OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9th Earl of (1362-1392), English courtier, was the only son of Thomas de Vere, 8th earl of Oxford, and Maud de Ufford, a descendant of King Henry III. He became 9th earl of Oxford in 1371, and married Philippa (d.
1412), daughter of his guardian Ingelram de Couci, earl of Bed ford, a son-in-law of Edward III. Already hereditary great cham berlain of England, Oxford was made under Richard II. a member of the privy council and a Knight of the Garter; while castles and lands were bestowed upon him, and he was constantly in the company of the young king. In 1385 Richard sent him to govern Ireland, but although preparations were made for his journey he did not leave England. The king's partiality for Oxford was one of the causes of the dissatisfaction of the barons. Oxford also made powerful enemies by divorcing his wife, Philippa, and by marrying a Bohemian lady.
The king, however, indifferent to the gathering storm, created Vere duke of Ireland in Oct. 1386, and gave him still more powers in that country. Richard was deprived of his authority for a short time, and Vere was ordered in vain to proceed to Ireland. He was then accused by the king's uncle Thomas of
Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, and his supporters in 1387; and rushing into the north of England he gathered an army to defend his royal master and himself. At Radcot bridge in Oxfordshire, however, his men fled before Gloucester's troops and Oxford him self escaped in disguise to the Netherlands. In the parliament of 1388 he was found guilty of treason and condemned to death, but as he remained abroad the sentence was never carried out. With another exile, Michael de la Pole, duke of Suffolk, he lived in Paris until of ter the treaty between England and France in 1389, when he took refuge at Louvain. He was killed by a boar whilst hunting, and left no children.
See T. Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, edited by H. T. Riley (Lon don, 1863-64) ; J. Froissart, Chroniques, edited by S. Luce and G. Raynaud (Paris, 1869-97) ; H. Wallon, Richard II. (Paris, 1864) ; and W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. ii. (Oxford, 1896).