7. Sir Henry Vane, Jr. by Henry Melville King

Category: 50 Books

7. Sir Henry Vane, Jr. by Henry Melville King

I’ve done a terrible job of keeping up with what I’ve read so far this year. sorry!

This is a book I finished reading last month. It’s in my Google library. Have I mentioned books.google.com? Have you been there yet? have you made your own library? well you should because it’s awesome. i usually have one book on there that I’m reading so that i can sneakread at work. See, people think, “oh you work in a library. that must be awesome to get to sit around and read all day.” well, yeah that would be awesome. except we’re not allowed to read books on the job. but, when it’s slow at work, boosh.

This book was published in 1909. It’s actual title is hilarious to me, Sir Henry Vane, Jr. : Governor of Massachusetts and Friend of Roger Williams and Rhode Island. You said it, man.

I’m intrigued by Henry Vane the Younger (which is what he was called back in the 1600s) because on one hand he was awesome and on the other hand he was kind of a puss. I think that the awesome hand outweighs the puss hand. But I’m glad he’s got that flaw (or a flaw, anyway) otherwise he’d be too perfect and that just wouldn’t work.

Vane the Younger was born into a well-to-do family in England. His pop was a financial something to the King of England (Charles I?). So his fam was in good shape. But Jr., he grew up to be the black sheep in a way. He was a Puritan. Mostly.

So he spends some time in schools (or working with his dad whatever) and then decides he needs to go to the colonies to be with likeminded religious people. When he gets there (Massachusetts Bay Colony) they make him governor in like, 6 months. John Winthrop (who was always the MBC governor) was even keen on him being there, at first. The thing about Vane (that i love the most) is that he’s not exactly as Puritan as most Puritans. He has this idea of religious freedom, and he doesn’t think the government should be able to punish it’s people for their religious beliefs.

So he gets to MBC about the same time that Roger Williams is getting booted out (again). And he finds that he really agrees with Williams’s idea of religious liberty. Then after the Williams thing the Antinomian controversy happened where Anne Hutchinson and some of her fans got into trouble for having their own Bible studies. So the magistrates want to banish Hutchinson and her pals. There are trials and punishments and more trials and Vane is trying to step down as governor because he likes the Hutchinsonians, but he knows he’ll get in trouble if he likes them too much. And Winthrop won’t let him quit. Eventually Vane is all, “Hey, something has come up in England and I gotta go back home.” So he gets the hell out of Dodge.

He gets back to England and becomes part of parliament (but he did argue about not killing Charles I, he lost the arguement.), but he’s no great friend to Cromwell. Vane stands up to him about religious and personal freedom and stuff all the time. Cromwell eventually dissolves the parliament. When Cromwell dies and his son tries to take over Vane is one of the MPs who thinks that the son really hasn’t proven himself to be Lord Protectorate or whatever.

Vane is still all for liberty and freedom and really, he is ahead of his time. And we all know what happens to people who are ahead of their time.

Tragic death.

When Charles II is restored as king he has Vane imprisoned in the Tower of London even though he had fought against the killing of Chas I, and was no pal of Cromwell’s. Chas II trumps up some charges on him and has him beheaded. It makes no kind of sense.

This book mostly hits the high points. It shows how Vane the Younger was a champion of religious freedom and personal liberty (like, BEFORE the colonies thought of it. in fact, Vane wanted a government of the people, by the people, for the people 200 years before Lincoln. ). Again, the whole “ahead of his time” thing. It really glossed over his pussyfooting as governor of MBC. It makes no mention of him crying at the Antinomian trials. I’m not saying that makes him a sissy; I like that he was that torn up about it. I’m just saying that this book doesn’t talk about that.

It’s a short read. I’d like to read a different book about him, one that goes into better details.

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