Geoffrey Mortimer

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Sir Geoffrey Mortimer ( French Geoffroy de Mortemer ) (* 1308 or 1309; † between 1372 and May 5, 1376) was an Anglo-French nobleman.

Origin and heritage

Geoffrey Mortimer came from the Anglo-Norman Mortimer family . He was the third son of Roger Mortimer of Wigmore and his wife Joan de Geneville . As a younger son, Geoffrey was appointed heir to Jehan de la Marche , his maternal grandmother, who was the daughter of Hugo XIII. de Lusignan owned possessions in France.

youth

Geoffrey probably served as a squire in a French family related to his father, probably the Fiennes family in Picardy , when his father had to surrender to King Edward II of England in early 1322 after a failed rebellion . The king also had the families of the rebels arrested, but since Geoffrey was in France, unlike his brothers, he escaped arrest. According to the French inheritance law at the time, young people were allowed to take over their inheritance at the age of fourteen, so that after the death of his grandmother in 1323, Geoffrey came into the possession of the French lords of Couhé , Peyrat , Pontarion , Salles and Genté . Before the end of 1323 he paid homage to the French king as seigneur for these possessions .

Role in the fall of Edward II and during the reign of his father

When Geoffrey's father escaped from captivity in early August 1323, he probably fled to Picardy. In France he had an income from the possessions of Geoffrey and quickly became the leader of the opponents of Edward II. Before November 1324, Geoffrey should return his French possessions to King Charles IV for 16,000 livres on condition that the sum be repaid within three years. have pledged. He accompanied his father when he landed with a small army in England in September 1326 and overthrew Edward II's rule. On the occasion of the coronation of Edward III. on February 1, 1327, Geoffrey, like his two older brothers Edmund and Roger, was knighted by Henry of Lancaster . Geoffrey's father now served de facto as regent of England, and Geoffrey held a leading position at the royal court, where he attested numerous documents. He was considered his father's favorite son, whom he was allowed to criticize openly. In 1330 his father gave him Donnington Castle and various properties of the executed Earl of Kent . However, when the young Edward III. In October 1330, when Roger Mortimer was overthrown in a coup d'état, Geoffrey was also arrested. While his father was being executed as a traitor, Geoffrey was allowed to leave England. But he lost his English possessions and went back to his French estates.

Next life

On May 20, 1349, the French parliament granted the Abbey of Saint Maixent's claim that Geoffrey only possessed Couhé as a fiefdom of the monastery, and sentenced him to pay compensation. When the Poitou fell to England after the Peace of Brétigny in 1360 , Geoffrey paid homage to the English heir to the throne Edward on August 24, 1363 in the Cathedral of Saintes and on September 13 in the Cathedral of Poitiers as Duke of Aquitaine. On March 24, 1365 he sold his possessions Peyrat and Pontarion to Guy Aubert , Seigneur de Bulbon .

Family and inheritance

Geoffrey Mortimer had married Joan de Lezay , who was believed to be the daughter of Simon IV, Seigneur de Lezay and his second wife, Jane Chercheniont . With her he had at least one son and several daughters, including:

  • Jean de Mortemer († 1454/1455)
  • Jane de Mortemer ⚭ Jean, Seigneur de L'Île-Bouchard

His son Jean de Mortemer became his heir. His descendants remained lords of Couhé and other estates until the 16th century, before the family with Francois de Mortemer († after 1559) died out as a male line of succession.

literature

  • GW Watson: Geoffrey de Mortimer and his Decendants . In: Genealogist , 22 (1906), pp. 1-16

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 121
  2. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 133
  3. ↑ Seymour Phillips: Edward II . New Haven, Yale University Press 2010. ISBN 978-0-300-15657-7 , p. 461
  4. ^ WM Ormrod: Edward III . Yale University Press, New Haven 2011, ISBN 978-0-300-11910-7 , p. 55
  5. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 227
  6. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 234
  7. ^ Ian Mortimer: The greatest traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Ruler of England, 1327-1330. Pimlico, London 2003, ISBN 0-7126-9715-2 , p. 239
personal data
SURNAME Mortimer, Geoffrey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mortimer, Sir Geoffrey; Mortemer, Geoffroy de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English knight
DATE OF BIRTH 1308 or 1309
DATE OF DEATH between 1372 and May 5, 1376