Edward Vaux, 4th Baron Vaux of Harrowden

The Vaux and Roper families were Catholics, and the third Baron Vaux was convicted of recusancy several times during the reign of Elizabeth I.^[1][2] As a minor heir to a barony, Edward Vaux became a ward of the queen^[1] on his grandfather's death. His widowed mother, known as the "Dowager of Harrowden" or (incorrectly, as her husband was never Lord Vaux) as the "Dowager Lady Vaux", devastated by the loss of her beloved husband, vowed to never remarry and devoted the rest of her life to religion. During a remodelling of the family estate at Great Harrowden in young Edward's name, she incorporated hidden rooms for the harbouring of Catholic priests including her confessor, the dashing Jesuit John Gerard.^[4] Her activities were closely watched by the authorities, and both Edward and his mother were investigated in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Edward felt it prudent to go abroad for some years.^[1]

He returned to England in 1611, apparently to intercede for his mother, who had been arrested for recusancy.^[5] For refusing to take the 1606 Oath of Allegiance to James I, entailing a denial of the pope's authority over the king, Edward was committed to the Fleet prison. He was sentenced in the Kings Bench to perpetual imprisonment and loss of property on 1 March 1612, but he was transferred to the custody of the Dean of Westminster and had a grant of his forfeited lands in October 1612. He had already saved some of the family estates by conveying them in trust to five of his Protestant neighbours, even though such a transaction was strictly forbidden by law.^[5] He was later released on surety of £1000.^[1]

On 3 January 1621, Vaux was summoned to the Parliament^[1] which James reluctantly called to raise funds for the military assistance of his son-in-law Frederick V, Elector Palatine. When Parliament instead demanded abandonment of the planned Spanish Match for Charles, Prince of Wales and war with Spain, James dissolved Parliament and pursued the Spanish bride for his son with renewed vigor. The king supported a request by the Spanish ambassador to allow volunteers to be recruited for service in the Spanish Army of Flanders, which relied heavily on foreign mercenaries,^[6] and suspended the statute that required volunteers in foreign service to take the Oath of Allegiance before leaving the country.^[7] In 1622 Edward Vaux was licensed to raise a regiment of English Catholics for the Spanish service, but at the Siege of Bergen op Zoom, he was dismayed to find his regiment facing English Protestant troops despite Spanish promises to the contrary, and many of his men deserted rather than engage their fellow-countrymen.^[8]

Vaux paid £300 to purge his personal attendance on Charles I at York in March 1639^[1] for the military expedition into Scotland known as the First Bishops' War.