Agnes (Essex) de Vere (1151 - aft. 1212)

Born 1151 in Rayleigh, Essex, England

Ancestors

Descendants

Died after 1212 after age 61 in Oxfordshire, England

Biography

Agnes of Essex [married name Agnes de Vere], countess of Oxford (b. 1151, d. in or after 1212), noblewoman, was the daughter of royal constable Henry of Essex, lord of Rayleigh, and probably his 2nd wife, Alice.

Betrothed by her father at age three to Geoffrey de Vere, brother of Aubrey de Vere, first earl of Oxford, Agnes was raised from the age of three in the earl's household. When she was six Geoffrey took her into his own care, but Agnes refused to accept him as her future husband. The alliance between their families was rescued by her marriage to Aubrey in early 1163. The middle-aged earl had no heir when he made this, his third marriage, with the twelve-year-old Agnes. Although she was not an heiress, she brought him five knights' fees in the eastern counties.

(Her name was "Agnes", not "Lucy". A woman named Lucia was prioress at Castle Hedingham Priory and at her death in the early 13th century, the preface of an illustrated mortuary or 'bede' roll requesting prayers for her soul called her the priory foundress. 18th century scholars erroneously assumed that the prioress was Earl Aubrey's widow, as the "founder/foundress" role is generally ascribed to lay patrons. Royal records disprove that assumption.)

Agnes and Aubrey de Vere had at least four sons and a daughter: Aubrey (IV) de Vere, second earl of Oxford; Roger; Robert de Vere, the third earl; Henry, possibly a clerk of his uncle, Bishop William of Hereford; and Alice, wife of Geoffrey de Say.

She witnessed few of her husband's surviving charters, but they were joint founders of a small nunnery at Castle Hedingham, Essex (c.1190), and were benefactors of the de Vere Priory at Earls Colne, Essex, and of the Hospitallers, of which order the earl's brother was a member. Her husband died in December 1194, and the countess survived him for at least a dozen years. In 1198 she offered the king 100 marks for the right to marry whom she wished; Agnes paid the debt within a year and remained unmarried until her death, which took place in or after 1212. Agnes was buried beside her husband at Earls Colne Priory, Essex.

Sources

• DeAragon, RaGena, "Agnes of Essex, Countess of Oxford", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 6, p 467

• Source: S150 Title: The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Volume: vols. I-XII Abbreviation: Complete Peerage Author: G.E. Cokayne, George Edward Publication: St. Catherine Press Ltd., London, 1910-1959

• RaGena DeAragon, "The Child-Bride, the Pope, and the Earl: The Marital Fortunes of Agnes of Essex," Henry I and the Anglo-Norman World (2007, Woodbridge: 2004), p 201.

• Source: S152 Title: Ancestral Roots of Sixty Colonists Who Came to New England between 1623 and 1650 Abbreviation: Ancestral Roots, 6th ed. Author: Weis, Frederick Lewis Publication: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore, MD, 1988 Note: RIN#10004

• Agnes of Essex, Countess of Oxford (ca.1150 - 1212 or later)

• Find A Grave: Memorial #85046054 Agnes of Essex, Countess of Oxford (ca.1151 - ca.1212)