Vane, Henry, Jr., 1613 - 1662

Henry Vane, was the son of Sir Henry Vane, Sr., an advisor to Charles I.  Educated at Westminster School, he had a religious awakening as a young teenager and converted to Puritanism.  He later studied at Oxford, Leiden, France, and Geneva.  In 1631, his father sent him to Vienna to assist the English ambassador in an attempt to dissuade his son's non-conformist views.  However, the junior Vane sailed to New England in 1635 to practice his beliefs freely.  

With the king's license to stay in New England for three years, Vane arrived at Boston in the Fall of 1635 with ship passengers, John Winthrop, Jr., and Hugh Peter, with whom he shared a commission from Connecticut's patentees to treat with the emigrants from Massachusetts who had gone to that colony.  He also began to engage in administrative and political affairs in Massachusetts and was elected governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the spring of 1637. 

His administration faced the outbreak of the Pequot War and diplomatic problems with the Narragansetts.  With the assistance of Roger Williams, Vane was able to negotiate a treaty with Miantonomo.  But the otherwise pacifist, Vane took a more aggressive policy towards the Pequots.  In August 1636,  Governor Vane sent John Endecott to punish them after an attack against that left John Oldham and others dead in the waters around Block Island.  The following April, Vane authorized Massachusetts forces to assist other New England colonies in prosecuting the war against the Pequots and their allies.

Vane 's personal theological beliefs brought him into conflict with more influential Massachusetts political figures on ecclesiastic policies.  He lost the election of 1637 to John Winthrop and left for England at the end of the summer.

Upon his return, Vane was appointed joint treasurer of the Navy in 1639.  However, Charles dismissed him for supporting the bill to abolish the episcopacy and assisting in removing the King's chief minister, Thomas Wentworth.  After the King's execution, Vane was elected leader of the House of Commons in 1643 and served as a member of Cromwell's Council of State (1649-1653). 

He retired from politics after leading the opposition to Cromwell's dissolution of the Rump Parliament in 1653 and wrote several books on theological matters.  Imprisoned in 1656 for criticizing Cromwell's protectorate, Vane assisted in the army's removal of Richard Cromwell.  He returned to government in 1659 as a member of the Rump Parliament.  After the Restoration, Vane was executed for his role in the Civil War and the Commonwealth.

DNBO; Encyclopaedia Brittanica; Wikipedia.  Portrait of Sir Henry Vane by Peter Lely, Wikipedia.