Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford
Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford (* around 1115; † December 26, 1194 ) was an English nobleman who was involved in the succession dispute between King Stephen and Empress Matilda in the mid-12th century, called the anarchy .
Life
He was the son of Aubrey II. De Vere , Master Chamberlain , and Alice de Clare, daughter of Gilbert de Clare . In 1136 or 1137 he married Beatrix de Bourbourg, daughter of Henri, castellan of Bourbourg († 1168), and granddaughter and heiress of Manassès , Count of Guînes . After the death of Manassès in 1137, Aubrey traveled to Guînes , paid homage to Dietrich von Alsace , Count of Flanders , and was confirmed as Count of Guînes from the right of his wife ( iure uxoris ).
On May 15, 1141, Aubrey inherited his father, who had been killed by a mob in the dispute between Stephan and Matilda in London. King Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141, so Aubrey was now paying homage to Matilda. His brother-in-law Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex, seems to have obtained an earldom to Aubrey in July 1141, which was confirmed by their son Henry Fitz Empress in Normandy . Its charter provided that Aubrey de Vere should receive the title of Earl of Cambridge unless Cambridgeshire was held by the King of Scotland , in which case he should have the choice of four other titles. When the case occurred, Aubrey opted for that of an Earl of Oxford . When King Stephen was released from captivity in late 1141, Geoffrey de Mandeville made peace with him, and Aubrey de Vere appears to have done the same.
In 1143, however, the king arrested the Earl of Essex and Oxford at St Albans . Both were forced to hand over their castles to the king in order to regain their freedom. Essex retaliated by rebelling against the king; but it appears that Oxford did not actively or openly support his brother-in-law in this.
Meanwhile, his marriage to Beatrix de Bourbourg seems to have not been consummated because of Beatrix's poor health. Sometime between 1144 and 1146, Oxford and his father-in-law agreed to divorce Beatrix, whereby Aubrey de Vere also renounced the title of Earl of Guînes. In 1151 at the latest he married Euphemia, and King Stephen and Queen Mathilda gave him the estate of Ickleton in Cambridgeshire as Euphemia's dowry. The marriage was short-lived, as Euphemia had died in 1154 without any descendants; she was buried at Colne Priory in Earls Colne . On May 3, 1152, Queen Mathilda died in Hedingham Castle, Aubreys Castle. In the winter of 1152/53, de Vere took part in Stephen's siege of Wallingford Castle , where in 1153 he signed important documents as "Earl Aubrey".
In 1162 or 1663 he married Agnes of Essex , daughter of Henry of Essex , Constable of England and Lord of Rayleigh . At the time, Agnes was believed to be 12 years old. Shortly after the wedding, Aubrey's father-in-law was charged with treason, fought, and lost the legal battle. Until 1165, Aubrey tried to have the marriage annulled, allegedly because Agnes was engaged to his brother Geoffrey de Vere, but more likely because her father had fallen out of favor and had been ruined. Oxford "forbade his wife to shut up and not allow her to go to church or go out and refused to live with her," the Bishop of London said in a letter to the Pope about the case after the young Countess appealed the Roman Curia had applied. The Pope endorsed Agnes' position in validating the marriage, but the earl continued to refuse to take her back as his wife. Agnes' friends turned to the Bishop of London and ultimately to Pope Alexander III. who directed the bishop in 1171 or 1172 to order Oxford to restore Agnes' marital rights or excommunicate him if he refused .
Oxford had four sons from Agnes, Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Earl of Oxford , Ralph de Vere, Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford and Henry de Vere, and the daughter Alice de Vere.
In the Civil War of 1173/74 Oxford helped fend off Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester , who landed with a troop on September 29, 1173 in Suffolk .
In 1184 he received the guardianship of Isabel de Bolebec, the daughter of Walter de Bolebec but not transferred the administration of their property. In 1190 he paid 500 marks for the right to marry her to his eldest son and heir, Aubrey de Vere, later 2nd Earl of Oxford. She is not to be confused with her aunt Isabel de Bolebec (1164-1245), widow of Henry de Nonant, Lord of Totnes , and daughter of Hugh de Bolebec, Lord of Whitchurch ( Buckinghamshire ), who was Robert de Vere, later 3 The Earl of Oxford married.
On September 3, 1189 Aubrey de Vere participated in the coronation of King I. Richard part. He died on December 26, 1994 and was buried in Colne Priory. Agnes survived in and was later buried by his side.
literature
- L. Shopkow (Ed.): Lambert de Ardres : The History of the Counts of Guines and Lords of Ardres. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.
- George Edward Cokayne : The Complete Peerage . Volume 10, St. Catherine Press, London 1945.
- David Crouch: Vere, Aubrey (III) de, count of Guînes and earl of Oxford (d. 1194). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X .
- RaGena C. DeAragon: The Child-bride, the Pope, and the Earl. The Marital Fortunes of Agnes of Essex. In: Donald F. Fleming, Janet M. Pope (Eds.): Henry I and the Anglo-Norman World. 2007, ISBN 978-1-84383-293-5 , pp. 200-216.
Individual evidence
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Manassès |
Count of Guînes (de iure uxoris) 1137 – around 1145 |
Arnold I. |
| New title created |
Earl of Oxford 1141-1194 |
Aubrey de Vere |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | de Vere, Aubrey, 1st Earl of Oxford |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Oxford, Aubrey de Vere, 5th Earl of |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English nobleman |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1115 |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 26, 1194 |