| |
|
 |
|
 1287 - 1330 (43 years)
-
| Name |
Roger de Mortimer |
| Title |
Sir |
| Suffix |
1st Earl of March |
| Birth |
25 Apr 1287 |
Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England  [1, 2, 3] |
|
|
| Gender |
Male |
| Occupation |
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland [1] |
| Military |
- Military adventures in Ireland and Wales
Roger Mortimer's childhood came to an abrupt end when his father was mortally wounded in a skirmish near Builth in July 1304. Since Roger was underage at the death of his father, he was placed by King Edward I under the guardianship of Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall. However, on 22 May 1306, in a lavish ceremony in Westminster Abbey with two hundred and fifty-nine others, he was knighted by Edward and granted livery of his full inheritance.[6]
His adult life began in earnest in 1308, when he went to Ireland in person to enforce his authority. This brought him into conflict with the de Lacys, who turned for support to Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, King of Scots. Mortimer was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Edward II on 23 November 1316. Shortly afterwards, at the head of a large army, he drove Bruce to Carrickfergus and the de Lacys into Connaught, wreaking vengeance on their adherents whenever they were to be found. He returned to England and Wales in 1318[7] and was then occupied for some years with baronial disputes on the Welsh border.
|
| Military |
Despencer War [1] |
| Death |
29 Nov 1330 |
Tyburn, England [1, 2, 3] |
|
|
| Person ID |
I43547 |
The Hennessee Family |
| Last Modified |
2 Mar 2017 |
| Father |
Sir Edmund Mortimer, Knight, 2nd Baron Mortimer, b. 27 Oct 1252, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England d. 17 Jul 1304, Builth, Wales (Age 51 years) |
| Mother |
Margaret Eleanor de Fiennes, Baroness Mortimer, b. Aft 1269, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England d. 7 Feb 1334, Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England (Age ~ 64 years) |
| Marriage |
Y [1, 3, 4] |
| Family ID |
F17023 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Family |
Baroness Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville, b. 2 Feb 1286, Ludlow Castle, Shropshire, England d. 19 Oct 1396, King's Stanley, Gloucestershire, England (Age 110 years) |
| Marriage |
20 Sep 1301 [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9] |
| Children |
| | 1. Sir Edmund Mortimer, b. ~ 1304, Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England d. 16 Dec 1331, Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England (Age ~ 27 years) |
| | 2. Lady Margaret Mortimer, Baroness Berkeley, b. 2 May 1304, (Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England) d. 5 May 1337 (Age 33 years) |
| | 3. Baroness Joan de Mortimer, 2nd Baroness Geneville, b. 2 Feb 1286, Ludlow Castle, Ludlow, Shropshire, England d. 19 Oct 1356 (Age 70 years) |
| | 4. Lady Katherine de Mortimer, Countess of Warwick, b. 0___ 1314, Wigmore Castle, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England d. 4 Aug 1369, (Warwickshire) England (Age ~ 55 years) |
| | 5. Maud Mortimer, b. Abt 1315, Wigmore, Herefordshire, England d. Bef 1347 (Age ~ 31 years) |
|
| Family ID |
F15814 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
30 Apr 2023 |
-
-
| Notes |
- Early life
Mortimer, grandson of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer and Maud de Braose, Baroness Mortimer, was born at Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire, England, the firstborn of Marcher Lord Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer, and Margaret de Fiennes. Edmund Mortimer had been a second son, intended for minor orders and a clerical career, but on the sudden death of his elder brother Ralph, Edmund was recalled from Oxford University and installed as heir. According to his biographer Ian Mortimer, Roger was possibly sent as a boy away from home to be fostered in the household of his formidable uncle, Roger Mortimer de Chirk.[2] It was this uncle who had carried the severed head of Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Wales to King Edward I in 1282.[3] Like many noble children of his time, Roger was betrothed young, to Joan de Geneville (born 1286), the wealthy daughter of Sir Piers de Geneville, of Trim Castle and Ludlow. They were married on 20 September 1301. Their first child was born in 1302.[4]
Marriage
Through his marriage with Joan de Geneville, Roger not only acquired increased possessions in the Welsh Marches, including the important Ludlow Castle, which became the chief stronghold of the Mortimers, but also extensive estates and influence in Ireland. However, Joan de Geneville was not an "heiress" at the time of her marriage. Her grandfather Geoffrey de Geneville, at the age of eighty in 1308, conveyed most, but not all, of his Irish lordships to Roger Mortimer, and then retired, notably alive: he finally died in 1314, with Joan succeeding as suo jure 2nd Baroness Geneville. During his lifetime Geoffrey also conveyed much of the remainder of his legacy, such as Kenlys, to his younger son Simon de Geneville, who had meanwhile become Baron of Culmullin through marriage to Joanna FitzLeon. Roger Mortimer therefore succeeded to the eastern part of the Lordship of Meath, centred on Trim and its stronghold of Trim Castle. He did not succeed, however, to the Lordship of Fingal.[5]
Military adventures in Ireland and Wales
Roger Mortimer's childhood came to an abrupt end when his father was mortally wounded in a skirmish near Builth in July 1304. Since Roger was underage at the death of his father, he was placed by King Edward I under the guardianship of Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall. However, on 22 May 1306, in a lavish ceremony in Westminster Abbey with two hundred and fifty-nine others, he was knighted by Edward and granted livery of his full inheritance.[6]
His adult life began in earnest in 1308, when he went to Ireland in person to enforce his authority. This brought him into conflict with the de Lacys, who turned for support to Edward Bruce, brother of Robert Bruce, King of Scots. Mortimer was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Edward II on 23 November 1316. Shortly afterwards, at the head of a large army, he drove Bruce to Carrickfergus and the de Lacys into Connaught, wreaking vengeance on their adherents whenever they were to be found. He returned to England and Wales in 1318[7] and was then occupied for some years with baronial disputes on the Welsh border.
Opposition to Edward II
Main article: Despenser War
Mortimer became disaffected with his king and joined the growing opposition to Edward II and the Despensers. After the younger Despenser was granted lands belonging to him, he and the Marchers began conducting devastating raids against Despenser property in Wales. He supported Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford, in refusing to obey the king's summons to appear before him in 1321. Mortimer led a march against London, his men wearing the Mortimer uniform which was green with a yellow sleeve.[8] He was prevented from entering the capital, although his forces put it under siege. These acts of insurrection compelled the Lords Ordainers led by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, to order the king to banish the Despensers in August. When the king led a successful expedition in October against Margaret de Clare, Baroness Badlesmere, after she had refused Queen Isabella admittance to Leeds Castle, he used his victory and new popularity among the moderate lords and the people to summon the Despensers back to England. Mortimer, in company with other Marcher Lords, led a rebellion against Edward, which is known as the Despenser War, at the end of the year.[citation needed]
Forced to surrender to the king at Shrewsbury in January 1322, Mortimer was consigned to the Tower of London, but by drugging the constable, escaped to France in August 1323, pursued by warrants for his capture dead or alive.[9] In the following year Queen Isabella, anxious to escape from her husband, obtained his consent to her going to France to use her influence with her brother, King Charles IV, in favour of peace. At the French court the queen found Roger Mortimer, who became her lover soon afterwards. At his instigation, she refused to return to England so long as the Despensers retained power as the king's favourites.
Historians have speculated as to the date at which Mortimer and Isabella actually became lovers.[10] The modern view is that it began while both were still in England, and that after a disagreement, Isabella abandoned Roger to his fate in the Tower. His subsequent escape became one of medieval England's most colourful episodes. However almost certainly Isabella risked everything by chancing Mortimer's companionship and emotional support when they first met again at Paris four years later (Christmas 1325). King Charles IV's protection of Isabella at the French court from Despenser's would-be assassins played a large part in developing the relationship.[11] In 1326, Mortimer moved as Prince Edward's guardian to Hainault, but only after a furious dispute with the queen, demanding she remain in France.[12] Isabella retired to raise troops in her County of Ponthieu; Mortimer arranged the invasion fleet supplied by the Hainaulters.
Invasion of England and defeat of Edward II
The scandal of Isabella's relations with Mortimer compelled them both to withdraw from the French court to Flanders, where they obtained assistance for an invasion of England from Count William of Hainaut, although Isabella did not arrive from Ponthieu until the fleet was due to sail. Landing in the River Orwell on 24 September 1326, they were accompanied by Prince Edward and Henry, Earl of Lancaster. London rose in support of the queen, and Edward took flight to the west, pursued by Mortimer and Isabella. After wandering helplessly for some weeks in Wales, the king was taken prisoner on 16 November, and was compelled to abdicate in favour of his son. Though the latter was crowned as Edward III of England on 25 January 1327, the country was ruled by Mortimer and Isabella, who were widely believed to have arranged the murder of Edward II the following September at Berkeley Castle.[citation needed]
Historian and biographer of Roger Mortimer and Edward III, Ian Mortimer, retells the old story that the ex-king was not killed and buried in 1327, but secretly remained alive at Corfe Castle. When Mortimer besieged the castle, Edward II was said to escape to Rome, where he stayed under papal protection.[13]
Powers won and lost
Rich estates and offices of profit and power were now heaped on Mortimer. He was made constable of Wallingford Castle and in September 1328 he was created Earl of March. However, although in military terms he was far more competent than the Despensers, his ambition was troubling to all. His own son Geoffrey, the only one to survive into old age, mocked him as "the king of folly." During his short time as ruler of England he took over the lordships of Denbigh, Oswestry, and Clun (the first of which belonged to Despenser, the latter two had been the Earl of Arundel's). He was also granted the marcher lordship of Montgomery by the queen.[citation needed]
The "Tyburn Tree"
The jealousy and anger of many nobles were aroused by Mortimer's use of power. Henry, Earl of Lancaster, one of the principals behind Edward II's deposition, tried to overthrow Mortimer, but the action was ineffective as the young king passively stood by. Then, in March 1330, Mortimer ordered the execution of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the half-brother of Edward II. After this execution Henry Lancaster prevailed upon the young king, Edward III, to assert his independence. In October 1330, a Parliament was summoned to Nottingham, just days before Edward's eighteenth birthday, and Mortimer and Isabella were seized by Edward and his companions from inside Nottingham Castle. In spite of Isabella's entreaty to her son, "Fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer," Mortimer was conveyed to the Tower. Accused of assuming royal power and of various other high misdemeanours, he was condemned without trial and ignominiously hanged at Tyburn on 29 November 1330, his vast estates forfeited to the crown. His body hung at the gallows for two days and nights in full view of the populace. Mortimer's widow Joan received a pardon in 1336 and survived till 1356. She was buried beside Mortimer at Wigmore, but the site was later destroyed.[14]
In 2002, the actor John Challis, the current owner of the remaining buildings of Wigmore Abbey, invited the BBC programme House Detectives at Large to investigate his property. During the investigation, a document was discovered in which Mortimer's widow Joan petitioned Edward III for the return of her husband's body so she could bury it at Wigmore Abbey. Mortimer's lover Isabella had buried his body at Greyfriars in Coventry following his hanging. Edward III replied, "Let his body rest in peace." The king later relented, and Mortimer's body was transferred to Wigmore Abbey, where Joan was later buried beside him.[citation needed]
Children of Roger and Joan
The marriages of Mortimer's children (three sons and eight daughters) cemented Mortimer's strengths in the West.
Sir Edmund Mortimer knt (1302-1331), married Elizabeth de Badlesmere; they produced Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, who was restored to his grandfather's title.
Margaret Mortimer (1304 - 5 May 1337), married Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Baron Berkeley
Maud Mortimer (1307 - aft. 1345), married John de Charlton, Lord of Powys[15]
Geoffrey Mortimer (1309-1372/6)
John Mortimer (1310-1328)
Joan Mortimer (c. 1312-1337/51), married James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley
Isabella Mortimer (c. 1313 - aft. 1327)
Katherine Mortimer (c. 1314-1369), married Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick
Agnes Mortimer (c. 1317-1368), married Laurence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke
Beatrice Mortimer (d. 16 October 1383), who married firstly, Edward of Norfolk (d. before 9 August 1334), son and heir apparent of Thomas of Brotherton, by whom she had no issue, and secondly, before 13 September 1337, Thomas de Brewes (d. 9 or 16 June 1361), by whom she had three sons and three daughters.[16]
Blanche Mortimer (c. 1321-1347), married Peter de Grandison, 2nd Baron Grandison
Royal descendants
Through his son Sir Edmund Mortimer, he is an ancestor of the last Plantagenet monarchs of England from King Edward IV to Richard III. By Edward IV's daughter, Elizabeth of York, the Earl of March is an ancestor to King Henry VIII and to all subsequent monarchs of England. [1]
- Roger Mortimer, 1st earl of March, (born 1287?—died Nov. 29, 1330, Tyburn, near London, Eng.), lover of the English king Edward II’s queen, Isabella of France, with whom he contrived Edward’s deposition and murder (1327). For three years thereafter he was virtual king of England during the minority of Edward III.
The descendant of Norman knights who had accompanied William the Conqueror, he inherited wealthy family estates and fortunes, principally in Wales and Ireland, and in 1304 became 8th Baron of Wigmore on the death of his father, the 7th baron. He devoted the early years of his majority to obtaining effective control of his Irish lordships against his wife’s kinsmen, the Lacys, who summoned to their aid Edward Bruce, brother of King Robert I of Scotland, when he was fighting to become king of Ireland. In 1316 Mortimer was defeated at Kells and withdrew to England, but afterward, as King Edward II’s lieutenant in Ireland (November 1316), he was largely instrumental in overcoming Bruce and in driving the Lacys from Meath.
In 1317 he was associated with the Earl of Pembroke’s “middle party” in English politics; but distrust of the Despensers (see Despenser, Hugh Le and Hugh Le) drove him, in common with other marcher lords, into opposition and violent conflict with the Despensers in South Wales in 1321. But, receiving no help from Edward II’s other enemies, Roger and his uncle Roger Mortimer of Chirk made their submission in January 1322. Imprisoned in the Tower of London, Roger escaped in 1323 and fled to France, where in 1325 he was joined by Queen Isabella, who became his mistress. The exiles invaded England in September 1326; the fall of the Despensers was followed by the deposition of Edward II and his subsequent murder (1327), in which Mortimer was deeply implicated.
Thereafter, as the queen’s paramour, Mortimer virtually ruled England. He used his position to further his own ends. Created Earl of March in October 1328, he secured for himself the lordships of Denbigh, Oswestry, and Clun, formerly belonging to the Earl of Arundel; the marcher lordships of the Mortimers of Chirk; and Montgomery, granted to him by the queen. His insatiable avarice, his arrogance, and his unpopular policy toward Scotland aroused against Mortimer a general revulsion among his fellow barons, and in October 1330 the young king Edward III, at the instigation of Henry of Lancaster, had him seized at Nottingham and conveyed to the Tower. Condemned for crimes declared to be notorious by his peers in Parliament, he was hanged at Tyburn as a traitor, and his estates were forfeited to the crown. [10]
- One night in August 1323, a captive rebel baron, Sir Roger Mortimer, drugged his guards and escaped from the Tower of London. With the king's men-at-arms in pursuit he fled to the south coast and sailed to France. There he was joined by Isabella, the Queen of England, who threw herself into his arms.
A year later, as lovers, they returned with an invading army: King Edward II's forces crumbled before them and Mortimer took power. He removed Edward II in the first deposition of a monarch in British history. Then the ex-king was apparently murdered, some said with a red-hot poker, in Berkeley Castle. [11]
|
-
| Sources |
- [S7463] "Roger de Mortimer, 3rd Baron Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (25 April 1287 - 29 November 1330)" biography, https://en.wiki.
- [S9862] "Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer" biography, accessed & downloaded October 22nd, 2016 by David A. Hennssee, https://.
- [S10026] "Margaret Fiennes, Baroness Mortimer" biography, accessed & downloaded Thursday, Thanksgiving, November 24th, 2016 by Da.
- [S10030] "Jeanne, Dame de Chateaudun" biography, accessed & downloaded Thursday, Thanksgiving, November 24th, 2016 by David A. He.
- [S7462] "Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick, KG (c. 14 February 1313 - 13 November 1369)" biography, https://en.wikipedia.
- [S7464] "Sir Edmund Mortimer (1302/1303 - 16 December 1331)" biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Mortimer_(1302%E2%8.
- [S9776] "Margaret Mortimer, Baroness Berkeley" biography, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mortimer,_Baroness_Berkeley, ac.
- [S10711] "Joan of Lusignan" biography, which was abstracted, downloaded and published Tuesday, March 21st, 2017 by David A. Henne.
- [S14153] "Reynold (Reginald) "3rd Baron Cobham" Cobham", Ancestors & Descendants, https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cobham-25, Abstra.
- [S7921] "Roger Mortimer, 3rd Baron Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (25 April 1287 - 29 November 1330)" biography, http://www.britann.
- [S7922] http://www.amazon.com/The-Greatest-Traitor-Mortimer-1327-1330/dp/0312349416.
|
|
|
|
