Sir Henry Vane, the Elder, PC, MP

Henry Vane the Elder

Sir Henry Vane, the elder (18 February 1589 – 1655) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1654. He served King Charles in many posts including secretary of state, but on the outbreak of the English Civil War joined the Parliamentary cause.

Vane was the eldest son of Henry Vane or Fane of Hadlow, Kent, by his second wife, Margaret, daughter of Roger Twysden of East Peckham, Kent. He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 15 June 1604, was admitted a student of Gray's Inn in 1606. He was knighted by James I on 3 March 1611.[1]

At the age of twenty-three he married Frances Darcy, daughter of Thomas Darcy of Tolleshurst Darcy, Essex. 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 cofferer to the Prince of Wales, and he continued to hold this office after Charles had become king. In about 1629 he became Comptroller of the Household in place of John, first baron Savile. Finally, in September 1639 he was made Treasurer of the Household.[1]

Vane's career at court was interrupted by a quarrel with Buckingham, from whom he underwent 'some severe mortification' mentioned by Clarendon, but he made his peace with Buckingham, and after Buckingham's death was in high favour with Lord-treasurer Weston. In 1614, Vane was elected Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel. He was elected MP for Carlisle in 1621, and was re-elected in 1624, 1625 and 1626.[2] However he took no important part in the debates of the House of Commons of England.[1]

In February and again in September 1629, and in 1630, King Charles sent Vane to Holland in the hope of negotiating a peace between the United Provinces and Spain, and obtaining the restoration of the Electorate of the Palatinate by Spanish means. In September 1631 Vane was sent to Germany to negotiate with Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. As King Charles merely offered the king of Sweden £10,000 per month, and expected him to pledge himself to restore the palatinate, Gustavus rejected the proposed alliance. Vane's negotiations were also hindered by a personal quarrel with Gustavus, but he gave great satisfaction to his own master. Cottington wrote to Vane "Through your wise and dexterous carriage of that great business, you have saved his majesty's money and his honour".[1]

A letter from Sir Tobie 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.'[1]

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 Hadlow, and bought in its place Fairlawne in Kent, at a cost of about £4,000. He also purchased the seignories of Raby, Barnard Castle, and Long Newton in the county of Durham, at a cost of about £18,000.[1]

Vane's political importance dates from 1630, when he became a member of the privy council. Sir Thomas Roe describes him about that time, in a letter to the queen of Bohemia, as being 'of the cabinet,' that is, one of those councillors in whom the king most confided. On 20 November 1632 he was appointed one of the commissioners of the admiralty. In May 1633 he entertained the king at Raby. In 1635 he was granted the wardenship of all forests and chases within the dominion of Barnard Castle, and in the following year the custody of Teesdale Forest and Manwood Chase.[1] 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 Strafford's opposition, 'by the dark contrivance of the Marquis of Hamilton and by the open and visible power of the Queen.'[1]

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'.[1]

In April 1640, Vane was elected MP for Wilton in the Short Parliament.[2] At the first meeting he was charged to demand supplies for the war from the commons. On 4 May he informed the house that the king was willing to surrender ship-money, adding that his master would not be satisfied with less than twelve subsidies in return. The debate showed that the king's demand would be refused, and led to the dissolution of parliament on 5 May. Clarendon, who attributes the breach entirely to Vane's mismanagement, charges him with misrepresenting the temper of parliament to the king, and even with "acting that part maliciously, and to bring all into confusion" in order to compass Strafford's ruin. Another contemporary rumour was that Vane brought about the dissolution in order to save himself from prosecution as a monopolist. But Vane was evidently acting by the king's instructions, and Clarendon omits to mention the dispute about the military charges and the intended vote against the Scottish war which complicated the question at issue. The king did not regard Vane as going beyond his orders, and continued to employ him as secretary. Throughout the second Scottish war Vane was with the king, and his letters show that he was full of confidence even after the defeat at the Battle of Newburn. Vane took part as an assistant in the debates of the great council and in the negotiations with the Scots at Ripon. He was re-elected MP for Wilton in November 1640 for the Long Parliament where he was fortunate enough to escape attack. This he owed partly to the fact that he had not been concerned in the most obnoxious acts of the government, partly to his son's connection with the opposition leaders.[1]

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." 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.[1]

Vane thought that Strafford's attainder would reconcile king and people. He commented "God send us now a happy end of our troubles and a good peace" on the passing of the bill. He did not see that it put an end to his prospects of remaining in the king's service, as its effects were for a time delayed by the difficulty of finding a suitable successor. He was even appointed one of the five commissioners of the treasury when William Juxon resigned in May 1641.[1]

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.[1]

Vane soon joined the opposition. On 13 December 1641 Pym moved that Vane's name should be added to the committee of thirty-two for Irish affairs. Two months later, when the militia bill was drawn up, parliament nominated Vane as lord lieutenant of Durham (10 February 1642). When the civil war broke out, Durham, which was predominantly royalist in feeling, fell at once under the control of the Royalists, and Vane exercised no real authority there till after its reconquest at the end of 1644. John Lilburne who was bitterly hostile to all the Vanes because Sir Henry had been one of his judges, accused him of causing the loss of Durham by negligence and treachery, but the charge met with no belief from parliament.[1]

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".[1]

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. He was elected MP for Kent in the First Protectorate Parliament.[2]

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 Shipbourne, Kent. Portraits of Vane and his wife were painted by Van Dyck.[1]

Vane's eldest son, Sir Henry (1613–1662), was a Puritan statesman, sixth colonial governor of Massachusetts, Secretary of the Navy, President of the Committee on Safety and one of the most significant leaders of the Long Parliament.[3] 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. Charles, the fourth son, matriculated from 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.[1]

Two other sons, William and Walter, were soldiers in the Dutch service. Walter, who was knighted, 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 'Thurloe Papers.' In 1665 Charles II employed him as envoy to the elector of Brandenburg. Vane was colonel of a 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.[1]

Of Vane's daughters, Margaret married Sir Thomas Pelham, 2nd Baronet of Holland, Sussex; Frances married Sir Robert Honeywood of Pett, Kent; Anne married Sir Thomas Liddell of Ravensworth, Durham; Elizabeth married Sir Francis Vincent of Stoke d'Abernon, Surrey.[1]

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Vane_the_Elder

______________________

• Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Vane the Elder1
• M, #110650, b. 18 February 1589, d. 1654
• Last Edited=11 Jun 2010
• Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Vane the Elder was born on 18 February 1589 at Hadlow, Kent, England.2 He was the son of Henry Fane and Margaret Twysden.1 He married Frances D'Arcy, daughter of Thomas D'Arcy and Camilla Guicciardini, in 1612.1 He died in 1654.2
• He was given the name of Henry Fane at birth.1 He was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford University, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England.1 He was admitted to Gray's Inn.1 He was invested as a Knight in 1611.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Lostwithiel in 1614.1 He sold Hadlow and bought Fairlawn, Kent (where he and his descendants lived for the next century), plus Raby Castle, County Durham.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Carlisle between 1621 and 1626.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Retford in 1628.1 He held the office of Comptroller of the Household in 1629.1 He was invested as a Privy Counsellor (P.C.) in 1630.1 He held the office of Ambassador to King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1631.1 He was Commissioner of the Admiralty in 1632.1 He was Commissioner to the Colonies in 1636.1 He held the office of Treasurer of the Household in 1639.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Wilton in 1640.1 He held the office of Secretary of State from 1640 to 1641.1 In 1641 he was dismissed from all of his royal posts, whereupon he sided with the Parliamentarians.1 He held the office of Member of Parliament (M.P.) for Kent in 1653.1
• Children of Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Vane the Elder and Frances D'Arcy
  • 1.John Vane1 d. c Oct 1618
  • 2.Anne Vane+1
  • 3.unknown Vane+2
  • 4.Sir Henry Vane the Younger+1 b. 26 May 1613, d. 14 Jun 1662
  • 5.Sir George Vane1 b. 1618, d. 1679
  • 6.Colonel Sir Walter Vane1 b. 6 Oct 1619, d. 1676
  • 7.Katherine Vane3 b. 19 Oct 1628, d. 26 Mar 1679
• Citations
• 1.[S8] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition, 2 volumes (Crans, Switzerland: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 1999), volume 1, page 191. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 106th edition.
• 2.[S1710] Juan Carlos Marino y Montero, "re: Sapieha-Potocki Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 4 May 2006. Hereinafter cited as "re: Sapieha-Potocki Family."
• 3.[S3409] Caroline Maubois, "re: Penancoet Family," e-mail message to Darryl Roger Lundy, 2 December 2008. Hereinafter cited as "re: Penancoet Family."
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p11065.htm#i110650 ___________________
• Sir Henry Vane1
• M, #219981
• Last Edited=24 Feb 2007
• Sir Henry Vane lived at Fairlawn, Kent, England.1
• Child of Sir Henry Vane
  • 1.Margaret Vane+1
• Citations
• 1.[S37] Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, page 771. Hereinafter cited as Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 107th edition.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p21999.htm#i219981 _____________
• Sir Henry Vane1
• M, #233076
• Last Edited=2 Jun 2007
• Sir Henry Vane lived at Hadlow, Kent, England.1
• Child of Sir Henry Vane
  • 1.Elizabeth Vane1
• Citations
• 1.[S21] L. G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, U.K.: Heraldry Today, 1972), page 94. Hereinafter cited as The New Extinct Peerage.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p23308.htm#i233076 ______________________
• Frances DARCY
• Born: 1591
• Died: 1663
• Father: Thomas DARCY
• Mother: Camilla GUICCIARDINI
• Married: Henry VANE (Sir) BET 1620 / 1648
• Children:
  • 1. Margaret VANE
  • 2. Richard VANE
  • 3. Thomas VANE
  • 4. William VANE
  • 5. Catherine VANE
  • 6. Henry VANE (Sir)
  • 7. Frances VANE
  • 8. George VANE (Sir)
  • 9. John VANE
  • 10. Walter VANE (Sir)
  • 11. Charles VANE
  • 12. Edward VANE
  • 13. Anne VANE
  • 14. Elizabeth VANE
  • 15. Ralph VANE
  • 16. Algernon VANE
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/DARCY.htm#Frances DARCY1 _________________
• VANE (FANE), Sir Henry (1589-1655), of Fairlawn, Kent; Charing Cross, Westminster and Raby Castle, co. Dur.
• Family and Education
• b. 18 Feb. 1589,1 1st s. of Henry Fane† of Hadlow, Kent and his 2nd w. Margaret, da. of Roger Twysden of Roydon Hall, East Peckham, Kent.2 educ. Brasenose, Oxf. 1604; G. Inn 1606,3 travelled abroad 1608.4 m. c.1612 (with £3,000), Frances (d. 2 Aug. 1663), da. and coh. of Thomas Darcy of Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex, 7s. (2 d.v.p.) 5da.5 suc. fa. 1596; kntd. 14 Mar 1611.6 d. May 1655.7
• Offices Held
  • Carver, King’s Household c.1612-17;8 master of subpoena office, Chancery 1614-40;9 cofferer to Prince Charles 1617-at least 1622,10 cofferer (jt.) to Charles I 1625-9;11 commr. sale of Duchy of Cornw. estates 1625,12 wardrobe inquiry 1626, 1635;13 comptroller, King’s Household 1629-30;14 PC 1630-41;15 commr. inquiry, pprs. of Sir Robert Cotton* 1630, poor relief 1630, determining jurisdictions 1631,16 Admlty. 1632-8, 1642-3,17 transportation of felons 1633,18 gt. wardrobe 1633,19 fisheries 1633;20 member, High Commission 1633-41;21 abuses in cts. of justice 1633, defective titles 1635, American appeals 1636;22 treas. King’s Household 1639-41;23 sec. of state 1639-41;24 commr. Treasury 1641-4;25 member, cttee. of both kingdoms 1642-8; commr. assembly of divines 1643, exclusion from sacrament 1646, sale of bps.’ lands 1646, scandalous offences 1648, army 1652-3.26
  • Member, Virg. Co. 1612; freeman (hon.) Merchant Adventurers’ Co. 1631.27
  • Steward, Inglewood Forest and Peareth, Cumb. by 1620;28 j.p. co. Dur. 1625-d., Kent, Westminster 1630-d., Essex, Surr. 1630-42, Mdx. 1630-d., Lincs. by 1653-d.;29 commr. new buildings, London 1625, 1630, 1636,30 repair of St. Paul’s Cathedral 1631,31 sewers, Westminster 1634, Lincs. 1638;32 master forester, Barnard Castle, co. Dur. 1635;33 commr. oyer and terminer, Home circ. 1635-42,34 piracy, Suss. 1637,35 custos rot. Mdx. 1639-d.;36 ld. lt. co. Dur. 1642-5;37 commr. defence, Kent 1643, seizure of arms 1643, levying money, Mdx. 1643, South-Eastern Assoc. 1644, assessment, Kent 1644, Mdx. and Westminster 1645-52, co. Dur. 1647-52, Cumb. and Kent 1649-52, maintenance of army, Mdx. 1644, New Model ordinance 1645, Northern Assoc. co. Dur. 1645, militia, co. Dur., Kent and Mdx. 1648, Westminster 1649.38
  • Amb. (extraordinary) to the Utd. Provinces 1625, 1629, 1630, to the king of Sweden 1631-2.39
• Biography
• Vane was descended from a younger son of the Fane family, from which he distanced himself by reverting to the medieval spelling of his surname. His father, a soldier who sat for Hythe in 1593, was sent to Normandy to assist Henri IV against the Catholic League, and died at Rouen on active service, leaving Vane’s mother to purchase his wardship. When Vane came of age in 1610 he inherited the estates of Hadlow and Shipborne in Kent, worth £460 p.a., of which one-third was out in dower to his mother.40 He subsequently befriended both Sir Lionel Cranfield* and Sir Thomas Overbury. The latter sponsored him at Court, and enabled him to buy a Carver’s place in about 1612 for £5,000.41 In 1614 Vane also paid £3,250 to Sir Edward Gorges for a third share in the subpoena office in Chancery, later acquiring the reversion from the Crown. Together, these two posts were worth approximately £1,100 a year.42 In 1610 Vane promised to subscribe £75 to the Virginia Company, but his contribution was still unpaid three years later.43
• Vane was first elected in 1614 for Lostwithiel, presumably via Court connections with the 3rd earl of Pembroke, who as lord warden of the Stannaries had influence over the borough. He was named to the committees to prepare a message to the king about undertaking (13 Apr.) and to consider the confirmation of a decree in Chancery (18 May).44 On 25 Oct. 1615 he attended Overbury’s poisoner Weston to the foot of the gallows, and after the earl of Somerset forfeited the Raby estate in Durham for his part in Overbury’s murder, it was leased to Vane.45 He sold his ancestral property in order to buy Fairlawn, near Sevenoaks in Kent, for another £4,000.46 Shortly after the formation of a Household establishment for Prince Charles in 1616, Vane bought the office of cofferer from Sir David Foulis, who thought too meanly of the place to retain it.47
• At the general election of 1620 Vane was re-elected as the duchy of Cornwall’s nominee for Lostwithiel, and was also returned at Carlisle. As he had an increasing stake in the north of England he chose to sit for the Cumbrian borough. Once in the Commons he earned a reputation for being one of three ‘principal men that upon all occasions stand up for the king’, together with Sir Edward Sackville*, and (Sir) Humphrey May*, at least according to (Sir) George Calvert*.48 Vane’s appointments included committees to propose the petition from both Houses on recusancy (15 Feb.), to search for precedents for punishing (Sir) Giles Mompesson (27 Feb.), to consider the subsidy bill (7 March) and the bill against bribery, favouritism, and excessive fees in courts of justice (27 April).49 As his responsibilities required, he was included on committees to enable the prince to make leases of duchy of Cornwall lands (28 Feb.), and to confirm Prince Charles’s Westmorland tenants in their estates (10 March).50 On 5 Mar. Vane moved that the referees of monopolies might be taken into the consideration of the committee for grievances, because without them the projectors would not have achieved their purposes. ‘I speak not that I would have these great persons called here to answer’, he added, ‘but that every man’s offence be laid open in the passage’.51 His own privilege for making writs of supersedeas came under attack, when Sir Edward Coke* alleged that Chancery issued 35,000 writs a year; to which Vane responded on 26 Mar.
  • that there have not gone out of the Chancery above 16,000 subpoenas in any year, as the books do manifest, and which he desireth may be shown to this House, that they be not misled with an information without book.52
• The failure of Sir John Bennet*, the ecclesiastical judge accused of corruption, to submit any answers to the six charges against him Vane regarded as a confession of guilt, brushing aside a plea of sickness as merely a cover for flight. He urged the House on 23 Apr. to expel Bennet from his membership of the Commons and take him into custody.53 As a member of the Irish committee, he moved to thank the king for his message of 30 Apr. concerning the state of Ireland, and to cease further investigation of the matter.54 On 7 May he advised the Speaker to end the quarrel between Coke’s son Clement* and Sir Charles Morrison*, and was named to the joint committee to resolve the difference between the Houses over the punishment of Floyd (8 May).55 Vane opposed the bill to cancel a conveyance executed under age by the stepson of Sir Julius Caesar* (12 May); the fine had been confirmed in Star Chamber, and if it were reversed no title to property would be safe.56 In the debate on free trade of 14 May Vane told the Commons: ‘the king barred us not from searching the bottom of the abuse in the Merchant Adventurers, if any, but he only forbade us searching to those private things that only concerned him merely and the state’.57 He attempted to secure a hearing for his friend Cranfield on the afternoon of 28 May; but the House was determined to adjourn.58
• In the second sitting, when the Commons was anxious to debate the proposed Spanish Match, Vane doubted ‘whether the marriages of princes have used to be treated of here before it be sent hither by the king’, and maliciously desired ‘precedents in this kind from Sir Edward Coke; for [we] hath heard from him that no cognizance of war [or] marriage till the king acquaint us with it’ (3 December).59 The House appointed him to the 12-strong deputation that was designated to carry the address against the Spanish marriage to the king at Newmarket on 4 Dec., but he presciently made over the honour to Sir Edward Villiers*.60 On 15 Dec., in response to the king’s angry response to the Commons’ petition about religion, the Spanish Match, and their privileges, Vane declared that he had ‘no doubt but our liberties [are] our inheritance’, referring to the Apology of the Commons in 1604. He supported proposals for a select committee to draw up a similar protestation of parliamentary privilege, hoping thereby to enable the House to proceed with legislation.61
• Vane did not accompany the prince to Spain in 1623, but wrote to Buckingham on 25 Mar. to desire directions for furnishing a Catholic chapel for the Infanta either at St. James’s or Denmark House.62 He was elected at Beverley in 1624 on the nomination of the Prince’s Council, but continued to serve for Carlisle in the next three Parliaments, thereby freeing a seat for Cranfield’s son-in-law, Sir Henry Carey II*.63 In the last Jacobean Parliament he was appointed to 11 committees, including the committee for privileges (23 Feb.) and those to consider the revived duchy of Cornwall leases bill (9 Mar.) and the bill against the removal of suits from inferior courts (9 March).64 He was also named to the conference of 11 Mar. at which the prince delivered a statement of the king’s estate. On 19 Mar., in his only recorded speech, Vane - along with several privy councillors and other royal officials - urged the granting of supply to enable war to be declared:
  • [he] would not that foreign ambassadors should hear that we do here debate of the poverty of our country. That there is no kingdom that hath better conditions for the subject than this hath, and he would not that our carriage this day should draw us to as bad conditions as others have beyond seas, and that we should also so carry ourselves this day as that we distaste not the prince, to whom we are so much bound in this business. He would have us by order in the House resolve that we will give for the war six subsidies and twelve fifteenths if the business require it, and that the war go on and we continue in Parliament; and that a committee of the whole House should have debate of the sum that is fit now to be presently given. The order for the whole will not bind us, but advantage us in reputation with our friends and dishearten our enemies.65
• The conditions proposed for supply were no doubt intended to improve the government’s credit status without alarming the country, but may have strengthened an impression of a lack of urgency.66 He was named to bills committees to confirm the prince’s purchase of Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire (23 Mar.) and to enfranchise county Durham (25 Mar.), and appointed to attend the recusancy conference on 6 April.67 On Vane’s motion, exemption was obtained from the monopolies bill for offices not previously condemned by proclamation, and he was assigned to manage the conference. His own patent for the subpoena office was the subject of a proviso entered on 7 Apr., to which the Commons consented ‘in order that the bill should pass’.68 He was also among those appointed to confer with the Lords on 1 May about the limitations bill and pleadings in the Exchequer.69
• On the accession of Charles I, Vane found himself ‘well rooted in the king’s heart, with a world of great and fast friends at Court’.70 He became joint cofferer of the Household, and was sent to The Hague in April 1625 ‘to draw on these folks to a war offensive’ against Spain.71 He succeeded in establishing himself in the good graces of King Charles’s sister Elizabeth of Bohemia, who found him ‘very just in performing his commissions’, and Tobie Matthew* reported on 17 Apr. 1625 to (Sir) Dudley Carleton* that Vane had been lately received into Buckingham’s favour. At the general election he was involved in an unresolved double return at Lostwithiel, but he opted to sit for Carlisle once again in the first Parliament of the new reign. He made no speeches, and was named to only two committees, to confer with the Lords about a petition to the king for a general fast (23 June) and to consider a bill for the king’s Macclesfield tenants, though he attended neither of the latter’s two meetings.72 In 1626 he again remained silent, but was appointed to seven committees. He was named to the conferences of 4 Mar. on the summons to Buckingham and of 8 Mar. on defence, and on 25 May he was added to the committee to draft the preamble to the subsidy bill.73
• Vane can never have regarded the Carlisle seat as safe, and at the general election of 1628 he was beaten by a local gentleman, Richard Barwis. He obtained a nomination at Thetford, presumably from the earl of Arundel, at the election held to replace Sir Henry Spiller, who had plumped for Middlesex. In the first session he was named to six committees and made four speeches. He was among those ordered to draft a bill about the pressing of soldiers and designation to foreign employment (3 Apr.), and showed his grasp of figures in two brief interventions on the value of subsidies (4 Apr.) and purveyance (30 April).74 During the debate on scandalous ministers of 16 May he whispered to John Newdigate: ‘I would not lay a greater punishment upon a spiritual man than a layman for a criminal cause’; but he did not venture to address the House on the subject.75 On 19 May he was added to the committee for the Medway navigation bill.76 In the debate of 22 May on the Lords’ amendments to the Petition of Right sponsored by Arundel, Vane said:
  • I stick at two things not yet touched upon, which when the lawyers shall resolve we shall be ready for a conference. The first is some think these words larger in the petition than in Magna Carta. Secondly, we say no more than what is already professed by the Lords and us.77
• He was among those named to inquire into recusancy compositions (24 May).78 Vane informed the House on 21 June that Sir Simon Harvey, one of the clerks of the Green Cloth, desired to be heard about his part in revising the book of rates in conjunction with (Sir) Edmund Sawyer*, and he was among those sent to the king on 22 June to desire access for the Speaker to inquire about the date of prorogation.79 He left no trace on the records of the second session until the outbreak of violence on the final day, when he spoke ‘with as troubled a soul as any man’ in support of Jerome Weston* for defending his father, lord treasurer Sir Richard Weston*:
  • I shall never condemn any man upon jealousies or except the fact be proved. When the particulars shall be debated, he will be able to acquit himself. I never found [any] man in religion more clear nor more true ... If to vote this would advance anything to a quiet conclusion of this Parliament I should consent; but this [is] not the way. Let Mr. Speaker go to His Majesty. To think of some form to send to the king, and to present something by which we shall agree upon to work our peace.80
• This was the strongest speech made for the government in the whole debate, and averted a personal attack on Weston, but could not turn the tide.81
• Vane paid £18,000 for the freehold of the Raby estate in 1629, and was promoted to the comptrollership on the retirement of Sir John Savile*. He entertained the king at Raby during the royal progress to Scotland in 1633, and by 1634 was in receipt of a pension of £500 a year.82 He continued to hold high office in the Household till the eve of the Civil War. His brief forays into Protestant diplomacy also earned him appointment as secretary of state in place of (Sir) John Coke* in 1639. However, he lost all his offices after allowing his son, the mystic radical, to copy his Privy Council notes in order to bring the earl of Strafford (Sir Thomas Wentworth*) to the block.83 He supported Parliament in the Civil War and continued to sit in the Rump, though Clarendon (Edward Hyde†), considered that ‘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’. By 1649 his income had risen to £3,000 p.a.;84 but looking back over his life when he came to draw up his will on 12 Jan. 1655 he wrote: ‘I have found nothing but vanities and vexations, and for minutes of peace and prosperity I have had months of trouble and disquietness’.85 He died at his house in Kent in the following May.86 Clarendon whose hostility may have reflected the fact that they were on opposing sides in the Civil War, later remarked of Vane that he was
  • of very ordinary parts by nature, and he had not cultivated them at all by art ... but being of a stirring boisterous disposition, very industrious and very bold, he still wrought himself into some employment.87
• Vane’s eldest surviving son, Sir Henry†, sat for Hull in the Short and Long Parliaments, and was selected to ‘die for the kingdom’ at the Restoration, but the family retained and improved the estate and in 1675 two of his grandsons became the first regular knights of the shire for county Durham. Portraits of Vane are preserved at the National Portrait Gallery and Raby Castle.
• Ref Volumes: 1604-1629
• Authors: John. P. Ferris / Rosemary Sgroi
• Notes
• 1. WARD 9/158, f. 195v.
• 2. Collins, Peerage, iv. 505.
• 3. Al. Ox.; GI Admiss.
• 4. Add. 11402, f. 138.
• 5. C. Dalton, Wrays of Glentworth, ii. 113-5.
• 6. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 150.
• 7. Nicholas Pprs. ed. G.F. Warner (Cam. Soc. ser. 2. l, lvii), ii. 354, iii. 20.
• 8. Dalton, ii. 113.
• 9. C66/1981; CSP Dom. 1640, p. 88.
• 10. SC6/Jas.I/1680, 1685; CSP Dom. 1611-18, p. 443; Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, ii. 58.
• 11. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 66.
• 12. T. Rymer, Foedera, viii. pt. 1, p. 214.
• 13. Rymer, viii. pt. 2, p. 98; pt. 4, p. 127.
• 14. T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 16.
• 15. APC, 1630-1, p. 5.
• 16. Rymer, viii. pt. 3, pp. 127, 148, 178.
• 17. SP16/225/44; C115/106/8414.
• 18. Rymer, viii. pt. 3, p. 259.
• 19. Ibid. viii. pt. 4, p. 29.
• 20. SP16/241/80.
• 21. R.G. Usher, Rise and Fall of High Commission, 350; CSP Dom. 1633-4, p. 326.
• 22. Rymer, viii. pt. 4, p. 55; ix. pt. 1, p. 6; pt. 2, p. 8.
• 23. Collins, Peerage, iv. 513.
• 24. CSP Dom. 1639-40, p. 419; Rymer, ix. pt. 2, p. 249.
• 25. Rymer, ix. pt. 3, p. 47; Collins, Peerage, iv. 516.
• 26. A. and O. i. 181, 382, 437, 853, 905, 1208, ii. 562, 689.
• 27. A. Brown, Genesis of US, 545; Add. 28079, f. 59.
• 28. SC6/Jas.I/1683, 1684.
• 29. C193/13/2, f. 12v; SP16/405, ff. 17v, 64, 85; C231/5, pp. 36, 37, 38, 355, 530, 532, 533; HMC Westmorland, 502-7; CUL, Dd.viii.1, ff. 59, 62v, 134v.
• 30. Rymer, viii. pt. 3, p. 114; ix. pt. 2, p. 8.
• 31. Ibid. viii. pt. 3, p. 173.
• 32. C181/4, f. 191, C181/5, f. 101.
• 33. Rymer, ix. pt. 1, p. 77.
• 34. C181/5, ff. 8v, 163, 174, 193, 204, 222.
• 35. C181/5, f. 68.
• 36. C231/5, f. 355.
• 37. A. and O. i. 1, 3, 4.
• 38. A. and O. i. 232, 247, 400, 451, 536, 541, 622, 636, 707, 964, 970, 1081, 1087, 1236, 1238-9, ii. 20, 32, 33, 36, 38, 295, 297, 300, 303, 463, 465, 469, 471, 659, 661, 665, 668-9.
• 39. Handlist of British Diplomatic Representatives comp. G.M. Bell, 144, 145, 198, 199, 274; HMC Mar and Kellie, ii. 231; Birch, ii. 25, 123, 134, 178, 191, 199; C115/105/8136; Rymer, viii. pt. 3, p. 203.
• 40. C142/246/128; Dalton, ii. 113.
• 41. M. Prestwich, Cranfield, 343; Dalton, ii. 113.
• 42. G.E. Aylmer, King’s Servants, 85-6.
• 43. Recs. Virg. Co. ed. S.M. Kingsbury, iii. 45.
• 44. CJ, i. 464a, 489a.
• 45. Letters and Life of Francis Bacon ed. J. Spedding, v. 211; Surtees, Dur. iv (1), 166.
• 46. Dalton, ii. 113; E. Hasted, Kent, v. 47-8.
• 47. Chamberlain Letters, ii. 58.
• 48. Harl. 1580, f. 168v.
• 49. CJ, i. 523a, 530b, 544a; CD 1621, iii. 22.
• 50. Ibid. 531b, 548b.
• 51. CD 1621, ii. 169.
• 52. Nicholas, Procs. 1621, i. 226.
• 53. CJ, i. 587b.
• 54. Ibid. 598b.
• 55. Ibid. 611b, 614b.
• 56. CD 1621, iii. 243.
• 57. Ibid. 247.
• 58. Nicholas, ii. 122.
• 59. CJ, i. 656a; Nicholas, ii. 271.
• 60. R. Zaller, Parl. of 1621, p. 156.
• 61. Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, i. 46-52; CD 1621, ii. 526; CJ, i. 665b; Zaller, 170-1.
• 62. Harl. 1581, f. 260.
• 63. R.E. Ruigh, Parl. of 1624, p. 61.
• 64. CJ, i. 671b, 680a, 680b.
• 65. ‘Nicholas 1624’, f. 94.
• 66. Ruigh, pp. 218-23; C. Russell, PEP, 188.
• 67. CJ, i. 747a, 749b, 754a.
• 68. ‘Nicholas 1624’, f. 118; Russell, 191.
• 69. CJ, i. 695b.
• 70. CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 10.
• 71. Chamberlain Letters, ii. 608; HMC Mar and Kellie, i. 177; ii. 231.
• 72. C.R. Kyle, ‘Attendance Lists’, PPE 1604-48 ed. Kyle, 227; Procs. 1625, pp. 228-9.
• 73. CJ, i. 830a, 832a, 864a.
• 74. CJ, i. 879a; CD 1628, ii. 311; iii. 181.
• 75. CD 1628, iii. 440.
• 76. CJ, i. 900a.
• 77. CD 1628, iii. 538.
• 78. CJ, i. 904a.
• 79. CD 1628, iv. 407; CJ, i. 917a.
• 80. CD 1629, p. 242.
• 81. Russell, 370-2, 391.
• 82. LS13/251, p. 70; Collins, Peerage, iv. 510.
• 83. Oxford DNB sub Sir Henry Vane† the younger.
• 84. M.F. Keeler, Long Parl. 370-1.
• 85. PROB 11/245, ff. 421-3.
• 86. Mercurius Politicus 1655 ed. P.W. Thomas (Eng. Rev. III; Newsbooks 5, xi), 162.
• 87. Clarendon, Hist. of the Rebellion ed. W.D. Macray, ii. 548
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/va... _____________________________________

http://www.harrold.org/familytree/webtree2/123.htm

Sir Henry Vane

Born: 1589

Marriage: Frances Darcy

Died: 1655 at age 66

Henry married Frances Darcy, daughter of Thomas Darcy and Camilla Guicciardini. (Frances Darcy was born in 1594 in Tolleshunt, Darcy,

_____________________

Sir Henry Vane was an English politician. He was born in 1589 and died in 1654. The Son of Henry Vane, a Kentish gentleman, he was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1611 he was knighted, and in 1614 entered the House of Commons. He was soon an official of the royal household, and became one of the chief counsellors of Charles I. Made secretary of state in 1620, he had a hand in the momentous events that followed, being largely responsible for the condemnation of Strafford. He then became less devoted to Charles, and was dismissed, possibly on account of treachery, whereupon he appeared as a supporter of the parliamentary cause. He remained politically active until his death.

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• Page 518 of Collins's peerage of England; genealogical, biographical, and ..., Volume 4 By Arthur Collins, Sir Egerton Brydges

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purchased Raby Castle in 1616

• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: May 6 2018, 15:22:41 UTC
• Reference: Ancestry Genealogy - SmartCopy: May 6 2018, 15:24:18 UTC