See also
| Husband: | Aubrey III + of VERE (1120-1194) | |
| Wife: | Agnes + of ESSEX (1151-1212) | |
| Children: | Aubrey IV of VERE (1163-1214) | |
| Robert + of VERE (1164-1221) | ||
| Roger of VERE (c. 1166- ) | ||
| Henry of VERE (c. 1168- ) | ||
| Alice of VERE (c. 1170- ) | ||
| Marriage | 1162 | |
| Name: | Aubrey III + of VERE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Father: | Aubrey II of VERE (1082-1141) | |
| Mother: | Adeliza of CLARE (1082-1163) | |
| Birth | 1120 | Essex, England |
| Occupation | Earl of Oxford | |
| Title | frm 1141 to 1194 (age 20-74) | Earl of Oxford1 |
| confirmed by King Henry II | ||
| Death | 26 Dec 1194 (age 73-74) | |
| Name: | Agnes + of ESSEX | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | Henry + of ESSEX (1098-1170) | |
| Mother: | Cecely + (1101- ) | |
| Birth | 1151 | Essex, England |
| Occupation | Countess of Oxford | |
| Title | Countess of Oxford | |
| Death | 1212 (age 60-61) | |
| Burial | Colne Priory, Essex, England | |
| Name: | Aubrey IV of VERE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1163 | |
| Occupation | Earl of Oxford | |
| Death | 1214 (age 50-51) | |
| Name: | Robert + of VERE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Spouse: | Isabel + of BOLEBAC (1164-1245) | |
| Birth | 1164 | Hatfield, Essex, England |
| Death | 25 Oct 1221 (age 56-57) | |
| Name: | Roger of VERE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1166 (est) | |
| Name: | Henry of VERE | |
| Sex: | Male | |
| Birth | 1168 (est) | |
| Name: | Alice of VERE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 1170 (est) | |
Aubrey de Vere III (c. 1115 – December 1194) was created Earl of Oxford by the empress Matilda in July 1141. He had inherited the barony of Hedingham on the death of his father Aubrey de Vere II in May 1141, when he was already Count of Guînes by right of his wife Beatrice. In July 1141 he was granted an earldom by the Empress Matilda, and was confirmed as the first earl of Oxford by her son King Henry II of England. On the annulment of his first marriage, between 1144–46, he lost Guînes. Earl Aubrey was little involved in national political affairs after this period. His attempt to divorce his third wife, Agnes of Essex, was a celebrated marriage case that Agnes appealed successfully to Pope Alexander III. In 1153 he was present with King Stephen's army at the siege of Wallingford and attested at the Treaty of Wallingford, finally signed at Westminster. Two of his sons by Agnes, Aubrey IV and Robert, became earls of Oxford. Robert, the third earl, was one of the 25 rebel barons who were to hold King John to the terms of Magna Carta. He was buried at the family mausoleum founded by his grandfather, Colne Priory, Essex.
[edit] FamilyThe son of Aubrey de Vere II and Adeliza of Clare, earl Aubrey married three times. His marriage to Beatrice, heiress of Guînes, in 1137 made him count of Guînes by her right on the death of her grandfather but their marriage was annulled 1144–46. His second wife, Eufemia, died in 1153–54, leaving the earl still childless. He and his third wife, Agnes of Essex, had five children, four sons and a daughter: Aubrey, Roger, Robert, Henry, and Alice. The earl had eight siblings, outliving all but his two youngest brothers and youngest sister.
[edit] LandsFrom his father he inherited estates in Essex, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire and Middlesex. These were traditionally assessed at approximately 30 knights' fees.[1]
Agnes of Essex, countess of Oxford (c. 1151 – c. 1212) was the daughter of Henry of Essex and his second wife. She was betrothed at age three to Geoffrey de Vere, brother of the first earl of Oxford, and turned over to the Veres soon thereafter. Agnes later rejected the match with Geoffrey and by 1163 had married his brother Aubrey de Vere III, the earl (died 1194), as his third wife.
After her father's disgrace and forfeiture of lands and offices in that year, the earl sought to have his marriage annulled. Agnes fought the action. On May 9, 1166, she appealed her case from the court of the bishop of London to the pope (the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, being in exile at the time). While the case was pending in Rome, the earl kept Agnes confined in one of his three castles, for which the bishop of London Gilbert Foliot reprimanded Aubrey. Pope Alexander III ruled in her favor, thus establishing the right and requirement of consent by females in betrothal and the sacrament of marriage.
The couple may have co-operated in the founding of a Benedictine nunnery near their castle at Castle Hedingham, Essex. Countess Agnes survived her husband and in 1198 paid the crown for the right to remain unmarried. She died sometime in or after 1212 and was buried in the Vere mausoleum at Colne Priory, Essex.
Many have followed the mistake of antiquarians in believing the third wife of earl Aubrey to have been named Lucia. A woman of this name was prioress at Castle Hedingham Priory. On Lucia's death in the early thirteenth century, a mortuary or 'bede' roll was carried to many religious houses in the region requesting prayers, and in the preface of that document Lucia is called the foundress of the priory. As the countess presumably cooperated with her husband in the founding of the house, the erroneous assumption was made that the prioress was in fact Earl Aubrey's widow.[1]
[edit] ChildrenAgnes bore her husband four sons and a daughter, including two future earls of Oxford: Aubrey IV and Robert I. Her daughter Alice married 1) Ernulf de Kemesech, 2) John, constable of Chester. Their son Henry may have become chancellor of Hereford Cathedral in the bishopric of his uncle, William de Vere, and later a royal clerk under King John of England.[2] Little is known of Roger de Vere except that he may have been the second son and that he had died by 1214, so that his younger brother Robert succeeded to the title on the death of the eldest son Aubrey IV.
| 1 | "Red Book of the Exchequer" (vol 1, pp 352-3). |