The Wars of the Roses:
The Yorkists Claim to the Throne
It was the misfortune of all the later Mortimer Earls of March to die young. When Edmund, the 5th Earl, died childless the direct male line of Mortimers of Wigmore failed. However this was not to be the end of the significance of the Mortimers.
Edmund’s sister Anne (d1411) had married Richard, Earl of Cambridge (d1415) a grandson of Edward III, and when Edmund died it was their son Richard, 3rd Duke of York (d1460) who was his uncle’s heir. Richard of York was to base his claim to the throne of England on descent from Edward III through his Mortimer ancestors. On his father’s side he was descended in the direct male line from the 4th son of Edward III, but his mother was descended, through a female line, from Edward III’s 2nd son. Though he died fighting the Lancastrians at the Battle of Wakefield, two of Richard’s sons ascended the throne as Edward IV and Richard III. Even after the start of the Tudor dynasty in 1485, following the defeat of Richard III at Bosworth, the Mortimer heritage remained important. The new king Henry VII married Elizabeth of York daughter of Edward IV, and their eldest son Prince Arthur included a Mortimer quartering on his coat of arms.
