Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

Roger de Mortimer, 4th Earl of March (11 April 1374 – 20 July 1398)[1] was an English nobleman. He was considered the heir presumptive to his cousin King Richard II.

Roger Mortimer
Earl of March Earl of Ulster
Arms of Mortimer: Barry or and azure, on a chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second over all an inescutcheon argent
Born	(1374-04-11)11 April 1374 Usk, Monmouthshire
Died	20 July 1398(1398-07-20) (aged 24) County Carlow, Ireland
Noble family	Mortimer
Spouse(s)	Alianore Holland, Countess of March
Issue Anne Mortimer Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March Roger Mortimer Eleanor Mortimer
Father	Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March
Mother	Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster

Arms of Mortimer, Earl of March: Quarterly 1st & 4th: Barry or and azure, on a chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second over all an inescutcheon argent (Mortimer); 2nd & 3rd: Or a cross gules (de Burgh)

Roger Mortimer's father, the 3rd Earl of March, died in 1381, leaving the six-year-old Roger to succeed to his father's title. Roger was placed under the wardship of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent and eventually married Holland's daughter Alianore. During his lifetime, Mortimer spent much time in Ireland; he served several tenures as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and died during a battle at Kellistown, Co. Carlow. He was succeeded by his young son, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.

Early life

Roger Mortimer was born 11 April 1374 at Usk in Monmouthshire.[2] He was the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, by his wife Philippa of Clarence, who was the daughter of Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, and granddaughter of King Edward III. Philippa passed on a strong claim to the English crown to her children. Roger had a younger brother, Edmund Mortimer, and two sisters, Elizabeth, who married Henry 'Hotspur' Percy, and Philippa, who first married John Hastings, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, secondly Richard de Arundel, 11th Earl of Arundel, and thirdly Sir Thomas Poynings.[3]

Wardship

According to R. R. Davies, the wardship of such an important heir was an "issue of political moment in the years 1382–4". Eventually, on 16 December 1383, Mortimer's estates in England and Wales were granted for £4000 per annum to a consortium consisting of Mortimer himself, the Earls of Arundel, Northumberland, and Warwick, and John, Lord Neville. The guardianship of Mortimer's person was initially granted to Arundel, but at the behest of King Richard's mother Joan of Kent, Mortimer's wardship and marriage were granted, for 6000 marks,[4] to Joan's son (and Richard's half-brother) Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, in August 1384. On or about 7 October 1388,[2] Mortimer married the Earl of Kent's daughter Eleanor Holland, who was Richard's half-niece.[5] Mortimer did homage and was granted livery of his lands in Ireland on 18 June 1393, and of those in England and Wales on 25 February 1394.[6]

King Richard had no issue, thus Mortimer, a lineal descendant of Edward III, was next in line to the throne and married to his half-niece. G. E. Cokayne states that in October 1385 Mortimer was proclaimed by the king as heir presumptive to the crown.[7] However, according to R. R. Davies, the story that Richard publicly proclaimed Mortimer as heir presumptive in Parliament in October 1385 is baseless, although contemporary records indicate that his claim was openly discussed at the time.[5] He was knighted by King Richard II on 23 April 1390.[7]

Career

After he came of age, Mortimer spent much of his time in Ireland. King Richard had first made Mortimer his Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on 24 January 1382 when he was a child of seven, with his uncle, Sir Thomas Mortimer,[8] acting as his deputy.[9][10] The king reappointed Roger Mortimer as his lieutenant in Ireland on 23 July 1392, and in September 1394,[11] Although he was nominally the king's lieutenant, he made little headway against the native Irish chieftains.[10] On 25 April 1396,[12] the king appointed him lieutenant in Ulster, Connacht, and Meath, and Mortimer was in Ireland for most of the following three years. In April 1397, the king reappointed him lieutenant for a further three years.[13]

Mortimer's residence in Ireland ensured that his political role in England was a minor one. His closest relationships in England appear to have been with family members, including his brother, Edmund, to whom he granted lands and annuities; the Percy family, into which his elder sister, Elizabeth had married; and the Earl of Arundel, who had married his younger sister, Philippa.[5]

As Davies points out, Mortimer's "wealth and lineage meant that, sooner or later, he would be caught up in the political turmoil of Richard II's last years." On 4 September 1397, he was ordered to arrest his uncle, Sir Thomas Mortimer for treason regarding his actions at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, but made no real attempt to do so. Even more inauspiciously, when summoned to a Parliament at Shrewsbury in January 1398, he was 'rapturously received', according to Adam Usk and the Wigmore chronicler, by a vast crowd of supporters wearing his colours. These events excited the king's suspicions, and on Mortimer's return to Ireland after the Parliament in January 1398, 'his enemy, the Duke of Surrey, his brother-in-law, was ordered to follow and capture him'.[13]

Death

Remains of Wigmore Abbey, burial place of the Earls of March

On 20 July 1398, at the age of 24, Mortimer was slain in a skirmish at either Kells, County Meath, or Kellistown, County Carlow. The Wigmore chronicler says that he was riding in front of his army, unattended and wearing Irish garb, possibly illegally,[10] and that those who slew him did not know who he was. He was interred at Wigmore Abbey.[14] The King went to Ireland in the following year to avenge Mortimer's death.[6]

Mortimer's young son, Edmund, succeeded him in the title and claim to the throne. The Wigmore chronicler, while criticising Mortimer for lust and remissness in his duty to God, extols him as 'of approved honesty, active in knightly exercises, glorious in pleasantry, affable and merry in conversation, excelling his contemporaries in beauty of appearance, sumptuous in his feasting, and liberal in his gifts'.[15]

Marriage and children

By his wife Alianore Holland he had two sons and two daughters:[16]

• Anne, who married Richard, Earl of Cambridge (born 1390 – executed 1415)
• Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March (1391–1425)
• Roger (23 April 1393 – c. 1413)[17]
• Eleanor (born 1395-1422), who married Sir Edward de Courtenay (died 1418), and had no issue. Married secondly John Harpeden.

In June 1399 Roger Mortimer's widow, Alianor, married Edward Charleton, 5th Baron Cherleton, by whom she had two daughters:[18]

• Joan, who married John Grey, 1st Earl of Tankerville, brother of Sir Thomas Grey, executed for his part in the Southampton Plot which aimed to replace King Henry V with Eleanor's son, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. Joan was co-heiress in 1425 to her stepbrother, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March.
• Joyce, who married John Tiptoft, 1st Baron Tiptoft.

Alianor died 6 or 18 October 1405.[14]

Ancestry

Ancestors of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March

16. Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March[19] 8. Sir Edmund Mortimer[19] 17. Joan de Geneville, Baroness Geneville[19] 4. Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March[20] 18. Bartholomew de Badlesmere, 1st Baron Badlesmere[19] 9. Elizabeth de Badlesmere[19] 19. Margaret de Clare, Lady Badlesmere[21] 2. Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March[22] 20. William Montagu, 2nd Baron Montagu 10. William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury[20] 21. Elizabeth Montfort 5. Philippa Montacute[20] 22. William de Grandison, 1st Baron Grandison 11. Catherine Montacute, Countess of Salisbury 23. Sibilla Tregoz 1. Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March 24. Edward II of England[23] 12. Edward III of England[24] 25. Isabella of France[23] 6. Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence[25] 26. William I, Count of Hainaut[26] 13. Philippa of Hainault[24] 27. Joan of Valois[26] 3. Philippa of Clarence, 5th Countess of Ulster[22] 28. John de Burgh 14. William Donn de Burgh, 3rd Earl of Ulster[25] 29. Elizabeth de Clare 7. Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster[25] 30. Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster[27] 15. Maud of Lancaster[25] 31. Maud Chaworth[27]

Notes

1. Some sources give the date of his death as 15 August.
2. Richardson III 2011, p. 195.
3. Cokayne 1932, p. 448; Richardson II 2011, pp. 190–1; Richardson III 2011, pp. 193–5, 307, 335, 341; Holmes 2004; Tout & Davies 2004.
4. Pugh 1988, p. 171.
5. Davies 2004.
6. Cokayne 1932, p. 449.
7. Cokayne 1932, p. 448
8. Richardson I 2011, pp. 103–4; Richardson III 2011, pp. 192–3.
9. According to Davies, Sir Thomas Mortimer was illegitimate; however Richardson includes him among the three legitimate sons of Roger Mortimer's grandfather, Roger de Mortimer (1328–1360).
10. McNeill 1911, p. 687.
11. Davies dates the expedition to the summer of 1394.
12. Davies dates the appointment to 28 April 1396.
13. Cokayne 1932, p. 449; Davies 2004.
14. Cokayne 1932, p. 449; Richardson III 2011, p. 195
15. Cokayne 1932, pp. 449–50.
16. Cokayne 1932, p. 450; Richardson III 2011, p. 195
17. Pugh 1988, p. 61; Although some sources state that Roger died c. 1409, Pugh states that he was made a Knight of the Bath by Henry V on the eve of his coronation on 9 April 1413.
18. Richardson I 2011, pp. 427–8.
19. Mortimer 2003, p. 319.
20. Holmes 2004.
21. Mortimer 2003, p. 113.
22. Davies 2004.
23. Weir 2008, p. 92.
24. Weir 2008, pp. 95–6.
25. Weir 2008, p. 96.
26. Weir 2008, p. 93.
27. Weir 2008, pp. 75–9.

References

• Cokayne, George Edward (1932). The Complete Peerage, edited by H.A. Doubleday. VIII. London: St. Catherine Press. pp. 445–53.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Davies, R.R. (2004). "Mortimer, Roger (VII), fourth earl of March and sixth earl of Ulster (1374–1398)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19356. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource: Tout, Thomas Frederick (1894). "Mortimer, Roger de (1374-1398)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 39. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 145–146.
• Holmes, George (2004). "Mortimer, Edmund (III), third earl of March and earl of Ulster (1352–1381)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19342. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• McNeill, Ronald John (1911). "March, Earls of" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 685–688.
• Mortimer, Ian (2003). The Greatest Traitor: The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, Ruler of England 1327–1330. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-34941-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Pugh, T.B. (1988). Henry V and the Southampton Plot of 1415. Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-86299-541-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. I (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1449966379.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. II (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1449966386.
• Richardson, Douglas (2011). Everingham, Kimball G. (ed.). Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families. III (2nd ed.). Salt Lake City. ISBN 978-1449966393.
• Tout, T.F.; Davies, R.R. (reviewer) (2004). "Mortimer, Sir Edmund (IV) (1376-1408/9)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19343. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Weir, Alison (2008). Britain's Royal Families, The Complete Genealogy. London: Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-09-953973-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

External links

• Wigmore Chronicle

Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March House of Plantagenet Born: 11 April 1374 Died: 20 July 1398
English royalty
Preceded by Philippa, 5th Countess of Ulster	Heir to the English Throne as heir presumptive 5 January 1382 (acknowledged 1385) – 20 July 1398	Succeeded by Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
Peerage of England
Preceded by Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl	Earl of March 1381–1398	Succeeded by Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Philippa, 5th Countess with Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March	Earl of Ulster 1382–1398	Succeeded by Edmund Mortimer, 7th Earl, 5th Earl of March