John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford
Encyclopedia
John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (23 April 1408 – 26 February 1462), was the son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford
(1385?–15 February 1417), and his second wife, Alice Serjeaux. A Lancastrian
loyalist during the latter part of his life, he was convicted of high treason and beheaded on Tower Hill
on 26 February 1462.
, was the elder son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford
, and his second wife, Alice, the widow of Guy de St Aubyn, and daughter of Sir Richard Sergeaux of Colquite, Cornwall
by his second wife, Philippe (d. 18 May 1452), the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund de Arundel. Through their second son, Sir Robert Vere, the 11th Earl and his wife, Philippe, were the great-grandparents of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
.
The 12th Earl inherited his title as a minor at his father's death on 15 February 1417. Custody of his person and lands was granted firstly to the Duke of Exeter until his death in 1426, and later to the Duke of Bedford
. In 1425, while still underage, Oxford married the heiress Elizabeth Howard (c.1410–1473/4), the daughter of Sir John Howard, 7th Lord Plaiz (c.1385/6 - c.1409), a stepbrother of Sir Robert Howard, father of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk
. After the death of her grandfather, Sir John Howard of Wiggenhall (c. 1366 - 17 November 1436), Elizabeth inherited lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Although Oxford claimed the marriage had been contracted on Exeter's advice, it had not been authorized by licence from the King, and Oxford was fined £2000. According to Castor, Oxford had difficulty making payment of this large fine since 'the earldom of Oxford was among the poorest of the comital titles', with Oxford stating in 1437 that his lands were worth only £500 per year.
Oxford was knighted at Leicester
on 26 May 1426, together with 34 others including his brother, Robert, and the four-year-old King Henry VI. On 4 July 1429 he was granted livery
of his lands. In 1431 he was appointed to the Privy Council
. During the 1430s and 1440s Oxford was involved in local politics in East Anglia
, being appointed to various commissions in Essex and serving as a Justice of the Peace
in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. In February 1435 he was licenced to travel to the Holy Land
, although there is no evidence that he actually did so.
In July 1436 Oxford mustered his retainers at Sandwich, Kent
for an expedition to relieve the Siege of Calais by the Duke of Burgundy. On 23 July 1437 he was summoned to attend the funeral of Queen Joan at Canterbury
. In June 1439, with Cardinal Henry Beaufort and other envoys, he was appointed a commissioner to treat of peace with France. On 16 May 1441 he sailed from Portsmouth
to France with the Duke of York
, who had been appointed Lieutenant-General and Governor of France and Normandy. In June 1450 Oxford was among the noblemen appointed to act against Jack Cade's
Kentish rebels.
In the late 1440s Oxford extended his political influence in East Anglia to Norfolk. He was regularly appointed a Justice of the Peace there, and in 1450, after the fall from power of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
, Oxford, together with John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Sir John Fastolf, challenged the influence of Suffolk's supporters in that county. By the spring of 1451, however, Suffolk's associates had regrouped under the leadership of Thomas, Lord Scales and the widowed Duchess
, and by 1452 leading members of Suffolk's affinity such as Sir Thomas Tuddenham and John Heydon were again being appointed to office.
As national politics became increasingly divided during the 1450s, Oxford did not immediately take sides, although he was a member of the Council while the Duke of York
was Lord Protector
in 1553-54 during Henry VI's
period of mental breakdown, and on 28 May 1454, together with 6 other peers and his brother, Sir Robert Vere, undertook to keep the seas for three years. In May 1455 he and the Duke of Norfolk both arrived a day too late to take part in the Battle of St Albans
. It was not until 1459 that Oxford committed himself to Queen Margaret of Anjou
against the Duke of York. In December of that year and in April 1460 he was appointed to lead anti-Yorkist commissions of array
in Essex, and by May 1460 his eldest son, Sir Aubrey Vere, who had recently married Anne, the daughter of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham
, was reported to be ‘great with the Queen’.
After the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Northampton
in July 1460, Oxford appears to have suffered from ill health. In November of that year he was exempted, ‘in consideration of his infirmities’, from appearing in person before the King or in Council or Parliament. If he was feigning illness in order to maintain a low profile in the face of the new Yorkist regime under King Edward IV
, the ploy was unsuccessful. In February 1462 Oxford was arrested, together with his son Aubrey and Sir Thomas Tuddenham, his former opponent in Norfolk and now a fellow Lancastrian loyalist, and convicted of high treason before the Constable of England, John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
. On 26 February 1462 Oxford was beheaded on Tower Hill
, and buried in the church of the Austin Friars in London. His eldest son, Aubrey, had been executed six days earlier, and Oxford was therefore succeeded by his second son, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
.
, Essex. They had five sons, Sir Aubrey Vere, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
, Sir George Vere, Sir Richard Vere and Thomas Vere, and three daughters, Isabel (wife of William Bourchier), Joan (wife of Norris), and Mary.
Oxford's daughter Joane or Jane was the maternal grandmother of Gertrude Tyrell.
Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford
Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford KG was the son and heir of Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford. He took part in the trial of Richard, Earl of Cambridge and Lord Scrope at Southampton, and was one of the commanders at Agincourt in 1415.-Life:Richard de Vere was the elder son of Aubrey de Vere,...
(1385?–15 February 1417), and his second wife, Alice Serjeaux. A Lancastrian
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
loyalist during the latter part of his life, he was convicted of high treason and beheaded on Tower Hill
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is an elevated spot northwest of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formerly it was part of the Tower Liberty under the direct administrative control of Tower...
on 26 February 1462.
Life
John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, born 23 April 1408 at Hedingham CastleHedingham Castle
Hedingham Castle in Essex, England, is a Norman motte and bailey castle with a stone keep. For four centuries it was the primary seat of the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford.-Description:...
, was the elder son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford
Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford
Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford KG was the son and heir of Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford. He took part in the trial of Richard, Earl of Cambridge and Lord Scrope at Southampton, and was one of the commanders at Agincourt in 1415.-Life:Richard de Vere was the elder son of Aubrey de Vere,...
, and his second wife, Alice, the widow of Guy de St Aubyn, and daughter of Sir Richard Sergeaux of Colquite, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
by his second wife, Philippe (d. 18 May 1452), the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund de Arundel. Through their second son, Sir Robert Vere, the 11th Earl and his wife, Philippe, were the great-grandparents of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford was an English peer and courtier.-Biography:John de Vere was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilrington , and the great-grandson of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, succeeding his second cousin, John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford.Oxford was Esquire of the...
.
The 12th Earl inherited his title as a minor at his father's death on 15 February 1417. Custody of his person and lands was granted firstly to the Duke of Exeter until his death in 1426, and later to the Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford, KG , also known as John Plantagenet, was the third surviving son of King Henry IV of England by Mary de Bohun, and acted as Regent of France for his nephew, King Henry VI....
. In 1425, while still underage, Oxford married the heiress Elizabeth Howard (c.1410–1473/4), the daughter of Sir John Howard, 7th Lord Plaiz (c.1385/6 - c.1409), a stepbrother of Sir Robert Howard, father of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk
John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman, soldier, and the first Howard Duke of Norfolk...
. After the death of her grandfather, Sir John Howard of Wiggenhall (c. 1366 - 17 November 1436), Elizabeth inherited lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire. Although Oxford claimed the marriage had been contracted on Exeter's advice, it had not been authorized by licence from the King, and Oxford was fined £2000. According to Castor, Oxford had difficulty making payment of this large fine since 'the earldom of Oxford was among the poorest of the comital titles', with Oxford stating in 1437 that his lands were worth only £500 per year.
Oxford was knighted at Leicester
Leicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
on 26 May 1426, together with 34 others including his brother, Robert, and the four-year-old King Henry VI. On 4 July 1429 he was granted livery
Livery
A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...
of his lands. In 1431 he was appointed to the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
. During the 1430s and 1440s Oxford was involved in local politics in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, being appointed to various commissions in Essex and serving as a Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. In February 1435 he was licenced to travel to the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, although there is no evidence that he actually did so.
In July 1436 Oxford mustered his retainers at Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich, Kent
Sandwich is a historic town and civil parish on the River Stour in the Non-metropolitan district of Dover, within the ceremonial county of Kent, south-east England. It has a population of 6,800....
for an expedition to relieve the Siege of Calais by the Duke of Burgundy. On 23 July 1437 he was summoned to attend the funeral of Queen Joan at Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
. In June 1439, with Cardinal Henry Beaufort and other envoys, he was appointed a commissioner to treat of peace with France. On 16 May 1441 he sailed from Portsmouth
Portsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
to France with the Duke of York
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Richard Plantagenêt, 3rd Duke of York, 6th Earl of March, 4th Earl of Cambridge, and 7th Earl of Ulster, conventionally called Richard of York was a leading English magnate, great-grandson of King Edward III...
, who had been appointed Lieutenant-General and Governor of France and Normandy. In June 1450 Oxford was among the noblemen appointed to act against Jack Cade's
Jack Cade
Jack Cade was the leader of a popular revolt in the 1450 Kent rebellion during the reign of King Henry VI in England. He died on the 12th July 1450 near Lewes. In response to grievances, Cade led an army of as many as 5,000 against London, causing the King to flee to Warwickshire. After taking and...
Kentish rebels.
In the late 1440s Oxford extended his political influence in East Anglia to Norfolk. He was regularly appointed a Justice of the Peace there, and in 1450, after the fall from power of William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk
William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk, KG , nicknamed Jack Napes , was an important English soldier and commander in the Hundred Years' War, and later Lord Chamberlain of England.He also appears prominently in William Shakespeare's Henry VI, part 1 and Henry VI, part 2 and other...
, Oxford, together with John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, and Sir John Fastolf, challenged the influence of Suffolk's supporters in that county. By the spring of 1451, however, Suffolk's associates had regrouped under the leadership of Thomas, Lord Scales and the widowed Duchess
Alice de la Pole
Alice de la Pole, Duchess of Suffolk was an English Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.Alice was born Alice Chaucer, daughter to Thomas Chaucer and Matilda Burghersh. Her grandfather was the poet Geoffrey Chaucer. When she was 11 she married Sir John Philip. The couple lived briefly at...
, and by 1452 leading members of Suffolk's affinity such as Sir Thomas Tuddenham and John Heydon were again being appointed to office.
As national politics became increasingly divided during the 1450s, Oxford did not immediately take sides, although he was a member of the Council while the Duke of York
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Richard Plantagenêt, 3rd Duke of York, 6th Earl of March, 4th Earl of Cambridge, and 7th Earl of Ulster, conventionally called Richard of York was a leading English magnate, great-grandson of King Edward III...
was Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
in 1553-54 during Henry VI's
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
period of mental breakdown, and on 28 May 1454, together with 6 other peers and his brother, Sir Robert Vere, undertook to keep the seas for three years. In May 1455 he and the Duke of Norfolk both arrived a day too late to take part in the Battle of St Albans
First Battle of St Albans
The First Battle of St Albans, fought on 22 May 1455 at St Albans, 22 miles north of London, traditionally marks the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, defeated the Lancastrians under Edmund, Duke of Somerset, who was killed...
. It was not until 1459 that Oxford committed himself to Queen Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou
Margaret of Anjou was the wife of King Henry VI of England. As such, she was Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471; and Queen consort of France from 1445 to 1453...
against the Duke of York. In December of that year and in April 1460 he was appointed to lead anti-Yorkist commissions of array
Commission of Array
A Commission of Array was a commission given by English royalty to officers or gentry in a given territory to muster and array the inhabitants and to see them in a condition for war, or to put soldiers of a country in a condition for military service...
in Essex, and by May 1460 his eldest son, Sir Aubrey Vere, who had recently married Anne, the daughter of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham
Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG , an English nobleman, great grandson of King Edward III on his mother's side, was best known as a military commander in the Hundred Years' War and in the Wars of the Roses....
, was reported to be ‘great with the Queen’.
After the Yorkist victory at the Battle of Northampton
Battle of Northampton (1460)
The Battle of Northampton was a battle in the Wars of the Roses, which took place on 10 July 1460.-Background:The Yorkist cause seemed finished after the previous disaster at Ludford Bridge...
in July 1460, Oxford appears to have suffered from ill health. In November of that year he was exempted, ‘in consideration of his infirmities’, from appearing in person before the King or in Council or Parliament. If he was feigning illness in order to maintain a low profile in the face of the new Yorkist regime under King Edward IV
Edward IV of England
Edward IV was King of England from 4 March 1461 until 3 October 1470, and again from 11 April 1471 until his death. He was the first Yorkist King of England...
, the ploy was unsuccessful. In February 1462 Oxford was arrested, together with his son Aubrey and Sir Thomas Tuddenham, his former opponent in Norfolk and now a fellow Lancastrian loyalist, and convicted of high treason before the Constable of England, John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester
John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester KG , English nobleman and scholar, was the son of John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft and Joyce Cherleton, co-heiress of Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton. He was also known as the Butcher of England...
. On 26 February 1462 Oxford was beheaded on Tower Hill
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is an elevated spot northwest of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Formerly it was part of the Tower Liberty under the direct administrative control of Tower...
, and buried in the church of the Austin Friars in London. His eldest son, Aubrey, had been executed six days earlier, and Oxford was therefore succeeded by his second son, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford , the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Howard, was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses...
.
Marriage and issue
Oxford married, between 22 May and 31 August 1425, Elizabeth Howard (c.1410-1475), the only child and heiress of Sir John Howard, 7th Lord Plaiz (c.1385/6 - c.1409), and his wife Joan Walton, the daughter of John Walton of WivenhoeWivenhoe
Wivenhoe is a town in north eastern Essex, England, approximately south east of Colchester. Historically Wivenhoe village, on the banks of the River Colne, and Wivenhoe Cross, on the higher ground to the north, were two separate settlements but with considerable development in the 19th century the...
, Essex. They had five sons, Sir Aubrey Vere, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford , the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Howard, was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses...
, Sir George Vere, Sir Richard Vere and Thomas Vere, and three daughters, Isabel (wife of William Bourchier), Joan (wife of Norris), and Mary.
Oxford's daughter Joane or Jane was the maternal grandmother of Gertrude Tyrell.