John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere
Earl of Oxford
Spouse(s) Dorothy Neville
Margery Golding

Issue

Noble family De Vere
Father John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford
Mother Elizabeth Trussell
Born 1516
Died 3 August 1562 (aged 4546)
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England
Buried Castle Hedingham, Essex

John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford (1516 3 August 1562) was born to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussell, daughter of Edward Trussell. He was styled Lord Bolebec 1526 to 1540 before he succeeded to his father's title.

Career

While never of consequence in the Tudor court,[1] the 16th Earl's support for Queen Mary was instrumental in her accession to the throne in 1553,[2] though he was given no preferment by her.[3] During her reign he was active as the principal magnate in Essex.[4]

Family

He married first Dorothy Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland in Holywell, Shoreditch, London on 3 July 1536, and second Margery Golding in Belchamp St Paul on 1 August 1548.[5] Dorothy Neville (died c. 6 January 1548),[6] His two marriages produced three children. With his first wife, Dorothy, he had Katherine de Vere, who married Edward Windsor, 3rd Baron Windsor. With Margery he had a son, Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and a daughter, Mary de Vere. Margery died on 2 December 1568. After his death in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, he was buried in Castle Hedingham, Essex, on 31 August 1562.

Cultural pursuits

The Earl was known as a sportsman, and like several noblemen of his day, he retained a company of actors. The troupe, known as Oxford's Men, was retained by the Earl from 1547 until his death in 1562.[7][8] His circle included the scholar and diplomat Sir Thomas Smith and his brothers-in-law, the poets Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield, and the translator Arthur Golding.[9]

References

  1. Nelson, Alan H. (2003), Monstrous Adversary: the life of Edward de Vere,17th Earl of Oxford, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-678-8, p. 33.
  2. MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1984), The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield of Brantham, Royal Historical Society, pp. 263–4, 266.
  3. Loades, David (1989), Mary Tudor: A Life, Basil Blackwell, pp. 181–184.
  4. Nelson, 23.
  5. Essex Record Office T/R 168/2
  6. Nelson 2003, p. 15.
  7. Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1923) II: 99.
  8. Nelson, pp. 13, 239.
  9. Ward, Bernard M. (1928), The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550–1604: From Contemporary Documents, John Murray, p. 10.

External links

Peerage of England
Preceded by
John de Vere
Earl of Oxford
15401562
Succeeded by
Edward de Vere


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