VERE, Horace (c.1565-1635)

Described by Sir Simonds D’Ewes^‡ as ‘that incomparable leader’, Vere was, after the death of his elder brother, Sir Francis^‡, in 1609, the most distinguished English soldier of the early seventeenth century. According to Thomas Fuller, he was meeker than his sibling but just as valorous, and though Sir Francis was more feared than him, ‘Sir Horace [was] more loved, by the soldiery’. Vere also had ‘a constant temper’, was sanguine in the face of defeat, and so vigilant that ‘never any enemy surprised him in his quarters’.32 D’Ewes Diary, 1622-4 ed. E. Bourcier, 102; T. Fuller, Worthies of Eng. i. 514.

Early life, 1565-1620

The youngest son of Geoffrey Vere, a younger son of John de Vere^†, 15th earl of Oxford, Horace Vere (whose first name was sometimes Latinized by contemporaries to Horatio) was a member of one of the oldest noble families in England. However, as his father’s estates were small, Vere followed his two older brothers into the military profession. Like his siblings he probably received his early training from Sir William Browne, a veteran of the Netherlands campaigns, as he followed their practice of subscribing himself as one of Browne’s loving sons. Vere’s admission to Gray’s Inn in 1624 was undoubtedly honorary.33 Vis. Essex (Harl. Soc. xiii), 47; Markham, 25; Letters and Memorials of State ed. A. Collins, ii. 287n.

Vere commenced his military career in 1590, when he served in the company of his brother, Sir Francis, in the Netherlands.34 Markham, 157. He became a lieutenant in 1591 and a captain three years later. In 1596 he served in the Cadiz expedition, initially as a lieutenant colonel, but was promoted to colonel following the death of Sir John Wingfield^‡. Three years later he was commissioned to command a newly established English regiment in the Dutch army.35 D.J.B. Trim, ‘Fighting "Jacob’s Wars". The Employment of English and Welsh Mercenaries in the European Wars of Religion’ (London Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 2002), 333. In 1605 Vere was made general of the English contingent in the forces of the United Provinces, replacing his brother who had retired the previous year. However, as his appointment was bitterly opposed by another of the colonels, Sir Edward Cecil^* (subsequently Viscount Wimbledon), Vere was given little power over his colleagues. Vere served under Cecil as a volunteer during the siege of Jülich in 1610, but when the Dutch army was mobilized in 1614, Cecil insisted that his regiment should march and camp separately from the other English units.36 Trim, 188; C. Dalton, Life and Times of Gen. Sir Edward Cecil, i. 329.

On the death of Sir Francis Vere in 1609, Horace succeeded his brother as governor of Brill, one of two towns in the Netherlands which the Dutch republic had granted to the English under Elizabeth as surety for the repayment of war loans.37 HP Commons, 1604-29, iii. 640. However, Vere was obliged to surrender his governorship in 1616, when the two Cautionary Towns were handed back, but was compensated with a pension of £800 a year, plus grants in reversion to a further £200 a year and the post of master of the Ordnance (worth 200 marks per annum).38 Chamberlain Letters ed. N.E. McClure, i. 624-5. Vere was highly trusted by the stadtholder, Prince Maurice, who temporarily placed him in charge of Utrecht during the political turbulence that afflicted the Dutch republic in 1618.39 Dalton, i. 270.

The Palatinate and the Netherlands, 1620-5

The election of James I’s son-in-law, Frederick V, as king of Bohemia in 1619 provoked war with the Austrian Habsburgs and, as a consequence the Rhenish Palatinate, which formed part of Frederick’s hereditary lands, was threatened with invasion by Spinola, the commander of the army of the Spanish Habsburgs in the Netherlands. In 1620 James authorized the recruiting of 4,000 English volunteers to defend the Rhenish Palatinate. There were three principal candidates for the command of this force, namely Vere, Henry Wriothesley^*, 3rd and 1st earl of Southampton, and Sir Edward Cecil. However, as the force was not officially to be an English one, the choice lay with Frederick’s ambassador, Baron Dohna. The latter disregarded the preference of the king’s favourite, George Villiers^*, marquess (later 1st duke) of Buckingham, for Cecil, and (Southampton having been ruled out by James) plumped for Vere, apparently the only candidate who did not lobby for the post.40 Corresp. of Eliz. Stuart, Q. of Bohemia ed. N. Akkerman, i. 246; Dalton, i. 322; SP14/116/1.

The expedition was funded by voluntary contributions raised in England, but as receipts proved disappointing only a single regiment of 2,000 men was raised, although the captains appointed included Robert Devereux^*, 3rd earl of Essex, and Vere’s kinsman, Henry de Vere^*, 18th earl of Oxford. In fact, the collections proved so inadequate that in late October Vere complained he had insufficient money to pay even this reduced force.41 S.L. Adams, ‘Protestant Cause’ (Oxford Univ. D.Phil. thesis, 1973), 302-3. By then Vere and his troops had reached the Rhenish Palatinate and were united with the army of the Protestant Union to oppose Spinola’s invasion. After a period of fruitless manoeuvring the armies went into winter quarters, with Vere’s forces billeted in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Frankenthal. Following the diplomatic efforts of Lord Digby (John Digby^*, later 1st earl of Bristol) a ceasefire was concluded the following April, but hostilities resumed in July after some of Vere’s poorly paid troops ran amok after being billeted in the nearby bishopric of Speyer. The Spanish thereupon laid siege to Frankenthal, but that town was relieved after the arrival in October of forces loyal to Frederick commanded by the mercenary general, Count Ernst von Mansfeld.42 A. Wilson, Hist. of Great Britain, 139; B.C Pursell, Winter King, 113; S.R. Gardiner, Hist. of Eng. iv. 214-15; CSP Ven. 1621-3, pp. 130, 159; Harl. 1581, f. 164r-v.

In February 1622 Vere was officially commissioned by James I as captain general of the English forces in the Palatinate, as the king wanted to bring the troops in the Palatinate under his direct control in order to compel his son-in-law to come to terms with the Habsburgs. Consequently, Vere was ordered to remain on the defensive.43 Rymer, vii. pt. 3, pp. 228-9; Pursell, 171; CSP Ven. 1621-3, p. 306. In July Frederick V agreed to abandon hostilities and discharged Mansfeld, who took his army into the service of the Dutch, though not before denuding Vere of his best men and many of his supplies. By then the Rhenish Palatinate had been invaded by the army of the Catholic League, allied to the emperor and commanded by Count Tilly. In September Tilly captured Heidelberg and laid siege to Mannheim, which was commanded by Vere. After complaining that the 1,700 able-bodied men at his disposal were inadequate to man the fortifications, Vere withdrew to the citadel after first setting fire to the town.44 Gardiner, iv. 320, 386; Pursell, 181; G. Parker, Thirty Years’ War (1997), 58, 60; SP81/27, f. 76r-v; CSP Ven. 1621-3, p. 488. However, on 23 Oct. Vere, his supplies having run dangerously low and with no prospect of relief, surrendered Mannheim to Tilly. Vere was allowed to withdraw his men to Frankfurt-am-Main, from where his German soldiers were cashiered and the English returned home. His capitulation angered Frederick V, but his excuses, which also included the doubtful loyalty of many of the Germans under his command, were accepted by James, who greeted him warmly on his return to England in January 1623 (on which occasion the king forgot his dignity and received Vere while still bare-headed). Vere was so far from finding himself in disfavour that it was reported (inaccurately as it turned out) that he would soon be appointed to the Privy Council.45 SP81/27, ff. 135v, 146; SP84/110, ff. 195v-6; Carleton to Chamberlain ed. M. Lee, 197; Add. 72254, f. 83; ‘Camden Diary’ (1691), 81; Chamberlain Letters, ii. 477-8. His strong position at court perhaps owed much to the rise of his brother-in-law, Sir Edward Conway^* (later 1st Viscount Conway), recently appointed secretary of state, who had attached himself to Buckingham and was keen to bring Vere into the favourite’s circle.46 HP Commons, 1604-29, iii. 642; SP84/109, f. 87.

In September Vere resumed his command in the Netherlands, where he was well received by Prince Maurice.47 CSP Ven. 1623-5, p. 106; HMC Portland, ii. 112. He returned to England in December and was in London for most of the 1624 Parliament, which enacted legislation naturalizing two of his daughters born in the Netherlands. (Bills to that effect had failed in the two previous parliaments due to untimely dissolutions.)48 Chamberlain Letters, ii. 533; Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in Eng. and Ire. ed. W.A. Shaw (Huguenot Soc. of London xviii), 34; LJ, ii. 696b; Procs. 1614 (Commons), 309; CJ, i. 650b. Appointed in April to the council of war established to authorize payments for military and naval purposes from the taxes granted by the Parliament, Vere left England to return to his command before the council commenced work and so took no part in its proceedings.49 CSP Ven. 1623-5, pp. 343, 363; Procs. 1626, ii. 241.

Vere’s creation and the first two Caroline parliaments, 1624-6

Back in the Netherlands, Vere took part in lengthy attempts to relieve Breda, which was besieged by Spinola’s army. In the summer of 1624 the English contingent was reinforced by four new regiments, one of which was commanded by the 18th earl of Oxford. In the early hours of 5 May 1625 Vere, with Oxford as his second in command, led an attack on Spanish positions at Terheijden, but though he was initially successful he was soon forced to withdraw.50 Eg. 2596, ff. 163-4. That same day Buckingham wrote to Vere announcing that he ‘been so happy as to obtain from his Majesty the creating of you a baron’. By this date Charles I had ascended the throne, intent on making war against Spain, and was planning a joint naval and military expedition, to be commanded by the duke. Having served on such an operation himself in 1596, Vere was well qualified to serve as Buckingham’s second in command, but, the previous day, Buckingham had in fact offered that position to Sir Edward Cecil. Buckingham explained to Vere that his services were required in the Netherlands, but he offered the ‘comfort … that no man is preferred before you as a virtuous man and able soldier’.51 SP84/127, f. 21. The peerage was presumably intended to lend credibility to this statement.

Buckingham informed Vere that his letters patent, though in preparation, could not be completed until the latter chose the ‘place or name you will give yourself’.52 Ibid. Vere had evidently made his choice by 13 July, when the attorney general was authorized to prepare the grant creating him ‘Lord Vere, Baron of Tilbury in the county of Essex’.53 SP16/521/105. The manor of Tilbury Juxta Clare in north Essex had long been part of the estates of the de Vere family and lay close to their principal residence, Hedingham Castle. It had been acquired by Sir Francis, who resided at Tilbury Lodge in the last years of his life, from whom it passed to John Vere, the elder brother of Francis and Horace. John had died in early 1625, bequeathing Tilbury to Horace, but the former’s widow (who outlived Horace) had a life interest; consequently, the new baron never possessed the property from which he took his territorial suffix.54 Markham, 351-2, 422-3, 431.

Nevertheless, Vere was sometimes called Lord Tilbury, this title emphasizing his connection with Sir Francis, as well as with the senior branch of the family. The latter may have been particularly important to Vere as by this time he probably considered himself heir presumptive to the earldom of Oxford. The 18th earl had died in May 1625, whose male heir was Vere’s cousin, Robert de Vere^*, subsequently acknowledged as 19th earl of Oxford. Vere himself was next in line, but Robert’s claim to the earldom, and the hereditary office of great chamberlain that descended with it, was questioned.55 Procs. 1626, ii. 215; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 118; HMC Hatfield, xxii. 216-17. News of Vere’s elevation angered Sir Edward Cecil, who had to be assuaged with a viscountcy.56 Letters from and to Sir Dudley Carleton ed. P. Yorke, 487; Dalton, ii. 63, 108.

Vere’s patent was sealed on 25 July.57 C82/1992/219; C231/4, f. 192. The enrolled patent is misdated 24 July. C66/2348/16. At the end of the month some form of ceremony of creation seems to have taken place at Rycote, the Oxfordshire home of Edward Wray^‡ (who was married to a kinswoman of Vere’s), the court having left London because of the plague, although Vere himself was still in the Netherlands.58 HMC Rutland, i. 474. On 3 Aug. Vere’s wife was informed that her husband ‘takes no notice’ of his new title. This was put down to Vere’s ‘modesty’, but it may have been because neither Vere nor the English ambassador in the Netherlands had yet been formally notified the title had been conferred.59 Add. 70499, ff. 64, 65. Vere was ennobled while the 1625 Parliament stood adjourned. He was evidently summoned to attend the reconvening of the session at Oxford in early August, but did not return to England before the dissolution on 12 August.60 C218/1/19.

Vere attended the funeral of Prince Maurice in September 1625, when he had ‘the best place of any stranger in the States’ [i.e. Dutch] service’.61 Add. 70499, f. 69v. The following month, the English ambassador in The Hague was instructed to procure him leave to return to England; he was probably back in his native country by the end of the year.62 CSP Dom. 1625-6, pp. 115, 190. He certainly attended the coronation of Charles I on 2 Feb., when he was listed as Lord Tilbury in the procession of the nobility.63 Manner of the Coronation of King Chas. the First ed. C. Wordsworth (Henry Bradshaw Soc. ii), p. l. Shortly thereafter the 1626 Parliament met. Vere is recorded as having attended 41 of the 81 sittings, or 51 per cent of the total. He sat particularly frequently before the session adjourned for Easter on 5 Apr., being present on 34 of the 41 sittings. During this period he was excused once, on 8 Mar., but returned to the House the following day. However, he was absent when the session resumed on 13 Apr., and either then or later asked Conway to procure him leave of absence ‘in respect [of] my ill disposition in body’. Vere also offered Conway his proxy, but, being ‘ignorant of the form that is used in that behalf’, sent his servant to Conway’s secretary to receive instruction. Conway replied by sending Vere the king’s dispensation on 5 May, together with a ‘form’ for a proxy, which Vere subsequently made out to him. Vere resumed his seat in the upper House on 2 June, attending seven of the final 12 sittings before the dissolution on the 15th.64 Procs. 1626, i. 12, 127; iv. 230; CSP Dom. 1625-6, p. 329; SO3/8, unfol. (5 May 1625).

Vere took the oath of allegiance after the sitting was adjourned on 15 Feb., but was not formally introduced to the upper House for a further eight days, when his sponsors were Dudley North^*, 3rd Lord North (whose son, Sir Dudley North^†, later 4th Lord North, had served with Vere in the Palatinate and the Netherlands), and Edward Denny^*, Lord Denny (subsequently earl of Norwich). Interestingly, the latter was brother-in-law to Sir Edward Cecil (by now Viscount Wimbledon).65 Procs. 1626, i. 50, 65. Vere was appointed to 12 committees during the 1626 Parliament (out of a total of 52), eight of them legislative, including the bill to arm the militia. His non-legislative appointments included both the committee for safety and its subcommittee, established to set prices for arms and armour.66 Ibid. 53, 110, 239.

Early in the 1626 Parliament, Charles I referred the dispute concerning the earldom of Oxford and the office of great chamberlain to the Lords. Vere attended on 22 Mar., when the upper House upheld the right of Robert de Vere^* to the earldom, but when the inheritance of the office was debated on the 31st, Vere’s right to be present was questioned on the grounds that he was Robert’s heir presumptive. Vere agreed to withdraw, although not before he apparently ‘took some exception’ to the motion, possibly the only occasion he spoke in the Lords.67 Ibid. 191, 234-5. Vere played no further recorded part in the Parliament, except on 3 Mar., when he and the rest of the council of war attended the lower House concerning their advice to Buckingham. Six days later, after explaining that he had played no part in the council’s proceedings, he was excused from further attendance.68 Ibid. ii. 186-7, 239-40.

In the autumn of 1626 the king decided to send the new regiments recruited for service in the Netherlands in 1624 to assist the king of Denmark, who had recently suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the imperialist forces. Vere was initially nominated, possibly by Buckingham, to command the expedition, but the force was generally regarded as underfunded and inadequate to the task. Vere, with Conway’s assistance, was allowed to make his excuses. Sir Charles Morgan was appointed instead on 25 November. Two days later Vere paid his Forced Loan assessment of £100.69 CSP Ven. 1626-6, p. 558; 1626-8, p. 33; CSP Dom. 1625-6, pp. 469, 472, 479; Holles Letters, 339; Coventry Docquets, 28; E401/1386, rot. 34.

Final years, 1627-1635

Vere returned to his command in the Netherlands in the summer of 1627.70 APC, 1627, p. 419. He was still in the Netherlands when the third Caroline Parliament met in March 1628. On the 20th Conway procured his leave of absence, which was sent to The Hague three days later by John Holles^*, 1st earl of Clare, whose son, John Holles^†, Lord Houghton (subsequently 2nd earl of Clare), was Vere’s son-in-law and then in the Netherlands. In the interim Vere was recorded as ‘extra regnum’ when the House was called on the 22nd. On 15 Apr. Vere wrote to Conway from The Hague enclosing his proxy, stating that ‘here is much rejoicing for the good news we hear of the proceedings of Parliament’.71 SO3/9, unfol. (20 Mar. 1628); Holles Letters, 379; Lords Procs. 1628, p. 87; SP84/137, f. 51.

Vere did not return to England until 1630, and so did not attend the 1629 session.72 Barrington Letters ed. A. Searle (Cam. Soc. 4th ser. xxviii), 142; CSP Dom. 1629-31, p. 248; LJ, iv. 25a. His reversion to the mastership of the Ordnance fell in on the death of George Carew^*, earl of Totness, on 27 Mar. 1629. Vere did not receive a formal grant of this office until the following February, presumably because he was still abroad, but had been acknowledged by the king as the rightful holder of the post soon after Totness’ death. In March 1631 he received a warrant for £5,000 for his services in the Palatinate. However, he found it difficult to secure payment, and three thousand pounds of this sum remained unpaid at his death.73 Coventry Docquets, 177; SP81/35, f. 169; CSP Dom. 1628-9, p. 557; 1629-31, p. 536; SP84/144, f. 28; SP16/288/100.

The prince of Orange allowed Vere to stay in England for the 1630 campaigning season, but the latter returned to the Netherlands in the summer of 1631 and, after wintering in England, he was back at his post in May 1632.74 CSP Ven. 1629-32, p. 374; T. Birch, Ct. and Times of Chas. I, ii. 115; PC2/42, p. 31. He subsequently took part in the siege of Maastricht, during the course of which he was rumoured to have died.75 CSP Dom. 1631-3, p. 347. In fact, it was the 19th earl of Oxford, Vere’s lieutenant colonel, who was killed. Vere did not succeed to the latter’s earldom, as Oxford had produced three sons since 1626. On 13 Aug. Vere wrote to Secretary of State, Sir John Coke^‡, lamenting Oxford’s death and calling for the king to provide financial support for the earl’s widow and children.76 SP84/144, f. 229.

With Oxford’s support, and possibly at his prompting, Vere had allowed his regimental chaplain, Stephen Goffe, to use the Book of Common Prayer during the 1632 campaign season. Previously the English regiments had conformed to the worship of the Dutch Reformed Church, and the change was opposed by Oxford’s successor, Thomas Holles, who complained to the Dutch authorities. The latter initially supported Holles, and refused to pay Goffe unless he conformed to the Dutch Church. However, the Dutch soon backed down under pressure from the English ambassador. In February 1633 orders came from England for all the English regiments to use the liturgy of their native land. Although he himself had previously supported the use of the Book of Common Prayer, Vere argued that nonconformists should be treated leniently. Indeed, he defended the previous use of Dutch worship, citing instructions to that effect issued by James I while he had been governor of Brill.77 CSP Dom. 1631-3, pp. 530, 554; 1633-4, pp. 7, 324; Addenda, 1625-49, pp. 450-1; Add. 6394, ff. 84, 133; Gardiner, vii. 316; Adams, 447.

Vere was undoubtedly a Calvinist, but was probably equally at home in the Dutch Reformed Church and the Jacobean Church of England. However, his wife was a notable puritan patron, and it was perhaps due to her influence that Vere employed puritan ministers, such as William Ames and Obadiah Sedgwick, although his chaplains also included the conformist, John Hassell, subsequently dean of Norwich, as well as Goffe.78 Adams, 441-2; J. Eales, ‘“An Ancient Mother in our Israel”: Mary, Lady Vere’, Intellectual Culture of Puritan Women ed. J. Harris and E. Scott-Baumann, 84-95. In the Caroline period Vere may have increasingly alienated by the rise of anti-Calvinism. In March 1635 a Dorset-based diarist reported having heard that he had presented a petition to the king from London tradesmen against the Book of Sports, the petition also attacking the archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud^*, comparing him to Nero as well as to the Marian bishop of London, Edmund Bonner^†. On receiving this petition, Charles I is said to have responded that Vere ‘was an honest man, but wanted discretion’.79 William Whiteway of Dorchester: His Diary 1618 to 1635 (Dorset Rec. Soc. xii), 158-9. This story may be apocryphal, as it is not substantiated by other sources, but the fact that it was thought to be plausible is telling.

In April 1633 the earl of Clare heard a rumour ‘that my Lord Vere is putting off his place’, although he did not believe it.80 Holles Letters, 449. However, by 11 Nov. Vere had agreed to sell his colonelcy to George Goring^‡, the eldest son of George Goring^*, Lord Goring (subsequently 1st earl of Norwich) for £4,000.81 Sheffield Archives, WWM/StrP13/92. It was also reported that he had been awarded a pension of £30 a month by the Dutch.82 William Whiteway of Dorchester: His Diary, 143. In addition, during the following summer Vere sold the mastership of the Ordnance to Mountjoy Blount^*, 1st earl of Newport, for £2,000.83 C115/106/8434.

It was presumably old age (he was probably nearing 70), rather than poor health, which led Vere to divest himself of his offices. He made no mention of illness when he drew up his will in November 1634, and his death the following May was sudden and unexpected. On 2 May he was dining at the Westminster home of Sir Henry Vane^‡, the comptroller of the king’s household, when he was ‘taken with an apoplexy as he sat, calling for fresh salmon’. On reaching out his plate to take the fish ‘he was not able to draw his hand back again, but sunk down: they instantly carried him to a bed, where he died within two hours’.84 Strafforde Letters, i. 426-7.

Vere was buried six days after his death beside his brother, Sir Francis, in Westminster Abbey, with a guard of honour provided by the local militia and a salute from the artillery of the Tower.85 Ibid.; Regs. Westminster Abbey ed. J.L. Chester, 131. His will is largely taken up with the confirmation of a series of indentures which conveyed property to his wife after his death. Among the parties were Richard Winwood^‡, the son of Sir Ralph Winwood^‡, the former ambassador to the Netherlands and secretary of state; John Packer^‡, the duke of Buckingham’s former patronage secretary; Conway’s son-in-law, Sir Robert Harley^‡; and Lady Vere’s nephew, Sir Robert Tracy^‡, subsequently 2nd Viscount Tracy of Rathcoole [I]. He appointed his wife his executrix and Obadiah Sedgwick proved the will on her behalf on 6 May 1635. Having left no male heirs, Vere’s barony died with him.86 PROB 11/168, ff. 7v-8v.