had hitherto enjoyed from the reign of Henry the First. It was granted to the king's half-brother, John Holand, earl of Huntingdon, (afterwards duke of Exeter,) and it did not return to the Veres until the accession of Henry the Seventh.
On the history of the succeeding earls I shall only add some few remarks. John the twelfth earl was attainted and beheaded in 1461, suffering from his loyalty to his sovereign of the Lancastrian line.
His son John was restored to the dignity in 1464; but was himself attainted in 1474, in consequence of the active part he had taken on the Lancastrian side, during the temporary restoration of Henry the Sixth in 1470; having at that period distinguished himself as the last supporter of the cause of the Red Rose, which he maintained in the castle of St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, for many months after the rest of the kingdom had submitted to Edward IV. He was subsequently imprisoned in the castle of Hammes, in Picardy, where he remained for twelve years. At length, hearing of the preparations making by Henry earl of Richmond, to assert his claim to the throne, he won over the governor of Hammes, sir James Blount, and sir John Fortescue the warden of Calais, and, with them, joined the earl at Montarges in Britany. Having thus been mainly instrumental in bringing Henry to the throne, he was immediately restored to the Earldom of Oxford, and also to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, which he enjoyed until his death in 1513.
On the decease of Henry the eighteenth earl, without issue, in 1625, the Great Chamberlainship descended to heirs female. The succession to the Earldom itself was also disputed. The heir male, Robert de Vere, descended from the fifteenth earl, made claim not only to the earldom, but also to the baronies of Bolebec, Sanford, and Badlesmere,[1] and to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain: whilst Robert lord Willoughby de Eresby also put in a counter-claim to
- ↑ Bolebec had accrued from the marriage of Isabel de Bolebec to Robert the third Earl; Sanford from that of Alice de Sanford to Robert the fifth Earl; and Badlesmere from that of Maud de Badlesmere to John the seventh Earl. Sanford, however, has not been admitted by Dugdale or Nicolas as a barony of the realm: the family held their estates, not per baroniam, but by sergeanty of the queen's bedchamber, which is remarkable, considering the earl of Oxford was the king's hereditary great chamberlain. See Banks' Stemmata Anglicana, 1825, 4to., p. 245.
