Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Earl of Oxford

Aubrey de Vere, 2nd Earl of Oxford (c. 1163 – 1214), hereditary Master Chamberlain of England, served in military campaigns under King Richard and King John. He was succeeded in the earldom by his brother, Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford.

Aubrey de Vere, the eldest son and heir of Aubrey de Vere, 1st Earl of Oxford, by his third wife, Agnes of Essex, the daughter of Henry of Essex, lord of Rayleigh, was born in 1163 or later. The first notice of Aubrey de Vere is as a young boy witnessing his father's charters for Colne Priory.

In 1197 Oxford was again with King Richard in Normandy

In 1204 Oxford paid 200 marks for the third penny of Oxfordshire and 'that he might be Earl of Oxford', The title had already been confirmed to his father by Matilda's son, King Henry II and Aubrey III had been acknowledged earl of Oxford by Richard I and John. This payment five years after John took the throne is thus unusual.

In March 1208 Pope Innocent III placed England under an interdict. At the time of the interdict Oxford is said to have been regarded as one of the King's 'evil counsellors'.

In what may have been his last military service, the earl of Oxford was with King John's forces during a nine-week campaign in Ireland from June to August 1210.

Among other appointments, Oxford was Keeper of the manor of Havering in 1208, Sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire from 1208 to 1213, and steward of the Forest of Essex in 1213. On 20 June 1213 he had the King's greyhounds in his charge.

Marriages and issue Aubrey de Vere married twice. His first wife was the heiress Isabel de Bolebec, whose marriage his father had purchased in 1184. She died in 1206 or 1207.

His second wife, Alice, is said to have been a daughter of Roger Bigod, 2nd Earl of Norfolk and thus his second cousin. After Oxford's death his brother and successor, Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford, established Alice's dower by lot, drawing two knights' fees for every one drawn by Alice. She never remarried and outlived her husband by several decades. Earl Aubrey had no surviving issue by either of his wives.

The earl left an illegitimate son, Roger de Vere, who was apparently acknowledged and provided for by his father. Roger died in 1221 at Damietta on crusade.

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