Robert de Vere and Magna Carta
In an attempt to understand what went on that led to king John and the Magna Carta the barons that were involved in
the drafting of the document is key.
Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford, was one of the Magna Carta Barons.
A quote from David Carpenter's "magna Carta indicates why he may have been aggrieved by King John:
Even worse off were the de Vere earls of Oxford, or earls as they thought they should be. Aubrey de Vere had entered his inheritance in 1194.
It was another ten years before he was recognized as earl of Oxford, this after offering John 200 marks for the favour.
The offer was also in order to have the third penny of the county, but the third penny never properly materialized.
On Aubrey's death in 1214, his brother Robert had to offer the king 1,000 marks to enter the inheritance, but this did not include the earldom.
It was only at Runnymede that the earldom and the third penny were conceded. Equally aggrieved was Geoffrey de Mandeville, son of Geoffrey fitzPeter, John's chief justiciar and earl of Essex.
After his father's death in 1213, Geoffrey complained that John had neither invested him with the earldom nor given him the third penny of the county.'
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Third penny
Latin, tercius denarius.
The third penny was one-third of the profits of justice in a Hundred or shire. In most cases, the third went to the king, sometimes to the earl, occasionally to another magnate. The 'third penny' from a borough was different. Boroughs normally paid an annual levy to the king; but on occasions the borough revenues were divided between the king and the earl (or sometimes the sheriff), the king receiving two-thirds, the earl or sheriff the 'third penny'.
See J.H. Round, 'The third penny', English Historical Review, vol. 34 (1919), pages 62-64.
