John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford

John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, born 23 April 1408[2] at Hedingham Castle, was the elder son of Richard de Vere, 11th Earl of Oxford, and his second wife, Alice, the widow of Guy St Aubyn, and daughter of Sir Richard Sergeaux of Colquite, Cornwall, by his second wife, Philippa (d. 13 Sep 1399),[3] the daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edmund Arundel.

After the death of her grandfather, Sir John Howard of Wiggenhall (c. 1366 – 17 November 1436), Elizabeth inherited lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire.

During the 1430s and 1440s Oxford was involved in local politics in East Anglia, being appointed to various commissions in Essex and serving as a Justice of the Peace in Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.

[9] As national politics became increasingly divided during the 1450s, Oxford did not immediately take sides, although he was a member of the council while the Duke of York was Lord Protector in 1453–54 during Henry VI's period of mental breakdown,[10] and on 28 May 1454, together with 6 other peers and his brother, Sir Robert Vere, undertook to keep the seas for three years.

In December of that year and in April 1460 he was appointed to lead anti-Yorkist commissions of array in Essex, and by May 1460 his eldest son, Sir Aubrey Vere, who had recently married Anne, the daughter of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, was reported to be "great with the Queen".

[13] If he was feigning illness in order to maintain a low profile in the face of the new Yorkist regime under King Edward IV, the ploy was unsuccessful.

[16] Oxford married, between 22 May and 31 August 1425, Elizabeth Howard, de jure Baroness Plaitz in her own right[17] (c. 1410–1475), the only child and heiress of Sir John Howard, 7th Lord and Baron Plaiz (c. 1385/6 – c. 1409), and his wife Joan Walton, the daughter of John Walton of Wivenhoe, Essex and Margery Sutton,[18] by whom he had five sons and three daughters:[19][20] Attribution: