When Henry died sometime between 2 and 9 June 1625, Robert emerged as the heir apparent to the earldom.[1] Robert's claim was by his descent from the 15th Earl of Oxford, but his title was not immediately confirmed, although his right to the peerage was acknowledged by the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Ranulph Crewe in his celebrated "Time hath his revolutions" judgment. He was considered to have an inadequate estate in England, and only after a long debate in the House of Lords in April 1626 did he eventually secure his title and right to attend Parliament.[2] He subsequently returned to his home in the Low Countries, where he had made a career for himself as a soldier in the Dutch army.[2]
He married Beatrice, or Bauck, daughter of the Dutch nobleman Sierck van Hemmema.[3] In 1632, Robert was killed while taking part in the siege of Maastricht.[2] His title passed to his five-year-old son Aubrey, who would, in turn, become the last in an almost 600-year line of de Vere earls of Oxford.[2]
References
^ abStater, Victor (September 2004), "Vere, Henry de, eighteenth earl of Oxford (1593–1625)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 November 2008
^ abcdStater, Victor (September 2004), "Vere, Aubrey de, twentieth earl of Oxford (1627–1703)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 November 2008
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