Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 39.djvu/151

 note, p. lxix). Mortimer then accompanied Edward on his invasion of Burgundy. But on 26 Feb. 1360 he died suddenly at Rouvray, near Avalon (Monasticon, vi. 353). His bones were taken to England and buried with those of his ancestors in Wigmore Abbey (ib.; cf. however 'Chronicon Brevius' in Eulogium Hist. iii. 312, which says that he was buried in France). His obsequies were also solemnly performed in the king's chapel at Windsor.

The family panegyrist describes Mortimer as 'stout and strenuous in war, provident in counsel, and praiseworthy in his morals' (Monasticon, vi. 352). He married Philippa daughter of William de Montacute, second earl of Salisbury [q. v.] Their only son was Edmund de Mortimer II, third earl of March [q. v.] Philippa survived her husband, and died on 5 Jan. 1382, and was buried in the Austin priory of Bisham, near Marlow. Her will is printed in Nichols's 'Roval Wills,' pp. 98-103.

 MORTIMER, ROGER (VI), fourth (1374–1398), was the eldest son and second child of Edmund Mortimer II, third earl of March [q. v.], and his wife, Philippa of Clarence. He was born at Usk on 11 April 1374, and baptised on the following Sunday by Roger Cradock, bishop of Llandaff, who, with the abbot of Gloucester and the prioress of Usk, acted as his sponsors (Monasticon, vi. 354). His mother died when he was quite a child, and his father on 27 Dec. 1381, so that he succeeded to title and estates when only seven years old. His hereditary influence and position caused him to be appointed to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland on 24 Jan. 1382, within a few months of his accession to the earldom. His uncle, Sir Thomas Mortimer, acted as his deputy, and the guardians of his person and estates covenanted that, in return for his receiving the revenues of Ireland and two thousand marks of money, he should be provided with proper counsellors, and that the receipts of his estates, instead of being paid over by the farmers of his lands to the crown, should be appropriated to the government of Ireland. It was also stipulated that on attaining his majority Roger should have liberty to resign his office. But the experiment of an infant viceroy did not answer. When the Irish parliament met in 1382 the viceroy could not attend because of indisposition, and the magnates and commons protested against a parliament being held in his absence. Next year Roger was superseded by Philip de Courtenay (, Viceroys of Ireland, pp. 248-51).

Mortimer was brought up as a royal ward, his person being entrusted to the care of Thomas Holland, earl of Kent (1350-1397) [q. v.], the half-brother of Richard II, while his estates were farmed by Richard Fitzalan III, earl of Arundel, and others. Richard II at one time sold to Arundel the right of marrying the young earl, but, as Arundel became more conspicuously opposed to his policy, Richard transferred his right to Lord Abergavenny, and ultimately, at his mother's request, to the Earl of Kent, her son. The result was that Roger was married, not later than the beginning of 1388, to Eleanor Holland, Kent's eldest daughter and the king's niece. Thus March in his early life was connected with both political parties, and one element of his later popularity may be based upon the fact that his complicated connections with both factions prevented him from taking a strong side. But as time went on he fell more decidedly under the influence of the king and courtiers, who showed a tendency to play him off against the house of Lancaster, which he in later times seems somewhat to have resented. He became a very important personage when in the October parliament of 1385 Richard II publicly proclaimed him as the presumptive heir to the throne (Cont. Eulogium Historiarum, iii. 361; cf., Richard II, i. 489-90). On 23 April 1390 Richard himself dubbed him a knight.

In 1393 March did homage and received livery of all his lands. His guardians had managed his estates so well that he entered into full enjoyment of his immense resources, having, it was said, a sum of forty thousand marks accumulated in his treasury (Monasticon, vi. 354). Between 16 Feb. and 30 March 1394 he acted as ambassador to treat with the Scots on the borders. But Ireland was still his chief care. His power there had become nearly nominal, and in 1393 the English privy council had granted him a thousand pounds in consideration of the devastation of his Irish estates by the rebel natives. In September 1394 he accompanied Richard II on that king's first expedition to Ireland, being attended by a very numerous following (Annales Ricardi II, apud, p. 172). Among the chieftains who submitted to Richard was the O'Neil. the real ruler of most of March's nominal