Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury
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Military service | |
Conflicts | Eighty Years War
Thirty Years War
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Horace Vere, 1st Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565 – 2 May 1635) was an English military officer and peer who served during the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War. A brother of Francis Vere, he was sent to the Electoral Palatinate by James VI and I in 1620. He was subsequently elevated to the peerage of England as "Baron Vere of Tilbury", which became extinct after he died without a male heir.
Family
Horace Vere, born in 1565, was the fourth son of Geoffrey Vere of Crepping Hall,
Military career
Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604)
Vere left home in 1590 to join his two elder brothers, Robert and Sir Francis, in the Netherlands, commencing his service in the infantry company of the latter during his tenure of office as sergeant-major-general. He was wounded
The following year Horace in his brothers absence took command in the field (albeit temporarily) of the English forces in the Netherlands. With Maurice of Orange they took Rheinberg, Meurs, Greonlo, Bredevoort, Enschede, Oldenzaal and Lingen; cities of the eastern Netherlands that created an important barrier.[3]
He commanded three hundred foot at the
Upon the retirement of Sir Francis Vere, Sir Horace took his place in the Netherlands, but at first only the senior of the four colonels of the English companies, the others being Ogle,
The outset of Sir Horace's individual career in the
Dutch service
At the battle of Mülheim on 9 October 1605 the cavalry were completely outmanoeuvred, and several of the troops broke. Vere crossed the river with four companies of infantry and kept the Spaniards at bay for over an hour, while the other forces had time to rally and retreat in some order.[2]
The battle of Mülheim was followed by Vere's return to England, and by his marriage in 1607. Two years later came the twelve years' truce between the United Provinces and Spain. In October 1609 Sir Horace succeeded his brother as governor of
In 1610 he served at the siege of Juliers under Sir Edward Cecil. In 1616 he yielded up the cautionary town of Brielle to the Dutch on the repayment by them of the loans received from England, receiving a life pension of £800 in compensation for his loss of the governorship. Two years later Sir Horace received from Maurice the governorship of Utrecht. He had previously aided the prince in disarming and suppressing the provincial levies, raised on behalf of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt.[2]
Palatinate campaign
In May 1620, James I was being strongly urged by popular opinion to defend the Protestant cause of his son-in-law,
News arrived of the
Vere's plan was to effect a junction with the Protestant force near
Spinola now adopted Fabian tactics in the hope of wearing the enemy out, until the approach of winter compelled the English and their allies to seek quarters. Vere divided his troops among the three most important strongholds of the Palatinate. He himself occupied Mannheim, Gerard Herbert he stationed in Heidelberg Castle, while Sir John Burroughs undertook to defend Frankenthal.[2]
Early in 1621, the Protestant Union was broken up, and the English garrisons had to give up all hope of relief. The English governors were not closely pressed that year. The garrison under Vere at Mannheim received a visit early in 1622 from the dethroned elector, who had promised them a diversion, and who, in conjunction with
The English garrisons were now surrounded and threatened by a force of imperialists and Spaniards under Tilly, Cordova, and Verdugo. Vere resolved to hold out, though he knew that the military position was hopeless. On 16 September, the town of Heidelberg was taken by storm, and the castle surrendered three days later. Sir Gerard Herbert had received a mortal wound during the siege. At Mannheim Vere, with a garrison of fourteen hundred men, without money or supplies, had to defend extensive fortifications. He retired to the citadel, but no extraneous help being forthcoming, he was forced to capitulate at the close of September, and, having marched out with the honours of war, withdrew to The Hague. Vere's defence was commemorated by George Chapman[4]
At Frankenthal, Burroughs did not surrender the place to Verdugo until 14 April 1623, and then only in response to direct orders from home.[2]
The courage displayed by Vere against great odds was recognised in England, when the general returned early in February 1623, even if his salary and expenses were never paid in full by the treasury. On 16 February 1623, he was appointed master-general of the ordnance for life, and he became a member of the council of war on 20 July 1624. On the death of his elder brother, John, in the same year he became his residuary legatee, with the reversion of Tilbury and Kirby Hall upon the death of the widow.[2]
Breda and the Brabant campaign
In 1624 Sir Horace Vere travelled once more to The Hague in order to second Prince Maurice in the defence of the fortress of Breda, under siege by Spinola from August. Maurice died on 23 April 1625. The only ways to approach the siege works from outside were by causeways. The new stadtholder, Maurice's brother, Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, resolved to attempt the causeways, and Vere was selected to conduct this hazardous operation. Taking with him some six thousand men, including three hundred pikemen led by his kinsman, Robert de Vere, 19th Earl of Oxford, Vere started an hour before the dawn on the morning of 13 May 1625. The English marched along the dyke, and after a sharp engagement captured the redoubt. Spinola thereupon sent strong reinforcements to the threatened point, and, incurring a very heavy loss, the English were forced to retire. On his return to England that summer Vere, high in military reputation, was created Baron Vere of Tilbury.[2]
His next enterprise in the Netherlands was in connection with the
The services of the Veres in the Netherlands were closed by the
Death
After the surrender of Maastricht, Vere returned to England. While dining with
Marriage and issue
Vere married, in October 1607, Mary Tracy (1581-1671), daughter of Sir John Tracy (d.1591) of Toddington, Gloucestershire, and widow of William Hoby, by whom she had two children.[6] With his death the barony of Vere of Tilbury became extinct. Vere left five daughters, who were his coheirs:[2]
- Elizabeth Vere, who married John Holles, 2nd Earl of Clare, grandfather of the first Duke of Newcastle;
- Mary Vere, who married, first, Sir Roger Townshend, Baronet, of Raynham in Norfolk, whence are descended the Marquises of Townshend, and secondly, Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland;
- Catherine Vere, who married, first, Oliver St John (1612/1613–November 1641 or 1642),[7] son of Sir John St John, 1st Baronet, and Anne Leighton: and, secondly, John Poulett, 2nd Baron Poulett;
- Sir Thomas Fairfax (afterwards 3rd Baron Fairfax of Cameron); and
- Dorothy Vere, who married John Wolstenholme, eldest son of Sir John Wolstenholme, bart., of Nostell, Yorkshire.[2]
- Susana Vere (1619–1623) Died at a young age.[citation needed]
Lady Vere continued to live at Clapton until the death of the widow of Lord Vere's eldest brother, John, when she succeeded to Kirby Hall, where she died on Christmas Eve 1670, aged 90. For a short while in the spring of 1645, after the death of the
Vere was a first cousin of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (1550–1604).
Notes
- ^ Markham 1888, pp. 21–5, 216, 381; Lorimer 2004; Burke 1831, p. 540; Trim 2004.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Seccombe, Thomas (1899). . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- ^ Knight, Charles Raleigh (1905). Historical records of The Buffs, East Kent Regiment (3rd Foot) formerly designated the Holland Regiment and Prince George of Denmark's Regiment, Vol I. London: Gale & Polden. p. 45.
- ^ 'Pro Vero Autumni Lachrymae . . . inscribed to the Incomparable Souldier, Sir Horatio Vere, Knight, besieged and distrest in Mainhem' (1622), in which the poet urged that aid should be sent to the relief of the distressed garrison.
- ^ Bowen, Gwynneth (Spring 1966). "Sir Edward Vere and His Mother, Anne Vavasor". Shakespearean Authorship Review (English).
- ^ Markham 1888, pp. 379–80.
- ^ "Hackney Pages 450-516 The Environs of London: Volume 2, County of Middlesex. Originally published by T Cadell and W Davies, London, 1795". British History Online.
References
- Burke, John (1831). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerages of England, Ireland and Scotland, Extinct, Dormant and in Abeyance. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. p. 523. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- Lorimer, Joyce (2004). "Harcourt, Robert (1574/5–1631)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12241. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Markham, Clements R. (1888). The Fighting Veres. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington. p. 21. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
- Trim, D.J.B. (2004). "Vere, Horace, Baron Vere of Tilbury (1565–1635)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/28211. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Zedlers Universallexicon, vol.47, p. 211
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Vere, Horace". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 58. London: Smith, Elder & Co.