Vere, SIR FRANCIS, soldier, was born probably in 1560 at Crepping or Crustwick, son of the fourth son of the 15th earl of Oxford. The family of Vere was one of the most ancient and famous in England; its head was hereditary Grand Chamberlain. The earldom of Oxford was created in 1137, and continued unbroken through twenty earls down to 1703. The home of the family was the valleys watered by the Colne and Stour—the borderland of Essex and Suffolk; the chief seat was Hedingham, the great keep of which is the finest relic of Norman civil architecture in England; their burial-place was the priory of Earl's Colne, 7 miles down the river.
Francis Vere obtained a company in the Bergen-op-Zoom garrison in the autumn of 1586, and won his first laurels in the memorable siege of Sluys, being knighted by Lord Willoughby at its close. Him he succeeded in August 1589 in the chief command in the Netherlands, with the rank of sergeant-major general. His spirit and courage even when desperately wounded made him a soldier's hero, while his skill and energy as a captain at Breda, Deventer, and a hundred fights carried his fame far beyond the Netherlands. He shared the glory of the Cadiz expedition (1596) as lieutenant-general and lord-marshal, and also next year the failure of the Island Voyage, the only laurels in which fell to his bitter rival Raleigh. Again in Holland, he governed Brill, and helped Maurice to victory at Turnhout (1597) and Nieuwpoort (1600), as well as in the heroic defence of Ostend. He died in London, 28th August 1609, and was buried in Westminster.
His brother, HORACE, LORD VERE, was born in 1565, and at twenty went with Francis to the Netherlands, and took a hero's share in all his battles. Knighted for his courage at Cadiz, he succeeded his brother as governor of Brill, and at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War was sent by James I. to defend the Palatinate. But he was shut in at Mannheim and forced to surrender to Tilly (1623). He was created Baron Vere of Tilbury in 1625, and died suddenly at Whitehall, 2d May 1635. Fuller describes him as having 'more meekness and as much valour as his brother. . . . Sir Francis was more feared, Sir Horace more loved, by the soldiers.'—Another brother, ROBERT, died in the Netherlands on the battlefield, after but six years of service (1595). See Clements R. Markham, The Fighting Veres (1888).