John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford (8 September 1442 – 10 March 1513), the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, and Elizabeth Howard, a first cousin of John Howard, 1st Duke of Norfolk (2nd creation), was one of the principal Lancastrian commanders during the English Wars of the Roses. He was the principal commander of King Henry VII's army at the Battle of Bosworth Field, and again led Henry's troops to victory at the Battle of Stoke Field two years later. He became one of the great men of the King's regime. Early life John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, was born on 8 September 1442, the second son of John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford (23 April 1408 – 26 February 1462), and his wife Elizabeth Howard (c. 1410–1474), the daughter of Sir John Howard and Joan Walton. In February 1462 the 12th Earl, his eldest son, Aubrey de Vere, and Sir Thomas Tuddenham, the 12th Earl's former political opponent in Norfolk and now a fellow Lancastrian loyalist, were convicted of high treason before John Tiptoft, 1st Earl of Worcester, Constable of England, for plotting against King Edward IV. The 12th Earl was beheaded on Tower Hill on 26 February 1462, and buried in the church of Austin Friars in London. His son Aubrey had been beheaded on the same scaffold six days earlier. Pursuing a conciliatory policy with Lancastrian families, King Edward allowed John de Vere to succeed his father, and on 18 January 1464 granted him licence to enter on his father's lands. On 26 May 1465 he was created a Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Edward IV's wife, Elizabeth Woodville, and officiated at the ceremony as both Lord Great Chamberlain, in the absence of the then office-holder, the Earl of Warwick, and as Chamberlain to the queen. In November 1468, however, he was committed to the Tower, and confessed to plotting with the Lancastrians against the King. He was likely released before 7 January 1469, and received a general pardon on 5 April of that year. However, by early July 1469, Oxford had joined the discontented Yorkists led by his brother-in-law, the Earl of Warwick, and King Edward's brother, the Duke of Clarence, for the Edgcote campaign. Following the loss at Losecoat Field on 12 March 1470, he fled overseas to the court of King Henry