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Birth:          ABT 12 Mar 1312 Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Death:          24 Jan 1360 

Notes
ancestry.com
served in France and Spain, Crecy 1340, Poitiers 1356
campaigned against Scots and French
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_de_Vere,_7th_Earl_of_Oxford
John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford (c. 12 March 1312 – 24 January 1360) was the 
nephew and heir of Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford who succeeded as Earl of 
Oxford in 1331, after his uncle died without issue.

John de Vere was a trusted captain of Edward III in the king's wars in Scotland and 
France, and took part in both the Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Poitiers. He died 
campaigning in France in 1360. Throughout his career he was closely associated with 
William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton, who was his brother-in-law.
Family background and marriage[edit]

John de Vere was the only son of Alphonse de Vere, and Jane, daughter of Sir 
Richard Foliot. Alphonse was a younger son of Robert de Vere, 5th Earl of Oxford and 
apparently died shortly before 20 December 1328, when a writ was issued for 
inquisitions post mortem into the land that he held direct from the King. These 
hearings established that Alphonse's next heir was his son John, then aged 15 years 
and more. The manors concerned were Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire, Westwick 
by St Albans and Great Hormead, Hertfordshire, as well as property at Beaumont and 
Althorne in Essex.[1]

Alphonse was a brother of Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford.[2] When the 6th Earl's 
son died without issue in 1329, he obtained licence from the king to entail his estates 
on his nephew, John.[3] It was in this way that John de Vere, when his uncle died 17 
April 1331, became Earl of Oxford. He had made homage and received livery by 17 
May.[4]

In 1336 John married Maud de Badlesmere, who was the second of the four daughters 
of Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere, of Badlesmere in Kent and 
Margaret de Clare. Maud was a co-heiress of her brother Giles de Badlesmere, 2nd 
Baron Badlesmere. When Giles died in 1338, this brought a significant part of the 
Badlesmere inheritance into de Vere's hands. The marriage also forged a strong bond 
with William Bohun, Earl of Northampton, who had married Badlesmere's third 
daughter, Elizabeth de Badlesmere, and thus became Oxford's brother-in-law.[2][5] 
The two campaigned together, sat on the same commissions and died the same year.
[2]

Career[edit]

De Vere's military career began with service on Edward III's Scottish campaigns, in 
the 1330s Second War of Scottish Independence. He took part in the Roxburgh 
campaign of 1334–5, and in the summer campaign of 1335.[2] Later in the decade, 
England's military efforts turned towards France, with the beginning of the Hundred 
Years' War. In March 1340, de Vere served in Flanders, and was therefore out of the 
country during Edward's disputes with Archbishop John de Stratford. Oxford was not 
forced to take sides in the conflict, and has been described as a "political neutral".[6]

After a period in England, de Vere returned to the Continent in 1342, where he served 
with Northampton, who had been made lieutenant of Brittany. They both took part in 
the Battle of Morlaix that year. The next year the two earls were sent to Scotland to 
relieve Lochmaben Castle, and in 1345 they were again campaigning in Brittany. 
Tradition has it that, returning to England, their ships were forced ashore by bad 
weather, and the party was robbed of their possessions by the locals.[2] In the summer 
of 1346 de Vere was campaigning with the king in Normandy, and took part in the 
Battle of Crécy. According to the chronicler Froissart, de Vere was fighting with the 
Black Prince, and was among the captains who sent a request to Edward III for 
reinforcements when the king famously answered 'Let the boy win his spurs'.[2] Oxford 
was also at the Siege of Calais, but reportedly fell ill in 1348, and did not take part in 
any major campaigning until 1355.[2]

In 1355 he was again in the company of the Black Prince, and took part in the 
prince's great raid in Languedoc. 19 September 1356, at the Battle of Poitiers, Oxford 
was in command of the vanguard together with the earl of Warwick. de Vere's attack 
on the flank of the French cavalry, with a group of archers, did much to secure the 
English victory.[2] His last campaign was Edward III's Rheims campaign in 1359–60. 
Here he died, probably during the raid into Burgundy, on 23 or 24 January 1360.[2][7] 
He was buried in the de Vere family's burial place Colne Priory in Essex.[2]

Descendants and assessment[edit]

Maud de Vere died in 1366. The couple had four sons and three daughters.[8] The 
eldest son, John, married Elizabeth Courtenay, daughter of Hugh Courtenay, 10th Earl 
of Devon, but died before his father, in 1350.[9] (After the death of her husband, 
Elizabeth married Sir Andrew Luttrell of Chilton (in Thorverton), Devon.) Another son, 
Robert, also died in his father's lifetime. The eldest remaining son was then Thomas, 
born about 1336 or 1337, who succeeded his father in 1360. Thomas's son Robert de 
Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford succeeded at his father's death, but with Robert's forfeiture in 
1392, the earldom was given to Robert's uncle Aubrey – the seventh earl's fourth son. 
The eldest daughter, Margaret, married three times, while of the second, Matilda, little 
is known.[10] The third daughter, Elizabeth, married Sir Hugh Courtenay, eldest son 
and heir of Hugh de Courtenay, 10th Earl of Devon.[11]

John de Vere, in the family tradition of the "fighting de Veres",[12] was active in 
almost all major military engagements in the years from 1340 to 1360.[13] On the 
Roxburgh campaign he brought a retinue of twenty-eight men-at-arms and twelve 
mounted archers.[2] In Brittany in 1342, the retinue had grown to forty men-at-arms, 
one banneret, nine knights, twenty-nine esquires, and thirty mounted archers.[12] His 
retinue was of a diverse composition, and also included foreign mercenaries.[14] At 
one point, in the Battle of Poitiers, John Hawkwood, who was later to make his fortune 
as a condottiero in Italy, also served with de Vere.[15] Yet in spite of this, de Vere 
never distinguished himself particularly as a military commander. Neither did he 
receive a great amount of royal patronage, and was never made a member of the 
Order of the Garter. This was largely a consequence of the de Vere family's relatively 
modest resources among the English peerage. As an example can be mentioned that 
in the late 1340, £349 were owed to Oxford in arrears for his services, yet at the same 
time the king owed Northampton two debts of £782 and £1237.[16] This obstacle of 
resources and status John de Vere was unable to overcome either by marriage or 
warfare.[2]

Parents
DE VERE Alphonse (ABT 1270 - ABT 20 Dec 1328)
FOLIOT Joan (Jane) (ABT 1268 - )

Siblings
DE VERE John (ABT 12 Mar 1312 - 24 Jan 1360)

Marriage To DE BADLESMERE Maud (1310 - May 1366)
    m. BEF 27 Mar 1335 

Notes

Parents
DE BADLESMERE Bartholomew (18 Aug 1275 - 14 Apr 1322)
DE CLARE Margaret (ABT 1 Apr 1287 - 22 Oct 1333)

Children by DE BADLESMERE Maud 1310 - May 1366
DE VERE Margaret (ABT 1340 - 15 Jun 1398)

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