Roger Mortimer - The Greatest Traitor? - March 10The second part of Mickie O’Neill’s talk about the powerful Mortimer family focussed on the most famous and notorious member, Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, born at Wigmore Castle in 1287.
She gave us all a printed timeline of Edward II’s reign, illustrating the deterioration of his rule and the rise of various favourites. Roger Mortimer was loyal at first, until the Despenser lords threatened his power in the Marches and he led a rebellion against the King. He was 35 when forced to surrender to the King at Shrewsbury in 1322.
Mortimer was sent to the Tower but escaped the following year and fled to France. Edward II’s Queen went to the French court in 1325 to negotiate with her brother Charles IV about the restoration of Gascony. Isabella and Mortimer became lovers and persuaded Edward II to send his heir to France to do homage to Charles IV for Gascony.
The three of them raised troops and returned to England in 1326. London rose in support of Queen Isabella and Edward II and the Despensers fled. They were hunted down and killed and the King was captured and forced to abdicate in favour of his son.
Though King Edward III in name, it was Roger and Isabella who ruled the country. They had Edward II murdered in Berkeley Castle in 1327.
But then Roger Mortimer made the same fatal mistake of taking too much power into his own hands, and Edward III finally asserted himself and had Roger arrested and executed on 29 November 1330.
Roger’s widow Joan was pardoned in 1336 and died in 1356. They had eleven children, of whom Blanche on the cover was the youngest. Their eldest son Edmund was the ancestor of Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III.