OXFORD(a)[1] or OXENFORD (County of).
[Edgar Atheling, only s. and h. of Edward the Outlaw, the s. and h. of Edmund "Ironside,” Anglo-Saxon King Of England (1016), is sometimes said to have been confirmed as Earl of Oxford, after the Conquest, by William I., such Earldom having been, according to Milles (Cat. of Honour), granted to him by King Harold. This statement, however, appears to be utterly groundless, and is not mentioned by Brooke, who, doubtless, had he ventured to do so, would have been promptly contradicted by Vincent.]
Earldom(b)[2]I. 1142,
confirmed,
1155.1. AUBREY DE VERE, Great Chamberlain of England, s. and h. of Aubrey de Vere(c)[3], also Great Chamberlain (no constituted(d)[4] 1133) by Adeliza, da. of Gilbert de Clare, was b. about 1120; suc. his father, May 1141, in the vast estates of the family in Essex, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Middlesex, and having m. (before her grandfather's death) Beatrice(e)[5], suo jure Countess of Guisnes grandda. and heir of Manasses, Countess of Guisnes (who d. s.p.m. about 1139), she being da, and h. of his only child (Rose or Sybil, who d. v.p), by Henry, Castellan of Bourbourg, became in her right COUNT OF GUISNES,(f)[6]
- ↑ (a) Facsimiles of the signatures of seven of these Earls (the xiith to the xviiith, (1417-1625) "Oxenford" are given in Doyle's "Official Baronage," where also is that of the xxth Earl (1632-1703) as "Oxford." While ns to the omitted Peer (the xixth Earl), Mr. James Round, M.P., possesses a letter of him, signed Oxenford.
- ↑ (b) The very masterly work of J. H. Round, entitled "Geoffrey de Mandeville," (See vol. vi. p. 86, note "n‚" sub. "Lincoln") gives a full account of the Earldoms created in the reign of Stephen. There also will be found (pp. 388-396, "appendix U,") the correct pedigree of the de Vere family, which is hopelessly confused by Dugdale and his followers. In this interesting appendix the origin of the quarterly coats of de Vere, Say, Beauchump and Clavering and perhaps of Lucy and Sackville are shown to have originated in consequence of alliances, temp. Stephen, with the great family of Mandeville, the result being that "once adopted they remain till they meet us in the recorded blazons of the reign of Henry III. The natural inference from this conclusion is that the reign of Stephen was the period in which heraldic bearings were assuming a definite form." The boar, which was one of the early cognizances of the De Vere family (being subsequently adopted as a crest and supporter) was a pun on the family name from the Intin "Verres." The French transformed this "Verres to "asper," and the translators thereof looked on "dper" as synonymous with "asper." Hence the 1st Earl of Oxford (Albericus aper) was spoken of as "Albry the Grymme," a name assigned to him on his monument, and one which Leland says was given him "for the greatness of his stature, and sterne looke." See J. G. Nichole's "Earldom of Oxford" in vol. ix. of the "Journal of the Archaeological Institute." The family motto "Vero nil Verius" is also allusive, and perhaps is of a higher class than the above named pig pun.
- ↑ (c) This Aubrey was the s. and h. of another Aubrey de Vere, who as "Albericus de fer" held, at the time of the Domesday survey, the estates subsequently held by his grandson the 1st Earl. He is, however, not to be confused with the "Comes Albericus," also of the Domesday survey; see p. 82. sub. "Northumberland" Earldom, 1080-85, and note thereto. The name Ver was probably from Ver in the Bessin, not from Vire, a place of which Hugh, Earl of Chester, was Castellan, temp. Will. I. See Nichols's "Earldom of Oxford," as in note "h."
- ↑ (d) See Round's "Mandeville" (as in note "b") p. 390 note 1.
- ↑ (e) See Round's "Mandeville" (as in note "b") p. 397, Appendix V., as to her descent from William of Arques, half of whose lands in Kent she held.
- ↑ (f) "Leland has a fabulous pedigree ex libello genealogie comitum Oxoniensium tracing the Veres in a male line of Erles of Genney alias Gisney [Counts of Guisnes] from Milo, Duke of Angiers, living in the year 800. This is founded of course on the connection with the Counts of Guisnes, which is related in the text. After a string of princely alliances it terminates with a fictitious marriage between Albery de Vere, Erle of Genney, who came over at the conquest and Beatrice, a sister of the Conqueror. It is to be regretted that Arthur Collins in his Historical Collections on the noble families of Cavendish, Holles, Vere, Harley and Ogle (folio 1762) has given some credence to this forgery." [Nichols's Earldom of Oxford as in note "b."]
