Maud Ufford

Maud Ufford (also Maud de Vere, Countess of Oxford ; * around 1345 - † January 25, 1413 in Great Bentley , Essex ) was an English noblewoman.

Maud was the only child of Sir Ralph Ufford , Royal Justiciar of Ireland since 1344 , and of his wife Matilda of Lancaster . Her mother was pregnant in November 1345, but her father died in Ireland in April 1346. Her mother then fled back to England, where her relative King Edward III. took care of their maintenance. From her mother's first marriage, Maud had an older half-sister, Elizabeth de Burgh , who inherited her mother's inheritance claims in Ireland. The five-year-old Maud was married in June 1350 to Thomas de Vere , heir to John de Vere, 7th Earl of Oxford . As the younger daughter of a side branch of the Ufford family, she received only one estate as a dowry . In early 1360, after the death of his father, John de Vere inherited his property and the title of Earl of Oxford , making Maud Countess of Oxford . In 1362 Robert , probably the only child of the marriage, was born, her husband died in 1371. While the underage Robert was the heir to her husband's title and property, Maud as a widow had a lifelong claim to a third of the property. Of the 39 goods her deceased husband had, she finally received 18 as a Wittum . Although her husband was not a particularly wealthy magnate , Maud had an annual income of £ 586 in 1386, so that she could live a fairly comfortable life as a widow and did not have to remarry.

Her son Robert made a steep career as a favorite of King Richard II . When he expelled his wife Philippa de Coucy, Maud took her in 1387. Nevertheless, she continued to stand by her son, even when he was overthrown as a favorite of the king by opposition nobles in 1388 and had to go into exile. She traveled to see him in Brabant and brought him presents there. She had left England without the king's permission and therefore had to officially ask the king for forgiveness on her return. Her son died in exile in 1392, but as the mother of his favorite, Maud was still in high favor with King Richard II after his death. In return, she remained a loyal supporter of the king, even when he was overthrown in 1399 and was then probably murdered. By autumn 1403 at the latest she was convinced that Richard had escaped from captivity in 1400, not dead. She was convinced of this by the appearance of the deceiver Thomas Ward, who pretended to be the king. Along with the abbots of St John's in Colchester and of St Osyth in Essex , she was charged with making preparations for a French attempted invasion of Essex in December 1403. In addition, she is said to have distributed badges with the coat of arms of Richard and claimed that Richard II was still alive and would return to England with an army to recapture his rule. The new King Henry IV had them arrested and their lands were briefly placed under the administration of Sir Peter Buckton . At the intercession of Queen Johanna , Maud was pardoned on November 16, 1404 and was able to return to her property, where she lived in seclusion until her death. According to her will, she was buried in the Bruisyard Franciscan Convent in Suffolk, where her mother died a nun in 1377, rather than in Earls Colne Priory , the traditional burial place of the de Vere family , where her husband and son were buried.

Web links

• James Ross: Maud de Vere, Countess of Oxford (1345? –1413). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Matilda de Ufford on thepeerage.com , accessed February 1, 2016.