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| Born in 1627, the son of the 19th Earl and a Dutch lady, Beatrix van Hemmend. His father was killed at the siege of Maastricht when Aubrey was only six. He was educated in Holland and served in a British regiment in Holland until 1651 when he came to England and was involved in various Royalist plots during Oliver Cromwell's tenure of office. Eventually he was imprisoned in the tower and his estates confiscated.
After the Restoration he was hoping to be made Lord Chamberlain but it was not to be. As a compensation he was offered the post of Colonel of the Royal Horse Guards. This regiment was called Colonel Unton Croke's Regiment of Horse but as Croke was a Roundhead he was replaced as commanding officer by Daniel O'Neill. The livery of the Earl of Oxford was blue and this has traditionally been given as the reason why the Blues wore that colour uniform. De Vere was a man of loose morals and was very much a part of court life. He held parties that sometimes became quite rowdy and violent. Pepys did not like him. A popular story has it that he secretly married an actress and had a trumpeter and kettle-drummer from the Blues to act as parson and clerk. De Vere was officially married twice. His second marriage produced one daughter who married the Duke of St Albans, an illegitimate son of Charles II. As he was a staunch Protestant, so that although he worked closely with the Duke of York to build up the army he was temporarily replaced as Colonel when James II came to the throne. He supported the replacement of James by William and Mary so that after the Glorious Revolution his position was restored. He held the post until his death on 12th March 1703. |
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