The Commentaries
VERE, (Sir Francis).; DILLINGHAM (William, publisher and redactor).
of Sr. Francis Vere, being diverse pieces of service, wherein he had command, written by himself in way of Commentary. Published by William Dillingham.
Three engraved portraits (all good early impressions) of Sir Francis Vere, Sir Horace Vere, and Sir John Ogle, and seven double-page engraved plates and maps.
First Edition. Folio. [12], 209, [2] pp. paperflaw in margin of D2 and V1. Contemporary speckled sheep, ruled in blind (covers scratched and stained).
Cambridge: by John Field, printer to the famous University, 1657
Wing V240. Paper-flaw in the margin of D2 and V1. Wing V240.
William Dillingham, neo-latin poet and sometime Master of Emmanuel College, notes in his preface to the "ingenuous reader" how this work came to be printed so late after Sir Francis Vere's death: it would seem that a few manuscript copies of the work had been privately circulated and Dillingham, who stumbled across a copy in the library of a friend, also records copies in the possession of Major-General Skippon (parliamentary general who had received his earliest training under Sir Francis's brother, Sir Horace, Lord Tilbury), the Earl of Westmorland (the poet Mildmay Fane, Vere's nephew-in-law), Lord Fairfax (Sir Thomas Fairfax, another nephew-in-law of Vere's), who possessed the autograph manuscript, and the Earl of Clare (royalist turncoat who had trained under his father-in-law, Sir Horace, and therefore also a nephew-in-law of Sir Francis's). Dillingham took on the role of publishing and editing Vere's writings and, to do so, sought the backing of Sir Horace Townshend (yet another nephew of Sir Francis's). Vere's reputation in his own lifetime brought many young men to his command, and between him and his brother, Sir Horace Vere, they have just claim to have influenced profoundly military leadership for the next 50 years: the Earls of Essex, Warwick, and Bedford, Lords Fairfax, Grandison, Goring, and Byron, and Generals Skippon and Monck, were all influenced by his brother and as DNB puts it "the scions of distinguished families in Scotland and France, as well as from Holland and England, flocked to the place [Ostend] to learn the art of war under a veteran so distinguished". The vaunted Boyle, Earl of Orrery, made Vere the father of literate officers: "I have .... lamented that none of the English Generals, whom I know of, (except the Noble Sir Francis Vere) hath left to Posterity, his own observations in War, when not Onely, no Nation (as I believe) hath Excell'd them in Military Conduct, in Success, and in Valor" (Boyle in the preface to his own Of the Art of War [see item ??]). Perhaps Orrery had not read Monro or Cruso [see items ?? ??], but Dillingham was, unlike Orrery, familiar with the libraries of the leading military families of his day and mentions particularly the "ever increasing library" of the Earl of Westmorland [see item ??].
The Vere family was at the heart of military politics: Sir Francis Vere's uncle was the sixteenth Earl of Oxford, and the five daughters of his brother, Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, married into the greatest royalist families in the land - Elizabeth married John Holles, Earl of Clare, whose grandson was created Duke of Newcastle, Mary married firstly Sir Roger Townshend, whose son was the dedicatee and patron of Vere's Commentaries , and secondly Mildmay Fane, Earl of Westmorland, whose royalist sympathies narrowly outshone his pragmatism, Catherine married Oliver St John then John Lord Paulet, Anne married Sir (later Lord) Thomas Fairfax, and Dorothy married John Westenholme of Nostell Priory. Vere's work appeared at a time of impending national crisis and in the same year as Monro's ostenbily pro-royalist His Expedition .
Provenance: 1: JHeeee (? with obscure signature on the title). 2: Charles Killigrew, with signature on the title. 3 Daniel Thomas, with near-contemporary signatures on the front free endpaper (with price "0:14:6") and title-page).
Fissel, Mark Charles. English Warfare 1511-1642 , Routledge, London and New York, 2001. Part of the series Warfare and History , Jeremy Black (general editor).
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