John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford
John de Vere, 16th Earl of Oxford (1516 – 3 August 1562) was born to John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford and Elizabeth Trussel, daughter of Edward Trussel. He was styled Lord Bolebec 1526 to 1540 before he succeeded to his father's title.
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] The Earl was known as a sportsman, and like several noblemen of his day, he retained a company of actors.[5] 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.[6]
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.[7] His two marriages produced three children; Katherine de Vere by his first wife, Dorothy, and Edward de Vere, later the 17th Earl, and Mary de Vere by his second wife, Margery. After his death, he was buried in Castle Hedingham, Essex on 31 August 1562.
He was the patron of the Oxford's Men, a dramatic troupe, from 1555 until his death in 1562.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ 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.
- ^ MacCulloch, Diarmaid (1984), The Vita Mariae Angliae Reginae of Robert Wingfield of Brantham, Royal Historical Society, pp. 263–4, 266.
- ^ Loades, David (1989), Mary Tudor: A Life, Basil Blackwell, pp. 181–184.
- ^ Nelson, 23.
- ^ Nelson, pp. 13, 239.
- ^ Ward, Bernard M. (1928), The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, 1550–1604: From Contemporary Documents, John Murray, p. 10.
- ^ Essex Record Office T/R 168/2
- ^ Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1923) vol. 11, p. 99.
[edit] External links
- His will
| Peerage of England | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by John de Vere |
Earl of Oxford 1540–1562 |
Succeeded by Edward de Vere |
| This biography of an earl in the Peerage of England is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
