Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March

Roger de Mortimer, 1st Earl of March (25 April 1287 – 29 November 1330) became de facto ruler of England after deposing and ordering the murder of King Edward II of England. He had also been conducting an affair with Edward's wife, Queen Isabella.

Early life and family history

Mortimer, grandson of the 1st Baron Wigmore, was born at Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire, England, the firstborn of the 2nd Baron Wigmore and his wife, the former Margaret de Fiennes. His father had been a second son, intended for clerical work, but on the sudden death of his elder brother, Edmund was recalled from Oxford University and installed as heir. As a boy, Roger was probably sent to be fostered in the household of his formidable uncle, Roger Mortimer of Chirk. It was this uncle who had carried the head of Llywelyn the Last to King Edward I in 1282.

Like many noble children of his time, Roger was married young, to Jeanne de Geneville, the daughter of a neighbouring lordship. They were married in 1301, and immediately began a family. Through his marriage with Jeanne de Geneville, Roger not only acquired increased possessions on 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, Jeanne de Geneville was not an "heiress" at marriage. Her grandfather, Geoffrey de Geneville conveyed most, but not all, of his Irish lordships at age 80 in 1308, to Roger Mortimer, and then retired, notably alive - he finally died in 1314! Geoffrey also conveyed much of his legacy, such as Kenlys, during his lifetime, to his younger son (the older son Piers having died in 1292), Simon de Geneville, who had meanwhile become Baron of Culmullin, through marriage to Joanna FitzLeon. While Roger Mortimer did therefore succeed to the Lordship of Trim and which later reverted to the Crown), he did not succeed to the Lordship of Fingal, which descended instead to Simon de Geneville (whose son Laurence predeceased him), and through his heiress daughter Elizabeth, to her husband William de Loundres, and through their heiress daughter, also Elizabeth, to Sir Christopher Preston, and thence to the Viscounts Gormanston.

Roger Mortimer's childhood came to a crashing halt when Lord Wigmore 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, and was knighted by Edward in 1306. In that year also Roger was endowed as Baron Wigmore, and came into his full inheritance. His adult life began in earnest.

Military adventures in Ireland, Wales

In 1308 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 Scotland. Mortimer was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Edward II. In 1316, 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 was then occupied for some years with baronial disputes on the Welsh border until about 1318.

Opposition to Edward II

In 1318, Mortimer joined the growing opposition to Edward II and the Despensers, and he supported Humphrey de Bohun, 4th earl of Hereford, in refusing to obey the king’s summons to appear before him in 1321.

Forced to surrender to the king at Shrewsbury in January 1322, Mortimer was consigned to the Tower of London, but escaped to France in August 1324. In the following year Queen Isabella, wife of Edward II, 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; she became his mistress soon afterwards, and at his instigation refused to return to England so long as the Despensers retained power as the king’s favourites.

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. Landing in England in September 1326, they were joined by Henry Plantagenet, 3rd Earl of Leicester; 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 on January 25, 1327, the country was ruled by Mortimer and Isabella, who were widely believed to have arranged the murder of Edward II in the following September at Berkeley Castle.

Powers won and lost

Rich estates and offices of profit and power were now heaped on Mortimer, such as being 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, mocked him as "the king of folly". The jealousy and anger of Lancaster had been aroused by Mortimer's rise, and Lancaster prevailed upon the young king, Edward III, to assert his independence. At a parliament held at Nottingham in October 1330 a plot was successfully carried out by which Mortimer was arrested in the castle. In spite of Isabella’s entreaty to her son — "Fair son, have pity on the gentle Mortimer," — he was conveyed to the Tower.

Accused of assuming royal power and of various other high misdemeanours, he was condemned without trial and hanged at Tyburn on 29 November, 1330, his vast estates being forfeited to the crown. Mortimer's widow, Jeanne, received a pardon in 1336 and survived till 1356. She was buried beside Mortimer at Wigmore, but the site was later destroyed. They had 12 children together:

Edmund Mortimer (1302–1331)
Margaret Mortimer (1304–1337), married Thomas de Berkeley, 3rd Lord Berkeley
Roger Mortimer (1305–1338)
Maud Mortimer (1307–aft.1345), married John de Charlton, Lord of Powys
Geoffrey Mortimer (1309–1372/6)
John Mortimer (1310–1328)
Joan Mortimer (1311/3–1337/51), married James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley
Isabella Mortimer (1311/3–aft.1327)
Catherine Mortimer (1311/3–1369), married Thomas de Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick
Agnes Mortimer (1315/21–1368), married Lawrence Hastings, 1st Earl of Pembroke
Beatrice Mortimer (1315/21–1383), married (1) Edward, 2nd Earl of Norfolk; (2) Thomas de Braose, 1st Baron Brewes
Blanche Mortimer (1314/22–1347), married Piers de Grandison, 2nd Lord Grandison

His eldest son, Edmund, was father of another Roger Mortimer, who was restored to his grandfather’s title.

Sources

The Greatest Traitor, by Ian Mortimer, 2003.
Calendar of the Gormanston Register (ed. Mills/McEnery), Dublin, 1916.
Preston Genealogy, by Sir Thomas Wentworth, May 1636 (MS 10,208, National Library, Dublin)

External links

Wigmore Castle