John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford (before 1490–1540) was an English peer

Peerage

The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...

 and courtier.

Biography

John de Vere was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilrington (alias Colbroke), and the great-grandson 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,...

, succeeding his second cousin, John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford was the second but only surviving son of Sir George Vere and Margaret, the daughter and heir of Sir William Stafford of Bishop's Frome in Hereford. Custody of his person was granted on 29 May 1514 to Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk...

.

Oxford was Esquire of the body in 1509, knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

ed by Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

 in 1513, and in attendance to Henry VIII during meetings with the French King Francis I of France

Francis I of France

Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...

 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

 in 1520.
In 1529, he had a life grant of the great chamberlainship and signed the lords' petition against Wolsey. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1530 and became a royal councillor in 1531. Oxford bore the crown at Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn

Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...

's coronation, but later served on commissions trying her and her alleged lovers in 1536 and also the panels for the Courtenay conspiracy trials in 1538.

The Earl was the patron of the Lord Chamberlains's players, a dramatic troupe that acted John Bale's

John Bale

John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...

 plays, from 1537. A Venetian report in 1531 asserted '[that he was] a man of valour and authority … and it is his custom always to cavalcade with two hundred horse’ (CSP Venice, 1527–33, 295). He died on 21 March 1540 and was buried at Castle Hedingham

Castle Hedingham

Castle Hedingham is a small village in northeast Essex, England, located four miles west of Halstead and is situated in the Colne Valley on the ancient road from Colchester, Essex, to Cambridge....

."

Family

The 15th Earl of Oxford married twice:

First, Christian Foderingey (b. c. 1481, d. in or before 1498, the daughter of Sir Thomas Foderingey (c.1446–1491), Lord of South Acre

South Acre

South Acre is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. The village has almost disappeared, but the remnants are located about south-west of Castle Acre, north of the town of Swaffham, east of the town of King's Lynn and west of the city of Norwich...

 and his wife Elizabeth Doreward (c.1473–1491) the granddaughter of John Doreward

John Doreward

-Early life:Outside the affairs of parliament, little is known of Doreward. He was apparently the son of William Doreward of Bocking, Essex who was a member of parliament for Essex in the eighteenth and twentieth parliaments of Edward III...

 (d. 1420) serjeant-at-law

Serjeant-at-law

The Serjeants-at-Law was an order of barristers at the English bar. The position of Serjeant-at-Law , or Sergeant-Counter, was centuries old; there are writs dating to 1300 which identify them as descended from figures in France prior to the Norman Conquest...

 and Speaker of the House of Commons. They had no children.

Second, Elizabeth Trussell, the daughter of Sir Edward Trussell of Kibblestone, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

 and, Margaret Dunn. They had seven children:

1. Elizabeth de Vere
2. John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
   John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
   John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford was born to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussel, daughter of Edward Trussel...
   
   
3. Frances de Vere, wife of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
   Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey
   Henry Howard, KG, , known as The Earl of Surrey although he never was a peer, was an English aristocrat, and one of the founders of English Renaissance poetry.-Life:...
   
    and mother of the fourth Duke of Norfolk
   Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk
   Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, KG, Earl Marshal was an English nobleman.Norfolk was the son of the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey. He was taught as a child by John Foxe, the Protestant martyrologist, who remained a lifelong recipient of Norfolk's patronage...
   
   
4. Aubrey de Vere
   Aubrey De Vere
   Aubrey De Vere may refer to:* Aubrey de Vere I * Aubrey de Vere II , master chamberlain of England* Aubrey de Vere III , first earl of Oxford* Aubrey de Vere IV , second earl of Oxford...
   
   , whose grandson, Robert, became the 19th Earl of Oxford
   Robert de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford
   Robert de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford was the second cousin of Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford. When Henry died some time between 2 and 9 June 1625, Robert emerged as the heir apparent to the earldom. Robert's claim was by his descent from John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, but his title was not...
   
   
5. Robert de Vere
6. Anne de Vere
7. Geoffrey de Vere