Edmund de Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March
Edmund de Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March and jure uxoris Earl of Ulster (
1351? –
27 December,
1381) was son of
Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, by his wife Philippa, daughter of
William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury.
Being an infant at the death of his father, Edmund, as a ward of the crown, was placed by
Edward III of England under the care of
William of Wykeham and
Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel.
The position of the young earl, powerful on account of his possessions and hereditary influence in the
Welsh marches, was rendered still more important by his marriage in 1368 at the age of 17 to the 13 year old
Philippa, the only child of
Lionel of Antwerp,
Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward III.
Lionel's wife, Elizabeth, was daughter and heiress of
William de Burgh, 6th
Lord of Connaught and 3rd
Earl of Ulster, and Lionel had himself been created Earl of Ulster before his marriage. Edmund inherited the title Earl of Ulster on Lionel's death.
Therefore, the Earl of March not only represented one of the chief Anglo-Norman lordships in Ireland in right of his wife Philippa, but Philippa's line was also the second most senior line of descent in the succession to the crown, after
Edward, the Black Prince and his son, King
Richard II of England.
This marriage had, therefore, far-reaching consequences in English history, ultimately giving rise to the claim of the
House of York to the crown of England contested in the
Wars of the Roses;
Edward IV being descended from the third son of Edward III as great-great-grandson of Philippa, countess of March, and in the male line from
Edmund of Langley, fifth son of Edward III.
Edmund's son
Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March would become
heir presumptive to the English crown during the reign of
Richard II.
Mortimer, now styled Earl of March and Ulster, became
Marshal of England in 1369, and was employed in various diplomatic missions during the next following years. He was a member of the committee appointed by the
Peers to confer with the Commons in 1373?the first instance of such a joint conference since the institution of representative parliaments on the question of granting supplies for
John of Gaunt's war in France.
He participated in the opposition to Edward III and the court party, which grew in strength towards the end of the reign, taking the popular side and being prominent in the
Good Parliament of 1376 among the lords who supported the Prince of Wales and opposed the Court Party and
John of Gaunt. The Speaker of the Commons in this parliament was March's steward,
Peter de la Mare, who firmly withstood John of Gaunt in stating the grievances of the Commons, in supporting the impeachment of several high court officials, and in procuring the banishment of the king's mistress,
Alice Perrers. March was a member of the administrative council appointed by the same parliament after the death of
Edward, the Black Prince to attend the king and advise him in all public affairs.
On the accession of Richard II, a minor, in 1377, the Earl became a member of the standing council of government; though as father of the heir-presumptive to the crown he wisely abstained from claiming any actually administrative office. The most powerful person in the realm was, however, John of Gaunt,
Duke of Lancaster, whose jealousy of March led to the acceptance by the latter of the
Lieutenancy of Ireland in 1379. March succeeded in asserting his authority in eastern Ulster, but failed to subdue the O?Neills farther west. Proceeding to
Munster to put down the turbulency of the chieftains of the south, March died at
Cork on
27 December 1381, (According Allison Wier in her book
Wars of the Roses, Edmund took his job of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland seriously and was trying to restore order when he was ambushed and killed). He was buried in
Wigmore Abbey, of which he had been a benefactor, and where his wife Philippa was also interred.
The earl had three sons and two daughters, the elder of whom, Elizabeth, married
Henry Percy "Hotspur", son of the
Earl of Northumberland. His eldest son,
Roger, succeeded him as 4th Earl of March and Ulster. His second son,
Edmund played an important part, in conjunction with his brother-in-law Hotspur, in the fortunes of
Owain Glyndŵr. The other daughter was Philippa, who married
Richard Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel.
