| Magna Carta Surety Baron Robert de Vere was one of the twenty-five medieval barons who were surety for Magna Carta in 1215. Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta |
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Robert de Vere was 3rd Earl of Oxford, hereditary Master Chamberlain and one of the Surety Barons for the Magna Carta.[1][2][3]
Robert was the son of Aubrey de Vere and Agnes, daughter of Henry de Essex.[1][2][3] His birth date is uncertain but may have been after 1164.[1][2] Frederick Lewis Weis gives a baptism year of 1164 but there appears to be no good evidence for this.[4]
After 1206, Robert de Vere married Isabel de Bolebec, daughter of Hugh Bolbec and wife, and widow of Henry de Nonant.[1][2][5] Robert paid the Crown at least part of a fine for the marriage (as she was a widow, King John had the right to determine her marriage).[3] Robert and Isabel had at least two children:
Through his wife, Robert held half of the Barony of Whitchurch, based in Buckinghamshire.[3][6]
Little is known of Robert's life before his marriage, apart from witnessing charters.[3]
1214 he witnessed a letter in which King John promised free elections to episcopal sees and abbacies.[1] In October that year he succeeded to the lands of his brother Aubrey[2][3], paying 1000 marks to King John for this and a wardship[1][3], but King John seems to have held back the title of Earl of Oxford: in January 1215 Robert witnessed a royal charter with his name but no title of Earl.[3] Robert's inheritance included the Barony of Hedingham, based in Essex.[7]
In the spring of 1215 he was one of the main participants in the rebellion against King John, and, when the Magna Carta was issued, he was one of the Surety Barons.[1][2][3] Within a few weeks he finally had royal recognition of his right to be Earl of Oxford.[3] In December 1215, along with other rebel barons, he was excommunicated.[1][2][3] In March 1216 King John's forces captured his castle at Hedingham.[1][3] Following this Robert swore allegiance to John[1][3], but this did not stop him being one of the barons who continued in rebellion and gave allegiance to Louis of France later in the year.[1][3]
Robert finally returned to allegiance to the English Crown in October 1217.[1][2][3] His lands were restored.[3] In 1220 he was an itinerant justice in Herefordshire[1][2][3] and he was a judge in the royal court at Westminster the next year.[1][3]
Robert died before 25 October 1221 and was buried at Hatfield Priory, Essex.[1][2][3] After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, his effigy was transferred to the parish church of Hatfield Broad Oak.[3]
Robert has previously been shown on WikiTree as father of Eleanor, wife of Ralph Gernon. No reliable evidence has been found for this.
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that Robert de Vere and Isabel de Bolebec had just one child, Hugh.[3] The author of that entry has posted on Eleanor's profile that she has found no evidence that they had a daughter called Eleanor, or a child who married Ralph Gernon.
Douglas Richardson[2][8] and Medlands[5] both state that they also had a daughter Eleanor, who married Ralph Gernon. They cite Farrer's Honors and Knights' Fees, which states that "Sir Ralph [Gernon] was twice married, his first wife being Eleanor daughter of Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford..."[9] The citation given by Farrer is a Gernon pedigree in the 1899 volume of Collections for a History of Staffordshire which shows Ralph Gernon married first to "Eleanor dau. of Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford" and second to "Hawisia (Tregoz)."[10] No source is given for this information, and it cannot be regarded as reliable.
A Gernon pedigree in William Farrer's Feudal Cambridgeshire does not identify the first wife of Ralph Gernon.[11]
Against this background, Eleanor was detached as daughter.
Lacking sources, the following profiles were detached as children:
For the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta in 2015, Professor Nigel Saul wrote a set of biographies of the Surety Barons. He and the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee generously gave permission for them to be reproduced on WikiTree. They can be viewed here.
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Categories: Early Barony of Hedingham | Magna Carta | Surety Barons | House of De Vere
any objection if I remove Alice & Robert as children and edit birth location from Hatfield, Broad Oaks, Essex, England (where he's buried) to be just Essex, England?
Gabrield Ludlow, immigrated in 1694 to New York. He married Sarah Hanmer. They had seven sons, and five daughters.
Wasn't he, (Gabriel Ludlow-97), Magna Carta badged at one time? Robert De_Vere-309 is the 14th great grandfather of Gabriel Ludlow-97.
Thank you!
- He was Christened in 1164. [2][3]
? Source: #S152 Page: 60-28, 246-27 Source: S152 Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650, 6th ed.,Weis, Frederick (Lewis Publication: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, Maryland, 1988), Note: RIN#10004
? Source: #S150 Page: X 210-216 Source: S150 The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vols. I-XII, Cokayne, George Edward, (St. Catherine Press Ltd., London, 1910-1959).
Thanks
Robert de Vere is written "SIR ROBERT DE VERE" by Richardson in Royal Ancestry, Vol V, page 251.
Regardless that there may be more to it than can be covered here, and this era produces conflicting opinions among experts, it is my opinion WikiTree should continue to use "SIR" unless a question in G2G produces changes in the guidelines.