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- He married Beatrice. He died in 1112, killed in action.
Aubrey (Albericus) de Vere (died circa 1112) was a tenant-in-chief of William the Conqueror in 1086 and also vassal to Geoffrey de Montbray, bishop of Coutances and to Count Alan, lord of Richmond. A much later source named his father as Alphonsus. The common use of the name Albericus by the Veres in medieval England makes it impossible to say for certain if the Aubrey de Vere named in Domesday Book in 1086 holding estates in six counties is the same Aubrey de Vere who around 1111 founded Colne Priory, Essex, but it is probable.
Biography
His origins are obscure and various regions have been proposed for his birthplace. He was probably Norman, possibly from the eponymous town of Ver/Vire in western Normandy. The Veres were (erroneously) said to descend from Charlemagne through the Counts of Flanders or Guînes by later antiquarians. In fact, their connection with Guînes, in Flanders, was late and short-lived; the only connection of the Veres to Guînes is the brief marriage of his grandson Aubrey de Vere III to Beatrice, heiress to Guînes, in the 12th century.
Aubrey I first appears holding estates in Domesday Book, where he and his unnamed wife also stand accused of some unauthorized land seizures. As his spouse's name is recorded as Beatrice in 1104, she may have been his wife in 1086 and the mother of his five known sons. Aubrey's estates held of the king were valued at approximately £300, putting him in roughly the middle ranks of the post-conquest barons in terms of landed wealth.
More difficult to sort out are contemporary references to "Aubrey the chamberlain" and "Aubrey of Berkshire." The name Albericus was not uncommon in 11th- and 12th-century Europe. A chamberlain to Matilda of Flanders, wife of William the Conqueror, bore that name, but it is unlikely that this man was Aubrey de Vere. An "Aubrey of Berkshire" was a sheriff in the early reign of Henry I; it cannot be ruled out that this man was in fact Aubrey de Vere. Aubrey de Vere I may also have served King Henry as a royal chamberlain, as his son and namesake Aubrey de Vere II later did. Many royal household offices were becoming hereditary at this time.
Shortly before 1104, Aubrey's eldest son Geoffrey fell ill and was tended at Abingdon Abbey by the royal physician, Abbot Faritius. The youth recovered but suffered a relapse and was buried at the abbey. His parents founded a cell of Abingdon on land they donated: Colne Priory, Essex. Within a few years, Aubrey I and his son William joined that community. Aubrey died soon after taking the Benedictine habit, William passing away not long after his father. Both were buried at the priory, establishing it as the Vere family mausoleum. Aubrey de Vere II succeeded to his father's estates.
Aubrey was married by 1086, when his wife (unnamed) is listed in Domesday Book as holding a manor in Essex. She is most probably the same woman, Beatrice, who attended the formal ceremony for the founding of Earl's Colne Priory. Besides Geoffrey, Aubrey II, and William mentioned above, the couple's children included Roger and Robert.
Estates
The principal estates held by Aubrey de Vere in 1086: Castle Hedingham, Beauchamp [Walter], Great Bentley, Great Canfield, Earls Colne, [White] Colne, and Dovercourt, Essex; Aldham, Belstead, Lavenham, and Waldingfield, Suffolk; Castle Camps, Hildersham, Silverley, and Wilbraham, Cambridgeshire. He possessed houses and acreage in Colchester. As tenant of Geoffrey bishop of Coutances, he held Kensington, Middlesex; Scaldwell and Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire. Of the barony of Count Alan of Brittany, he held the manors of Beauchamp Roding, Canfield, and West Wickham, Essex. His wife held Aldham, Essex, in her own right of Odo bishop of Bayeux. She was accused by Domesday jurors of expansion into Little Maplestead, Essex. Aubrey's seizures or questionable right of possession to estates included Manuden, Essex; Great Hemingford, Huntingdonshire; and Swaffham, Cambridgeshire. (Counties given are those of Domesday Book.)
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1040 - 1112 (72 years)