Although he was formally granted clemency by Charles II, he was indicted for high treason by a Middlesex grand jury after charges were presented by the king's attorney general, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, in 1662.

The New England Historical and Genealogical Society wrote of him in 1848: Those who have been accustomed to view Roger Williams in his true character, – a great and wonderful man, a pioneer in establishing religious and consequently political liberty, – must accord the same virtues to Sir Henry Vane.

During Vane's time as governor,[26] she began holding Bible sessions at home, gaining a wide audience and sharing her opinions that the colonial leaders labelled as Antinomianism, the view that existing laws and practices were not necessary for salvation.

[33] Despite the fact that Roger Williams had warned him that the Narragansetts were more likely responsible for Oldham's slaying, Governor Vane in August 1636 placed John Endecott at the head of a 90-man force to extract justice from the Pequots.

Biographer Henry Ireland argued in 1905, "Had he remained in New England, his enlightened mind and humane spirit would have held the Puritans back from the executions of witches and persecutions of other heretics which have added a dark chapter the early history of the States.

[44] According to historian Michael Winship, Vane's experiences in Massachusetts significantly radicalized his religious views, in which he came to believe that clergy of all types, including Puritan ministers, "were the second beast of Revelations 13:11", "pretending to visible Saintship".

[45] Biographer Violet Rowe writes that "Vane's guiding principles in religious policy seem to have been two: a rooted distrust of clerical power, whether of bishops or presbyters, and a belief that the State should abstain from interference in church matters altogether.

[50] In this position he had the personally distasteful yet highly profitable task of collecting the hated ship money (a tax to support the Navy imposed by Charles I without Parliamentary approval).

"[55] With others like Nathaniel Fiennes, he represented a younger generation of Puritans in the leadership of the Long Parliament that effectively managed affairs: as identified by Clarendon in his history, these included Hampden, Pym, and Oliver St John in the Commons, and Earl of Bedford and Viscount Saye and Sele in the Lords.

[64] Vane made an impassioned speech that brought him to the front of his faction, claiming episcopacy (the governing structure of the Church of England) was a corrupt doctrine "hastening us back again to Rome.

Parliament returned Vane to his post as Treasurer of the Navy, where he used connections to bring significant naval support to the Parliamentary side after Charles attempted to arrest five MPs on charges of high treason in December 1641.

[72] After the failure of the Root and Branch Bill, Parliament in 1643 called together the Westminster Assembly of Divines, a body of lay politicians, lords, and clergy whose purpose was to reform church governance.

[82] Vane was then sent to York in June 1644, then besieged by three Parliament armies, to urge Sir Thomas Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester to divert some of those forces to face Prince Rupert of the Rhine, who had recently taken Liverpool and was pillaging properties of Parliamentary supporters in Lancashire.

[85][86] On 13 September 1644 Vane acted with St John and Cromwell in the Commons to set up a "Grand Committee for the Accommodation", designed to find a compromise on religious issues dividing the Westminster Assembly.

[97] In debate that principally divided the Commons from the Lords, Vane and Cromwell supported passage of the Self-denying Ordinance, forbidding military officers from serving in Parliament, and the establishment of the New Model Army, which would be capable of fighting anywhere in the country.

[99] Following the decisive Parliamentary victory at Naseby in June 1645, the first phase of the civil war was effectively over, but it dragged on for another year,[100] before Charles surrendered to Scottish army commanders.

Known as Levellers and led by John Lilburne and others, this populist force was in favour of greater press freedoms, and was opposed to at least some of the privileges of the aristocracy, including the existence of the House of Lords.

[110] The Parliament army mutinied, and under Cromwell's orders (possibly prompted by a warning from Vane) a detachment of troops seized Charles, who had been placed under a comfortable house arrest at Holmby.

[118] VANE, young in years, but in sage counsel old, Than whom a better senator ne’er held    The helm of Rome, when gowns, not arms, repelled    The fierce Epirot and the African bold, Whether to settle peace, or to unfold   The drift of hollow states hard to be spelled;    Then to advise how war may best, upheld,    Move by her two main nerves, iron and gold,    In all her equipage; besides, to know; Both spiritual power and civil, what each means,    What severs each, thou hast learned, which few have done.

[124] He later claimed to oppose putting the king on trial because of "tenderness of blood",[124] and continued to fulfil the duties of his government posts, signing admiralty papers on the day Charles was executed.

[131] He was also involved in foreign diplomacy, going on a mission to France (whose purpose is unknown) in 1652 to meet with Cardinal de Retz,[133] and travelling again to Scotland to organise the government there after Cromwell's victories in the Third English Civil War.

[139] It called for suffrage to be allowed on the basis of property ownership, and it sought specifically to eliminate some so-called "rotten boroughs", which had small numbers of voters and were controlled by wealthy patrons.

[140] The proposal also called for some of the current members, whose republican credentials were deemed suitable, to retain their seats, so that the fledgling commonwealth might, as Harry Marten put it, be shepherded by "the mother that brought it forth".

Also, Clarendon credited Vane with having possessed "extraordinary parts, a pleasant wit, a great understanding, a temper not to be moved", and in debate "a quick conception and a very sharp and weighty expression".

English historian John Andrew Doyle wrote of Vane that he had acquired "a more dazzling reputation than has been granted to the lofty public spirit and statesmanlike foresight of Winthrop.

He did as much as any one to compass the downfall of Strafford; 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 measures savored too much of violence...Yet before the beginning of his brilliant career in England, this young man had written his name indelibly upon one of the earliest pages in the history of the American people.

Thorough republican and enthusiastic lover of liberty, he was spiritually akin to Jefferson and to Samuel Adams...In his mind were the rudiments of the idea of a written constitution, upon which a new government for England might be built, with powers neatly defined and limited.

James Kendall Hosmer, editing Winthrop's Journal in 1908, wrote of Vane: ... his heroic life and death, his services to Anglo-Saxon freedom, which make him a significant figure even to the present moment, may well be regarded as the most illustrious character who touches early New England history.

[220]Wendell Phillips, a prominent American abolitionist, friend of Frederick Douglas, and advocate for Native Americans, said, "Sir Harry Vane, in my judgment the noblest human being who ever walked the streets of yonder city,--I do not forget Franklin or Sam Adams, Washington or Fayette, Garrison or John Brown, -but Vane dwells an arrow's flight above them all, and his touch consecrated the continent to measureless toleration of opinion and entire equality of rights.

For other men we walk backward, and throw over their memories the mantle of charity and excuse, saying reverently, “Remember the temptation and the age.” But Vane's ermine has no stain; no act of his needs explanation or apology; and in thought he stands abreast of our age,--like pure intellect, belongs to all time.