VI 

 SIR HARRY VANE 1 



WITH the single exception of Cromwell, the 

 greatest statesman of the heroic age of Puritanism 

 was unquestionably the younger Henry Vane. He 

 did as much as any one to compass the downfall 

 of Stratford ; he brought the military strength of 

 Scotland to the aid of the hard-pressed Parliament ; 

 he administered the navy with which Blake won 

 his astonishing victories ; he dared even withstand 

 Cromwell at the height of his power, when his mea- 

 sures savoured too much of violence. After the 

 death of Pym in 1643, Sir Henry Vane, then 

 thirty-one years of age, was the foremost man in 

 the Long Parliament, and so remained as long 

 as that Parliament controlled the march of events. 

 As Baxter said, " he was that within the House 

 that Cromwell was without." Yet before the be- 

 ginning of his brilliant career in England, this 



1 The Life of Young Sir Henry Vane, Governor of Massachu- 

 setts Bay, and Leader of the Long Parliament. With a Con- 

 sideration of the English Commonwealth as a Forecast of 

 America. By James K. Hosmer. Boston : Houghton, Mifflin & 

 Co. 1888. 



