24 THE DESCENT OF THE EARLDOM OF OXFORD.

had hitherto enjoyed from the reign of Henry the First. It was granted io the king's half-brother, John Holand, earl of Huntingdon, (afterwards duke of Exeter,) and it did not return to the Veres until the accession of Henry the Seventh. On the history of the succeeding earls I shall only add some few remarks. John the twelfth earl was attainted and beheaded in 1461, suffering from his loyalty to his sovereign of the Lancastrian line. His son John was restored to the dignity in 1464 ; but was himself attainted in 1474, in consequence of the active part he had taken on the Lancastrian side, during the temporary' restoration of Henry the Sixth in 1470 ; having at that period distinguished himself as the last supporter of tlie cause of the Red Rose, which he maintained in the castle of St. Michael's Mount, in Cornwall, for many months after the rest of the kingdom had submitted to Edward IV. He was subsequently imprisoned in the castle of Hammes, in Picard}', where he reniained for twelve years. At length, hearing of the preparations making by Henr}" earl of Richmond, to assert his claim to the throne, he won over the governor of Hammes, sir James Blount, and sir John Fortescue the warden of Calais, and, with them, joined the earl at ^lontarges in Britany. Having thus been mainly instrumental in bringing Henry to the throne, he was immediately restored to the Earldom of Oxford, and also to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain, which he enjoyed until his death in 1513. On the decease of Henrj^ the eighteenth earl, without issue, in 1625, the Great Chamberlainship descended to heirs female. The succession to the Earldom itself was also disputed. Tlie heir male, Robert de Vere, descended from tlie fifteentli earl, made claim not only to the earldom, but also to the baronies of Bolebec, Sanford, and Badiesmere,' and to the office of Lord Great Chamberlain : whilst Robert lord Willoughby de Eresby also put in a counter-claim to ' Bolebec liad.iccrued from the marriage realm: the family held their estates, not of lsjib.-l de Bolebec to Robert the third per haroniam, but by sergeauty of the Pjirl ; Sanford from that of Alice de queen's bedchamber, which is remarkable, Sanford to Robert tiie fifth f:arl ; and considering the earl of Oxford was the Badiesmere from that of Maud de Badles- king's hereditary great chamberlain. See mere to John the seventh Earl. Sanford, Banks' Stemmata Anglicaiia, 1825, 4to., liowever, has not been admitted by p. 245. Dngdale or .Nicolas as a baronv of the