Rolls Ser., pp. 45-6, 50, De Bella, pp. 59-60; Dunstaple Ann. p. 245). But the ultimate triumph rested with Gloucester and not with Mortimer, who, moreover, was suspected of plotting Gloucester's death.
Mortimer remained for the rest of his life a close friend of Edward. When the king's son went on crusade, Mortimer was on 2 Aug. 1270 chosen with the king of the Romans, Walter, archbishop of York, and two others, as guardians of Edward's children, lands and interests, during his absence (Fœdera, i. 484). In 1271 he is found acting in that capacity with the archbishop, Philip Basset, and Robert Burnell (Letters from Northern Registers, p. 39 : Royal Letters, ii. 346-9). Even during Henry's lifetime Edward's representatives had plenty of work to do (Letters from Northern Registers, p. 40). After Henry's death in November 1272 the three became in fact, if not in name, regents of the kingdom until Edward I's return in August 1274. Their rule was peaceful but uneventful. The turbulent lord marcher now strove with all his might to uphold the king's peace. He put down a threatened rising in the north of England (Flor. Hist. iii. 32). He succeeded in punishing Andrew, the former prior of Winchester, who violently strove to regain his position in the monastery. Mortimer did not scruple to disregard ecclesiastical privilege and imprison Andrew's abettor, the archdeacon of Rochester (Winchester Ann. in Ann. Mon. ii. 117).
Mortimer took a conspicuous part in Edward I's early struggles against Llywelyn of Wales. On 15 Nov. 1276 he was appointed Edward's captain for Shropshire, Staffordshire, Herefordshire, and the adjoining district against the Welsh (Fœdera, i. 537). He had some share in the campaign of 1277, being assigned to widen the roads in Wales and Bromfield to facilitate the march of the king's troops (Rotulus Wallice, 6 Edward I, p. 10). He wrested many lands from the defeated Welsh (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1281-92, p. 171), and received from the king a grant of fifty librates of waste lands (Rotulus Wallice, 8 Edward I, p. 17). He was still active as a justice under the king's commission (ib. pp. 9, 10, 36, 37). In 1279 Mortimer, who was now growing old, solemnly celebrated his retirement from martial exercises by giving a great feast and holding a 'round table' tournament at Kenilworth, at which a hundred knights and as many ladies participated, and on which he lavished vast sums of money (Chron. Osney and Wykes in Ann. Mon. iv. 281-2; Rishanger, pp. 94-5, Rolls Ser.) The queen of Navarre, wife of Edmund of Lancaster, lord of the castle, was treated with special honour by Mortimer, though the Wigmore chronicler curiously misunderstands his acts (Monasticon, vi. 350). Mortimer was smitten with his mortal illness at Kingsland, Herefordshire, in the midst of the final campaign of Edward against Llywelyn. He was tormented about his debts to the crown, and fearing difficulties in the way of the execution of his will, obtained from Archbishop Peckham the confirmation of its provisions (Peckham, Letters. ii. 499). He died on 26 Oct. 1282 (Worcester Annals in Ann. Mon. iv. 481; cf. Osney and Wykes in Ann. Mon. iv. 290-1). On the day after his death Edward I issued from Denbigh a patent which, as a special favour 'never granted to blood relation before,' declared that if Roger died of the illness from which he was suffering, his executors should not be impeded in carrying out his will by | reason of his debts to the exchequer, for the payment of which the king would look to his heirs (Cal. Patent Rolls, 1281-92, pp. 38-9). Adam, abbot of Wigmore, was his chief executor. He was buried with his ancestors in the priory of Wigmore. His epitaph is given in 'Monasticon,' vi. 355.
Matilda de Braose survived Mortimer for nineteen years. By her he had a numerous family. His eldest son, Ralph, who was made sheriff of Shropshire and Staffordshire during the time that Mortimer was one of j the co-regents, died in 1275. Edmund I, the second son, who had been destined to the church, succeeded to his father's estates, and within six weeks of his father's death managed to entice Llywelyn of Wales to his doom. He married Margaret 'de Fendles,' a kinswoman of Queen Eleanor of Castile, and generally described as a Spaniard; but she was doubtless the daughter of William de Fiennes, a Picard nobleman, who was second cousin to Eleanor through her mother, Joan, countess of Ponthieu (Notes and Queries, 4th ser., vii. 318, 437-8). This Edmund died in 1304. He was the father of Roger Mortimer, first earl of March (1287–1330) [q. v.] The other children of Roger Mortimer and Matilda de Braose include: Roger Mortimer of Chirk (d. 1326) [q. v.], Geoffry, William, and Isabella, who married John Fitzalan III, and was the mother of Richard Fitzalan I, earl of Arundel (1267–1302) [q. v.]
