Francis Vere

Sir Francis Vere (c. 1560 – 28 August 1609) was an English army officer and politician who served during the reign of Elizabeth I and fought mainly in the Low Countries during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years' War. Vere was a sergeant major general of English and Scottish troops in 1589, a position he retained during fifteen campaigns fighting the Spanish, with almost unbroken success – most notably at the Battle of Nieuwpoort. He enjoyed excellent relations with the Dutch under Maurice of Nassau, working in close co-operation with them to help secure the country for the cause of independence.

Francis Vere, born about 1560, was the second son of Geoffrey Vere of Crepping Hall, Essex, a younger son of John de Vere, 15th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Trussell. His mother was Elizabeth Hardekyn (d. December 1615), daughter of Richard Hardekyn (d.1558) of Wotton House near Castle Hedingham. He had three brothers, John Vere (c. 1558 – 1624) of Kirby Hall near Castle Hedingham, Robert Vere (b. 1562), and Sir Horatio Vere (b. 1565), and a sister, Frances Vere (born 1567), who married, as his second wife, the colonial adventurer and author Sir Robert Harcourt (1574/5–1631), of Nuneham on 20 March 1598.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Leominster in 1593.

Vere spent a great deal of time visiting his friend, Sir Julius Caesar in Mitcham in Surrey, on the road from London to Nonsuch Palace. Caesar was on his second marriage to Alice Dent and she had a daughter from a previous marriage – Elizabeth Dent. During these visits he quickly became enamoured with Elizabeth. They fell in love and Caesar consented to a marriage. Since Elizabeth’s sister was also engaged, Caesar arranged a grand wedding for his stepdaughters on 26 October 1607. Vere received a dowry of £2,000 and settled property on her for life. She was 16 and he was 47. They were married for 22 months before his death and there is no record of any children.

The young Francis Vere first went on active service under Leicester in 1585, and was soon in the thick of the war raging in the Low Countries. At the siege of Sluys he greatly distinguished himself under Sir Roger Williams and Sir Thomas Baskerville.

In 1588 during the Spanish Armada Vere was sent to Vlissingen with 260 men to preempt a Spanish landing. During the action off Calais in August he was responsible for the destruction of the Spanish galleon San Mateo which had run aground between Ostend and Sluis. After this he was then with the largely English garrison of Bergen op Zoom, which delivered itself from the Spanish besiegers led by the Duke of Parma by its own good fighting. Vere as a result of his heroic deeds was Knighted by Lord Willoughby on the field of battle.

In the next year Sir Francis became sergeant major-general of the English and Scottish troops in the Low Countries, and soon afterwards the chief command devolved upon him. He was prominent in the campaign known as the Ten years, spanning from 1588 to 1598 with the Dutch forces under Maurice of Nassau. After assisting in taking Breda he then retook the cities of Zutphen and Deventer, these having been lost five years earlier due to English treachery by Rowland York and William Stanley respectively. He ordered that York (who had died in 1588) be dug up, hanged and gibbeted as a reminder of his treachery. These victories were important in recovering the losses caused by the mistaken confidence which the Earl of Leicester had placed in both Stanley and York.

Vere garnered more rewards and respect from Maurice and the Dutch with his decisive actions in the defeat of Parma, this time during the Siege of Knodsenburg outside Nijmegen in July 1591. Nearly half of the army were English and Scots; twelve English and ten Scots companies were present in this campaign under the command of Vere. Following this Maurice and Vere seized Hulst the same year. At the Siege of Steenwijk in the summer of 1592 Vere lead a force into a breach of the city's wall after a mine has blown - although he along with his brother Horace, Sir Robert Sidney, and a few of their captains were wounded, along with 152 of their men during the assault, the attack was successful and the Spanish surrendered the town. The Anglo-Dutch army then marched to Coevorden and which fell after another successful siege. The city of Geertruidenberg fell the following year, and a Spanish attempt to retake Coevorden was defeated after Vere and Maurice when they marched to the city's relief. They both took to the field again in 1594 and laid siege to Groningen, which was also captured. By this time the Spanish army had been all but pushed out of the Northern provinces and the restoration of the seven provinces was then complete. Step by step these victories helped to secure the country for the cause of independence.