Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/121

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few weeks later, on 27 March (see letter of Miss Vane to Mrs. Howard in Suffolk Correspondence, i. 407 sq., and Croker's note; cf. Addit. MS. 22629, f. 28; Chester, Westm. Abbey Reg. p. 345; Hervey, Memoirs, passim; Gent. Mag. 1736, p. 168; and art. Frederick Louis). Some of her experiences are lightly touched in ‘The Secret History of Vanella’ (1732). There is an engraving of Mrs. Vane by Faber after Vanderbank, and she was the model for Hogarth's Anne Boleyn in the picture of 1729. She seems to have answered Horace Walpole's description of ‘My Lady Vane’ as a ‘living academy of lovelore’ almost as well as the original.

[A Letter to the Rt. Hon. the Lady V—ss V. Occasioned by the Publication of her Memoirs in the Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, London, 1751, 8vo, a well-earned remonstrance; Gent. Mag. 1788 i. 368, 461, 1789 i. 575, 403; Burke's Extinct Peerage; Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, 1812, i. 547, iv. 524; Chambers's Memoir of Smollett, pp. 58 sq.; Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, v. 49; Walpole's Corresp. ed. Cunningham, i. 91, 177, ii. 242, 391, v. 14, 15; Jesse's Court of Hanover; Warburton's Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries, 1851, i. 234; J. Chaloner Smith's Cat. of British Mezzotinto Portraits, p. 435.]

T. S.

VANE, Sir HENRY, the elder (1589–1655), secretary of state, born on 18 Feb. 1589, 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 (Collins, Peerage, ed. Brydges, iv. 502; cf. art. Twysden, Sir Roger). He matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, on 15 June 1604, was admitted a student of Gray's Inn in 1606, and was knighted by James I on 3 March 1611. At the age of twenty-three he married Frances Darcy, daughter of Thomas Darcy of Tolleshurst Darcy, Essex (Dalton, History of the Family of Wray, ii. 113). 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 5,000l.’ Next year he devoted the 3,000l. of his wife's portion to purchasing from Sir Edward Gorge a third part of the subpœna office in chancery, and later so ingratiated himself with the king that James gave him the reversion of the whole office for forty years (ib.) 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 became king (Court and Times of James I, i. 462). About 1629 he became comptroller of the king's household in place of John, first baron Savile [q. v.] (Court and Times of Charles I, ii. 16; Collins, iv. 507). Finally, in September 1639 he was made treasurer of the household (ib. p. 513).

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 the favourite, and after Buckingham's death was in high favour with Lord-treasurer Weston (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1625–6, p. 10; Rebellion, vi. 411). He represented Lostwithiel in the parliament of 1614, Carlisle from 1621 to 1626, and Retford in 1628, but took no important part in the debates of the house. In February and again in September 1629, and in 1630, Charles sent Vane to Holland in the hope of negotiating a peace between the United Provinces and Spain, and obtaining the restoration of the palatinate by Spanish means (Gardiner, History of England, vii. 101, 108, 170; cf. Green, Lives of the Princesses, v. 476–9). In September 1631 he was despatched to Germany to negotiate with Gustavus Adolphus; but as Charles merely offered the king of Sweden 10,000l. per month, and expected him to pledge himself to effect the restitution of 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. ‘Through your wise and dexterous carriage of that great business,’ wrote Cottington to him, ‘you have saved his majesty's money and his honour’ (Green, v. 488–504; Gardiner, vii. 188–205; Rushworth, ii. 107, 129, 166–174).

A letter from Sir Tobie Matthew to Vane, written about the same time, adds further testimony of Vane's favour at court (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1631–3, p. 437). 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.’ For the office of controller and similar court offices, continues Clarendon, he 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’ (Rebellion, vi. 411). Vane began