The 16th Earl's household remained intact for precisely one calendar month after his death. Then, on 3 September 1562, his servants rode the forty-odd miles to London, bringing the heir to a new home, as described by Machyn:

Machyn's figure of seven-score (140) retainers is fewer than Stow's 180, but more than the 89 listed in the 1562 will.

The entourage that reached Temple Bar between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. was a last tribute to the old Earl rather than a first tribute to the new: only John Turner, John Lovell, Henry Golding, Robert Christmas, George Tyrrell, and John Davye would remain to supervise the new Earl. Turner, in his first official action, escorted Oxford (as I will call him henceforth) to Elizabeth's court:

Since the court left Greenwich on 6 September, Oxford must have met the Queen within three days.

Like most children of the English upper classes before and since, Oxford had lived with surrogate parents from a young age, including Cambridge dons at eight, and Sir Thomas Smith at nine. Now, at twelve, he became a ward of Sir William Cecil, the Queen's Principal Secretary and Master of Wards, at Cecil House on the Strand. Wardship was an ancient and theoretically honourable device to protect the assets of a minor against depredation by rapacious relatives or executors. The ultimate guardian of wards was the monarch, who traditionally farmed the responsibility to a Master of the Wards, who might farm wardships to others – for a price. Guardians had both heavy responsibilities and potential benefits. As Cecil had been a particular friend of the 16th Earl, it had probably been agreed between them that he personally would serve as guardian.

Oxford's wardship would last nine years, until 1571, when he would attain his majority.