This book is a volume in the Penn Press Anniversary Collection. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, the University of Pennsylvania Press rereleased more than 1,100 titles from Penn Press's distinguished backlist from 1899-1999 that had fallen out of print. Spanning an entire century, the Anniversary Collection offers peer-reviewed scholarship in a wide range of subject areas.

Well-known to students of history as a leading political figure during the English Civil War and beyond, Vane is presented in this book as a formidable and articulate thinker. Author David Parnham sees Vane as a fascinating occupant of the rich intellectual world of the mid-seventeenth century.

This biography provides a fresh look at the life and work of an outstanding radical figure in 17th century England. Sir Henry Vane the Younger was an idealist, both politically and theologically. A youthful Governor of Massachusetts, he became the leading Parliamentarian in England during the Commonwealth period. He led attempts to introduce a written constitution based on the supremacy of Parliament and he campaigned for religious toleration. After the Restoration Charles II declared him to be too dangerous a man to let live.

Focusing on the interaction of religion and politics, this is a comprehensive chronological survey of the political thought of post-Reformation Britain which examines the work of a wide range of thinkers.