Car il et li devant nomes Au fils le roy furent comes For he and the before-named At this time he must have been about forty years of age, and the poem confirms Dugdale's statement that he was then in the retinue of the Prince of Wales. It is recorded, in the wardrobe accounts, that he received his winter's fee of £6. 13s. 4d. in the same year, and they give the following particulars :— Domino Rogero de Mortuo Mari, baneretto pro vadiis suis, duorum militum et xiiii scutiferorum suorum xxviii die Julii, quo die equi sui fuerunt appreciati, usque xxix diem Augusti, utroque computato per xxxiii dies, xxxvi.£i. vi.s. Eidem pro expensis ōris sui et unius militis suì, a ix die Julii, quo die venit ad curiam apud Karlaverok, usque xxviii diem ejusdem mensis, quo die equi sui fuerunt appreciati, primo die computato et non ultimo per xix dies, per quos fuit in cur et extra rotulum hospicii, præcipienti per diem vj.s. per statutum factum apud Sanctum Albanum de hospicio £v. xiv.s. per compotum factum cum eodem apud Lincoln' xx die Feb' anno xxix. Summa xlii.£i.* In the baron's letter to the pope, dated Lincoln, 29th of February, 1301, Roger Mortimer is styled lord of Penketlyn, one of the manors which he held of Humphrey de Boun, Earl of Hereford, which, probably, is Pengethly, in that county. He was summoned to the Scottish wars in 1301 and 1302, and was present in the parliament held at Carlisle, in January, 1304; on the 5th of April in which year, he was ordered to attend at Westminster, to determine upon the aid to be granted to king Edward, on knighting his eldest son.t Soon after this time, Mortimer swerved from the fidelity which had hitherto marked his conduct, as, in the thirty-fifth, that is, the last year of the reign of Edward I., he and some other peers were accused of having quitted the king's service in Scotland, and gone beyond the sea; in consequence of which, orders were issued to the escheator of the crown on each side of the Trent, dated 15th of November, 1306, directing them to seize their lands and chattels. *These accounts notice Hugh de Mortymer, banneret of Richard's castle, and Dominus Willielmus de Mortymer, brother of Robert. The arms of Hugh de Mortymer were gules two bars vaire. + Ashmole, History of the Order of the Garter, says that Roger de Mortimer and Roger his son (probably Roger his nephew), were knighted in the thirty-fourth of Edward I. But, upon the accession of Edward II., he was restored to favour, and constituted the king's lieutenant and justice of Wales, having all the castles of the principality committed to his charge. In the second year of Edward II. he was made governor of Beaumaris castle, in the isle of Anglesey, and two years after, of Blaynleveng* and Dinas. In 1308 and 1310 he was again in the wars of Scotland, and in 1314 he petitioned that he might be allowed the expenses he incurred, when justice of Wales, in raising a force to repel the attack which Sir Griffith de la Pole made on the castle of Pole, on which occasion he had expended altogether £332. 19s. 2d. In the same year he set forth that he held the land of Grufydd, son of Madoc ab Grufydd, and prayed to be allowed to retain the same during his minority. Early in the ninth of Edward II., he was one of the manucaptors for Hugh le Despenser, who was accused of having assaulted and drawn blood from Sir John de Roos, in the cathedral court of York, in the presence of the king and parliament. In the tenth of Edward II., Mortimer was constituted justice of North Wales, and in the following year was ordered to provide one hundred men out of his lordships of Blaynleveng and Talgarth, in Brecknockshire, and two hundred out of his territory of Lanledu,† for the wars of Scotland. He was again in arms against the Scots in the twelfth and thirteenth, and £100 were assigned for his services therein; and he had been appointed governor of the castle of Buelt, in Brecknockshire. On the 28th of March, 1321, he was commanded to attend at Gloucester, to devise how the insurrection in Wales might be suppressed, and he was, consequently, again made justice of Wales. Having taken an active part against the Despensers, the favorites of the young monarch, he exposed himself to Edward's enmity; and two records are extant which, though from immediately opposite parties, tend equally to prove the unenviable situation in which he was placed. In this very year, he and his nephew joined the Earl of Hereford against the Spencers, and, having entered and burnt the town of Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, his Majesty declared them and other barons to have forfeited their lands. About the same time, the commonalty of North and South Wales petitioned the crown, praying that, as Mons. Roger de Mortimer the nephew, and Mons. Roger de Mortimer the uncle, who had the custody of Blaenlly vni, in Brecknockshire. + Query the proper name? Wales, had risen against the king and seized his castles, they might not be pardoned for their offences; which apparent act of loyalty was, in all probability, dictated by a hope of revenge. He was never summoned to parliament after this period, though, in the first year of Edward III., he and his nephew had restored to them all their forfeited lands: all the proceedings in the sixteenth of Edward II. were reversed. In the fourth year of Edward III. he is styled, in a writ from the king, "his justice of Wales, or his lieutenant and chamberlain in the parts of North Wales;" by which titles he had been described two years before. "Hence," observes Sir Harris Nicolas, "the assertion of Leland, that he died in the tower of London, to which his nephew, the lord of Mortimer, and himself were committed, by Edward II., is proved to be erroneous; nor is the statement of other writers, that he died there on the 3rd of August, 1336, much more probable, as it is evident he continued to hold his Welsh offices until 1330. He may have fallen into disgrace at that time, when all authentic accounts of him cease, and perhaps died in the Tower a few years after, but it is positive that he was living in 1336, when he was nearly eighty."* The pedigree in the College of Arms says, as has been observed, that he married Lucy, daughter and heiress of Sir William le Wafre, knight, and does not mark any issue; Sir Harris Nicolas, on the contrary, asserts that she was daughter and heiress of Sir Robert de Wasse, knight, by whom he is said to have had issue Roger, who left a son, John de Mortimer; but neither of them ranked as barons of the realm." The earliest period at which Roger Lord Mortimer, of Wigmore, makes his appearance on the page of history, is when he was appointed to treat with the Earl of Lancaster, relative to the political dissensions which then agitated the realm;† the next, when he joined the barons against the king's favorites, the Despensers. In the year 1323, these noblemen, in their violent proceedings against those who had become their enemies, confiscated the property of Adam de Orleton, bishop of Hereford, as an alleged supporter of Mortimer, and he, being described as a man of great worldly sagacity, endeavoured to revive the party of the barons. They found the royal favour still unattainable, except through these favorites, * I have given this biography, with very little alteration, on the authority of Sir Harris Nicolas, of whom it is but justice to remark that, in genealogical research, no man has shewn more assiduity, accuracy, and discrimination, as all his publications testify. + Nicolas's Siege of Caerlaverock, note, p. 263. so that it was remarked that England had three kings, instead of one.* The favourites ventured to abridge the luxuries of the queen, and, finding the king's preference given to them, she at once felt hatred and contempt for her husband, as well as for them. She was advised, by Orleton, to seek occasion of going to France, and plan the destruction of the Despensers. In 1325 Mortimer escaped from the Tower, according to Henry de Blandford,† in the following manner. In the middle of a stormy night, having lulled his keepers by a banquet in which a soporific was administered, finding the chamber door secured by many fastenings, he broke through the wall into the kitchen; he got out at the top of that, and, by cords, so arranged as to answer the purpose of a ladder, previously provided by his friends, he descended, reached the Thames, obtained a boat, and, sailing boldly out to sea, landed on the continent. Having proceeded to the queen in France, he joined her councils, and so ingratiated himself as to be suspected of an improper intimacy. Be that as it may, for the future one destiny seemed to guide both. She levied an army of Hainaulters and Germans, placing the count of Hainault and Lord Mortimer at their head, and, sailing adventurously to England, she landed, about Michaelmas, at Orwell, in Suffolk. The clergy and the barons eagerly joined her forces in all parts, and followed the retreating ministers. The elder Despenser flew to Bristol Castle, and the younger took Edward with him to Chepstow and thence embarked, in the hopes of reaching Lundy isle. But adverse winds drove the latter to the coast of Glamorganshire, and they were forced to take shelter in the Abbey of Neath. The queen's pursuit was uninterrupted. She advanced to Gloucester, and thence to Bristol, where the elder Despenser surrendered on her summons. He was first tortured, such was the barbarity of the age,-and then put to death. Thence she marched to Hereford. For better security, the king and his favourite had quitted the doubtful sanctuary of Neath Abbey for the strength afforded by Llanstephan Castle, at the mouth of the Towy, in Caermarthenshire. She despatched the Earl of Leicester, some Welsh nobles, and a body of marchers, in pursuit of them. Here they were taken, and conveyed to Hereford, where the younger Despenser was executed "with the loathsome ceremonies," says Mr. Turner, "which then accompanied * Moor, 597. † p. 84. So Duncumb, Hist. Hereford, p. 83; but Sharon Turner, in his Hist. of England, vol. ii., p. 122, says at Neath Abbey. VOL. IV.NO. XV. B treason." The king was conveyed to Ledbury, and thence to Kenilworth Castle; he was made to resign his crown to his son, and committed to the care of the Earl of Leicester. He was afterwards delivered to two knights, who conveyed him first to Corfe Castle, and then to Bristol. Some disposition to liberate him occasioned his removal, in the night-time, to Berkeley Castle, where he was ultimately cruelly put to death. A council of regency, composed of twelve distinguished persons, was assembled, to conduct the affairs of state; but the queen and Mortimer struggled to monopolize the chief power of the administration. One of the first acts of the government was to confer on Lord Mortimer the title of the Earl of March. He had chosen this, in consequence of its having once been in his wife's family; for he had married Johanna, one of the daughters and heiresses of Sir Peter Genevill, knight, son of Geoffry de Genevill, lord of Vaucolaur, of Tryon, and many other places, and of Johanna, his wife, Countess de la March.* The magnificent and ostentatious disposition of this nobleman contributed to give the young king a love of chivalry and romantic praise that made it fashionable among his subjects. A desire of emulating the fame of the renowned Arthur, incited him to keep a round table of knights and hold a tournament, at his castle of Wigmore, in imitation of this favourite hero of romance. He became "proude beyonde measur." Even "Geffrey Mortimer, the (third) sunne, let caul his father, for pride, King of Foly." Indeed, the conduct of the Earl of March and the queen caused so much discontent, that an attempt was made to overawe it, by the arrest of Edmund, Earl of Kent, the king's uncle, who was accused, on a fabricated charge of treason, condemned, and executed. The king's visible dissatisfaction emboldened some to inform him that the Earl of March was implicated in his father's murder. He was now eighteen, the age at which the royal minority terminates. The queen and Mortimer were in the castle of Nottingham, guarded by their military friends; Edward, by connivance of the governor, was admitted secretly at night with a few determined followers, led by Sir William Montacute, through a subterraneous passage. Sir Hugh Trumpington was on guard, and being, as Leland says, "redy to resiste the taking of Mortimer, was slayne and braynid with a mace, by one of Mon * Pedigree in the College of Arms. + Leland's Collectanea, vol. ii., p. 476. Avesbury, p. 7. + Leland's Collect., vol. ii., p. 476. |