VANE, SIR HENRY 662), English statesman and author, known as "the younger" to distinguish him from his father, Sir Henry Vane (q.v.), was baptized on May 26, 1613, at Debden, Essex. After an education at Westminster, and at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, he was attached successively to the embassies at Vienna, Leiden and Geneva. He had already acquired strong Puritan views, and, in 1635, in order to obtain the free exercise of his religion, he emigrated to Massachusetts, where he was elected governor in 1636. After one year in office, he was defeated by Winthrop.
Vane returned to England in August 1637. He was made joint treasurer of the navy with Sir W. Russell in January 1639, was elected for Hull in the Short and Long parliaments, and was knighted on June 23, 164o. He at once became one of the leaders of the parliamentary party, and in 1643 he was the leading man among the commissioners sent to treat for a league with the Scots. Vane, who was bitterly opposed to the tyranny of the Presbyterian system, succeeded in getting the proposed bond between the parties termed the Solemn League and Covenant, and further in substitut ing the whole expression "according to the word of God and the example of the best Reformed churches" for the latter part alone. He succeeded to the leadership of the party on Pym's death and was engaged in all the principal negotiations which followed. His leadership ended when the Presbyterian party obtained the su premacy in parliament in 1646. During the subsequent struggle he was one of the six commissioners appointed to treat with the army by the parliament, and endeavoured to effect a compromise, but failed, being distrusted by both the Levellers and the Presby terians. His views of government may be studied in The People's Case Stated, written shortly before his death.
In spite, however, of these free opinions, Vane still desired the maintenance of the monarchy and the constitution. He supported the renewal of negotiations with the king and was appointed in 1648 one of the commissioners for the treaty of Newport. He showed a desire to come to terms on the foundation of toleration and a "moderate episcopacy," of which Cromwell greatly disap proved, and opposed the shaking off of the conferences. He re mained in retirement until after the king's death. On Feb. 14, 1649 he was placed on the council of state, though he refused to take the oath approving the king's execution. Vane served on innumerable committees of importance, and was assiduous in his attendance. He furnished the supplies for Cromwell's expedition to Scotland, and was one of the commissioners to negotiate a union between the two countries. He was a leading member of the committee dealing with foreign affairs, and in 1651 went on a secret mission to negotiate with Cardinal de Retz. To Vane, as chief commissioner of the navy, belongs largely the credit of the victories obtained against Van Tromp.
In domestic politics Vane continued to urge his views of tolera tion and his opposition to a state church. On Jan. 9, 165o he brought forward as chairman the report of a committee for the reform of the franchise on the property basis, the disfranchisement of certain existing boroughs, and increased representation to the large towns; the sitting members, however, were to retain their seats. But Cromwell desired an entirely new parliament and the
supremacy of the army representation. On April 20 Cromwell forcibly dissolved the Long Parliament while in the act of passing Vane's bill. On the latter's protesting, "This is not honest ; yea, it is against morality and common honesty," Cromwell fell a-railing at him, trying out with a loud voice, "0 Sir Henry Vane, Sir Henry Vane ; the Lord deliver me from Sir Henry Vane!" (Ludlow, Mem. i• 353). Hitherto they had lived on intimate terms of friendship, but this incident created a permanent breach. In his seclusion at Raby he now wrote the Retired Man's Meditations (1655). In 1656 he proposed in A Healing Question (reprinted in the "Somers Tracts," vol. vi. ed. Scott) a new form of government, insisting as before upon a Puritan parliament supreme over the army. The seditious movements of the Anabaptists were attributed to his influence, and on July 29, 1656 he was summoned before the council. Refusing to give security, he was a prisoner at Canis brooke Castle from September to the end of the year. In the par liament of Richard Cromwell he was elected for Whitchurch, when he urged that the protector's power should be strictly limited.
He allied himself with the officers in setting aside the protec torate and in restoring the Long Parliament, and on Richard Cromwell's abdication he became a member of the committee of safety and of the council of state appointed in May, was corn missioner for the navy and for the appointment of army officers, managed foreign affairs and superintended finance. He adhered to Lambert, remained a member of the government after the latter had turned out the Long Parliament, and endeavoured to maintain it by reconciling the disputing generals and by negotiating with the navy, which first deserted the cause. In consequence, at the restoration of the Long Parliament he was expelled from the House and ordered to retire to Raby.
At the Restoration, Vane was imprisoned in the Tower by the king's order. After several conferences between the houses of parliament, it was agreed that he should be excepted from the indemnity bill, but that a petition should be sent to Charles asking that his life might be spared. The petition was granted. But the new parliament of 1661 demanded his trial on the capital charge, and Vane was taken back to the Tower in April 1662 from the Scilly Isles, where he had been imprisoned. On June 2 he appeared before the king's bench to answer the charge of high treason, when he made a bold and skilful defence, asserting the sovereign power of parliament in justification of his conduct. He was found guilty, and executed on June 14, 1662.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-Article by C. H. Firth in Dict. of Nat. Biog.; S. R. Gardiner's Hist. of England, his Great Civil War and his Com monwealth, and Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, and the contem porary memoirs and diaries; Hist. MSS. Comm. MSS. of duke of Buccleuch, ii. pt. ii. 756; Masson's Life of Milton, iv. 442 and passim; the sonnet addressed by Milton to Vane ; and W. W. Ireland, Life of Sir Henry Vane the Younger (1907).