John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere 15th Earl of Oxford,
painting by Daniel Mytens

John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford (before 1490 – 21 March 1540) was an English peer and courtier.

Biography

John de Vere was the son of John de Vere and Alice Kilrington (alias Colbroke), and the great-grandson of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, succeeding his second cousin, John de Vere, 14th Earl of Oxford.

John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford was the first protestant earl of Oxford. He was Esquire of the body in 1509, knighted by Henry VIII in 1513, and in attendance to Henry VIII during meetings with the French King Francis I of France and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1520. In 1529, he had a life grant of the great chamberlainship and signed the lords' petition against Wolsey. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1527 and became a royal councillor in 1531. Oxford bore the crown at Anne Boleyn's coronation, but later served on commissions trying her and her alleged lovers in 1536 and also the panels for the Courtenay conspiracy trials in 1538.

The Earl was the patron of the Lord Chamberlains's players, a dramatic troupe that acted John Bale's plays, from 1537. A Venetian report in 1531 asserted '[that he was] a man of valour and authority … and it is his custom always to cavalcade with two hundred horse’ (CSP Venice, 1527–33, 295). He died on 21 March 1540 and was buried at Castle Hedingham."

Family

The 15th Earl of Oxford married twice:

First, Christian Foderingey (b. circa 1481, d. in or before 1498, the daughter of Sir Thomas Foderingey (circa 1446–1491), Lord of South Acre and his wife Elizabeth Doreward (c.1473–1491) the granddaughter of John Doreward (d. 1420) serjeant-at-law and Speaker of the House of Commons. They had no children.

Second, Elizabeth Trussell, the daughter of Sir Edward Trussell of Kibblestone, Staffordshire and, Margaret Dunn. They had seven children:

1. Elizabeth de Vere (b. circa 1512), who married Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy of Chiche and had issue.
2. John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford (b. 1516, d. 3 Aug 1562), who married firstly, Dorothy Neville, daughter of Ralph Neville, 4th Earl of Westmorland, secondly, Margery Golding, and had issue from both marriages.
3. Frances de Vere (b. circa 1517, d. 30 Jun 1577), who married of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey and was mother of the fourth Duke of Norfolk
4. Aubrey de Vere, whose grandson, Robert would be the 19th Earl of Oxford
5. Robert de Vere (b. circa 1520)
6. Anne de Vere, (b. circa 1522, d. circa February 1572), who married Edmund Sheffield, 1st Baron Sheffield of Butterwick
7. Geoffrey de Vere (b. circa 1523), who married Elizabeth Hardkyn, daughter of Sir John Hardkyn

Ancestry

Ancestors of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford

8. Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford

4. Robert de Vere

9. Alice Sergeaux

2. John de Vere

10. Sir Hugh Courtenay

5. Joan Courtenay

11. Philippa Arcedekne

1. John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford

6. Walter Kilrington

3. Alice Kilrington

References

• Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, (2005), 744.

Peerage of England
Preceded by John de Vere	Earl of Oxford 1526–1539	Succeeded by John de Vere