 Sir George Vere had been intended for the priesthood, and in 1459, when he was only sixteen, his father, John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford, appointed him to a benefice in Lavenham, Suffolk.However both the 12th Earl and his eldest son and heir, Aubrey de Vere, were executed in February 1462, and George then became second in line to the earldom as the potential heir to his brother, John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford.Instead of George, his younger brother, Richard, became a priest, and in 1459 George married, as his first wife, Margaret Talbot (d. December 1472), the sister and coheir of Thomas Talbot, 2nd Viscount Lisle (d. March 1470).