24 Facts About Francis Vere

Sir Francis Vere was a prominent English soldier serving under Queen Elizabeth I fighting mainly in the Low Countries during the Anglo-Spanish War and the Eighty Years' War.

Francis 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.

Francis Vere 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.

Francis Vere was elected Member of Parliament for Leominster in 1593.

Francis 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.

The young Francis Vere first went on active service under Leicester in 1585, and was in the thick of the war raging in the Low Countries.

In 1588 during the Spanish Armada Francis Vere was sent to Vlissingen with 260 men to preempt a Spanish landing.

Francis Vere was prominent in the campaign known as the Ten years, spanning from 1588 to 1598 with the Dutch forces under Maurice of Nassau.

Francis Vere ordered that York be dug up, hanged and gibbeted as a reminder of his treachery.

Francis Vere won the reputation of being one of the best English soldiers of the day.

Francis Vere's troops acquired a cohesion and a training based on the Dutch model fitting them to face the best Spanish troops, and his camp became the fashionable training-ground of all aspiring English soldiers, amongst others not only his younger brother Horace, but men of such note as Ferdinando Fairfax, Gervase Markham and Captain Myles Standish.

The English and Dutch held the place for two weeks during that time Francis Vere received the ransoms of three wealthy prisoners a clergyman who was president of the Casa de Contratacion at Seville and two cavaliers named Don Pedro de Herrera and Don Geronimo de Avalos.

Francis Vere shared in a considerable amount of booty as well as the popular acclaim that greeted the leaders of the expedition on their return to England.

Francis Vere received a personal note from the Queen congratulating him on the victory, and he was even dramatised in London on the stage.

The culminating point of Francis Vere's career came the following year, when on the advice of Oldenbarnevelt, the States General decided to carry the war into the enemy's country.

Francis Vere directing the defenders made sure the defences were impassable - using his engineers to shore up defences.

Just before midnight the Spanish had seized a position known as the Spanish Half Moon but Francis Vere ordered its recovery and an English company subsequently drove the Spanish out who lost 300 men, mostly captured.

Francis Vere now ordered a defensive sluice to be opened, through which the water rushed down the ford where the Spanish were still wading across.

Once the waters had subsided Francis Vere ordered a counter attack which drove what was left of the Spanish assailants away taking great plunder in the process.

Francis Vere remained for a few months longer, when he was called away by the States General to assume command in the field.

Francis Vere returned to the Low Countries with more troops in 1602 and with Maurice laid siege to the Spanish garrison at Grave but before that place surrendered he was injured under the right eye.

When James I made peace with Spain in 1604, Francis Vere retired from active service and spent the remainder of his days in country life in England, occupying himself with the compilation of his Commentaries of the Divers Pieces of Service that he had taken part in.

Francis Vere has a large monument of alabaster and black marble showing him lying on a carved rush mattress in civilian dress under a slab on which is laid out his suit of armour.