500...
petition debate in the Commons, from December 1640 and into 1641, Vane supported, as did Nathaniel Fiennes, the call for radical reforms in the Church of England, a position that put Vane in opposition to his father. Amid a sea of complaints about church governance, he and Fiennes in February 1641 were added to a committee that had been established the previous November to draft a report on the state of the kingdom. Their efforts led Vane to introduce the Root and Branch Bill in May 1641. The debate on the bill was acrimonious, and resulted in a clear indication of parliamentary support for church reform. In its wake mobs invaded churches, removing "scandalous images" and other signs of "popery". Vane made an impassioned speech that brought him to the front of his faction, claiming episcopacy (the governing structure of the Church of England) was a corrupt doctrine "hastening us back again to Rome." The bill died without a vote in August, when more critical matters arose to occupy Parliament. When Charles went to Scotland to rally Scottish forces to the royalist cause, the Commons began drafting what became known as the Grand Remonstrance
Grand Remonstrance
The Grand Remonstrance was a list of grievances presented to King Charles I of England by the English Parliament on 1 December 1641, but passed by the House of Commons on the 22nd of November 1641, during the Long Parliament; it was one of the chief events which were to precipitate the English...
. Many historians have claimed Vane had a role in drafting some of its language; this matter is disputed, but either way Vane did not participate in the debate. Narrowly passed by the Commons in November 1641, the document catalogued many grievances against the king and church, and served to further polarize political affairs. The king refused to enact any of the requested reforms. Upon his return from Scotland, the king also deprived both Vanes, father and son, of their administrative posts, in revenge for their roles in the execution of Strafford.
Early years
In the first six months of 1642, relations between the king and Parliament broke down completely, and factions supporting both sides took up arms. Parliament returned Vane to his post as Treasurer of the Navy, where he used connections to bring significant naval support to the Parliamentary side after Charles attempted to arrest five MPs on charges of high treason in December 1641. In June 1642 Charles rejected the Nineteen PropositionsNineteen Propositions
In June 1642, the English Lords and Commons sent a list of proposals known as the Nineteen Propositions to King Charles I of England, in York at the time. In what resembled a list of demands, the Long Parliament effectively sought a larger share of power in governance of the kingdom...
, the last substantive set of demands made by Parliament prior to the outbreak of the First English Civil War
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
. After hostilities began that June with the Siege of Hull
Siege of Hull (1642)
The Siege of Hull in 1642 was the first major action of the English Civil War.As both sides moved towards war, Parliament had access to more military materiel, due to its possession of all major cities including the large arsenal in London...
, Vane was given a seat on the Committee of Safety
English Committee of Safety
The Committee of Safety, established by the Parliamentarians in July 1642, was the first of a number of successive committees set up to oversee the English Civil War against King Charles I, and the Interregnum.-1642–1644:...
, which oversaw Parliamentary military activities.
Independent (religion)
In English church history, Independents advocated local congregational control of religious and church matters, without any wider geographical hierarchy, either ecclesiastical or political...
faction. Not long after its first meeting in July, Vane was sent at the head of a Parliamentary commission seeking military assistance from the Scots. The Scots, who had been opposed to Charles in the Bishop's Wars (1639–40) over religious issues, were willing to assist the English Parliament if the latter were willing to allow the extension of the Presbyterian
Presbyterian polity
Presbyterian polity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply...
system of church polity to England. Vane was opposed to both Presbyterianism and Episcopalianism, but found a way to finesse an agreement. He proposed that the agreement, which covered a combination of religious and political topics, be called the Solemn League and Covenant
Solemn League and Covenant
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians. It was agreed to in 1643, during the First English Civil War....
, and he introduced slippery language into the agreement concerning "the example of the best Reformed churches". This language permitted the Scots to believe that their ideas would be adopted, while the English could interpret it to mean that English (i.e. Independent) practices could be adopted. The league and covenant were eventually approved by authorities in Scotland, England, and Ireland, and paved the way for Scottish entry into the war.
Following Vane's success in negotiating the Scottish agreement, the death of John Pym at the end of 1643 propelled Vane into the leadership of Parliament, along with Oliver St John, Henry Marten
Henry Marten (regicide)
Sir Henry Marten was an English lawyer and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1640 and 1653...
, and Arthur Heselrige. He promoted, and became a chief member of, the Committee of Both Kingdoms
Committee of Both Kingdoms
The Committee of Both Kingdoms, , was a committee set up during the English Civil War by the Parliamentarian faction in association with representatives from the Scottish Covenanters, to oversee the conduct of the War and Foreign Policy...
, established in February 1644 as a point were English and Scottish authorities could coordinate war activities. Vane was then sent to York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
in June 1644, then besieged
Siege of York
The Siege of York in 1644 was a prolonged contest for York during the English Civil War, between the Scottish Covenanter Army and the Parliamentarian Armies of the Northern Association and Eastern Association on the one hand, and the Royalist Army under the Marquess of Newcastle on the other...
by three Parliament armies, to urge Sir Thomas Fairfax
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron
Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was a general and parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War...
and the Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester
Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...
to divert some of those forces to face Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Rupert, Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, 1st Duke of Cumberland, 1st Earl of Holderness , commonly called Prince Rupert of the Rhine, KG, FRS was a noted soldier, admiral, scientist, sportsman, colonial governor and amateur artist during the 17th century...
, who had recently taken Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and was pillaging properties of Parliamentary supporters in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
. While there he also proposed to the generals the establishment of a government without the king. This idea was roundly rejected by the old guard generals who believed Charles could still be accommodated, but found support with the rising star of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
.
On 13 September 1644 Vane acted with St John and Cromwell in the Commons to set up a "Grand Committee for the Accommodation", designed to find a compromise on religious issues dividing the Westminster Assembly
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...
. He sought in its debate to identify loopholes for religious tolerance on behalf of the Independents. This exposed Vane's opposition to Presbyterianism, and created a rift between the pro-war Independents, led by Vane and Cromwell, and the pro-peace Scots and other supporters of Presbyterianism. The latter included the Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex was an English Parliamentarian and soldier during the first half of the seventeenth century. With the start of the English Civil War in 1642 he became the first Captain-General and Chief Commander of the Parliamentarian army, also known as the Roundheads...
, whose failures in the west of England reduced popular support for his cause, even as the military success of Cromwell at Marston Moor
Battle of Marston Moor
The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the First English Civil War of 1642–1646. The combined forces of the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven and the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince...
raised his profile. Robert Baillie
Robert Baillie
Robert Baillie was a Scottish divine and historical writer.-Life:Baillie was born at Glasgow, the son of Baillie of Jerviston...
, on the realization that the Parliamentary Independents, despite previous claims of support by Vane, were not on the side of the Scots, wrote "Sir Henry Vane and The Solicitor [St John]... without any regard for us, who have saved their nation and brought their two persons to the height of power now they enjoy and use to our prejudice".
Parliamentary victory
Overtures for peace talks were begun in November 1644 between king and Parliament. Vane was one of many negotiators sent to UxbridgeUxbridge
Uxbridge is a large town located in north west London, England and is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It forms part of the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is located west-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres...
in a failed attempt
Treaty of Uxbridge
The Treaty of Uxbridge of early 1645 was a significant but abortive negotiation to try to end the First English Civil War.-Background:Parliament drew up 27 articles in November 1644 and presented them to Charles I of England at Oxford. Much input into these Propositions of Uxbridge was from...
to negotiate peace. Vane and the Independents were seen by some as a principal reason for the failure of these talks, because the Scots and Charles were prepared to agree on issues of church polity and doctrine and the Independents were not. The talks, which lasted from late January through most of February 1645, were overshadowed by the execution after impeachment by attainder of Archbishop Laud.
Self-denying Ordinance
The first Self-denying Ordinance was a bill moved on 9 December 1644 to deprive members of the Parliament of England from holding command in the army or the navy during the English Civil War. It failed to pass the House of Lords. A second Self-denying Ordinance was agreed to on 3 April 1645,...
, forbidding military officers from serving in Parliament, and the establishment of the New Model Army
New Model Army
The New Model Army of England was formed in 1645 by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and was disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration...
, which would be capable of fighting anywhere in the country. The provisions of the Self-denying Ordinance also extended to individuals (like Vane) who held civil service posts, but included exceptions for those (like Vane) who had been turned out office by Charles and restored by Parliament. Vane then began drawing on fees and stipends that he had previously refused, and failed to pay half of his treasurer's fees to Parliament, as required by the law.
Following the decisive Parliamentary victory at Naseby
Battle of Naseby
The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.-The Campaign:...
in June 1645, the first phase of the civil war
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War began the series of three wars known as the English Civil War . "The English Civil War" was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations that took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1651, and includes the Second English Civil War and...
was effectively over, but it dragged on for another year, before Charles surrendered to Scottish army commanders. During this time, a new political faction began to rise within the military. Known as Levellers
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance, all of which were expressed in the manifesto "Agreement of the People". They came to prominence at the end of the First...
and led by John Lilburne
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
and others, this populist force was in favour of greater press freedoms, and was opposed to at least some of the privileges of the aristocracy, including the existence of the House of Lords.
In January 1646, amid ongoing peace negotiations, Charles attempted to separate the Independents from other factions by proposing in letters to Vane an alliance with his faction against the Presbyterians. Vane was not amused by this, and responded by pointing out that he preferred the rights of "tender consciences" to be granted by Parliament than by the duplicitous king (papers exposing the king's negotiating positions as facades had been captured at Naseby, and had largely silenced the Royalist elements in Parliament). The Vane estates were not spared in the maelstrom of war; Vane's father reported that Raby Castle had been "visited four times", suffering damages of £16,000. In September 1645, the Vanes succeeded in getting Parliamentary approval to fortify Raby.
Interwar politics
By the end of the war the Presbyterian group in the Commons, led by Denzil Holles, William StrodeWilliam Strode
William Strode was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons of England variously between 1624 and 1645. He was one of the five members impeached by King Charles and fought on the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War.-Life:...
, and Sir Philip Stapleton, was slightly stronger than the Independents. They proceeded to introduce legislation hostile to the views on religious tolerance held by Vane and Independents in the army. Vane apparently came to realize that the Presbyterian actions posed a threat equal to that of the Episcopalians, and that military action, having sidelined the latter, might also work against the former. There was also mutual distrust between Vane and the Levellers, because Vane held the somewhat aristocratic view that voting rights should be reserved to the propertied gentry. The Independents attempted to negotiate terms favourable to them with Charles, but these were unsuccessful.
In 1647 Vane and Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the army's Independents, came to work closely together. The Presbyterian majority sought to disband the army to reduce the threat of those Independents, but issues over pay (which was in arrears), widows' pensions, and other grievances, prompted the Presbyterians to enter into negotiations with the army. A bitter debate over an army petition led Levellers to charge the Independents, Vane among them, with attempting to "oppress the people" and wanting to "hold the reigns of power ... not for a year, but forever." Cromwell was eventually able to appease the army, but a Parliamentary purge of Independent officers followed, and the army was ordered to disband. Some Parliamentary leaders also began negotiating with the Scots for the return of their army, this time to oppose the English army. The Parliament army mutinied, and under Cromwell's orders (possibly prompted by a warning from Vane) a detachment of troops seized Charles, who had been placed under a comfortable house arrest at Holmby. This forced the Presbyterian leadership to meet the army's demands for pay. They also established a commission to treat with the army, on which they placed Vane, presumably because of his influence with the military.
The negotiations between the army and Parliament were acrimonious. Mobs in Presbyterian-dominated London threatened Vane and other Independents. More than 50 Independent MPs, Vane among them, fled the city on 2 August for the protection of the army. The army then marched on London, with Vane and others at its head, and the Independents were again seated in Parliament. The Parliament then debated the army's Heads of Proposals
Heads of Proposals
The Heads Of Proposals was a set of propositions intended to be a basis for a constitutional settlement after King Charles I was defeated in the first English Civil War...
for fixing the term and powers of Parliament and church governance. Key among its terms of interest to Vane was one that effectively stripped the church, either Episcopal or Presbyterian, of any coercive powers. The Heads of Proposals was also sent to Charles, who indicated agreement to some of its terms and opposition to others, and proposed further negotiations.
The king's proposal split the Independents between those, such as Vane and Cromwell, who were willing to negotiate with the king, and those who were not. Reverend Hugh Peter spoke out in favor of the "non-addresses" (i.e. no longer negotiating with the king), as did the Levellers. John Lilburne was particularly critical, saying "I clearly see Cromwell's and Vane's designs, which is to keep the poor people everlastingly (if they can) in bondage and slavery." In November 1647, while the debate continued, Charles escaped his confinement at Hampton Court and made his way to the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
. There he was recaptured and imprisoned in Carisbrook Castle. Offered proposals by the Scots and the Independents, he chose alliance with the Scots. Sectional violence between royalists, Presbyterians, and Independents, spread throughout the country, although the army maintained a tenuous peace in London.
War renewed
Violence flared throughout the country as the various factions armed and organized. A mutiny in the Royal Navy in May thrust Vane into attempts to prevent it from spreading, and to regain the support of the mutineers, who had declared for Charles. By mid-July, the army had regained control of most of England, and Cromwell defeated the Scottish army in August at the Battle of PrestonBattle of Preston (1648)
The Battle of Preston , fought largely at Walton-le-Dale near Preston in Lancashire, resulted in a victory by the troops of Oliver Cromwell over the Royalists and Scots commanded by the Duke of Hamilton...
. In the tumult, Vane appeared at times to be in opposition to some of the Independent factions, even having a falling out (quickly healed) with Cromwell, and many factions came to distrust him. Despite this he was one of the Parliamentary representatives for negotiations with Charles
Treaty of Newport
The Treaty of Newport was a failed treaty between Parliament and King Charles I of England, intended to bring an end to the hostilities of the English Civil War...
at Newport
Newport, Isle of Wight
Newport is a civil parish and a county town of the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England. Newport has a population of 23,957 according to the 2001 census...
in September 1648. He was widely blamed for the failure of those negotiations over his insistence on "an unbounded liberty of conscience".
William Prynne
William Prynne was an English lawyer, author, polemicist, and political figure. He was a prominent Puritan opponent of the church policy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud. Although his views on church polity were presbyterian, he became known in the 1640s as an Erastian, arguing for...
, Parliament finally voted on 5 December that the king's concessions were sufficient, but Clement Walker
Clement Walker
Clement Walker was an English lawyer, official and politician. As a member of the Long Parliament, he became an outspoken critic of the conduct of its affairs, and allied himself to William Prynne...
and other opponents of Vane whispered that both Vanes had abused their positions of power during the war for profit. Walker compiled a long list of MPs he claimed had acted corruptly, but Vane was not on it. Instead, Walker charged the Vanes with benefiting by buying at a discount "sleeping pensions", or debts owed by the public purse to individuals, and then pursuing payment of them to enrich themselves. There is today no substantive way to assess the validity of Walker's charges.
On 6 December, the military stepped in to take control of matters. Troops led by Thomas Pride
Thomas Pride
Thomas Pride was a parliamentarian general in the English Civil War, and best known as the instigator of "Pride's Purge".-Early Life and Starting Career:...
surrounded the Houses of Parliament, and systematically arrested arriving MPs who had been supportive of negotiation with the king. Vane did not appear that day—he either was aware of what was going to happen, or he may have stayed away because his side had lost the vote. This action, known as "Pride's Purge
Pride's Purge
Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...
", resulted in the exclusion of more than 140 MPs. The Parliament that sat became known as the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
, and its first main order of business was the trial and execution of King Charles. During this process Vane refused to attend Parliament, although he was present as a spectator when the trial began on 20 January 1649. He later claimed to oppose putting the king on trial because of "tenderness of blood", and continued to fulfill the duties of his government posts, signing admiralty papers on the day Charles was executed.
The Commonwealth and Oliver Cromwell
After the execution of Charles, the House of Commons voted to abolish both the crown and the House of Lords. To replace the executive functions of the crown, it established a Council of State to which Vane was appointed. He refused to be seated until he could do so without taking any oath, in particular the first one, which required an expression of approval for the regicide. Vane served on many of the council's committees. In his role on committees overseeing the military he directed the provisioning of supplies for Cromwell's conquest of IrelandCromwellian conquest of Ireland
The Cromwellian conquest of Ireland refers to the conquest of Ireland by the forces of the English Parliament, led by Oliver Cromwell during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Cromwell landed in Ireland with his New Model Army on behalf of England's Rump Parliament in 1649...
. As a leading member of the committee overseeing the navy (where he was joined by schoolmate Thomas Scot), he directed affairs in the naval First Anglo-Dutch War
First Anglo-Dutch War
The First Anglo–Dutch War was the first of the four Anglo–Dutch Wars. It was fought entirely at sea between the navies of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces of the Netherlands. Caused by disputes over trade, the war began with English attacks on Dutch merchant shipping, but...
(1652–1654). After the navy's disastrous performance against the Dutch in 1652, Vane headed the committee that reformed the navy, drafting new Articles of War
Articles of War
The Articles of War are a set of regulations drawn up to govern the conduct of a country's military and naval forces. The phrase was first used in 1637 in Robert Monro's His expedition with the worthy Scots regiment called Mac-keyes regiment etc. and can be used to refer to military law in general...
and formally codifying naval law. Vane's reforms were instrumental in the navy's successes later in the war. He was also involved in foreign diplomacy, going on a mission to France (whose purpose is unknown) in 1652 to meet with Cardinal de Retz
Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz
Jean François Paul de Gondi, cardinal de Retz was a French churchman, writer of memoirs, and agitator in the Fronde....
, and traveling again to Scotland to organize the government there after Cromwell's victories in the Third English Civil War
Third English Civil War
The Third English Civil War was the last of the English Civil Wars , a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists....
.
Committee for Compounding with Delinquents
In 1643, near the start of the English Civil War, Parliament set up two committees the Sequestration Committee which confiscated the estates of the Royalists who fought against Parliament, and the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents which allowed Royalists whose estates had been...
. These committees, on which Vane had also sat in the 1640s, were responsible for the distribution of assets seized from royalists and other government opponents, and for negotiating with those who had failed to pay taxes and other government charges. Some of the enemies he made while engaged in this work would one day sit in judgment against him.
The process by which the Parliament carried out the duties of the executive was cumbersome, and this became an issue with Cromwell and the army, who sought the ability to act more decisively. This attitude drove a wedge between Cromwell and Vane. Under pressure from Cromwell for new elections, the Parliament began to consider proposals for electoral reform. In January 1653 a committee headed by Vane made one such proposal. It called for suffrage
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
to be allowed on the basis of property ownership, and it specifically sought to eliminate a number of so-called "rotten boroughs", which had small numbers of voters and were controlled by wealthy patrons. The proposal also called for some of the current members, whose republican credentials were deemed suitable, to retain their seats, so that the fledgling commonwealth might, as Harry Marten put it, would be shepherded by "the mother that brought it forth". This latter clause was specifically proposed at the urging of the army by Vane, who realised that those who were charged with its implementation would be able to retain power. However, Cromwell, seeking a general election, was opposed to this scheme, and the two sides were unable to reconcile.
Although Parliamentary leaders, Vane among them, had promised Cromwell on 19 April 1653 to delay action on the election bill, Vane was likely one of the ringleaders that sought to have the bill enacted the next day before Cromwell could react. Cromwell was however alerted by a supporter, and interrupted the proceedings that would otherwise have passed the bill. Bringing troops into the chamber, he put an end to the debate, saying "You are no Parliament. I say you are no Parliament. I will put an end to your sitting." Vane protested, "This is not honest; yea, it is against morality and common honesty", to which Cromwell shouted in response, "O Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry Vane; the Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane!" This ended the commonwealth, and Cromwell began to rule as Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
. Vane, "daily missed and courted for his assistance", was invited to sit on Cromwell's council, but refused.
Effectively in retirement, Vane wrote the Retired Man's Meditations, published in 1655 amid rumors that Vane was fomenting rebellion against Cromwell, principally among Quakers and Fifth Monarchists
Fifth Monarchists
The Fifth Monarchists or Fifth Monarchy Men were active from 1649 to 1661 during the Interregnum, following the English Civil Wars of the 17th century. They took their name from a prophecy in the Book of Daniel that four ancient monarchies would precede Christ's return...
. This work, a jargon-laden religious treatise in which Vane wanders between literal and symbolic interpretation of Biblical scriptures, was treated by contemporaries and later analysts, including David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, as "absolutely unintelligible" and "cloudily formed". The same year, after Cromwell called for a fast day to consider methods by which his government might be improved, Vane wrote A Healing Question. In this more carefully structured political work, he proposed a new form of government, insisting as before upon a Parliament supreme over the Army. He was encouraged to publish it by Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood
Charles Fleetwood was an English Parliamentary soldier and politician, Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1652–55, where he enforced the Cromwellian Settlement. At the Restoration he was included in the Act of Indemnity as among the twenty liable to penalties other than capital, and was finally...
, who had shown it to Cromwell. In a postscript to the work Vane wrote the words "the good old cause
Good Old Cause
The Good Old Cause was the retrospective name given by the soldiers of the New Model Army for the complex of reasons for which they fought, on behalf of the Parliament of England....
", a coinage that became a rallying cry in the next few years for Vane's group of republicans.
A Healing Question was seen by John Thurloe
John Thurloe
John Thurloe was a secretary to the council of state in Protectorate England and spymaster for Oliver Cromwell.-Life:...
, Cromwell's Secretary of State, as a thinly-veiled attack on Cromwell, and its publication prompted a number of opposition political groups to step up their activities. Rumors circulated that protests raised by fringe religious groups like the Anabaptists and Quakers were due to Vane's involvement, prompting Cromwell's council to issue an order on 29 July 1656, summoning Vane to appear. Vane was ordered to post a bond of £5,000 "to do nothing to the prejudice of the present government and the peace of the Commonwealth", but refused. He was arrested shortly afterward and imprisoned in Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke, near Newport, Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial.-Early history:...
. While there he addressed a letter to Cromwell in which he repudiated the extra-parliamentary authority Cromwell had assumed. Vane was released, still unrepentant, on 31 December 1656.
During Vane's retirment he established a religious teaching group, which resulted in a group of admirers known as "Vanists". The Puritan pastor Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
classified Seekers
Seekers
The Seekers, or Legatine-Arians as they were sometimes known, were a Protestant dissenting group that emerged around the 1620s, probably inspired by the preaching of three brothers – Walter, Thomas, and Bartholomew Legate. Arguably, they are best thought of as forerunners of the Quakers, with whom...
, Ranters, Behmenists and Vanists together, as religious wild men. He also cultivated pamphleteers and other surrogates to promote his political views. Henry Stubbe, introduced to Vane by Westminster head Richard Busby
Richard Busby
The Rev. Dr. Richard Busby was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years.-Life:...
, became a supporter, and defended him in his Essay in Defence of the Good Old Cause, and in Malice Rebuked (1659).
Richard Cromwell and after
Following Oliver Cromwell's death in September 1658, his son RichardRichard Cromwell
At the same time, the officers of the New Model Army became increasingly wary about the government's commitment to the military cause. The fact that Richard Cromwell lacked military credentials grated with men who had fought on the battlefields of the English Civil War to secure their nation's...
succeeded him as Lord Protector. The younger Cromwell lacked the political and military skills of his father, and the political factionalism of the earlier Commonwealth began to resurface. When elections were called for a new parliament in December 1659, Cromwell attempted to prevent the election of both royalists and republicans. Vane, as a leader of the republican faction, was specifically targeted, but managed to win election representing Whitchurch
Whitchurch (UK Parliament constituency)
Whitchurch was a parliamentary borough in the English County of Hampshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1586 until 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...
. In the parliament's session
Third Protectorate Parliament
The Third Protectorate Parliament sat for one session, from 27 January 1659 until 22 April 1659, with Chaloner Chute and Thomas Bampfylde as the Speakers of the House of Commons...
, the republicans questioned Cromwell's claim to power, argued in favour of limiting it, and spoke against the veto power of the Cromwellian House of Lords
Cromwell's Other House
The Other House , established by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell under the terms of the Humble Petition and Advice, was one of the two chambers of the Parliaments that legislated for England and Wales, Scotland and Ireland, in 1658 and 1659, the final years of the Protectorate.During the Rule of...
, which was packed with supporters of the protector. The republicans were unsuccessful in enacting any substantive changes.
Wallingford House party
The Wallingford House party were a group of senior officers of the New Model Army who met at Wallingford House, the London home of Charles Fleetwood. They overthrew the Protectorate of the Lord Protector Richard Cromwell....
, who met secretly in violation of laws enacted to limit military participation in political matters. The Cromwellian factions in the parliament overreached in their attempts to control republican sentiment in the military, and Cromwell was forced to dissolve the parliament in April 1659. Cromwell, with little support in the military, abdicated several days later. Following a purge of pro-Cromwell supporters from the military and a widespread pamphleteering campaign, Cromwell's council recalled the Rump Parliament in May.
In the reconstituted Rump Parliament, Vane was appointed to the new council of state. He also served as commissioner for the appointment of army officers, managed foreign affairs, and examined the state of the government's finances, which were found to be in dismal condition. Through his work General John Lambert
John Lambert (general)
John Lambert was an English Parliamentary general and politician. He fought during the English Civil War and then in Oliver Cromwell's Scottish campaign , becoming thereafter active in civilian politics until his dismissal by Cromwell in 1657...
was sent to quell Booth's Rebellion, a royalist uprising in August 1659. Lambert's support of non-mainstream religious views like Quakerism, however, ensured his political downfall. After he and other officers were stripped of their command by Parliament in October, they rallied their troops and marched on Parliament, forcibly dissolving it. A committee of safety was formed, composed of the army grandees, and including Vane. He agreed to serve in part because he feared the republican cause was destined to fail without army support. This committee only served until December, when the advance of General George Monck's army from Scotland led to the melting away of Lambert's military support, and the restoration of the full Long Parliament. For taking part in the committee of safety, Vane was expelled (over vocal objections from allies like Heselrige) from the Commons, and ordered into house arrest at Raby Castle. He went to Raby in February 1660, but only stayed there briefly, and eventually returned to his house at Hampstead.
During the tumultuous year of the late 1650s proposals for how the government should be structured and how powers should be balanced were widely debated, in private, in public debates in Parliament, and through the publication of pamphlets. Vane used all of these methods to promote his ideas. In 1660 he published A Needful Corrective or Balance in Popular Government. This open letter was essentially a response to James Harrington's The Commonwealth of Oceana
The Commonwealth of Oceana
The Commonwealth of Oceana, published 1656, is a composition of political philosophy written by the English politician and essayist, James Harrington . When first attempted to be published, it was officially censored by Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell...
, a 1656 treatise describing Harrington's view of a utopian government, which included limitations on property ownership and a legislature with an elected upper chamber. Harrington's thesis was that power arose from property ownership, and concentrated land ownership led to oligarchic
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
and monarchic forms of government. Vane disagreed with this, arguing instead that power came from godliness, and presented a somewhat apocalyptic
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
argument in support of his idea. Vane supporter Henry Stubbe stated openly in October 1659 that permanent Senators would be required. These proposals caused a terminal split in Vane's alliance with Heselrige, whose followers mostly deserted Vane.
The Restoration
In March 1660 the Long Parliament finally dissolved itself, and elections were held for the Convention Parliament, which sat in May. This body, dominated by royalists and Presbyterians, formally proclaimed Charles IICharles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
as king, and he was restored to the throne
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
on 29 May 1660. In order to minimize acts of reprisal and vengeance for acts taken during the Interregnum, the parliament passed the Indemnity and Oblivion Act
Indemnity and Oblivion Act
The Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660 is an Act of the Parliament of England , the long title of which is "An Act of Free and General Pardon, Indemnity, and Oblivion"....
, under whose terms most actions were forgiven. Specific exceptions were made for those directly involved in the regicide, and after long debate, Vane was also named as an exception. The act was not passed until August 1660, and Vane was arrested on 1 July 1660 on the orders of the king and imprisoned in the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
. The parliament, after passing the Indemnity Act, petitioned Charles to grant clemency to Vane and others, asking that his life might be spared. This petition was granted.
Despite the clemency, Vane remained in the Tower, and the income from his estates was seized. He suffered the privations of the prison, and was unable to discharge debts that ran to £10,000. He was transferred to the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
in October 1661 in order to limit access to him by potential conspirators who might be scheming to free him. He continued to write, principally on religious themes, seeking to come to terms with the political state of affairs and his condition. According to The People's Case Stated, written by Vane in this time, power originated with God, but resided primarily with the people: "The power which is directive, and states and ascertains the morality of the rule of obedience, is in the hand of God; but the original, from whence all just power arises, which is magistratical and co-ercitive, is from the will or free gift of the people, who may either keep the power in themselves or give up their subjection and will in the hand of another." King and people were bound by "the fundamental constitution or compact", which if the king violated, the people might return to their original right and freedom.
Following Vane's move to Scilly, the Cavalier Parliament
Cavalier Parliament
The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter century reign of Charles II of England...
passed a resolution in November 1661 demanding his return to the Tower for trial. Charles temporized, and in January 1662 the Parliament renewed the demand. Vane was moved back to the Tower in April 1662, and on 2 June 1662 he was arraigned on charges of high treason
High treason
High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...
against Charles II. The trial began on 6 June before the Court of King's Bench, with four judges headed by Lord Chief Justice Robert Foster
Robert Foster (judge)
Sir Robert Foster was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.-Early career:Foster was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Foster, a judge of the common pleas in the time of James I. He was born in 1589, admitted a member of the Inner Temple in 1604, and called to the bar in January 1610...
presiding, and with the king's attorney general Sir Geoffrey Palmer
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet
Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet, SL was an English lawyer and politician.Born in Carlton, Northamptonshire, he obtained a BA from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1616 and a MA 1619. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 14 June 1616 and called to the bar on 23 May 1623...
prosecuting. As was typical of those accused of treason, Vane was denied legal representation. He defended himself against charges of making war against the king during the civil war by asserting the sovereign power of parliament. Accused of imagining the death of the king in 1659, he argued that it was not possible to commit treason against a king not in possession of the crown. When the prosecution argued that the king was always in de jure possession, Vane pointed out that this rendered invalid the charges that he conspired to keep Charles II from exercising his power. The judges stepped in to point out this was irrelevant. The jury, which was packed with royalists, convicted him after thirty minutes of debate.
Vane attempted to appeal his conviction, and tried to get the magistrates to sign a Bill of Exclusion in which Vane catalogued all the problems he saw with his trial. However, the magistrates refused. Informed of Vane's conduct before and during the trial, Charles II now felt that Vane was too dangerous a man to be left alive, and retracted his clemency. (Unlike Vane, John Lambert at his trial had thrown himself on the mercy of the court, and was consequenty exiled to Guernsey
Guernsey
Guernsey, officially the Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British Crown dependency in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy.The Bailiwick, as a governing entity, embraces not only all 10 parishes on the Island of Guernsey, but also the islands of Herm, Jethou, Burhou, and Lihou and their islet...
after his conviction.) Although Vane had been sentenced to the commoner's death of being hung and then drawn and quartered, Charles was persuaded to grant him the gentleman's death of beheading. On 14 June 1662 Vane was taken to Tower Hill and beheaded. Noted diarist Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...
was there and recorded the event:
In his final days Vane had made his peace with God, and had also carefully prepared the speech he intended to make at the execution. In order to preserve the speech, he gave copies to close friends who visited him in those days, which were later printed. Many viewed him as a martyr for continuing to espouse his cause, and some thought the king had lost more than he gained by having him executed. His body was returned to his family, who interred him in the church at Shipbourne
Shipbourne
Shipbourne lies in the English county of Kent, in an undulating landscape traversed by the small streams of the River Bourne, set in a clay vale at the foot of the wooded Sevenoaks Greensand Ridge....
, near the family estate of Fairlawn in Kent.
Family
Vane and his wife Frances had ten children. Of their five sons, only the last, ChristopherChristopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard
Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard was an English peer. He is known for his treatment of his heirs, and his employment as steward of Peter Smart, father of the poet Christopher Smart.-Biography:...
, had children, and succeeded to his father's estates. He was created Baron Barnard
Baron Barnard
Baron Barnard, of Barnard Castle in the Bishopric of Durham, is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1698 for Sir Christopher Vane, who had previously served as a Member of Parliament for County Durham and Boroughbridge. Vane was the son of Sir Henry Vane the Younger and grandson of...
by William III
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
.
Works
Vane's other printed works include:
- A Brief Answer to a Certain Declaration, 1637
- The Retired Man's Meditations, 1655
- A Healing Question Propounded, 1656
- Of Love of God and Union with God, 1657?
- The Proceeds of the Protector ... Against Sir Henry Vane, Knight, 1658
- A Needful Corrective or Balance in Popular Government, 1659
- Two Treatises: "Epistle General to the Mystical Body of Christ" and "The Face of the Times", 1662
- The Cause of the People of England Stated, 1689 (written 1660-1662; the title may have been intended to be "Case" instead of "Cause")
- A Pilgrimage into the Land of Promise, 1664
- The Trial of Sir Henry Vane, Knight, 1662
The last work contains, in addition to his last speech and details relating to the trial, The People's Case Stated, The Valley of Jehoshaphat, and Meditations concerning Man's Life.
Some contemporary works were incorrectly attributed to him. Clarendon, in his History of the Rebellion, assigns to Vane credit for one speech in support of the Self-Denying Ordinance; later historians find this attribution spurious. The Speech against Richard Cromwell is probably the composition of a later writer, while The Light Shining out of Darkness may have been written by Henry Stubbe.
Reputation
Vane was widely recognized by contemporary chroniclers as an able statesman and administrator. "He had an unusual aspect," wrote Clarendon, "which ... made men think there was something in him of the extraordinary; and his whole life made good that imagination." Clarendon, a royalist chronicler and political opponent of Vane, also wrote that he possessed "extraordinary parts, a pleasant wit, a great understanding, a temper not to be moved", and in debate "a quick conception and a very sharp and weighty expression". The 1662 biography The Life and Death of Sir Henry Vane the Younger by Vane's chaplain George Sikes included John MiltonJohn Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's "Sonnet 17", written in 1652 in praise of Vane, and presented to Vane that year.
Vane's religious writings were found difficult to understand, even baffling, by readers as varied as Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
, the Earl of Clarendon, Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet was a Scottish theologian and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was respected as a cleric, a preacher, and an academic, as well as a writer and historian...
and David Hume
David Hume
David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment...
, and continue to be seen so today. Civil War historian Blair Worden
Blair Worden
Blair Worden is a British historian, among the leading authorities on the period of the English Civil War and on relations between literature and history more generally in the early modern period. He matriculated as an undergraduate at Pembroke College, Oxford, in 1963. After spending a year as a...
comments that "Vane's opaque political ideas and religious beliefs are now barely intelligible", and biographer David Parnham writes "He presented himself as a 'witness' of light, as a spiritualist, as one dispensing advanced wisdoms in the epistemological setting of an imminent and apocalyptic age of the Spirit".
Vane's reputation was at its height in the nineteenth century, especially in the United States. English historian John Andrew Doyle
John Andrew Doyle
John Andrew Doyle, DL was an English historian, the son of Andrew Doyle, editor of The Morning Chronicle.He was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, winning the Arnold prize in 1868 for his essay, The American Colonies...
wrote of Vane that he had acquired "a more dazzling reputation than has been granted to the lofty public spirit and statesmanlike forsight of Winthrop." William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
referenced Vane in his sonnet Great Men Have Been Among Us (1802). Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
included the exchange between Vane and Cromwell at the end of the Rump Parliament
Rump Parliament
The Rump Parliament is the name of the English Parliament after Colonel Pride purged the Long Parliament on 6 December 1648 of those members hostile to the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason....
in his A Child's History of England
A Child's History of England
A Child's History of England is a book by Charles Dickens. It first appeared in serial form in Household Words, running from January 25, 1851 to December 10, 1853. Dickens also published the work in book form in three volumes: the first volume on December 20, 1851; the second, December 25, 1852;...
, part-published in the early 1850s. In English Traits (1856), Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet, who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century...
placed Vane on a list of historical English greats. Sean Gabb
Sean Gabb
Dr Sean Gabb is the director of the Libertarian Alliance, a British free market and civil liberties think-tank..-Career:...
, a modern British libertarian, notes that Vane was in the vanguard on issues of religious freedom. Although he was "among a small and easily defeated minority", his successors 150 years later "were responsible for the clearest and most solid safeguards of civil and religious freedom ever adopted into a constitution."
James Kendall Hosmer, editing Winthrop's Journal in 1908, wrote of Vane:
... his heroic life and death, his services to Anglo-Saxon freedom, which make him a significant figure even to the present moment, may well be regarded as the most illustrious character who touches early New England history. While his personal contact with America was only for a brief space, his life became a strenuous upholding of American ideas: if government of, by, and for the people is the principle which English-speaking men feel especially bound to maintain, the life and death of Vane contributed powerfully to cause this idea to prevail.
Further reading
The literature on the English Civil War, Commonwealth and Protectorate is immense, and Vane has been a regular subject for biographers in the 19th and 20th centuries.Contemporary history of the Civil War and Interregnum by a royalist. Ten volume history covering 17th century England up to the Civil War. Three volume history of the English Civil War. Three volume history of the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Biography and other materials published in the wake of Vane's execution.