Roger de Mortimer, future 4th Earl of March, was born on 11 April 1374 at Usk Castle in Monmouthshire, and was heir to the throne of Richard II while that monarch remained childless.
Roger was the eldest son of Philippa of Clarence, the only child of King Edward III’s second son, Lionel of Antwerp. His father, Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, was an English nobleman and powerful Marcher lord with large estates in the Welsh Marches, and thus wealthy and worthy enough of a prince’s daughter.
When his mother’s first cousin, King Richard II, and his wife, Anne of Bohemia, didn’t produce any children of their own, Philippa of Clarence’s son became the heir presumptive after his mother’s death in 1382. Since Roger’s father had died in 1381 there was a scramble to appoint a ward for the 8 year old boy. Not only was wee Roger a potential king, he was already the official Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his recently inherited estates brought in a shed-load of revenue which his warders could legally get a piece of.
After a lot of political rumpus, Richard FitzAlan, 5th or 11th Earl of Arundel, Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, Thomas de Beauchamp, 12th Earl of Warwick, and John, Lord Neville were given Roger’s wardship in consortium on 16 December 1383. King Richard’s mother, Joan of Kent, advocated that Richard FitzAlan be granted physical custody of Roger, but the £4000 per annum from the Mortimer’s were split among the guardians.
In August of 1384 Roger’s full wardship and marriage were granted to King Richard’s elder half-brother, Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, for 6000 marks. This caused some serious grumbling among the rest of the consortium, and was one of the reasons the earls of Arundel and Warwick joined Richard’s uncle, Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, as part of the three original Lords Appellant in 1387.
Young Roger did well under the Earl of Kent’s care. In the autumn of 1388 the king’s heir married the earl’s daughter, Alianore (Eleanor) Holland, as a reward for the earl’s loyalty during King Richard’s political troubles. Roger and his wife had four children, including two strong sons to inherit the earldom … and perhaps the crown.
King Richard wisely kept Roger out of England as much as possible. There was no point dangling the crown in front of him, or setting him up to be used as an alternative king. Therefore, Richard reappointed Roger as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the summer of 1392 appointed Roger lieutenant of the annexed lands in Ulster, Connacht, and Meath, on 25 April 1396.
In spite of Mortimer’s near continual residence in Ireland, discontent with Richard II meant that support for an alternative, in this case the handsome, brave, and popular Earl of March, was growing. Roger Mortimer was known to be “of approved honesty, active in knightly exercises, glorious in pleasantry, affable and merry in conversation, excelling his contemporaries in beauty of appearance, sumptuous in his feasting, and liberal in his gifts”, and looked like an excellent would-be monarch to the English peerage. The fact that Mortimer already had a ‘heir and spare’ to follow him made him even more dangerous to the king.
On 26th of July 1398 Richard named Thomas Holland, 3rd Earl of Kent, and recently created 1st Duke of Surrey, a nephew who could never take the throne from him, the new Lieutenant of Ireland. The king ordered Surrey to go to Ireland to take command of the island and, incidentally, arrest Roger Mortimer.
Unbeknown to the king and Surrey, Roger de Mortimer was no longer a potential candidate for the throne by then. The 24 year old earl had been killed in clash with the native Irish resisters on 20 July 1398. Roger’s eldest son, the 6 year old Edmund, 5th Earl of March, was too young to be a challenge to the king’s throne, and was left unmolested as the heir apparent in his father’s place.
Roger de Mortimer was laid to rest at Wigmore Abbey, the traditional burial place of the Mortimer line, having been founded by Hugh de Mortimer in 1178. Alas, the graves and the monastery were destroyed by King Henry VIII the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the only the ruins of the abbey remain.
Although Roger de Mortimer died before he could have potentially lead a rebellion for the throne, his great-grandson, Edward, 7th Earl of March and 4th Duke of York, successfully rebelled against King Henry VI and was crowned King Edward IV on 28 June 1461.