Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford

Richard de Vere
Earl of Oxford
Battle of Agincourt, 15th century miniature
Born(1385-08-15)15 August 1385
Hedingham Castle, Essex, England
Died15 February 1417(1417-02-15) (aged 31)
Earls Colne, Essex, England
BuriedEarls Colne, Essex, England
Noble familyDe Vere
Spouse(s)Alice Holland
Alice Serjeaux
IssueJohn de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford
Sir Robert Vere
Sir Richard Vere
FatherAubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford
MotherAlice Fitzwalter
Arms of Sir Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, KG

Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford KG (15 August 1385 – 15 February 1417) 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 for their part in the Southampton Plot, and was one of the commanders at Agincourt in 1415.

Career

Richard de Vere, born 15 August 1385, was the eldest son of Aubrey de Vere, 10th Earl of Oxford, and his wife Alice Fitzwalter, daughter of John, 3rd Baron Fitzwalter, by Eleanor Percy, daughter of Henry de Percy, 2nd Baron Percy.[1] The 10th Earl died on 23 April 1400 while Richard was underage. His wardship was initially granted to his mother, but after her death on 29 April 1401, King Henry IV granted it to his mother-in-law, Joan de Bohun, Countess of Hereford.[2] Oxford had livery of his lands on 21 December 1406 without proof of age.[3]

From 1410 onwards Oxford was appointed as a commissioner in Essex on various occasions, and in November 1411 was a Trier of Petitions from overseas in Parliament.[citation needed]

In August 1412 Oxford was among those who sailed to Normandy under Thomas of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Clarence, to aid the Armagnac party against the Burgundians. According to Pugh, the members of the nobility who accompanied the Duke of Clarence on this expedition did so in hope of financial gain, Oxford's earldom, in particular, having suffered from forfeitures and attainders during the lives of his predecessors which had made him 'the poorest member of the English higher nobility'.[4] Another member of the Duke of Clarence's expedition was Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, and three years later, on 5 August 1415, Oxford was among the peers at the trial, presided over by the Duke of Clarence, which condemned to death Cambridge and Lord Scrope for their part in the Southampton Plot on the eve of Henry V's invasion of France.[5] A few days later Oxford sailed to France with the King, and was one of the commanders at Agincourt on 25 October 1415.[6]

In May 1416 Oxford was invested with the Order of the Garter, and in that year sailed with the fleet to relieve Harfleur, taking part in the naval battle at the mouth of the Seine on 15 August.[7]

Oxford died on 15 February 1417, aged 31, and was buried at Earls Colne, Essex. His widow, Alice, married Sir Nicholas Thorley, of London, Bobbingworth, Essex, and Sawtres (in Thundridge), Hertfordshire, Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire, 1431–2. He served in the contingent of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. He and his wife, Countess Alice, presented to the churches of Badlesmere, Kent, 1421, Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire, 1422, and St Erme, Cornwall, 1432. In October 1421 he was brought before a court consisting of the Regent, Beaufort, the Chancellor, Treasurer, Privy Seal, Justices of either Bench, and others of the council, and acknowledged that he had married the widowed Countess of Oxford without the king's permission. The Chancellor took into the king's hands all of the lands of the Countess until he made a fine for their recovery, and sent him to the Tower in irons, where he remained until February 1424, when the Countess had paid a full year's value of her lands. Alice obtained a papal indult for plenary remission in 1426. In November 1426 he and his wife, Alice, were fully pardoned for having married without royal licence. In 1436 he and John Robessart, Knt. owed 110 marks to Lawrence Downe, Gent. In 1440 he and his wife, Alice, Countess of Oxford, John Passheley, and John Marny, Esq., sued John Balle, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, yeoman, in the Court of Common Pleas regarding a debt. Sir Nicholas Thorley died on 5 May 1442. His widow, Alice, Countess of Oxford, died on 18 May 1452, and was buried at Earls Colne, Essex.[8]

Marriages and issue

Oxford married twice:

Footnotes

  1. ^ Richardson II 2011, p. 210; Richardson IV 2011, p. 270; Ross 2011.
  2. ^ Ross 2011.
  3. ^ Cokayne 1945, p. 234.
  4. ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 54–6, 99.
  5. ^ Pugh 1988, pp. 123, 181, 184.
  6. ^ Cokayne 1945, p. 235.
  7. ^ Cokayne 1945, p. 235; Ross 2011.
  8. ^ Cokayne 1945, p. 236.
  9. ^ Ross 2011; Cokayne 1945, p. 235; Stansfield 2008; Richardson IV 2011, p. 271.
  10. ^ Richardson IV 2011, p. 271; Cokayne 1945, pp. 235–236; Castor 2004.
  11. ^ Richardson I 2011, p. 9.
  12. ^ Richardson IV 2011, pp. 271–3; Richardson II 2011, pp. 326–7.
  13. ^ Richardson IV 2011, pp. 15, 273.

References

  • Cokayne, George Edward (1945). The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A. Doubleday. Vol. X. London: St. Catherine Press.
  • Castor, Helen (2004). Vere, John de, twelfth earl of Oxford,(1408–1462), magnate. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  • Pugh, T.B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Alan Sutton.
  • Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ISBN 1449966373
  • Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ISBN 1449966381
  • Richardson, Douglas (2011). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, ed. Kimball G. Everingham. Vol. IV (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) ISBN 1460992709
  • Ross, James (2011). "Vere, Richard de, eleventh earl of Oxford (1385–1417), magnate and soldier". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/101270. Retrieved 11 September 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Stansfield, M.M.N. (2008). Holland, John, first earl of Huntingdon and duke of Exeter (c.1352–1400), magnate and soldier. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  • Works related to Aubrey de Vere at Wikisource: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885–1900, Volume 58
Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Oxford
1406–1417
Succeeded by