Biographical material for
John de Vere II
13th Earl of Oxford
Signature of John de Vere
13th Earl of Oxford
Arms of John de Vere
13th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere was the
second but eldest surviving son of John de Vere, twelfth earl, and
his wife Elizabeth Howard, suo
jure
baroness Plaiz, and cousin of Sir John Howard, created Duke of
Norfolk by Richard III. His father, John de Vere, was arrested with
his eldest son Aubrey on a charge of arranging for a Lancastrian
landing on the east coast and executed on Tower Hill on 20 Feb. 1462.
Aubrey leaving no issue by his wife Anne Stafford (d. 1472), daughter
of the first Duke of Buckingham, John, who was the second son, became
thirteenth earl.
John de Vere petitioned
the king in the parliament of 1463-4 for the reversal of the
attainder and forfeiture of the Duke of Ireland, which had been
procured in 1388 'by the straunge meanes and gret power' of Henry,
earl of Derby, acting with others, and confirmed by him when he
became king after having been reversed in 1397. His prayer was
granted with a salvo for the king and some other holders of lands
affected. Oxford figured among the 'knights of the Bath' created on
23 May 1464 for the queen's coronation. Nevertheless, he fell under
suspicion of conspiring with the Lancastrians, and was thrown into
the Tower in November 1468. He obtained his release, however, before
7 Jan. 1469. On the king's return to London in the autumn from
Middleham Castle, where he had been virtually the prisoner of the
Earl of Warwick, Oxford was noticed to be out of favour. He followed
Warwick into France the next year, and, returning with him in
September, took a leading part in the restoration of Henry VI. He had
the satisfaction of passing sentence of death as constable upon John
Tiptoft, earl of Worcester, who in that capacity had condemned his
father and brother in 1462. After being very active in precautions
against Edward's landing in the eastern counties, Oxford fought
against him at Barnet, where, as high constable, he led the van. He
routed Hastings on the king's left and drove him off the field, but
his men 'fell to ryfling,' which prevented him from bringing
assistance to the hard-pressed Warwick until it was too late, and,
though some of his followers were brought back into action, their
silver 'mullet' badges were mistaken in the mist for Edward's sun
'with stremys,' and their own party fired upon them. The earl and his
men cried 'Treason! treason!' and fled from the field.
Oxford succeeded in
escaping to France. Early in 1473 he fitted out a small squadron at
Dieppe, carrying a force variously estimated at 397 and 80 men, and,
accompanied by his brothers George and Thomas and by Lord Beaumont,
landed near St. Osyth in Essex on 28 May, but re-embarked on the
approach of a royal force under the Earl of Essex. A few days later
he was reported off Thanet, and on 30 Sept. he seized St. Michael's
Mount in Cornwall. Orders were sent to Henry Brodugan of Brodugan,
'the chief ruler' in those parts, to drive him out. But Bodrugan, who
seems to have been a very lawless personage, allowed him to revictual
the castle. The king in December transferred the command to John
Fortescue, the sheriff of the county, with four ships and nine
hundred men (exaggerated by William Worcester into eleven thousand).
Despite which the siege dragged on for nearly two months longer,
until Oxford, finding his men were being successfully tampered with,
agreed to surrender on promise of their lives. He was sent to the
castle of Hammes, near Calais, and attainted early in 1475. His wife
had to depend on charity and her needle until the king in 1481
granted her £100 a year. After three years' confinement, Oxford
'lyepe the wallys and wente to the dyke, and into the dyke to the
chynne; to whatt entent I can nott telle; some sey, to stele away and
some thynke he wolde have drownyd hymselffe'. Richard III was on the
throne before he succeeded in escaping (by August 1484), with the
help of Sir James Blount, the governor of Guines and Hammes, with
whom he joined the Earl of Richmond in Paris, leaving a garrison in
Hammes to hold it for Richmond. When Hammes was threatened from
Calais, Oxford came to its relief and obtained leave for the garrison
to depart with bag and baggage.
Landing with Henry in
Wales in the summer of 1485, Oxford acted as captain-general of his
army, and would naturally command its right wing at Bosworth. It was
a successful movement of his which decided Lord Stanley to abandon
his attitude of neutrality, and the continuator of the Croyland
history eulogises him as a 'most valiant soldier.'
Oxford had no reason to
complain that Henry showed himself ungrateful. His attainder was
reversed, and the hereditary chamberlainship of England restored to
the family after being in other hands for close upon a century.
Before the end of 1485 he became a privy councillor, and was made
constable of Rising Castle and of the Tower of London, high steward
of the duchy of Lancaster (south of Trent), steward of the forests of
Essex, and admiral of England, Ireland, and Aquitaine. He helped to
execute the office of high steward at Henry's coronation. Framlingham
and other forfeited estates were bestowed upon him, he was made K. G.
before April 1486, and the stream of lucrative offices did not cease
to run in his direction.
Oxford led the van of
the royal army at the battle of Stoke, but Polydore Vergil must be
mistaken in stating that he commanded the troops sent to Flanders in
1489. He had probably in his mind the expedition to Picardy in 1492,
when Oxford commanded the van. Henry in his will, made a few months
before, appointed Oxford one of his executors. In the following years
he received additional posts of profit in his own county of Essex.
When the Cornish rebels came up to London in June 1497 he cut off
their retreat at Blackheath.
In the summer of 1498
Oxford entertained the king for about a week, and to this occasion is
generally referred the well-known story of his incurring a heavy fine
of fifteen thousand marks by collecting a large body of retainers
with his badge and livery in his anxiety to receive Henry at Castle
Hedingham with proper honour. But Bacon only speaks of it as a report
that had come down to his day, and the amount of the fine sounds incredible.
Oxford was hight steward
for the trial of the Earl of Warwick in November 1499. Towards the
end of the reign infirmities and private business kept him from
court, but he spent some days with the king at Statford and Greenwich
in July 1508. His last appearance in a public capacity was as a
commissioner of array in Essex in January 1513. He died on 10 March
following, and was buried in the priory at Earls Colne. He had made
his will on 10 April 1509. Oxford was twice married. His first wife
(about 1465) was Margaret, sixth daughter of Richard Neville, earl of
Salisbury. She was living after 1488 and was buried at Colne. His
second wife was Elizabeth, widow of William, second viscount Beaumont
(d. 19 Dec. 1507), Oxford's old companion on St. Michael's Mount,
who, losing his reason in 1487, spent his last years under his
friend's care at Wivenhoe. She made her will on 30 May 1537, and,
dying on 26 June in the same year, was buried with her first husband
at Wivenhoe. By her he had no issue, and his only child by his first
wife, John de Vere, died young, a prisoner in the Tower during his
father's exile. Oxford's dignities passed to his nephew John,
fourteenth earl, son of his brother, Sir George Vere.
Lightly edited from "Dictionary of National Biography" by Stephen Leslie, published 1895.
Tower of London
Here John de Vere, the
thirteenth earl of Oxford,
was constable and keeper of
the king's lions.
