Henry Vane the Elder

Sir Henry Vane (18 February 1589 – 1655), known as the Elder to distinguish him from his son, was an English politician who sat in the

Vane was the eldest son of Henry Vane or Fane of Hadlow, Kent, by his second wife, Margaret^[2] (daughter of Roger Twysden of East Peckham, Kent, and Anne Wyatt).

He

At the age of twenty-three he married Frances Darcy, daughter of Thomas Darcy of Tolleshunt D'Arcy, Essex.^[2] Immediately after his marriage, writes Vane in an autobiographical sketch, 'I put myself into court, and bought a carver's place by means of the friendship of Sir Thomas Overbury, which cost me £5,000.' Next year he devoted the £3,000 of his wife's portion to purchasing from Sir Edward Gorges a third part of the subpoena office in chancery, and later so ingratiated himself with the king that James gave him the reversion of the whole office for forty years.

In 1617, Sir David Foulis sold him the post of

A letter from Sir Tobias Matthew to Vane, written about the same time, adds further testimony of Vane's favour at court. Clarendon, who is throughout very hostile to Vane, describes him as a man 'of very ordinary parts by nature, and he had not cultivated them at all by art, for he was very illiterate. But being of a stirring and boisterous disposition, very industrious and very bold, he still wrought himself into some employment.'^[3]

Clarendon continues that for the office of controller and similar court offices, Vane was very fit, and if he had never taken other preferment he might probably have continued a good subject, for he had no inclination to change, and in the judgment he had liked the government both of church and state, and only desired to raise his fortune, which was not great, and which he found many ways to improve'.

Vane began life with a landed estate of £460 per annum; in 1640 he was the owner of lands worth £3,000 a year. He had sold his ancestral estate of

On 10 April 1636 Vane was appointed one of the commissioners for the colonies, and between 1630 and 1640 he was continually employed on different administrative commissions. When the disturbances began in Scotland he was appointed one of the eight privy councillors to whom Scottish affairs were entrusted, and was one of the peace party in that committee. On 3 February 1640 the king, to the general surprise, appointed Vane secretary of state in place of Sir John Coke. This was effected, in spite of Lord Strafford's opposition, 'by the dark contrivance of the Marquis of Hamilton and by the open and visible power of the Queen.'^[3]

Quarrel with Strafford

The intimacy between Vane and Lord Hamilton dated from Vane's mission to Germany, and increased during the first Scottish war, when Vane was the intermediary between Hamilton and the king. Vane had been for some time on apparently friendly terms with Strafford, but the mismanagement of the war against the Scots, and differences as to the policy to be pursued towards them in the future, caused a breach. It became permanent when Strafford on his creation as an earl (12 January 1640) selected Baron Raby as his second title, ‘a house,' says Clarendon, ‘belonging to Sir H. Vane, and an honour he made an account should belong to him too.' This, continues Clarendon, was an act 'of the most unnecessary provocation' on Strafford's part, 'though he contemned the man with marvellous scorn … and I believe was the loss of his head'.^[3] (This slight was corrected in 1833, when Vane's descendant, the 1st Duke of Cleveland, was created Baron Raby alongside that dukedom.)

In April 1640, Vane was elected MP for

In Strafford's trial Vane's evidence as to the words used by him in the meeting of the privy council on 5 May 1640 was of paramount importance. He asserted positively that Strafford had advised an offensive war with Scotland, telling the king, "You have an army in Ireland; you may employ it to reduce this kingdom."[2] In the theory of the prosecution "this kingdom" meant England, not Scotland, and Vane declined to offer any explanation of the words, though much pressed by Strafford's friends. Other privy councillors present could not remember the words, but Vane persisted in his statement, relying doubtless on the notes of the discussion which he had taken at the time. The notes themselves had been seen by the king and burnt by his orders a short time before the meeting of the parliament, but on 10 April John Pym produced a copy which he had obtained from the younger Vane, which corroborated the secretary's evidence. Vane owned the notes, but refused further explanations, and expressed great wrath with his son. Clarendon regards Vane's anger as a comedy played to deceive the public, but admits that for some time after "there was in public a great distance observed between them." There is no evidence, however, to justify either this theory of collusion, or the further statement that Vane had been throughout the trial the secret assistant of the prosecution.^[3]

Dismissal by the King

Vane thought that Strafford's

In August 1641 Vane accompanied Charles I to Scotland, and as no successor to Francis Windebank, his former colleague in the secretaryship, had yet been appointed, he was charged to correspond with (Sir) Edward Nicholas, clerk of the council. His letters during this period are printed in the ‘Nicholas Papers'. Although his post as treasurer of the household had already been promised to Thomas, second baron Savile (afterwards Earl of Sussex), he was confident that he should keep both it and the secretaryship. But as soon as Charles returned to London he gave the treasurership to Savile, and a few days later dismissed Vane from the secretaryship and all other posts at court (November 1641). It was remarked at the time that Vane had "the very ill luck to be neither loved nor pitied of any man," and the king was convinced of his treachery.^[3]

Parliamentarian

Vane soon joined the

Vane was a member of the Committee of Both Kingdoms from its first establishment (7 February 1644). In April 1645 he was employed as one of its representatives with the Scottish auxiliary army. At the Treaty of Uxbridge Parliament asked the king to make Vane a baron, his favour with the parliament is shown by the ordinances for the payment of his losses during the war. These losses were very considerable, as Raby was three times occupied by the Royalists, and after its recapture became a parliamentary garrison. Vane says, probably with truth, "In my losses, plunderings, rents, and destructions of timber in my woods, I have been damnified to the amount of £16,000 at least".^[3]

Vane sat in the Rump Parliament after Pride's Purge in December 1648, but a proposal to appoint him a member of the English Council of State in February 1650 was rejected by the House.^[2] He was elected MP for Kent in the First Protectorate Parliament.^[4]

Vane died at the age of about 66 in or around May 1655. Royalists reported that he had committed suicide, through remorse for his share in Strafford's death. His widow, Frances, lady Vane, died on 2 August 1663, aged 72, and was buried at

• Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy, President of the Committee on Safety and one of the most significant leaders of the Long Parliament.^[5]
• George, the second son, born in 1618, was knighted on 22 November 1640. He was parliamentary High Sheriff of Durham in September 1645, and apparently treasurer of the committee for the county. Many of his letters to his father on the affairs of the county are printed in the calendar of domestic state papers. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Lionel Maddison of Rogerly, Durham, and was buried at Long Newton in the same county on 1 May 1679.
• (3rd son's name?)
• Charles, the fourth son, matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 17 March 1637. On 16 January 1650 the parliament appointed him agent of the Commonwealth at Lisbon, in which capacity he demanded Prince Rupert's expulsion from Portuguese ports, but was obliged to leave and take refuge on board Blake's fleet.^[3]
• William was a soldier in Dutch service.
• Walter, knight, was also a soldier in the Dutch service. He seems to have been royalist in his sympathies, and a large number of intercepted letters from him to friends in England are printed in the '
  Regiment of Foot in the English service in 1667, and on 12 August 1668 was appointed colonel of what was known as the Holland regiment. He was killed serving under the Prince of Orange at the Battle of Seneffe in August 1674, and was buried at the Hague.^[3]
• Margaret married Sir Thomas Pelham, 2nd Baronet of Halland, Sussex.
• Frances married
  Sir Robert Honywood of Pett
  , Sussex.
• Anne married Sir Thomas Liddell of Ravensworth, Durham
• Elizabeth married Sir Francis Vincent of Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey.^[3]

In fiction

In the

Notes