Alphonse was the third son of Robert de Vere, 5th Earl of Oxford and apparently died shortly before 20 December 1328, when a writ was issued for inquisitions post mortem into the land that he held direct from the King.

The manors concerned were Aston Sandford, Buckinghamshire, Westwick by St Albans and Great Hormead, Hertfordshire, as well as property at Beaumont and Althorne in Essex.

[2] When the 6th Earl's son died without issue in 1329, he obtained licence from the king to entail his estates on his nephew, John.

[6] Fearing a French invasion of England, Oxford was made responsible for the defence of London and the Essex coast.

[6] After a period in England, de Vere returned to the continent in 1342, where he served with Northampton, who had been made lieutenant of Brittany.

Tradition has it that, returning to England, their ships were forced ashore by bad weather, and the party was robbed of their possessions by the locals.

According to the chronicler Froissart, de Vere was fighting with the Black Prince, and was among the captains who sent a request to Edward III for reinforcements when the king famously answered 'Let the boy win his spurs'.

Alongside the earls of Suffolk and Salisbury, Oxford commanded a large force of one thousand men that marched up the Dordogne valley and invaded the great viscounty of Turenne.

Oxford's men captured numerous towns and castles in Turenne, garrisoning them to launch raids into the surrounding provinces until they were bought out in the fall of 1357.

[2] In Brittany in 1342, the retinue had grown to forty men-at-arms, one banneret, nine knights, twenty-nine esquires, and thirty mounted archers.

[18] At one point, in the Battle of Poitiers, John Hawkwood, who was later to make his fortune as a condottiero in Italy, also served with de Vere.

[20] This obstacle of resources and status John de Vere was unable to overcome either by marriage or warfare.