The Wars of the Roses was packed with remarkable characters – Richard III, Warwick the Kingmaker, Margaret of Anjou, the ‘mad king’ Henry VI, and so on. One of the less familiar, perhaps, is John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford (1444-1513).
John was one of the great survivors of this bloody era, an exceptionally tough and determined man who lived a life out of some unlikely romance. In his time he was earl, pirate, outlaw, exile, general and trusted adviser to two kings. Eventually, after many trials and adventures, he staged a most unlikely comeback to die in his bed at an advanced age.
He had a difficult beginning. His father, the twelfth earl, and elder brother Aubrey, were both executed in 1462 for conspiring against Edward IV. According to some chronicle accounts, they were put to death with exceptional cruelty. This probably explains John’s lifelong hatred of the house of York, as much as his loyalty to the Lancastrians.
Edward tried to reconcile John, allowing him to inherit his father’s earldom and even trying to befriend him, insisting they dine off the same plate together. This cut no ice with the young earl, who was soon engaged in treasonable conspiracy with Edward’s former friend, Warwick, and his estranged brother Clarence.
After initial success the triumvirate were forced to flee to France. There, probably at Oxford’s instigation, Warwick made peace with his old foe, Margaret of Anjou, Henry’s exiled queen. In 1470 these unlikely allies returned to England with an army and turned the tables on Edward, forcing him to escape abroad. Henry was then plucked from the Tower and restored to the throne.
This happy state of affairs did not last long. Edward returned in 1471, triggering another round of bloody dynastic conflict. The two sides met in battle at Barnet, where Oxford played a disastrous role. After overwhelming the Yorkist division of Lord Hastings, Oxford’s men blundered into the rear of Lord Montagu’s men, their own allies. In the fog, Montagu’s soldiers mistook Oxford’s ‘stars with rays’ badge for Edward’s ‘sun and splendour’. Assuming they had been attacked in the rear, they broke and fled, causing the entire Lancastrian army to collapse.
Oxford managed to escape and get to France. In the earl’s absence his lands were attainted (confiscated) and his wife, Margaret Neville, reduced to penury. Meanwhile her fugitive husband turned pirate, attacking Yorkist ships in the Channel. In 1473, after an attempted landing in Essex, he descended upon St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall. This brave but ill-fated effort ended in another failure. After months of bitter siege, Oxford was forced to surrender.
Oxford was imprisoned at Hammes Castle near Calais, where he spent the next twelve years. Meanwhile his elderly mother, widow of the twelfth earl, was forced to resign all her lands to Edward’s brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester. His last ally, the Duke of Clarence, was executed (some say murdered) in 1478, which may have driven Oxford to despair. Shortly afterwards he leaped the walls of Hammes and had to be fished out of the moat; whether this was an attempt at escape or suicide is unclear.
His cause must have seemed hopeless, but everything changed with the unexpected death of Edward in 1483. Richard’s seizure of the crown provoked unrest and enabled the rise of Henry Tudor, an obscure exile. Oxford seized upon this last chance at redemption. He persuaded his gaoler, Sir James Blount, to defect and escape with him to join Henry in Brittany.
When Oxford arrived at Henry’s court, the pretender was said to be ‘ravished with joy incredible’ at securing the services of such an experienced soldier. Oxford’s experience to date had mostly consisted of losing, but he proved his worth in spades at Bosworth field. There, in August 1485, he led Henry’s vanguard and did most of the fighting for his new master, beating back Richard’s van and killing the Duke of Norfolk. This provoked the doomed Yorkist king’s last charge, in which he was dragged down and killed.
This was an astonishing triumph for Henry, now Henry VII, but near-miraculous for Oxford. He recovered all his lands and titles and became a pillar of the new Tudor regime. As Henry’s chief military commander, Oxford proved indispensable, leading the line again at Stoke (1487) and Blackheath (1497). He was also reunited with his long-suffering wife, though the couple had no surviving children. Upon his death in 1513, full of years and honours, the earldom went to his nephew.
David Pilling is the author of Kingbreaker, a new three-part series of novellas. The first episode, Rebel and Traitor, will be released on Kindle on 5 December.
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