Sir Henry Vane

  General Notes:

Sir Henry Vane (Harry Vane) (1613 \endash June 14, 1662), son of Henry Vane the Elder, served as a statesman and Member of Parliament in a career spanning England and Massachusetts. A constant theme of his life was religious tolerance.
He was a leading Parliamentarian during the English Civil War. Vane served on the Council of State during the Interregnum, but refused to take the oath which expressed approval of the king's execution. At the Restoration in 1660, after much debate in Parliament, he was exempted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act.
In 1662, he was tried for high treason, found guilty, and beheaded on Tower Hill.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Beheaded, 14 Jun 1662, Tower of London, London, England. At the Restoration Vane was imprisoned in the Tower of London by the king's order. After several conferences between the houses of the Convention Parliament, it was agreed that he should be excepted from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act, but that a petition should be sent to Charles asking that his life might be spared. The petition was granted.
On the meeting, however, of the new Cavalier Parliament of 1661, a vote was passed demanding his trial on the capital charge, and Vane was taken back to the Tower in April 1662 from the Isles of Scilly, where he had been imprisoned. On 2 June 1662 he appeared before the Court of King's Bench and Lord Chief Justice Robert Foster, with John Kelynge prosecuting the charge of high treason. In a rigged trial, he made a skilful defence, asserting the sovereign power of parliament in justification of his conduct. He was, however, found guilty. Charles II now felt he was too dangerous a man to be left alive, and retracted his earlier promise to show clemency.[37][38]
He was beheaded on Tower Hill on 14 June 1662. Samuel Pepys was there and records:
He made a long speech, many times interrupted by the Sheriff and others there; and they would have taken his paper out of his hand, but he would not let it go. But they caused all the books of those that writ after him to be given the Sheriff; and the trumpets were brought under the scaffold that he might not be heard. Then he prayed, and so fitted himself, and received the blow; but the scaffold was so crowded that we could not see it done....He had a blister, or issue, upon his neck, which he desired them not hurt: he changed not his colour or speech to the last, but died justifying himself and the cause he had stood for; and spoke very confidently of his being presently at the right hand of Christ; and in all things appeared the most resolved man that ever died in that manner, and showed more of heat than cowardize, but yet with all humility and gravity. One asked him why he did not pray for the King. He answered, "Nay," says he, "you shall see I can pray for the King: I pray God bless him!"

Henry married Frances Wray on 1 Jul 1640 in St. Mary's, Lambeth, England. (Frances Wray was born about 1619 and died in 1679.)