Arms of Sir Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, KG -- Barry or and azure, on a chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second over all an inescutcheon argent
Roger de Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, 4th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, KG (11 November 1328 – 26 February 1360) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War.
The Mortimer family lands and titles were lost after the first Earl of March's revolt and death by hanging in 1330, which was followed the next year by the death of Roger's father. Roger thus grew up with uncertain prospects, and re-acquired the family honours only gradually.
As a young man he distinguished himself in the wars in France, fighting at Crécy and elsewhere in the campaign of 1347. Afterwards, he was given livery of the rest of his lands, was one of the knights admitted at the foundation of the Order of the Garter,[1][2] and was summoned to parliament as a baron both in 1348.
He was knighted on 12 July 1346 at La Hogue by Edward the Black Prince.[3][4]
Earldom
In 1354, the sentence passed against Mortimer's treacherous grandfather, the first earl, was reversed, and the next year he was summoned to parliament as Earl of March. Also in 1355, he received a number of important appointments, including Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, and he accompanied an expedition of Edward III to France.
Other honours
On 19 October 1356, his grandmother Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville, widow of the first earl, died, and Roger inherited her vast estates, including Ludlow Castle, which was thereafter the Mortimer family seat and power base.
In the following years, he became a member of the Royal Council and was appointed Constable at the castles of Montgomery, Bridgnorth in Shropshire, and Corfe in Dorset.
In 1359, and continuing into 1360, he was Constable of Edward III's invasion of France. He fought in the failed siege of Reims and captured Auxerre. The English forces then moved into Burgundy, where Roger died suddenly at Rouvray, near Avallon.
Heraldic Coat of Arms: Barry Or and azure, on a chief of the first three pallets between two gyronnies based on the second, over all an inescutcheon argent.
^Shaw, Wm. A. (1971). The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Knights Bachelors. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 1. OCLC247620448.
^R. R. Davies, 'Mortimer, Roger (VI), second earl of March (1328–1360)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 accessed 14 Dec 2006
^Shaw, Wm. A. (1971). The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Knights Bachelors. Vol. 2. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 6. OCLC247620448.
^Browning, Charles Henry. The Magna Charta Barons and Their American Descendants, Together with the Pedigrees of the Founders of the Order of Runnemede Deduced from the Sureties for the Enforcement of the Statutes of the Magna Charta of King John. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub., 1969. Print. page 250
^Dunn, Alistair The Politics of Magnate Power in England and Wales 1389-1413 Oxford Historical Monographs 2003 p.56
R. R. Davies, 'Mortimer, Roger (VI), second earl of March (1328–1360)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008.
Shaw, Wm. A. (1971). The Knights of England: A Complete Record from the Earliest Time to the Present Day of the Knights of All the Orders of Chivalry in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of the Knights Bachelors. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company. OCLC247620448.
