Roger Mortimer was what the kids these days like to refer to as a
cad,
scoundrel, or even
rotten murderous villain. At least partly responsible for what came to be known as
the War of the Roses,
Mortimer tried his hand at everything from
treason to
homewrecking, with rumors of
regicide tossed in as well. He
escaped from prison, raised an
army, controlled a king,
seduced a queen, and
dangled from the gallows. But he did it with style, and really, isn’t that what counts?
Born in 1287, Roger Mortimer was a
veteran of the
Scottish Wars, and the first
Earl of March. In 1321 Mortimer made his first attempt at
rebellion, gathering a number of
barons in an attempt to displace his rivals, the
Despencers from their position of
influence with
King Edward II. He was defeated, and promptly tossed in the
Tower of London
In 1324, Mortimer
escaped and fled to
France followed soon after by his
lover,
Queen Isabella. I’d like to dwell on this point for a moment. Not only did he manage to
escape from one of the most famous
prisons in history, he managed to
persuade the
Queen of England to
betray her
husband (admittedly,
Edward II was by all accounts a bit of a tool), and join him in
exile in a
foreign country. The best (and worst) was yet to come for Roger, though.
While in France, Mortimer raised himself a
small army, consisting mainly of
British exiles and
mercenaries. In 1326, two years after he left, Mortimer returned to England. He and
Isabella found
allies at home, both in
Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and the people of
London who rose in support of their
queen.
Edward II and the
Despencers fled
London for
Wales, hoping to raise an
army of
loyalists in what was
traditionally Despencer land. They did not make it in time, and were soundly
defeated by
Mortimer and
Isabella.
Edward II was taken prisoner, and
Despencer and his
heir were executed.
In
1327,
Parliament met, and forced the king to
abdicate in favor of his son,
Edward III.
Edward II didn’t survive the year, and was murdered in
Berkeley Castle that
September.
Mortimer and
Isabella ruled
England through their influence on the young
king, and made a number of
enemies in the process. These enemies included
Lancaster, their former ally.
Lancaster encouraged
Edward III to assert his
independence, and in
1330, when
Edward was 18, he
overthrew Mortimer, and had him hanged for treason.
The
Mortimer line survived Roger’s
ambitions, as in an impressive display of mercy,
Edward III restored the family lands to Roger’s grandson of the same name, also naming him
Earl of the March, and a
Knight of the
Order of The Garter.
further info: Mortimer is also the
basis for the character of
Jaime Lannister in
George R. R. Martin's
A Song of Ice and Fire, a fantasy epic loosely based on the War of The Roses.