General Notes

Roger de Mortimer, who, in the 31st Henry III [1247], paying 2000 marks to the king, had livery of all his lands excepting those whereof Gladuse, his mother then surviving, was endowed. In six years afterwards he attended the king in his expedition into Gascony and in a few years subsequently, when Lewelin, Prince of Wales, began again to make incursions upon the marches, received command to assist Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, in the defence of the country lying between Montgomery and the lands of the Earl of Gloucester. In the 42nd of the same reign [1258] he had another military summons to march with the king against the Welsh, and, being in that service, had a special discharge of his scutage for those twenty-six knights.' fees and a sixth part which he held in right of Maud, his wife, one of the daus. and co-heirs of William de Braose, of Brecknock. In the two years afterwards, he was made captain-general of all the king's forces in Wales, all the barons marchers receiving command to be attendant on him with their whole strength, and he was the same year constituted governor of the castle of Hereford. But notwithstanding this extensive power and those great resources, he was eventually worsted by Lewelin and constrained to sue of permission to depart, which the Welsh prince, owing to his consanguinity, conceded. After this he took an active part in the contest between Henry III and the insurrectionary barons in favour of the former. He was at the battle of Lewes, when he fled into Wales and afterwards successfully planned the escape of Prince Edward. The exploit is thus detailed by Dugdale: "Seeing therefore his sovereign in this great distress, and nothing but ruine and misery attending himself and all other the king's loyal subjects, he took no rest till he had contrived some way for their deliverance; and to that end sent a swift horse for the prince, then prisoner with the king in the castle of Hereford, with intimation that he should obtain leave to ride out for recreation into a place called Windmersh; and that upon sight of a person mounted on a white horse at the foot of Tulington Hill, and waving his bonnet (which was the Lord of Croft, as it was said), he should hasten towards him with all possible speed, which being accordingly done (though all the country thereabouts were thither called to prevent his escape), setting spurs to that horse he overwent them all. Moreover that being come to the park of Tulington, this Roger met him with five hundred armed men, and seeing many to pursue, chased them back to the gates of Hereford, making great slaughter amongst them." Having thus accomplished his prince's freedom, Mortimer, directing all his energies to the embodying a sufficient force to meet the enemy, soon placed Prince Edward in a situation to fight and win the great battle of Evesham (4 August, 1265), by which the king was restored to his freedom and his crown. In this celebrated conflict Mortimer commanded the third division of the royal army and, for his faithful services, obtained, in the October following, a grant of the whole earldom and honour of Oxford, at that time and by that treason forfeited. The Dictum of Kenilworth followed soon after the victory of Evesham, by which the defeated barons were suffered to regain their lands upon the payment of a stipulated fine, but this arrangement is said to have caused great irritation amongst the barons marchers, (Mortimer with the rest), who had acquired grants of those estates. He was, however, subsequently entrusted by the crown with the castle of Hereford, which he had orders to fortify, and was appointed sheriff of Herefordshire. After the accession of Edward I [1272], he continued to enjoy the sunshine of royal favour and had other valuable grants from the crown.

He m., as already stated, Maud, dau. and co-heir of William de Braose, of Brecknock, and had, with other issue, three sons, Edmund, William, and Geffrey, upon whom, having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred by King Edward I, he caused a tournament to be held at his own cost at Kenilworth where he sumptuously entertained an hundred knights and as many ladies for three days, the like whereof was never before known in England, and there began the round table, so called from the place wherein they practised those feats, which was encompassed by a strong wall in a circular form. Upon the 4th day the golden lion, in token of triumph, having been yielded to him, he carried it (with all that company) to Warwick, the fame whereof being spread into foreign countries occasioned the Queen of Navarre to send him certain wooden bottles bound with golden bars and wax, under the pretence of wine, but in truth filled with gold, which, for many ages after, were preserved in the Abbey of Wigmore, whereupon for the love of that queen, he had added a carbuncle to his arms.

By his wife he had several sons, whereof Ralph (Sir), d. v. p; Edmund (Sir), was his successor; Roger was Lord of Chirke, which lordship his grandson sold to Richard Fitz-Alan, Earl of Arundel; William (Sir), an eminent soldier who m. Hawyse, heir of Robert de Muscegros, but d. s. p.; Geffrey (Sir), d. s. p., v. p. This celebrated feudal lord d. in 1282, and was s. by his eldest surviving son, Sir Edmund Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage Ltd, London, England, 1883, pp. 383-4, Mortimer, Barons Mortimer, of Wigmore, Earls of March]