Sir Roger de Mortimer Knight, 1st Earl of March

  General Notes:

~Weis' Ancestral Roots. . . 10:32, father of Catherine, m. Thomas Beauchamp, 29:32, father of Edmund, m. Elizabeth de Badlesmere, 39:31, father of Margaret, m. Thomas de Berkeley, 71:32, father of Joan de Mortimer, m. Sir James de Audley, Knight of the Garter.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, article on Mortimer (Berkeley), identifies him as the father of Margaret.

~Cockayne's "Complete Peerage" (Audley) identifies him as Joan's father.

~The Magna Charta Sureties 1215, 12:6 ^141,160,526

  Information about this person:

• Dates & Events.
He was knighted by the Prince of Wales with some 260 other young noblemen and "all given splendid robes and Westminster Abbey rang with the clamour of trumpets and shouts of joy" on 22 May 1306 in Westminster Abbey, London, England

• Background Information. ⁸¹⁴
Roger Mortimer, son and heir of Edmund de Mortimer, was summoned to parliament during the life of his father, 27-30 Edward I. He was among those members of parliament at Lincoln who signed "the famous letter to the pope." He is designated "Rogerus de Mortuo mari Dominus de Penketlyn," while at the same time his father was designated "Edmundus de Mortuo mari dominus de Wigmore" on the same letter. He was summoned up to 35 Edward I, but in 1 Edward II he was summoned to the Coronation of Edward II, but this time with the addition of "de Wigmore" to his name, and the same on subsequent writs until 10 Edward II. He was not summoned again until 20 Edward II, at which time he was created earl of March. In 20 Edward II. In 3 Edward III, his summons was for the great council at Westminster.

His Earldom did not last long since he was said to have been a great favorite of Isabel, the adulterous queen of Edward II. He was surprised at the castle of Nottingham, was taken prisoner and later accused in parliament of certain high crimes for which they found him guilty. He was executed on the common gallows near Smithfield, and all his honors were forfeited.

Sir Roger was married to Joane, daughter of Peter, son of Geffery de Genevil, lord of Trim in Ireland, which brought the lordship of Trim and other great estates into his family upon her death.

~Baronia Anglica Concentrata, Vol. I, p. 336

• Background Information. ¹⁴¹
Roger de Mortimer, Lord Mortimer, son and heir of Edmund de Mortimer, Lord Mortimer, by Margaret, daughter of Sir William de Finenes, was born either on 25 April or 3 May 1287. On 29 July 1304 the wardship of his lands was granted to Piers de Gavaston. On 30 Dec 1304 Roger had permission to pay off his father's debts at the rate of £20 a year. He was summoned to Parliament from 22 February 1306/7 to 15 May 1321, and from 3 December 1326 to 28 August 1328, by writs directed Rogero de Mortuo Mari de Wygemor .

On 9 Apr 1306, although still under age, Roger had livery of his lands, having satisfied Piers de Gavaston. The King, at Westminster, made him a knight at the same time as the Prince of Wales was made knight, on Whitsunday 22 May 1306. In 1306 he performed service in Scotland, and in October, being one of those who left the King's service there without license, his lands were seized. He was pardoned in the following January, and his lands were restored at the intercession of Queen Margarct. On 15 Dec 1307, the Justiciar of Ireland was ordered to deliver to him the lands of his inheritance in Ireland, although he was still under age. On 24 December Geoffrey de Geneville, Lord Geneville, had license to surrender to Roger de Mortimer and Joan his wife (daughter of Piers, and granddaughter of Geoffrey de Geneville) the lands in Ireland which Geoffrey held by the courtesy after the death of Maud his wife, and which at his death would descend to Roger and Joan.

At the outset of Roger's career, he became, by inheritance from his father and in consequence of his marriage, a great magnate both in Wales and in Ireland. At the Coronation of Edward II, 25 Feb 1307/8, he was one of the four bearers of the royal robes. On 14 Mar 1307/8 he acknowledged a debt of £80 to the Friscobaldis of Florence. He was summoned for military service against the Scots 21 Jun 1308, and also in 1309 (to raise 500 foot soldiers in Wales), 1310, and later.

On 28 Oct 1308 Sir Roger and his wife (heiress of Meath) went to Ireland and took seisin of Meath. On 26 Aug 1309 he had a grant of the commote of Endor (unidentified) in Wales, and in the same year sealed the Barons' letter of 6 August to the Pope concerning abuses. He was custodian, during pleasure, of Builth Castle on 26 Feb 1309/10. On 20 July 1309 or 1310 a mandate was issued to the Justiciar of Ireland restoring the liberties Roger's predecessors had enjoyed in Trim. On 2 Apr 1313 Roger was to be paid £100 for his expenses in going to Gascony on the King's service. He nominated attorneys in Ireland on 14 Mar 1314/5 for two years. In 1315 he took part in suppressing the revolt of Llewelyn Bren, and was one of those to whom, on 18 Mar 1315/6, Llewelyn surrendered. In June 1316 Roger made a settlement of his estates. In the same year he was defeated by Edward Bruce in Ireland, after which he returned to England, and later helped the Earl of Pembroke to suppress a revolt in Bristol.

On 23 Nov 1316, Roger was appointed the King's Lieutenant in Ireland, and on 9 December had a grant of the marriage of the son and heir of Nicholas de Audley. I n February 1316/7 he assembled a great army at Haverford west, and crossed with them, as commander, to Youghal, arriving on 7 April. He is said to have held a Parliament in Dublin in May. On 3 June he defeated Walter de Lacy and his men, and the next day, when Walter and his three brothers again attacked, he again defeated them. In 1318 he was recalled to England, and in the same year he is described as the "late keeper" of Ireland.

In the dispute between the King and the Despensers on the one hand, and the Earl of Lancaster on the other, Mortimer seems to have tried to keep a middle course with the Earl of Pembroke. He had a grant on 20 Jul 1318 of the marriage of Thomas, son and heir of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. On 9 August, at the treaty of Leek between the King and Lancaster, he was one of the sureties for the King, and was nominated on the King's council and on the commission to reform the royal household. In November, the chamberlain of Carnarvon was ordered to pay him 2,000 marks for his services in Ireland. On 15 March 1318/9 he was appointed Justiciar of Ireland, during pleasure, and held this office until January 1320/1. On 16 March he was made keeper of the castles of Roscommon, Randown and Athlone.

In 1320, in a private war in South Wales between the Earl of Hereford and Despenser about Gower, Roger and his uncle Roger Mortimer of Chirk took sides with the former. In the following year the King summoned Roger and the Earl of Hereford to attend him, but they refused to come, because the younger Despenser was in the King's train. On 28 June 1321 Roger and his uncle were present at the meeting of the Barons at Sherburn in Elmet, and on 29 July Roger accompanied them to London and lodged at the Hospitallers' house at Clerkenwell. The King yielded, the Despensers were banished, and Mortimer received a formal pardon on 20 August, and returned to the Welsh Marches.

On 12 November Roger was ordered to abstain from the meeting of the "Good Peers" which Thomas of Lancaster had convened for 29 November. Later when the forces of the King besieged the castle of Leeds in Kent, which had refused admission to the Queen, Hereford and Mortimer came as near as Kingston, but did nothing further to relieve it. The King's forces took the castle and followed them westward, and on 25 December were at Cirencester. About this time Mortimer burnt Bridgnorth, and the King's army, being unable to cross the Severn, went north to Shrewsbury. On 22 Jan 1321/2 the Mortimers, being disappointed at not receiving help from the Earl of Lancaster, surrendered to the King at Shrewsbury, and were sent to the Tower. When Lancaster was overthrown at Boroughbridge, 22 March 1321/2, the Despensers returned to power, and the Mortimers were tried, and in July condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted, 22 July, to one of perpetual imprisonment. On 1 Aug 1324, Roger escaped from the Tower, the guards having been drugged, and, crossing the Thames, he rode to Dover and embarked on a ship which was waiting to take him to France.

Once in France, Roger was welcomed by Charles IV, whom he assisted in his war with Edward II in Guienne. In the spring of 1325, Queen Isabel (sister of Charles IV) crossed over to France to arrange for a peace about Guienne, which was made on 31 May. On 12 September Prince Edward went over to France to do homage for Aquitaine, and stayed there with his mother, with whom Mortimer and other exiles had become closely associated. Mortimer became her lover as well as her adviser, and at the end of the year they went to Flanders, where Prince Edward was affianced to Philippe of Hainault, and men and money were obtained for an attack on England.

On 24 September 1326 the Queen, with Mortimer, John of Hainault, and their forces, landed near Ipswich, and were joined by Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and other opponents of the Despensers. The King having fled to the Despensers in Wales, Mortimer followed him. On 26 Oct 1326 the elder Despenser was captured at Bristol, tried by Mortimer, Lancaster, and others the next day, and hanged forthwith. On 16 November the King and the younger Despenser were captured at Llantrisant. The next day Mortimer ordered the execution of Arundel, and on 24 November he and Lancaster and Kent sat in judgment on the younger Despenser, and hanged him on a gallows 50 feet high.

Mortimer was present at the delivery of the Great Seal to the Bishop of Norwich at Cirencester on 30 November, and on 15 December the custody of Denbigh Castle was granted to him, during pleasure. He was at Wallingford for Christmas that year with the Queen and her son. On 7 Jan 1326/7, Parliament deposed Edward II and made his son king, and on 13 January Mortimer, with a great company, visited the City, and at the Guildhall promised to maintain the liberties of the citizens. He was present on 28 January when the young King gave the Great Seal to the new Chancellor, the Bishop of Ely. On 1 Feb 1326/7 he was present af the Coronation of Edward Ill, and that day three of his sons (Edmund, Roger and Geoffrey) were made knights.

On 15 February, Roger received custody of the lands of the heir of Nicholas de Audley, and on 17 February was granted the marriage of Laurence de Hastinges. He was made Justiciar of the bishopric of Llandaff on 20 February 1326/7, and justice of Wales during pleasure, and for life in the following year. On 21 February he received a pardon for breaking prison at the Tower and for his other delinquencies, sentence against him was reversed, because his peers had not tried him, and all his lands were restored to him. On 28 February he had license to alienate lands, &c., to Acornbury monastery, Hereford. On 3 Jun 1327 he received custody of the lands of Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, during minority.

Roger de Mortimer was appointed chief keeper of the peace on 8 Jun 1327 in the counties of Hereford, Stafford, and Worcester. On 12 June was to have the custody of Glamorgan and Morganwg, during pleasure, which custody he gave up on 22 Apr 1328 to Eleanor, widow of Hugh Despenser. In July 1327, he was in the Marches of Scotland in the King's service. On 17 August the liberty of Trim in Ireland was restored to him. On 13 September, the castles of Denbigh, Oswestry, and others were confirmed to him in satisfaction for the grant of land's worth £1,000 a year promised by Edward before he became king, also lands in cos. Worcester and Gloucester, and in Uriel in Ireland. He was granted the custody of the lands and heir of Lord Hastinges on 15 Oct 1327, and on 22 November had Church Stretton for life.

In 1328 Roger de Mortimer held a Round Table at Bedford, and in June a great tournament at Hereford on the occasion of the marriage of two of his daughters, which the King and his mother attended. On 19 July he was present at Berwick at the marriage of the King's sister Joan with David, who became King of Scotland in the following year. On 6 Oct 1328 he received license to go armed, together with his retinue. In the same month at the Parliament at Salisbury he was created, between 25 and 31 October, Earl of Marches (Contes Marchia Walliae), by girding with the sword "as the custom is," and on 9 November was endowed with £10 a year from the issues of Salop and Staffs. This was the first earldom created in England not of a county.

Roger de Mortimer had been appointed (as Earl of March) justice of the bishopric of St. Davids on 4 Nov 1328. On 15 December he founded a college of nine (later ten) chaplains in the church of St. Mary, Leintwarden, and of two chaplains in the chapel of Ludlow Castle. Hitherto Mortimer had met with little opposition in his career of self-aggrandizement since his return from exile. While holding no office in the government, he had obtained posts in it for his friends, and secured for himself a flood of lucrative grants, which enabled him to make a display of great magnificence while exercising the almost regal power, which he acquired through Queen Isabel.

Discontent had, however, been growing among Roger's rivals, and the first to show his resentment was Henry, Earl of Lancaster, who had been appointed guardian of the young King at his accession, but had gradually been ousted by Mortimer from the control of his young charge. He and others refused to attend the Salisbury Parliament in which Mortimer was elevated to an earldom, and in the new year, 2 Jan 1328/9, formed a coalition in London with some of the citizens for Mortimer's destruction. Mortimer meanwhile overran Lancaster's lands and seized Leicester on 4 January. Lancaster advanced no further than Bedford, for his adherents deserted him on the march, and he was forced to make terms with his enemy. This success secured Mortimer's ascendancy for the time being, and he obtained yet further grants.

On 22 February, a rent of £10 due from certain manors was released to Roger. He was granted on 2 Sep 1329 the reversion of the castles of Builth and Montgomery and the hundred of Chirbury on the death of Queen Isabel, and in April of the following year was granted Montgomery Castle in fee. On 28 Jan 1329/30 he had the custody of the lands and the marriage of Richard Fitz Gerald, Earl of Kildare. On 20 April all debts to the Exchequer due by himself or his ancestors were remitted. He was granted the town of Droitwich on 25 April, and next day had custody of the castle of Athlone. On 27 May 1330, in consideration of his continual attendance on the King, he was granted 500 marks per annum from the issues of Wales, in addition to the usual fees of the justice of Wales. By charters dated 25 April and 23 June 1330 Roger and Joan his wife obtained Palatine rights in Meath (Trim) and Uriel (Louth). On 12 July he was appointed chief commissioner of array and captain of the countiesHereford, Gloucester, Worcester, and Salop, on 16 Aug. had custody of the castle and town of Bristol, and on 25 August another Irish custody.

Mortimer had now, however, run his course, and the universal hatred which his arrogance and greed had inspired came to a head. Early in the year he had involved Edmund, Earl of Kent, uncle of the King, and his own former associate, in a plot to restore Edward II, Edmund having been persuaded that his half-brother still lived. The resulting trial for treason, and the condemnation and execution of Edmund on 19 March 1329/30, was a success for Mortimer, which soon reacted against him. Edward III, who had long chafed against the restraints, imposed on his freedom and at Mortimer's influence over his mother, was roused at last, and he headed a conspiracy to get rid of the tyrant.

A meeting (by some called a Parliament) having been summoned for October at Nottingham, it was decided to take this opportunity of seizing Mortimer's person. The governor of Nottingham Castle, where Isabel, Mortimer, and the King lodged, revealed to William de Montagu (later Earl of Salisbury) and others a secret passage into the castle whereby Mortimer's Welsh guards could be evaded. On the night of 18 October the conspirators burst in on Mortimer while he was holding a conference with the Chancellor. Mortimer slew one of his assailants, but was overpowered, and arrested by order of the King, in spite of the Queen mother's appeal, "Beal fitz, beal fitz, eiez pitie de gentil Mortymer." He was sent to London (via Loughborough and Leicester) with two of his sons, Edmund and Geoffrey, and his chief lay assistants, Oliver de Ingham and Simon de Barford. On 28 October Edward took the government into his own hands, and in the Parliament which met in London 26 November Mortimer was impeached (14 articles), found guilty (without being heard in his defense), and condemned to be executed. Having been attainted, all his honors were forfeiled.

Roger de Mortimer married, before 6 Octr 1306, Joan, daughter and heir of Piers de Geneville, by Joan or Jehanne, daughter of Hugue XII, comté de la Marche et Angouleme, by Jehanne, daughter and eventual coheir of Raoul, Seigneur de Fougeres in Brittany. She was born 2 Feb 1285/6. He died 29 Nov 1330, being drawn to execution like a felon and hanged at the Elms, Tyburn. His body was left on the gallows two days and two nights. He was buried in the Church of the Grey Friars at Shrewsbury (g). His widow in December 1332 received the wardship of two-thirds of the lands of her son Edmund, to hold till the heir should be of age. She had surrendered the liberty of Trim on 18 September 1332, and it was restored to her in 1337, and again in 1343 or 1344. In 1347 she was styled Countess of March and Lady of Trim. She died 19 Oct 1356.

~Cokayne's Complete Peerage, 2nd Edition, (March) Vol. VIII, pp. 433-42, Vol. XIV, p. 466

Roger married Joan de Genenville, daughter of Sir Piers de Genenville Knight, Baron of Geneville of Trim & Ludlow Castle and Jeanne de Lusignan, before 6 Oct 1306 in England ^141,160.^,528 (Joan de Genenville was born 2 Feb 1285 or 1286 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England ^160,528 and died on 19 Oct 1356 in England ^141,160,528.)