John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford

79
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford bigraphy, stories - English military commander

John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford : biography

8 September 1442 – 10 March 1513

John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford KG KB (8 September 1442 – 10 March 1513), 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. He contributed to King Henry VII’s victory at the Battle of Bosworth and became one of the great men of the King’s regime.

Service under Henry VII

According to Gunn, Oxford was ‘immediately recognized as one of the great men of Henry VII’s regime’. His attainder was repealed, he was restored to his estates and titles, and received many appointments and grants, including appointment as Lord Admiral on 21 September, and chief steward of the Duchy of Lancaster south of Trent and Constable of the Tower of London on 22 September 1485. He was also appointed the first Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard. He was sworn of the Privy Council, and recognized as Hereditary Lord Great Chamberlain of England. As Lord Great Chamberlain he officiated at the coronations of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, bearing the king’s train at the coronation and setting the crown upon the king’s head at the coronation banquet. By 1486 he had been invested with the Order of the Garter. He was present at most great court occasions, and stood godfather to the king’s eldest son, Arthur, Prince of Wales, in 1486, bestowing on his godson a gift of a pair of basins with a cup of assay, all gilt..

Nor were Oxford’s fighting days over. In 1487, he commanded the vanguard at Stoke, the last battle of the Wars of the Roses, was in Picardy in 1492, and in 1497 was one of the commanders against the Cornish rebels at Blackheath. He presided as Lord High Steward at the trial of the Earl of Warwick on 21 November 1499.. By 1499, Oxford’s yearly landed income had risen to £1600. He entertained the king regularly on his progresses. However, Sir Francis Bacon’s story that Henry VII imposed an enormous fine on the Earl for illegally bringing together more than the allowed number of retainers to welcome the king is likely apocryphal..

Marriages

Oxford married firstly, Margaret Neville, the daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, by Alice, the daughter of Thomas Montagu, 4th Earl of Salisbury. Oxford’s first wife was the sister of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker..

Margaret Neville died between 20 November 1506 and 14 January 1507, and Oxford married secondly Elizabeth Scrope, the widow of his colleague William, 2nd Viscount Beaumont, and daughter and coheir of Sir Richard Scrope, the second son of Henry, 4th Baron Scrope of Bolton, by Eleanor, the daughter of Norman Washbourne..

He is said to have had an illegitimate daughter, Katherine de Vere (d. after 20-06-1504), who married Sir Robert Broughton, ‘one of the richest non-baronial landowners in England’. Broughton appointed the 13th Earl as supervisor of his will.

Sir Robert Broughton and Katherine de Vere had two sons and a daughter:

  • John Broughton (d. 24 January 1518) Retrieved 2 June 2013. Retrieved 1 June 2013. of Toddington, Bedfordshire, who married Anne Sapcote (d. 14 March 1559),After the death of John Broughton, Anne (née Sapcote) married secondly Sir Richard Jerningham (d.1525), and thirdly John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. the daughter and heir of Sir Guy Sapcote by Margaret Wolston, daughter and heir of Sir Guy Wolston, and by her had a son, John Broughton (d.1528), and two daughters, Katherine Broughton (d. 23 April 1535), who was the first wife of William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Effingham, and Anne Broughton, who married, as his second wife, by dispensation dated 24 May 1539, Sir Thomas Cheyney. Retrieved 1 June 2013.
  • Robert Broughton.
  • Margaret Broughton, who married Henry Everard, by whom she had several children, including Elizabeth Everard, who married Sir William Clopton (d. 6 October 1568) of Liston Hall, Essex.

Last years

On the accession of King Henry VIII Oxford continued in high favour, and officiated as Lord Great Chamberlain at the coronation. He resided at Wivenhoe and Castle Hedingham in Essex, and added to the 12th-century keep of the latter and constructed a new great hall and several towers. His jousting helm is in the Bargello in Florence. According to Gunn, he ‘kept an outstanding chapel choir’, and commissioned Caxton’s edition of The Four Sons of Aymon in 1489. Oxford also kept a playing company whose recorded performances span the years 1492-1499..