VANE, Sir HENRY, a notable English politician of the 17th c., was born in 1612. His father, also a sir Henry, was a distinguished statesman in the reigns of king James I. and Charles I., and received many proofs of the royal favor; but having taken part in the prosecution of Strafford (q.v.), he was deprived of all his offices of honor and emolument. When the parliament rose against the king, Vane remained neutral; and some time before the execution of Charles, he withdrew to his seat at Raby castle. where be died in 1654.—Sir HENRY VANE, the younger, studied at Westminster and Magdalen hall, Oxford, where he appears to have embraced, with all the inconsiderate enthusiasm of his character, those republican principles for which he afterward became so famous. His travels in France and Switzerland strongly confirmed him in his aver sion to the government and discipline of the church of England, and in 1635 he sailed for New England—the refuge of disaffected spirits in those days. He was soon after chosen by the people governor of Massachusetts; but his predilections in favor of " antinomian" opinions soon robbed him of his popularity, and in 1636, or thereabout, he • returned home. He now married a daughter of sir Christopher Wray of Ashby, in Lin colnshire, and entered on a political career. Through his father's interest, he was appointed treasurer of the navy, along with sir William Russell, and entered parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull, in 1640, but almost immediately joined Pym and the anti-court party, of which he became one of the most vehement and resolute leaders. When the civil war broke out, no man was more conspicuous in the military and theological poli tics of the time than Vane. He carried to the house of peers the articles of impeach ment against archbishop Laud; lie was a member of the Westminster assembly; a "great contriver and promoter of the solemn league and covenant" (though in his heart he abhorred both it and presbytery, and only used them as a means of crushing the bishops); the chief instrument in carrying the " self-denying ordinance" (1644); and one of the commissioners at the treaties of Lxbridge (1644--45) and the isle of Wight (1648). But he did not view with satisfaction the increasing power of Cromwell and the army.
He was too extravagant a parliamentarian, too much of a visionary and enthusiast to be pleased with the supremacy of the musket and saber, and for some time he withdrew altogether from public affairs. Ou the establishment of a commonwealth, however, in Feb. 1649, Vane was appointed one of the council of state; yet his antipathy to Crom well and his factious, pragmatical, hair-spilling activity so much increased, that the former, who looked upon Vane as a subtle promoter of divisive courses, called him a " juggling fellow;" and was probably in deep earnest, when, at the dissolution of the commons, in April, 1653, against which Vane protested with a sort of feminine sharp ness, he cried out: " The Lord deliver me from sir Harry Vane l" In 1656 Vane wrote a book, entitled A Healing Question Propounded and Resolved, which was so hostile to Cromwell's protectorate, that it was found necessary to imprison the author in Carisbrooke castle, isle of Wight. He was released after a detention of four months, and attempts were made by Cromwell to win him over, but Vane was inflexible in his fanaticism; and during the rule both of Cromwell and Richard, he maintained an attitude of sullen dis content. After meddling a little in the helpless intrigues that followed the abdication of Richard, he was ordered by parliament to withdraw to his house at Raby. When the restoration took place, Vane was one of the 20 persons excluded from the Act of General Pardon and Oblivion; and iu July, 1660, he was committed to the tower. On June 2, 1662, he was arraigned and indicted of high treason before the Middlesex grand jury, found guilty (on the 6th), and on the 14th was beheaded on Tower bill. His sOn was knighted by king Charles, and raised to the peerage by king William as lord Barnard of Barnard castle. Vane was a subtle, restless, crotchety, unwise kind of man—a real thorn in the flesh of the great Cromwell. He was one of the fifth monarchy sect, and munch given to extravagant religious musings, and to praying (with his friends) in lan guage wholly unintelligible. He also wrote several political and theological treatises, which do not require special mention.—See The Die and Deaths of SIT Henry Vane, _Knight (London, 1662); Birch's Lives; and Ludlow's Ifemoirs.