weak king practically gave an official invested with such extensive powers every regalian right, and Mortimer ruled all Wales like a king from 1307 to 1321, except for the years 1315 and 1316, during which he was replaced by John de Grey as justice of North Wales, while William Martyn and Maurice de Berkeley superseded him in turn for a slightly longer period in the south (Cal. Close Rolls, 1313-1317). He was largely assisted in his work by his nephew, Roger Mortimer, eighth baron of Wigmore [see Mortimer, Roger IV], who now becomes closely identified with his uncle's policy and acts. Modern writers have often been led by the identity of the two names to attribute to the more famous nephew acts that really belong to the uncle. Among the more noteworthy incidents of the elder Mortimer's government of Wales was his raising the siege of Welshpool and rescuing John Charlton [q. v.] and his wife, Hawise, from the vigorous attack of her uncle, Gruffydd de la Pole. During these years he raised large numbers of Welsh troops for the Scottish wars. He himself served in the Bannockburn campaign, and again in 1319 and 1320. In 1317 he was further appointed justice of North Wales, and in 1321 his commission as justice of Wales was renewed.
In 1321 Mortimer of Chirk joined vigorously in the attack on the Despensers [see for details Mortimer, Roger IV]. After taking a leading part, both in the parliaments and in the campaigns in Glamorgan and on the Severn, he was forced with his nephew, Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, to surrender to Edward II at Shrewsbury on 22 Jan. 1322. He was, like his nephew, imprisoned in the Tower of London, but, less fortunate than the lord of Wigmore, he did not succeed in subsequently effecting his escape. He died there, after more than four years of severe captivity, on 3 Aug. 1326. The accounts vary as to the place of burial. The 'Annales Paulini' say that it was at Chirk (Stubbs, Chron. Edward I and Edward II, i. 312). Blaneforde (apud Trokelowe, p. 147) says that he was buried at Bristol. The Wigmore annalist (Monasticon, vi. 351) states circumstantially that he was buried at Wigmore among his ancestors by his partisan bishop, Adam of Orleton, on 14 Sept. This is probably right, as the other writers also say he was buried 'among his ancestors,' whose remains would certainly not be found at Chirk or Bristol. The statement of the Wigmore annalist (ib. vi. 351) that Mortimer died in 1336 is a mere mistake, though repeated blindly by Dugdale in his 'Baronage' (i. 155), and adopted by Sir Harris Nicolas (Siege of Carlaverock, p. 264). Mortimer married Lucy, daughter and heiress of Robert de Walre, by whom he had a son named Roger, who succeeded to the whole inheritance of his mother's father, married Joan of Turberville (Monasticon, vi. 351), and had a son John. But the real successor to Roger's estates and influence was his nephew, the first Earl of March. In 1334 Chirk was given to Richard Fitzalan II, earl of Arundel [q. v.] The house of Arundel proved too powerful to dislodge, and at last John Mortimer, grandson of Roger, sold such rights as he had over Chirk to the earl. Neither son nor grandson was summoned as a baron to parliament, and the family either became extinct or insignificant.
[Annales Monastici, Chronicles of Edward I and II, Flores Historiarum, Peckham's Letters, Blaneforde (in Trokelowe), Knighton, all in Rolls Series; Galfridus le Baker, ed. Thompson; Parl. Writs; Rymer's Fœdera; Rolls of Parliament; Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 351; Lords' Report on the Dignity of a Peer, vol. iii.; Cal. Close Rolls, 1307–13 and 1313–18; Lloyd's Hist. of Powys Fadog; Eyton's Shropshire; Wright's Hist. of Ludlow; Stubbs's Const. Hist. vol. ii.; Dugdale's Baronage, i. 155. Nicolas's Siege of Carlaverock, pp. 259–64, gives a useful, but not always very precise, biography.]
MORTIMER, ROGER (IV) de, eighth Baron of Wigmore and first Earl of March (1287?–1330), was the eldest son of Edmund Mortimer, seventh lord of Wigmore, and his wife Margaret de Fendles or Fiennes, the kinswoman of Eleanor of Castile (Monasticon, vi. 351; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. vii. 437-8). The inquests recording the date of his birth differ, but he was probably born either on 3 May 1286 or on. 25 April 1287 (Calendarium Genealogicum, p. 668; cf. Eyton, Shropshire, iv. 223, and Doyle, Official Baronage, ii. 466, which latter dates the birth 29 April 1286). Mortimer's uncle was Roger de Mortimer (lit) [q. v.] of Chirk. His father, Edmund, died before 25 July 1304 (Eyton, iv. 225; cf. Monasticon, vi. 351; Worcester Ann. in Ann. Mon. iv. 557), whereupon Roger succeeded him as eighth lord of Wigmore. He was still under age, and Edward I put him under the wardship of Peter Gaveston, then in favour as a chief friend of Edward, prince of Wales. Mortimer redeemed himself from Gaveston by paying a fine of 2,500 marks, and thereby obtained the right of marrying freely whomsoever he would (Monasticon, vi. 351). On Whitsunday, 22 May 1306, he was one of the great band of young lords who were dubbed knights at Westminster along with
