Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March

Roger Mortimer coat of arms

Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March KG (born November 11, 1328 in Ludlow Castle , † February 26, 1360 in Rouvray near Avallon ) was an English magnate . During his short life he was able to regain most of the 1330 lost family estates and the position of his family through his military service.

Origin and youth

Roger Mortimer came from the Mortimer family , a particularly wealthy family in the Welsh Marches . He was born as the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer and his wife Elizabeth de Badlesmere in the castle of his grandmother Joan de Geneville . At the end of November 1330, his grandfather Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, was executed as a traitor. The family estates were owned by King Edward III. confiscated. Roger's father received part of the family property back in the following year, but died in December 1331 or January 1332. This threatened the property and continued existence of the family again, but the family ties to numerous other families of the English nobility ensured the continued existence of the family property . Mighty Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel took over part of the estate, and Roger's mother was a second marriage in 1335 to William de Bohun , a close friend of the king. Through this marriage, the warring families Mortimer and Bohun should be reconciled. In 1336, William Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu , another close friend of the king, acquired the right to marry young Roger for 1,000  marks , and before 1352 he was married to Philippa, a daughter of Montagu. In 1341 Roger's stepfather, William de Bohun, secured him rule over Radnor and the adjoining areas in the Welsh Marches for an annual fee of £ 280 . In July 1342 Roger received the family seat Wigmore Castle and in March 1344 further possessions in the Welsh Marches back.

Roger Mortimer as Knight of the Order of the Garter. Representation from the 15th century

Advancement as a military

The young Mortimer had already secured part of his legacy when he distinguished himself as a military man in France during the Hundred Years War . As early as September 1344 he successfully participated in a tournament in Hereford, in which the Earls of Arundel, Pembroke , Suffolk and Warwick also took part. In 1346 he belonged to the English army with which the king invaded northern France. There he was knighted on July 12 by Edward of Woodstock , the Prince of Wales, in La Hague . For his successful fight at the Battle of Crécy on August 26th, the king gave him back the remaining family estates in the Welsh Marches and Herefordshire on September 6th .

Further recovery of family estates and Earl of March title

Mortimer was first called to parliament in 1348 , which is why he is considered Baron Mortimer , and his reputation as an excellent knight was cemented when the king accepted him as a founding member of the Order of the Garter . In April 1354, Mortimer reached parliament that the conviction of his grandfather was annulled, whereby he obtained the title Earl of March . He also got back almost all of his grandfather's possessions that had been lost in 1330, only the Chirk rule in the Welsh Marches remained in the possession of the Earl of Arundel after Mortimer had reached an agreement with him and agreed a marriage between their children. The claims of the Lords Montagu , Berkeley , Talbot and the other nobles, who had administered the estates of the Mortimer family since 1330, were rejected by the king, which meant that they had to give up some of their considerable possessions. From 1354 Mortimer belonged to the Privy Council and often attested to royal documents. The king rewarded his services with further tokens of favor. He appointed him administrator of the forest of Clarendon , in 1355 the Warden of the Cinque Ports and Dover , in addition he received properties for lifelong use. In September 1358 he received Munslow in the Welsh Marches as a hereditary fiefdom. After the death of his grandmother Joan Geneville in 1356, he inherited their estates, including Ludlow Castle.

Further service as military and death

In 1352 Mortimer had set up soldiers in his Welsh possessions for the further war with France, he himself belonged to the army of the Prince of Wales in Calais . In 1355 he served in the war in France as well as in Scotland as a military. For the campaign from 1359 to 1360 in France he had recruited 600 men-at-arms and 1000 archers in his possessions , so that he was one of the most important English commanders. The king made him constable of the army, and Mortimer led the vanguard from Boulogne on a foray into Étaples . He then commanded part of the army, which marched in three parallel columns through eastern France to Reims . The following siege of the city, which lasted from December 4, 1359 to January 11, 1360, failed. Mortimer died a few weeks later in northern France. His body was transferred to England and buried next to his ancestors in the Wigmore Priory family foundation .

progeny

With his wife Philippa Montagu († 1382) Mortimer had at least one son who became his heir:

• Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March (1352-1381)

Web links

• Roger de Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March on thepeerage.com , accessed July 26, 2015.
• Davies RR: Mortimer, Roger, second earl of March (1328-1360). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

predecessor	Office	successor
Roger Mortimer (revoked in 1330)	Earl of March 1354-1360	Edmund Mortimer
Edmund Mortimer	Baron Mortimer 1348-1360	Edmund Mortimer