John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford
| John de Vere | |
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| Earl of Oxford | |
Quartered arms of John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, KG
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| Spouse(s) | Margaret Neville Elizabeth Scrope |
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Issue
Katherine de Vere (illegitimate)
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| Noble family | De Vere |
| Father | John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford |
| Mother | Elizabeth Howard |
| Born | 8 September 1442 |
| Died | 10 March 1513 (aged 70) Castle Hedingham, Essex |
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford KG KB (8 September 1442 – 10 March 1513), the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Howard, was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses.
He was the principal commander of King Henry VII's army at the Battle of Bosworth, and again led Henry's troops to victory at the Battle of Stoke two years later. He became one of the great men of the King's regime.
John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, was born on 8 September 1442, the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (23 April 1408 - 26 February 1462), and his wife Elizabeth Howard (c.1410-1474), the daughter of Sir John Howard and Joan Walton.
In February 1462 the 12th Earl, his eldest son, Aubrey de Vere, and Sir Thomas Tuddenham, the 12th Earl's former political opponent in Norfolk and now a fellow Lancastrian loyalist, were convicted of high treason before John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, Constable of England, for plotting against King Edward IV. The 12th Earl was beheaded on Tower Hill on 26 February 1462, and buried in the church of Austin Friars in London. His son Aubrey had been beheaded on the same scaffold six days earlier.
Pursuing a conciliatory policy with Lancastrian families, King Edward allowed John de Vere to succeed his father, and on 18 January 1464 granted him licence to enter on his father's lands. On 26 May 1465 he was created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Edward IV's wife, Elizabeth Woodville, and officiated at the ceremony as both Lord Great Chamberlain, in the absence of the then office-holder, the Earl of Warwick, and as Chamberlain to the queen. In November 1468, however, he was committed to the Tower, and confessed to plotting with the Lancastrians against the King. He was likely released before 7 January 1469, and received a general pardon on 5 April of that year. However, by early July 1469 Oxford had joined the discontented Yorkists led by his brother-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, and King Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, for the Edgecote campaign. He fled overseas in the following spring to the court of King Henry VI's wife, Margaret of Anjou. In September 1470 he joined Warwick and Clarence in the invasion of England which restored Henry VI to the throne, and on 13 October bore the Sword of State before Henry in a procession to St Paul's. He was appointed Lord High Constable of England, and as such on 15 October tried and condemned for high treason the same Earl of Worcester who had in 1462 condemned Oxford's own father and brother.
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