asking for his support; Oxford’s reply to Edward’s mes-
senger was, “Go, tell your Duke, that I had rather be an
Earl, and always like myself, than a false and perjured
Duke; and that e’er my oath shall be falsified (as his ap-
parently is) I will lay down my life at me enemy’s foot,
which I doubt not shall be bought very dear.” Serving
as one of Henry’s commanders, Oxford fought for the
Lancastrians at Barnet (4 April 1471), where the earl of
Warwick was killed and the Lancastrians defeated. Ox-
ford fled again from England, this time first to Wales
(not Scotland, as many historians have written) and then
to France.
In exile a second time, Oxford received monetary
aid from King Louis XI of France to conduct raids
against English shipping. He now sided with Edward’s
brother George, duke of Clarence, in his claim to the
throne. In 1473, Oxford’s forces seized the island of St.
Michael’s Mount off the coast of Cornwall, which he
intended to use as a foothold for a second invasion of
England. He waited in vain for additional forces to ar-
rive, and a force sent by Edward captured him. Instead
of imprisoning him in England, however, Edward sent
him to France, and he was incarcerated in the castle of
Hammes, near Calais. Oxford planned an escape, and in
1477, after three years in custody, he jumped over the
walls into the moat but was caught.
In 1484, Oxford formed an alliance with Sir James
Blount, the governor of Hammes, and Sir John Fortes-
cue. The three men approached Henry Tudor, the earl
of Richmond, to form an army and retake the throne of
England, to which Henry had a claim through his de-
scent from John of Gaunt, son of edWard iii. It is writ-
ten that when Henry heard of the plan “he was ravished
with joy incredible.” Oxford swore he would not leave
Henry’s side until the crown was on his head. On 22
August 1485 at Bosworth, Leicestershire, Henry’s army
met the forces of richard iii, who had become king
in 1483. Andrew Kippis writes: “Richmond marshaled
his army, and appointed this Earl [Oxford] to com-
mander the vanguard, consisting of archers. And he be-
haved with such great courage in the battle, that when
they came to the sword, fearing to be encompassed, he
commanded that no soldier should stir above 10 feet
from his colours: and then most valiantly charging the
enemy in [the] form of a wedge, put them to the rout,
in which he flew many, and thereby became one of
the chiefest instruments in obtaining the happy victory
that day.”
Henry marched on London and was crowned as
Henry VII. He restored to Oxford all of his family’s titles
and possessions and reinstated him as lord great cham-
berlain, in addition to bestowing the title of lord admiral
of England. Oxford later fought at Stoke, Nottingham-
shire (16 June 1487), the last battle of the Wars of the
Roses, and helped put down the rising of Baron Audley’s
Cornish troops at Blackheath near London in 1497. He
retired thereafter, having served the Lancastrian side of
the royal family well.
Oxford’s role in the success of the Lancastrian cause
cannot be underestimated. Historian Desmond Seward
writes: “John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, was as unshake-
able Lancastrian as [his brother-in-law Warren] Hastings
was Yorkist. He was the head of England’s most ancient
noble family, a rare example of a great family that stayed
loyal to the House of Lancaster throughout the wars.
He too was something of a hero, a fine soldier with a
shrewd grasp of strategy and tactics.” The last de Vere
to hold the title of earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere (20th
earl), died in 1703. Today it is incorporated in the title
of earl of Oxford and Asquith, now held by the family of
Henry Asquith, prime minister of England from 1908
to 1916.References: “Vere,” in Biographia Britannica; or, The
Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who have flourished in
Great Britain and Ireland... , 6 vols. edited by Andrew
Kippis (London: Printed for W. Walthoe, T. Osborne,
H. Whitridge [et al.], 1793), VI:4026–4027; Seward,
Desmond, The Wars of the Roses and the Lives of Five Men
and Women in the Fifteenth Century (London: Constable,
1995), 14, 340; Elliot, Henry Lettsom, On Some Badges
and Devices of John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, on the
Tower of Castle Hedingham Church (Colchester, U.K.:
Wiles & Son, 1919). oxFoRD, John De veRe, th eARl oF