De Vere, Aubrey

Aubrey de Vere, great chamberlain, was son and successor of Aubrey (Albericus) de Vere ''senior,'' by Beatrice his wife. He is found in 1125 acting as joint-sheriff of London (Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 309); and in 1180 he appears, in conjunction with Richard Basset, as holding the shrievalty of eleven counties ''ut custodes'' for the crown (ib. pp. 297-8). But he was then indebted for an enormous sum to the crown for having allowed a prisoner to escape, and for permission to resign the shrievalty of Essex and Hertfordshire (Rot. Pip. 31 Hen. I, p. 53). In September 1131 he was among the magnates attending the council of Northampton (Sarum Charters, 6); and in 1133, on the king leaving England for the last time, Aubrey was given at Fernham the office of great chamberlain for himself and his heirs (Madox, Baronia Anglica, p. 158). He is found at Stephen''s court as chamberlain early in 1136 (Geoffrey de Mandeville, pp.262-3), and was with him at Clarendon not long afterwards (ib. p. 378). When, in 1139, Stephen was called upon to defend before a council his arrest of the bishops, he selected as his advocate Aubrey, whom William of Malmesbury describes as ''causidicus'' and as practised in (legal) cases (pp. 552-4). He was slain on 9 May 1141 (not, as stated, 1140) in a London riot (Matt. Paris, Chron. Major, ii. 174; Geoffrey Mandeville, p. 81).

The statement that he was ''chief justiciar of England,'' for which Foss could find no authority (Judges of England, pp. 89, 188-9), rests on the assertion to that effect by his son William in a tract ''De miraculis S. Osythae'' (Geoffrey de Mandeville, p. 390).