TURKS AND DUTCH IN THE CHANNEL 31 back; in 1640, just before the fleet passed into the vigorous hands of the Long Parliament, the mayor of Exeter wrote that sixty sail of Turks were cruising on the coasts, and that they had landed near Penzance and carried away men, women, and children into captivity. The Dutch took serious measures to deal with the Dunkirkers, who preyed on the merchant ships of England and Holland alike. The Stuart king, who claimed monopoly of the sale of gunpowder, sent his fleet, raised upon the ship-money, to convoy two vessels laden with powder through the Dutch fleet blockading Dunkirk. Rather than call a parliament who would question his right to misgovern and oppress, Charles would flounder on with what sums he could raise by illegal taxation and arbitrary fines. In the autumn of 1639 a Spanish fleet convoying troops to Flanders was intercepted by the Dutch in the Channel. The Spaniards took refuge in the Downs, when a diplomatic contest was carried on at London between the ambassadors of Spain, France, and the United Provinces. The greedy Charles was willing to give the Spaniards an opportunity for escape, if they would pay his price (£150,000) or to leave them to the Netherlanders, if Richelieu would get the king's nephew, Charles Lewis, made commander of the allied army in Alsace to succeed the great Duke Bernhard of Weimar; so little did he understand the situation. In the meantime the King of England took advantage of the situation to sell 500 barrels of gunpowder at exorbitant prices to the Spaniards. Ere the powder was out of the boats, Tromp, the Dutch admiral, set upon 1 Oppenheim, p. 278. State Papers, Charles I. (Dom.) CCCCLIX., the Spanish fleet, sunk some, took others, and drove twenty ships ashore, so that but a few of them got into Dunkirk. Northumberland, perplexed by contradictory orders, anxious to uphold the honour of the English flag, but favourable to the Hollanders, ordered some shots to be fired at them during the action, which did them no harm, and to which Tromp did not reply. CHAPTER III The Vane Family. Sir Henry Vane the elder. Education of young Henry Vane. He awakes to a religious life. His travels in Germany and the Netherlands. Returns to England. Desires to serve the Crown. Consorts with the Puritans. SIR HENRY VANE came of an old family of country gentlemen; his descent could be traced back for sixteen generations to Howell ap Vane in Monmouthshire, whose son, Griffith ap Howell Vane, married the daughter of Blodwin ap Kenwyn, Lord of Powis. One of his ancestors was knighted on the field for gallantry at the battle of Poitiers; some of them spelt the name Vane; others Fane; a descendant of the latter branch founded the noble family of Westmorland. John Vane, grandfather of Sir Henry Vane the elder, was involved in Wyatt's insurrection, but pardoned on account of his youth. He sat in two of Elizabeth's parliaments. Henry Vane, the elder, was born in 1589. He began life with the estates of Hadlow and Shipburne in Kent, worth no more than £460 a year. He was knighted by James I., an honour which could be had by purchase, and which is still a source of profit to officials about court. He married Frances, daughter of Thomas Darcy of Tollhurst-Darcy in Essex, and with the help of his wife's portion he bought, or gained C |