Maud de Ufford

Maud de Ufford, Countess of Oxford (1345/1346 – 25 January 1413) was a wealthy English noblewoman and the wife of Thomas de Vere, 8th Earl of Oxford. Her only child was Robert de Vere, 9th Earl of Oxford, the favourite of King Richard II of England. In 1404 in Essex, she took part in a conspiracy against King Henry IV of England and was sent to the Tower of London; however, she was eventually pardoned through the efforts of Queen consort Joanna of Navarre.

She resided in the village of Great Bentley in Essex.

Maud was born in Ireland sometime in about 1345 or 1346. Her parents were Sir Ralph de Ufford, Justiciar of Ireland and Maud of Lancaster, widow of William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster. Maud was their only child and heiress, although she had a uterine half-sister, Elizabeth de Burgh, who was the suo jure Countess of Ulster.

On 9 April 1346, Maud's father died in Kilmainham. Sir Ralph had been an incompetent Justiciar, and was disliked by the Irish. Maud, who was a baby, and her mother fled to England. Sometime between 8 August 1347 and 25 April 1348, Maud's mother became a canoness at the Augustine Abbey of Campsey in Suffolk.

Sometime before 10 June 1350, when she was still a child, she married Thomas de Vere, son and heir of John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford and Maud de Badlesmere. He would succeed to the title of 10th Earl in 1360; henceforth, Maud was styled as the Countess of Oxford. The marriage produced one son: