John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford - Career

Career

Sir George Vere died in 1503, leaving a will dated 21 August 1500 which was proved on 3 April 1503. At his father's death John de Vere, who was then a child of four, became a royal ward.

In 1513, de Vere inherited the estates and honours of his uncle, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, who had died at Castle Hedingham on 10 March 1513. On 22 April, he was the chief mourner at his uncle's impressive funeral, at which nine hundred black gowns were given out to the mourners in attendance. The 13th Earl of Oxford was buried at Colne Priory, and at the burial ceremony 'A mounted knight, armed with an axe, was led into the choir by two knights and delivered the axe to the bishop, who gave it to the heir'.

When John de Vere was only twelve years of age, the 13th Earl had married his nephew and heir presumptive to Anne Howard, a daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, Agnes Tilney, a marriage which served the purpose of uniting the families of the two greatest magnates in East Anglia. The marriage settlement was dated 16 November 1511 and the ceremony took place before 1 May 1512. Although the marriage settlement itself does not survive, evidence of its provisions is found in the 13th Earl's will.

On 29 May 1514, Henry VIII, in the exercise of his royal prerogative, treated de Vere's marriage as technically invalid on the grounds that de Vere had been under the age of fourteen at the date of the marriage. As was his prerogative right as king, he offered to de Vere, who by then had succeeded as the 14th Earl and become a royal ward, Margaret Courtenay as a bride. De Vere refused Margaret. The King then granted both de Vere's future marriage and the fine imposed on him for his rejection of Margaret Courtenay to de Vere's father-in-law, Norfolk. At the same time, the King granted to Norfolk, during the 14th Earl's minority, custody of the Earl's lands, as well as the reversion of lands held in dower by the 13th Earl's widow, the Dowager Countess Elizabeth, and the offices of Lord Great Chamberlain of England, Steward of the Forest of Essex, and Constable of Colchester Castle.

The 14th Earl attended Henry VIII at the Field of the Cloth of Gold in June 1520, where he was one of the judges of the foot races. In 1520, he came of age and was granted livery of his lands on 16 August of that year. In 1522, he was in attendance when King Henry met the Emperor Charles V between Dover and Canterbury.

His modern biographer, James Ross, considers the 14th Earl "an incompetent wastrel". In 1523, when he was twenty-four years of age, the King commanded him, through Cardinal Wolsey, to discharge his household and live with his father-in-law, the Duke of Norfolk, and demean himself lovingly towards his wife. He was restricted to a household of only twenty men and women, was not allowed to grant any offices or annuities, and was ordered to "moderate his excessive hunting, drink less wine, not stay up late, eat less meat, and forbear excessive and superfluous apparel".

Nonetheless, the Earl was at court in 1525 and 1526, officiating in June 1525 when the King's illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, was created Earl of Nottingham and witnessing the charter for the creation of Wolsey's college, Cardinal College, on 5 May 1526.

The 14th Earl died on 14 July 1526, aged twenty-six, and was buried at Colne Priory. No trace of his tomb remains. At his death, his office of Lord Great Chamberlain reverted to the crown, as did the Barony of Plaiz.

The 14th Earl left no issue and was succeeded by his second cousin, John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford. Both were great-grandsons of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford.

After the 14th Earl's death, his widow complained to both Cardinal Wolsey and to her brother, Thomas Howard, 3rd Duke of Norfolk, about the 15th Earl's conduct towards her. On 11 August 1526, she wrote to Wolsey alleging that the 15th Earl, Sir John Raynsford and their men had on two occasions broken into the park at Lavenham and killed more than one hundred deer. On 22 August, she wrote to her brother complaining that the new Earl continued to retain possession of Castle Camps. The Dowager Countess was back in possession during the years 1530-34, when she sent several letters to Thomas Cromwell from Castle Camps, in one of which she complained of a certain Alexander Irlam, parson of Belchamp Otten, "who in my lord my husband's time convented with other to have poisoned me".

The Earl's widow survived him for many years, dying before 22 February 1558/59, when she was buried in the Howard chapel in the Church of St Mary-at-Lambeth.

The 14th Earl of Oxford is said to have been referred to as "Little John of Campes" because of his diminutive stature. According to Cokayne, however, "it is much more likely that he was so called because he was a child, and that the other story was invented to account for the nickname".