- Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland
Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland (
16 January 1362 - 1392) was afavourite , court companion and close advisor of King Richard II ofEngland .Royal favour
He succeeded his father as 9th
Earl of Oxford in 1371, and was createdMarquess of Dublin for life in 1385. The next year he surrendered the Marquessate and was createdDuke of Ireland , also for life. He was thus the firstMarquess , and the first non-Royal Duke, in England.Ireland was married to
Philippa de Coucy , the King's first cousin (her mother had been the sister of the King's father,Edward, the Black Prince ), and also had an affair withAgnes de Launcekrona , a Czech lady-in-waiting of Richard's Queen,Anne of Bohemia . In 1387, the couple were separated and eventually divorced; Ireland took Launcekrona as his second wife.Downfall
Ireland was hugely unpopular with the other nobles and magnates and King Richard's close relationship with him was one of the catalysts for the emergence of an organised opposition to his rule in the form of the
Lords Appellant .In 1387, Ireland led Richard's forces to defeat at Radcot Bridge outside Oxford, against the forces of the Lords Appellant. He fled the field and his forces were left leaderless and compelled into ignominious surrender.
He was forced into exile by
Parliament in 1388, and his titles and lands were confiscated.Death
He was severely wounded by a wild boar while hunting in France in 1392, and died of his wounds at
Leuven .Lowndes, Rev. C. "Chesham", in " [http://books.google.com/books?id=sDgQAAAAYAAJ&printsec=titlepage Records of Buckinghamshire, Or, Papers and Notes on the History] , Vol. III" by the Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society. Publ. J. Pickburn, 1870.] In 1395, the King had his embalmed body brought back to England for burial. Many of the Lords refused to attend the funeral, during which King Richard had the coffin opened to kiss his lost friend's hand and to gaze on his face one last time. [Saul, Nigel, Richard II, New Haven; London 1999, p. 461]Succession
After his death his uncle, Sir Aubrey de Vere, was restored to the family titles and estates, becoming 10th Earl of Oxford.
References
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