Anne de Mortimer

Coat of arms of Anne de Mortimer

Anne Mortimer (* 27. December 1388 / 1390 ; † 21st September 1411 ) is the daughter of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March , and Eleanor de Holland . Little is known about her personally, but because of her ancestry, her marriage to Richard of Conisburgh, 1st Earl of Cambridge in May 1406, validated by a dispensation from the Pope on May 23, 1408, played an important role in the later conflict of the Houses of Lancaster and York in the Wars of the Roses , as the York line later invoked them and their ancestors.

Dynastic connections

Anne Mortimer was the granddaughter of Philippa Plantagenet, 5th Countess of Ulster , the only daughter of Lionel of Antwerp , the Duke of Clarence. Her brother Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March , was at the end of the reign of Richard II as a representative of the second oldest line of descent, starting from Edward III. , designated successor in case of childlessness of the king.

Due to the usurpation of Heinrich Bolingbrokes, the son of John of Gaunt , under the title Heinrich IV. 1399, however, the third oldest line of descent of the Plantagenets took over the title of king. Anne's husband Richard of Conisburgh descends from the fourth oldest lineage through his father Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York , so that possible claims of the second and fourth lineages were combined in their children. Richard of Conisburgh took this as an opportunity in 1415 to intrigue against Heinrich V in favor of his brother-in-law Edmund Mortimer, who, however, discovered this plot himself and was loyal to his Lancaster cousin.

Anne Mortimer's legacy

Anne had already died by then, probably giving birth to her second child Richard . But since her brother later died without a legitimate heir and her husband's older brother, Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York , left no heirs, her son Richard received the substantial inheritance from his mother and, posthumously, from his maternal uncle, as well the ducal dignity of York including possessions through his paternal uncle. Anne's son Richard thus combined the legacies of the Clarence-Mortimer line with those of the York line, including the claims to the throne through his maternal line.

progeny

• Isabella (* 1409; † October 2, 1484), ∞ Heinrich Bourchier, son of Wilhelm Bourchier and Anne of Gloucester
• Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York (September 21, 1411 - December 30, 1460), ∞ Cecily Neville , father of Edward IV and Richard III.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Anne Mortimer in English monarchs. Retrieved November 19, 2015 . 
2. ^ Alison Weir: Britain's Royal Families . The Bodley Head, London 1999, pp. 111 .
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Lady Anne de Mortimer on thepeerage. Retrieved November 19, 2015 . 

Web links

• Lady Anne de Mortimer on thepeerage.com , accessed October 4, 2015.