ROGER DE MORTIMER

roger de mortimer, 4th earl of march and ulster (1374-1398), son of the 3rd earl, succeeded to the titles and estates of his family when a child of seven, and a month afterwards he was appointed lord-lieutenant of ireland, his uncle sir thomas mortimer acting as his deputy. being a ward of the crown, his guardian was the earl of kent, half-brother to richard ii.; and in 1388 he married kent's daughter, eleanor. the importance which he owed to his hereditary influence and possessions, and especially to his descent from edward iii., was immensely increased when richard ii. publicly acknowledged him as heir-presumptive to the crown in 1385. in 1394 he accompanied richard to ireland, but notwithstanding a commission from the king as lieutenant of the districts over which he exercised nominal authority by hereditary right, he made little headway against the native irish chieftains. march enjoyed great popularity in england though he took no active part in opposing the despotic measures of the king; in ireland he illegally assumed the native irish costume. in august 1398 he was killed in fight with an irish clan, and was buried in wigmore abbey. march's daughter anne married richard earl of cambridge, son of edmund duke of york, fifth son of edward iii.; their son richard, duke of york, was father of king edward iv., who thus derived his title to the crown and acquired the estates of the house of mortimer. edmund de mortimer (1391-1425), 5th earl of march and ulster, son of the 4th earl, succeeded to his father's claim to the crown as well as to his title and estates on the death of the latter in ireland in 1398. in the following year richard ii. was deposed and the crown seized by henry of lancaster. the young earl of march and his brother roger were then kept in custody by henry iv., who, however, treated them honourably, until march 1405, when they were carried off from windsor castle by the opponents of the lancastrian dynasty, of whom their uncle sir edmund mortimer (see above) and his brother-in-law henry percy (hotspur) were leaders in league with owen glendower. the boys were recaptured, and in 1409 were committed to the care of the prince of wales. on the accession of the latter as henry v., in 1413, the earl of march was set at liberty and restored to his estates, his brother roger having died some years previously; and he continued to enjoy the favour of the king in spite of a conspiracy in 1415 to place him on the throne, in which his brother-in-law, the earl of cambridge, played the leading part. march accompanied henry v. throughout his wars in france, and on the king's death in 1422 became a member of the council of regency. he died in ireland in 1425, and as he left no issue the earldom of march in the house of mortimer became extinct, the estates passing to the last earl's nephew richard, who in 1435 was officially styled duke of york, earl of march and ulster, and baron of wigmore. richard's son edward having ascended the throne in 1461 as edward iv., the earldom of march became merged in the crown. see thomas rymer, _foedera_, &c. (london, 1704-1732); t. f. tout, _the political history of england_, vol. iii., ed. by william hunt and r. l. poole (london, 1905); sir william dugdale, _monasticon anglicanum_ (3 vols., london, 1655-1673); william stubbs, _constitutional history of england_, vol. ii. ii. _scottish marches._--the scottish earls of march were descended from crinan, whose son maldred married algitha, daughter of ughtred, earl of northumberland, by elgiva, daughter of the saxon king æthelred. maldred's son cospatrick, or gospatrick, was made earl of northumberland by william the conqueror; but being soon afterwards deprived of this position he fled to scotland, where malcolm canmore, king of scotland, welcomed him and granted him dunbar and the adjoining lands. two generations of cospatricks followed in lineal succession, bearing the title of earl, but without territorial designation. cospatrick ii. witnessed the charter of alexander i. founding the abbey of scone in 1115. the 3rd earl, also named cospatrick, a liberal benefactor of melrose abbey, died in 1166, leaving two sons, the younger of whom was the ancestor of the earls of home. the elder son, waltheof, was the first of the family to be styled "comes de dunbar," about the year 1174. his importance is proved by the fact that he was one of the hostages for the performance of the treaty of falaise for the liberation of william the lion in 1175. waltheof's son patrick dunbar (the name dunbar, derived from the family estates, now becoming an hereditary surname), styled 5th earl of dunbar, although his father had been the first to adopt the territorial designation, was keeper of berwick castle, and married ada, natural daughter of william the lion. his grandson patrick, 7th earl, headed the party that liberated king alexander iii. in 1255 from the comyns, and in the same year was nominated guardian of the king and queen by the treaty of roxburgh. he signed the treaty of perth (july 6, 1266) by which magnus vi. of norway ceded the isle of man and the hebrides to scotland. his wife was christian, daughter of robert bruce, the competitor for the crown of scotland.