| Sir Aubrey de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford | 
Age: 44 (born 16 January, 1437)
Spouse: Anne Stafford (33, b. 1448)
Traits: 6 pts
+4 Survival (base 3, +1 from 'Pessimistic' trait)
+2 Personal Combat
+1 Battles
+7% income (from 'Haggler' and 'Austere')
-4 Charisma (from 'Austere', 'Haggler' and 'Pessimistic' traits)
Temperaments:
Melancholic - dominant:
- Haggler: This character is obsessed with getting the best possible deal for themselves, and ever watchful (even paranoid) for anyone trying to rip them off. This sort of fellow is rarely the sort others like, but none can deny their ability to sniff for gold. +7.5% income and improves loot from raids, -2 Charisma.
- Pessimistic: This character is always looking at the negative side of things. They may be right in some cases - when you suspect every man you meet to be a bad guy, you're probably right at least one out of ten times - but it doesn't exactly make them endearing. +1 to survival rolls, -1 Charisma.
Phlegmatic - subservient:
- Austere: This character disdains pomp and pageantry, instead preferring a plain & simple (the uncharitable might say 'rigidly spartan') lifestyle. +5% income, -1 Charisma.
Aubrey de Vere is not a happy man.
...or so he'd say, if he was writing the introduction to a chronicle on his life. Though he wouldn't be wrong.
The 13th Earl of Oxford is indeed a joyless fellow, prone to dressing in mourning black and alternately drinking or writing depressing poetry all the time, but he does not lack cause to be so grim. Having served the Lancastrian cause with his father since the start of the Wars of the Roses when he'd just reached maturity, then-Sir Aubrey de Vere had the misfortune to directly experience the agony of defeat at Towton, where the House of Lancaster had come so close to victory only to suddenly have their flank caved in by the Duke of Norfolk's men. He, his father, and his younger brother John seemingly bent the knee after that ordeal, but in truth they were to serve as moles, undermining the foundations of the new Yorkist regime in preparation for a second Lancastrian attempt at the throne. That attempt came in 1464, when Margaret of Anjou landed in Cornwall with a French army. Old John, the 12th Earl of Oxford, set out to join her with his second son and De Vere's might behind him, but Aubrey was left behind to administer Hedingham Castle - and just in case the battle to come proved to be disastrous.
Which it did. When the Red and White Roses once more tried to strangle each other with their thorny vines at Wallingford that year, the latter proved triumphant once more, and Aubrey's father was among the fallen. His brother had disappeared, in truth ferried across the channel while in a mace-induced state of unconsciousness to join what little was left of the Lancastrian court in France. Aubrey had to plead for mercy once again, and this time, he dismissed any thought of supporting Lancaster from his mind, for he was not about to betray York and risk the White Rose's fury a second time. Since then, the Earl of Oxford has lived the life of a recluse, only dragging himself out of Hedingham for important matters of state and spending the rest of his time in a drunken, depressive stupor within the castle walls. (admittedly, his wife birthing first a mentally disabled girl and then a stillborn boy, with the latter rendering her barren, probably didn't help his mental state) Since he went off to join the war in France, he has even come to shave his unruly ebony locks and beard less than the already sparse usual, to the point that his servants whisper behind his back that he resembles a sad, emaciated black bear.
Also, to his great misfortune, he didn't die in France either. Though struck in the head at Quessigny, unlike his father he managed to survive, and it was reported that his first words on waking was to ask his physician if he had perished or at least, sustained a fatal injury; when told that no, he would in fact live, the Earl sank back into his sheets with a frustrated groan. Besides a head injury and a terrible haircut, Aubrey brought back from France a bastard boy he calls simply 'Francis Vere' (note the missing 'de') - a son of his own at last, though ironically a bastard who could not inherit and who he dares not even consider legitimizing for fear of the offense it'd cause his Stafford wife, Margaret Beaufort and the royals who sanctioned his brother's marriage - though (as a side-effect of being constantly drunk) he barely remembers bedding the lad's mother. |
| Sir George de Vere (EXILED) | 
Age: 31 (born 28 November, 1450)
Spouse: None
Traits: 6 pts
+4 Personal Combat (base 3, +1 from 'Ill-Tempered')
+2 Logistician (+15% movement speed total, +5% from 'Impulsive')
+2 Survival (base 1, +1 from 'Upbeat')
-1 Battles (from 'Ill-Tempered')
-1 to detection rolls for enemy armies (from 'Impulsive')
Temperaments:
Choleric - dominant:
- Ill-Tempered: This character is ornery and seems to explode at the slightest provocation. While they've gotten into enough fights to toughen them up, a person who's as easily baited as a bull that sees red won't make a good commander. +1 Duels, -1 Battles.
- Impulsive: This character acts before (sometimes, without) thinking. They might move and decide more quickly than others, but their recklessness can lead them to disaster as well. +5% movement speed, -1 to detection rolls.
Sanguine - subservient:
- Upbeat: Nothing seems to get this character down. They're perpetually smiling and looking on the bright side of even the darkest developments, truly the kind of optimism that can be infectious...or delusional, if the situation is bad enough. +1 to surviving non-battle death rolls, -1 to post-battle rolls (captivity, death, wounding).
George de Vere is the fourth son of old John de Vere, the late 12th Earl of Oxford, and thus younger brother to Aubrey, John and Richard de Vere. When his father was killed and a wounded John Jr. sailed for France in the disastrous aftermath of Wallingford, George accompanied the latter, having been serving as his squire at the time just as Richard was for their oldest brother, now the 13th Earl of Oxford. From that point onward George was firmly enmeshed in the retinue of the exiled Lancastrians, accompanying them to Tarascon and Italy: it was in the latter that he won his spurs, being knighted by his big brother after directly participating in a battle for the first time at the age of eighteen. Two years later John himself died, felled on the battlefield of Albenga by a Lombard halberd, to George's great grief. He flew into a rage and threw himself into the ranks of the foe, which was an incredibly bad idea that would have gotten him killed (what with the Lancastrian mercenaries' chosen side having lost the battle at that point) had Clifford and Beaumont not dragged him away.
When Edward of Lancaster himself was captured two years after that and the Lancastrian 'Sovereign Company' was thus reduced to just Clifford and a handful of lost and/or stubbornly loyal souls, for the first time in his life George seriously debated deserting the wilted Red Rose's cause, his usual optimism finally markedly dented. However, De Vere honor and Lancastrian loyalty ultimately kept him hanging around long enough to hear of Edward's ransoming by the King of France. Now for better or for worse, this temperamental fourth son of Oxford remains at the side of 'Red Ed' in exile and hopes that one day they will beat the odds to return to England in triumph, unaware that his own elder brothers back home have opted to back rather different horses while he and John were gone. |
| Oxford's household | Anne de Vere, née Stafford, Aubrey's barren wife - 33, b. 1448
- Elizabeth Percy, née de Vere, Aubrey and Anne's mentally challenged daughter, married to Edward Percy - 17, b. 28 June 1464
- Francis Vere, Aubrey's son with a Norman harlot - 3, b. 15 January 1478
Mary de Vere, Aubrey's sister and a nun at Barking Abbey - 42, b. 10 August 1439
Joan Wenlock, née de Vere, Aubrey's sister and wife to a Wenlock - 38, b. 9 May 1442
Elizabeth Percy, née De Vere, Aubrey's sister and barren wife to Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland - 35, b. 16 June 1436
Richard de Vere, Aubrey's third brother and heir presumptive to the Earldom of Oxford - 32, b. 13 May 1449
- Joan Beaufort, Richard's wife - 30, b. 1451
- Robert de Vere, Richard and Joan's son, living at the Yorkist court in Westminster - 6, b. 29 October 1475, d. 1481
Thomas de Vere, Aubrey's youngest brother - 29, b. 11 July 1452 |
|
Hedingham Castle and the De Vere estates
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ing on the privy. Who are they to scorn me, when they haven't lived the life I've lived? He once thought of his critics, on one of those rare occasions when he was still sober enough to have coherent thoughts. The sudden passing of his nephew, the first male of the next generation of De Veres, had only reinforced his lifestyle. His wife had to rear the bastard he'd begotten in France now, ironically - well, it wasn't as if she could ever bear him a son again, so she was surprisingly not that angry with him over the arrangement. And it wasn't like he was a great role model for the kid himself.
Originally Posted by Caterina Sforza
