Sir Francis Vere

Sir Francis Vere
Portrait of Sir Francis Vere
Born	c. 1560
Died	28 August 1609
Buried	Westminster Abbey
Noble family	De Vere
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Dent
Father	Geoffrey Vere
Mother	Elizabeth Hardekyn

Sir Francis Vere (1560/61 – 28 August 1609) was an English soldier, famed for his military career in the Low Countries.

Francis Vere, born about 1560, was the second son of Geoffrey Vere of Crepping Hall, Essex, a younger son of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Trussell. His mother was Elizabeth Hardekyn (d. December 1615), daughter of Richard Hardekyn (d.1558) of Wotton House near Castle Hedingham. He had three brothers, John Vere (c. 1558 – 1624) of Kirby Hall near Castle Hedingham, Robert Vere (b. 1562), and Sir Horatio Vere (b. 1565), and a sister, Frances Vere (born 1567), who married, as his second wife, the colonial adventurer and author Sir Robert Harcourt (1574/5–1631), of Nuneham on 20 March 1598.

The young Francis Vere first went on active service under Leicester in 1585, and was soon in the thick of the war raging in the Low Countries. At the siege of Sluys he greatly distinguished himself under Sir Roger Williams and Sir Thomas Baskerville.

In 1588 he was in the garrison of Bergen op Zoom, which delivered itself from the Spanish besiegers led by the Duke of Parma by its own good fighting. Vere as a result of his heroic deeds was Knighted by Lord Willoughby on the field of battle.