Mortimer - Medieval Magnates

Medieval Magnates

In the Middle Ages, the Mortimers were a powerful magnate family or dynasty of Marcher Lords in the Welsh Marches, centered around Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire, and from the 14th century holding the title of Earl of March.

Through marriage, the Mortimers came during the reign of Richard II to be close to the English throne, but when Richard II was deposed in 1399, the claims of the Mortimers were ignored and the throne vested in the usurper Henry of Lancaster instead. The Mortimer claims were later (1425) transmitted to the House of York, which ultimately claimed them in the Wars of the Roses.

Members of the noble Mortimer family included:

• Ranulph de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire and Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux, today Saint-Victor-l'Abbaye, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie
• Hugh de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore Castle
• Roger Mortimer of Wigmore
• Ralph de Mortimer
• Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer
• Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer
• Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March
• Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
• Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March
• Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
• Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
• Thomas Mortimer, of Toton
• Edmund Mortimer, son of the 3rd Earl, fought with Owain Glyndŵr and plotted with Henry Hotspur Percy to depose King Henry IV of England and divide the Kingdom of England and Wales in three.