earls of March

earls of March For English nobles so entitled use Mortimer.

Mortimer, Roger, 1st earl of March (c. 1287–1330). A lord of the Welsh march, Roger Mortimer was one of the rebels who surrendered to Edward II in 1321. He made a dramatic escape from the Tower of London in 1324, and went into exile in Paris; it is probably there that he became Queen Isabella's lover. He was at her side during the invasion of 1326, and after the deposition of Edward II he, with the queen, dominated government until 1330. This regime proved to be as corrupt and incompetent as that of the Despensers which it succeeded, and in 1330 the young king, Edward III, with a small group of followers seized Mortimer at Nottingham. His execution followed trial in Parliament.

Mortimer, Edmund, 5th earl of March and Ulster (1391–1425). Mortimer was the king's ward after the death of his father Earl Roger in 1398; he was kept in Henry IV's family circle. Potentially a valuable pawn because of his royal blood, he was apparently too amiable and unambitious to worry the Lancastrian establishment. He disclosed to Henry V the treasonable schemes of his brother-in-law Richard, earl of Cambridge. Until Henry's death, Mortimer was regularly employed, without distinction, in the French war. In 1424, Henry VI's council appointed him lieutenant of Ireland, where he soon died. Richard, duke of York, was his heir.

R. L. Storey