A Biography of Edward De Vere, 17Th Earl of Oxford, from Documentary Evidence
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OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 1 ________________________________________________________________________ IDENTIFYING EDWARD DE VERE: A BIOGRAPHY OF EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL OF OXFORD, FROM DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE INTRODUCTION Portrayals of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, in print, on film, and on the internet in the last century contain inaccuracies of both fact and interpretation. This biography attempts to separate fact from fiction, and is based, insofar as possible, on primary sources. Transcriptions of many of these primary source documents can be found on the Documents page of this website: http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/documents.html The biography contains numerous page references to B.M. Ward’s The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford 1550-1604 From Contemporary Documents, and to Alan Nelson’s Monstrous Adversary. Nelson closely followed Ward, and these page references will permit readers to see where the two accounts diverge and interpretations differ. Both are accessible online. Throughout the biography, references to entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography identify persons with whom the Earls of Oxford interacted. In the absence of references to these ODNB entries, many of these individuals would otherwise be unknown to most modern readers who are not historians of the period, and their connections to the Earls of Oxford would be obscured. The ODNB is available online by subscription. Some of the material on the 17th Earl of Oxford in this biography can also be found in the Wikipedia entry for him, as that Wikipedia entry is largely the result of an extensive edit in November and December 2010 by the author of this biography. Wikipedia entries for several other Earls of Oxford and for Elizabeth Trussell were also edited ca. 2010-13 by the author of this biography. Unlike Ward’s and Nelson’s biographies, this biography does not ignore the hypothesis that Oxford was the author of the Shakespeare canon. Nor does it ignore the possibility that Oxford was the author of other works. In the biography below the evidence for Oxford’s authorship of these works is presented, and the reader is invited to make his own judgment. Copyright ©2010-2021 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 2 ________________________________________________________________________ Spelling and punctuation have been modernized in most quotations. All errors are the responsibility of the author. Copyright ©2010-2021 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 3 ________________________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: ANCESTORS John de Vere (1408-1462), 12th Earl of Oxford John de Vere (1442-1513), 13th Earl of Oxford John de Vere (1499-1526), 14th Earl of Oxford John de Vere (c.1482-1540), 15th Earl of Oxford John de Vere (1516-1562), 16th Earl of Oxford PART II: OXFORD’S LIFE A. WARDSHIP B. COMING OF AGE AND MARRIAGE C. FLIGHT TO THE LOW COUNTRIES D. FOREIGN TRAVEL E. COURTIER F. FINANCIAL DECLINE G. REMARRIAGE AND SUITS TO THE QUEEN H. FINAL YEARS PART III: LITERARY REPUTATION PART IV: HEIRS AND INHERITANCE A. OXFORD’S WIDOW, ELIZABETH TRENTHAM B. OXFORD’S CHILDREN 1. Henry de Vere, 18th Earl of Oxford 2. Elizabeth Vere 3. Bridget Vere 4. Susan Vere 5. Sir Edward Vere LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BIBLIOGRAPHY Copyright ©2010-2021 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 4 ________________________________________________________________________ PART I: ANCESTORS Edward de Vere (1550-1604), 17th Earl of Oxford, was heir to the oldest1 continuously inherited earldom in England.2 The ancestral seat of the de Veres was Castle Hedingham in Essex, built in the late 11th and early 12th centuries, whose magnificent Norman keep still survives. The Earls of Oxford also held manors throughout East Anglia, most notably at Wivenhoe on the River Colne, and at Colne Priory,3 where the chapel housed the monuments of early Earls of Oxford. During Oxford’s lifetime, the lands of the earldom were sold, for reasons which are still not entirely clear. Sir George Buck4 considered it ‘divine ordinance’: And in much [shorter time than his] life’s time, that great and stately [earldom of Oxenford, with the] very opulent and princely patri[mony was dissipated] and wasted, and it was very suddenly and swiftly used and consumed, and como sal en agua, [as the Spaniar]ds say in the refrain. But not by the fault of the Earl then lord thereof, but rather by the fate of the divine ordinance. For certainly the Earl was a devout and a magnificent and a very learned and religious [nobleman,] and so worthy in every way, as I have heard some grave and [di]screet and honourable persons (who knew this Earl from his youth and could very well judge of the hopefulness and the springtimes of young 1 May claims the Oxford earldom was the second oldest in the kingdom. See May, Steven W., ‘Early Courtier Verse; Oxford, Dyer and Gascoigne’, in Cheyney, Patrick, ed., Early Modern English Poetry; A Critical Companion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 61. 2 Ross, James, John de Vere, Thirteenth Earl of Oxford (1442-1513), (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press, 2011), p. 14; Ward, B.M., The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford 1550-1604 From Contemporary Documents, (London: John Murray, 1928), p. 3. URL: https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.176090/page/n23/mode/2up 3 Colne Priory was founded in or before 1111 by Aubrey de Vere I (died c.1112), a tenant in chief of William the Conqueror, and his wife, Beatrice, after the death of his son Godfrey (died c.1104). Aubrey de Vere I was succeeded by his second, but eldest surviving son, Aubrey de Vere II (c.1085-1141), who married Adeliza, the daughter of Gilbert fitz Richard of Clare, by whom he was the father of Aubrey de Vere III (c.1115- 1194), created 1st Earl of Oxford in 1141. See: 'Houses of Benedictine monks: Priory of Earl's Colne', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 2, ed. William Page and J Horace Round (London, 1907), pp. 102-105. British History Online http://www.british- history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol2/pp102-105. See also 'Earls Colne: Manors and other estates', in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 10, Lexden Hundred (Part) Including Dedham, Earls Colne and Wivenhoe, ed. Janet Cooper (London, 2001), pp. 92- 94. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol10/pp92-94. 4 Kincaid, Arthur, “Buck [Buc], Sir George (bap. 1560, d. 1622)”, ODNB. Copyright ©2010-2021 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 5 ________________________________________________________________________ men) say and affirm that he was much more like to raise and to acquire and to establish a new earldom than to decay and waste and lose an old earldom. And in a word, he was a Vere in deed as in name, vere nobilis. For he was verily and truly noble, and a most noble Vere.5 Buck was right to conclude that the decline of the earldom cannot be attributed solely to the 17th Earl. The seeds were sown several generations before he came of age and gained control of his lands, during which time the De Vere family endured financially crippling wardships,6 the failure of the 13th and 14th Earls to produce male heirs, and other political and financial reverses. The 12th Earl John de Vere (1408-1462), 12th Earl of Oxford7, and his eldest son and heir, Aubrey de Vere (d.1462), were casualties of the Wars of the Roses although the 12th Earl was not an openly committed Lancastrian supporter. The Earl was a minor at his father's death on 15 February 1417. His wardship was granted to Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter,8 the youngest of the three illegitimate sons of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.9 Exeter defended the Lancastrian regime during the reign of Henry IV, was one of Henry V’s most trusted commanders, and was appointed governor of the King’s infant son, Henry VI.10 In 1425, while still a minor, the 12th Earl married Elizabeth Howard (1411-1473), heir to her father, Sir John Howard (1385-1410), and her grandfather, Sir John Howard (d.1437).11 Although the Earl claimed the marriage had been arranged by his guardian, it had not been licenced by the infant Henry VI. As a result of this legal technicality, the Earl was fined £2000,12 a severe financial blow if, as the Earl claimed in 1437, his lands were worth only £500 per annum.13 5 BL MS Cotton Tiberius E.X. 6 During wardship, a minor heir’s body, lands and marriage were controlled by parties who profited financially from the arrangement at the expense of the minor heir. For further details, see Green, Nina, ‘The Fall of the House of Oxford’, Brief Chronicles: Vol. 1 (2009), pp. 49-122. URL: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/briefchronicles/. 7 Castor, Helen, “Vere, John de, twelfth earl of Oxford (1408–1462)”, ODNB. 8 Harriss, G.L., “Beaufort, Thomas, duke of Exeter (1377?–1426)”, ODNB. 9 Walker, Simon, “John [John of Gaunt], duke of Aquitaine and duke of Lancaster, styled king of Castile and León (1340–1399)”, ODNB. 10 Harriss, ODNB, supra. 11 Ross, pp. 24, 52. 12 Cokayne, George Edward, The Complete Peerage, (London: The St Catherine Press, 1945), Vol. X, p. 238. 13 Castor, ODNB, supra. Copyright ©2010-2021 Nina Green All Rights Reserved http://www.oxford-shakespeare.com/ OXFORD’S BIOGRAPHY 6 ________________________________________________________________________ After Exeter’s death in 1426, the 12th Earl became the ward of another committed Lancastrian, Henry IV’s third son, John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford,14 until he came of age and was granted livery of his inheritance on 4 July 1429.15 Although the circumstances of his upbringing suggest that the 12th Earl would have developed Lancastrian sympathies at an early age, he remained politically neutral.