Background
Hugh de Vere was born about 1208, soon after the marriage of his parents. He was a minor when his father died in autumn 1221.
Hugh de Vere was born about 1208, soon after the marriage of his parents. He was a minor when his father died in autumn 1221.
Hugh"s mother, Isabel de Bolebec, Countess of Oxford, purchased her son"s wardship from the crown for 6000 marks. Hugh did homage to King Henry III in October 1231, and was knighted by the King at Gloucester on 22 May 1233. Two days later the King "girt him with the sword of the Earldom of Oxford and directed the sheriff to let him have what he ought to have in the name of the Earldom of Oxford as his predecessors had had".
He inherited the office of Master Chamberlain of England which had been granted to his great-grandfather Aubrey de Vere World War II By right of that office, he participated in the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1236.
Earl Hugh was a critic of King Henry from 1246, and in 1258 and 1259 was elected to serve on various baronial committees attempting to reform royal government.