de Vere family coat of arms with a mullet in the first quarter of the shieldCastle Hedingham – the de Vere family seat. The Norman keep is all that remains of the castle in Essex where most of the land was concentratedSusan de Vere, 4th Countess of Pembroke seated with her family, painted by Anthony van Dyck.[1]Diana Cecil, 18th Countess of Oxford, painted by William Larkin.Diana de Vere, 1st Duchess of St Albans, her husband was the son of King Charles II of England, painted by Godfrey Kneller.Diana Kirke de Vere, 20th Countess of Oxford, painted by Peter Lely.
The House of de Vere was an old and powerful English aristocratic family who derived their name from Ver (department Manche, canton Gavray), in Lower Normandy, France.[2]
Among the offices the family held besides that of Lord Great Chamberlain was the forestership of Essex, and they founded the Essex religious houses of Colne Priory, Hatfield Broad Oak Priory, and Castle Hedingham Priory.[6]Macaulay described the family as "the longest and most illustrious line of nobles that England has seen",[7] and Tennyson's poem "Lady Clara Vere de Vere" made the name synonymous with ancient blood.[8]
John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford (1482–1540), first protestant earl of Oxford, known as 'the good earl', patronised a company of players for which he commissioned John Bale to write
Other properties associated with the De Vere family
Bure/Bura, a town split between two counties: the smaller half is in Suffolk, on the north side of the River Stour, known as Bures St Mary − there are the remains of the tombs of the 5th, 8th and 11th earls. The other half is in Essex, known as Bures Hamlet.
^"Take the Hogwarts Express to Suffolk". Evening Standard. 9 August 2017.)
^"Lavenham And Its People". deverehouse.co.uk.
Further reading
Verily Anderson, The De Veres of Castle Hedingham (Terence Dalton, 1993)
Severne A. Ashhurst Majendie, Some Account of the Family of De Vere, the Earls of Oxford, and Castle Hedingham in Essex (Davey, 1904) 2nd edition enlarged
James Ross, John de Vere, Thirteenth Earl of Oxford (1442-1513): 'The Foremost Man of the Kingdom' (Boydell Press, 2011)
External links
Media related to De Vere family at Wikimedia Commons