Aubrey de Vere (abt. 1087 - 1141)

Born about 1087 in Hedingham, Essex, England

Husband of Alice (Clare) de Vere — married 1102 in Suffolk, England

Descendants

Died 9 May 1141 at about age 54 in London, England

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Biography

Aubrey II de Vere is a member of the House of De Vere.

Lord Great Chamberlain of England

Aubrey II was in high favor with King Henry I, and by that monarch (on the occasion of his leaving England) was constituted, in 1133 at Fernham, as Great High Chamberlain of England - to hold the same in fee to himself and his heirs. He replaced Robert Malet, Lord of Eye in Suffolk, who had been banished and disinherited from that office.

The title given was meant to be hereditary and all subsequent holders of this office were his descendents. However, throughout the later middle ages, there were various periods when the de Vere family fell out of favor with the Crown, and didn't properly regain the LGC title until after Richard III's defeat at Bosworth Field.

Son and successor of Aubrey (Albericus) de Vere 'senior,' and Beatrice, Aubrey II, eldest son of Albericus, succeeded his father on his death.

While serving as joint sheriff of Surrey, Cambridge, Essex, and other counties, Alberic was slain during a popular uprising or riot in London on May 15, 1141. He was buried in Colne Priory. Aubrey II left four sons, Aubrey III, Robert, Geoffrey and William, and was succeeded by his eldest, Aubrey de Vere III.

Burial: indications are that he was buried in Colne Priory, Earls Colne, Braintree District, Essex, England with other de Vere family members. But years ago the de Vere family tombs were moved to St. Stephen's Chapel in Bures which is in Suffolk a few miles northeast of Earls Colne. Alton Rogers received an e-mail on February 29, 2008 from Robin King, Rector of Bures Parish Church who stated "The de Vere family memorials (tombs) are in St. Stephens Church, a mile from the centre of Bures village."

Timeline

1125: acting joint-sheriff of London

In 1125 Aubrey was made joint Sheriff of London. Together with Richard Basset, the two men held the shrievalty of eleven counties 'ut custodes' for the crown.

1180: in conjunction with Richard Basset, holding shrievalty of eleven counties 'ut custodes' for crown. ... indebted for an enormous sum to the crown for allowing a prisoner to escape, and for permission to resign the shrievalty of Essex and Hertfordshire.

Sep 1131: among magnates attending council of Northampton

1133: on the king leaving England for the last time, Aubrey was given at Fernham the office of great chamberlain for himself and his heirs.

1136: at Stephen's court as chamberlain early in the year , and was with him at Clarendon not long afterwards.

1139: Stephen had to defend his arrest of the bishops before a council. He selected Aubrey to advocate

William of Malmesbury describes Aubrey as 'causidicus' and practised in (legal) cases.

• (unproven) 'chief justiciar of England.' Foss couldn't find proof. The states rests on an assertion by his son William's tract 'De miraculis S. Osythae' .

Family^[1]

There has been much confusion as to Aubrey's marriage and children. By his wife Alice, daughter of Gilbert (Fitz Richard) de Clare -- who survived him twenty-two years, retiring as a widow to St. Osyth's Priory -- he left, besides Aubrey, his successor, 3 sons:

Geoffrey: 1142: promised by the empress the fief of Geoffrey Talbot, and who, afterwards marrying the widow of William Fitz Alan, held a Gloucestershire fief in her right, besides a Shropshire one in 1166

Robert: 1142: promised by the empress a 'barony' of equal value, and who held a small Northamptonshire fief in 1166

William: 1142: promised reversion to chancellorship, and was identical with the writer of the tract, a canon of St. Osyth's.

Of Aubrey's daughters:

Rohese m.1 Geoffrey, first earl of Essex [q.v.]; m.2 Payne de Beauchamp of Bedford

Alice m.1 Robert of Essex; m.2 Roger Fitz Richard of Warkworth.

Hedingham Castle

Aubrey II was responsible for building the great castle-keep at Hedingham. The Archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeuil, was his architect. The castle, which is the best preserved Norman keep in Europe, is faced with Ashlar stone, which was transported all the way from the quarries of Barnack in Northamptonshire.

This was a complex operation, of great expense to Aubrey, but it guaranteed that the castle could withstand all kinds of weather and considerable bombardment, as well as making it handsome and impressive to look at. Very few Norman Castles were faced with stone as at Hedingham; normally, only the doors and windows were faced with cut stone.

Tales of the First Crusade

Aubrey II participated in the First Crusade in 1098.

Legend has it that while Aubrey was fighting in the gruesome battle for Antioch against the troops of the Sultan of Persia's, the sky was darkening with the close of day, and there was confusion on the battlefield.

Just when the Saracens were taking advantage of the darkness, a brilliant five-pointed star appeared [either in the sky, or on the flag being carried by de Vere's men].

The battlefield was said to have been illuminated, and a great victory was won over the Sultan's troops. This apocryphal story is probably told in attempt to explain the unique heraldic symbol of the Vere line - the five pointed mullet star.

Alternately the single silver star on the Vere arms may represent the Star seen by the Magi, as described in the Gospels. The symbol is just as likely to derive from the spur, as the star, but in any case it is likely a remembrance of Aubrey II's involvement in the crusade to take back the Holy Land.^[2]

Research Notes

Estimated Dates: "about 1087", based on his older brother Geoffrey's birth in 1086.^[3] This c1087 birth year replaced the previous date of about "30 Jul 1082", which was from Jim Weber's website (see comments).

His Wikidata entry has the birth year of 1080, but no source for it.^[4] Therefore, the Wikidata database error was marked as false.

A caution received when saving the changes notes that the "spouse's birth date (Clare-21 born 1093) should not be more than 80 years or less than 10 years before the marriage date (1102)." They could have been contracted to marry in 1102, which would not have been uncommon for the time. The text does not reference a source for the 1102 date; it may have been based on the previous birth year of 1082. The earliest birth year on profiles attached as children is 1110 (as of 18 February 2024), which works with both her birth in 1093 and his in 1087.

His Wikidata entry does not give a marriage year. For the marriage, it cites the Wikidata entry for Alice de Claire and his entry in thepeerage.com^[4] - neither of which has a marriage year, although thepeerage.com gives his birth year as 1090, citing Cokayne:

• G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume IX, page 585.

Note: I'll need to see if I can look it up, but if I recall, another source citing Cokayne had his birth "before 1090". ~ Noland-165, 18 February 2024

• Genealogics has birth before 1090; text says "Aubrey was born before 1090, possibly around 1080, the eldest surviving son of Aubrey I de Vere and his wife Béatrice" (but not citing Cokayne).
• MedLands has "[before 1090]" for birth also (no source; Cawley uses brackets to indicate uncertainty). It gives his death date as 15 May 1141.

His Wikidata entry has 15 May 1141 as his death date.^[4] His Dictionary of National Biography entry has 9 May 1141.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 58: Vere, Aubrey de (d.1141) by John Horace Round - https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Dictionary_of_National_Biography,_1885-1900/Vere,_Aubrey_de_(d.1141)
2. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
3. ↑ As noted in the Wikipedia article for his father (accessed 18 February 2024), citing "Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum II, p. 100, no. 981".
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Wikidata: Item Q434657 (accessed 18 February 2024).

See also:

• John fitz Geoffrey, entry in the database Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families by Charles Cawley © Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2000-2017.

See also:

• Medieval Lands, database online, author Charles Cawley, (Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2006-2013), England, Earls created 1138-1143, Chapter 9, Oxford: A. EARLS of OXFORD 1142-1526 (VERE) 2. Aubrey de Vere II

• Phillips, Weber, Kirk and Staggs, Families of the Pacific Northwest, by Jim Weber, database online, rootsweb.com

• 500-Year De Vere Pedigree by the De Vere Society

• Aubrey de Vere II, database online, (accessed 17 Dec 2014), Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• Farrer, William & Brownbill, J. The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (Archibald Constable and Co. Limited, London, 1906) Vol. 1, Page 300

• www.findagrave.com, Aubrey de Vere II (1080-1141), Find A Grave: Memorial #74123348