Biographical material for
John de Vere I
12th Earl of Oxford
Signature of John de Vere
12th Earl of Oxford
His father, grandson of Aubrey de Vere, tenth earl, served in France in 1436 and 1441, acted as one of the English plenipotentiaries at the peace conference of Oye in 1439, and was one of the nobles who undertook in 1454 to keep the seas for three years. He sat in the privy council from that year. He was a strong Lancastrian. In 1455 he was bringing a force to the battle of St. Albans, but did not arrive in time. Shortly after Edward IV's accession he was arrested with his eldest son Aubrey (who, according to one version, betrayed him) on a charge of arranging for a Lancastrian landing on the east coast. They were condemned to death by the constable's court, and executed on Tower Hill on 20 Feb. 1462. His widow (whom he married before 26 June 1429) was living in 1474. Like his successor, Oxford figures largely in the Paston correspondence. His son Aubrey leaving no issue by his wife Anne Stafford (d. 1472), daughter of the first Duke of Buckingham, his second son, John, became thirteenth earl.
Lightly edited from "Dictionary of National Biography" by Stephen Leslie, published 1895.
Tower Hill where John de Vere was beheaded in 1462
