Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
Uneasy lies the head of Henry IV
Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March was born in Ireland in 1391. He was only six when his father was killed and there were just 15 years between himself and his uncle, Sir Edmund Mortimer. Having usurped the throne in 1399, Henry IV was very conscious of potential threats to his position. Ever since the 3rd Earl of March married Philippa, the daughter of Edward III’s 2nd son, the Mortimers had been seen by many as legitimate heirs to the throne. Working on the premise that it is wise to “keep your enemies near you” he placed the young Edmund, Earl of March under strict supervision at Windsor Castle with his brother Roger. They appear to have been treated well and were brought up with the king’s own children. While campaigning in North Wales, the king had the boys temporarily transferred to Berkhamsted.
Opposition to the rule of Henry IV began as early as December 1399 with the ill-fated Epiphany Rising. One of those executed for being involved was Thomas le Despenser, previously Earl of Gloucester. His wife Constance of York was daughter of Edmund, Duke of York the 4th son of Edward III and, consequently, first cousin to Henry IV. The wisdom of keeping the boys close to him was underlined when it became absolutely clear that Sir Edmund Mortimer, the 5th Earl’s uncle, had defected to Glyndwr and was proclaiming his intention of placing his nephew on the throne.
The motte at Berkhamsted Castle
The Roman west wall at Pevensey
The boys were, however, successfully abducted from Windsor on 13th February 1405. Constance of York is said to have been behind the escape, with the objective of enabling them to join their uncle in Wales. Unfortunately they were recaptured near Cheltenham and were then placed under stricter supervision at Pevensey castle. Edmund remained in custody until the death of Henry IV in 1413 by which time he was 21.
The new king, Henry V, was just 5 years older than Edmund. They had known each other for many years and clearly got on well together. Despite renewed calls for the Mortimer Earl of March to inherit the throne, the king released him from his detention, knighted him on the eve of his coronation and allowed him to inherit his estates. When he married without the king’s approval, Henry fined Edmund 10,000 marks, but the two remained close. Mortimer was involved in the preparations for Henry’s invasion of France and witnessed his will at Southampton.
Edmund’s sister Anne Mortimer was married to Richard of Conisbrough, brother of the 2nd Duke of York and of Constance, mentioned above. Richard continued the Yorkist vendetta against the Lancastrians and conspired with two others to kill Henry V and place his brother-in-law, the Earl of March, on the throne. It is not clear when and how Edmund found out about the plot, or whether he was initially involved, but on 31st July 1415 he revealed it to the king at Portchester. Henry accepted that Edmund was blameless and, indeed, appointed him onto the commission to try the conspirators. The members of the Southampton Plot as it is called, including his brother-in-law Richard of Conisbrough, were all executed.
On paper Edmund was a rich man, but his estates in both Wales and Ireland had suffered severely from rebellious incursions. In 1415, deeply in debt, he joined the king’s expedition to Normandy and the rest of his life is a record of unblemished service to the crown. He led a group of 59 men at arms and 160 archers but, having contracted dysentry during the siege of Harfleur he was repatriated and missed Agincourt. For the next five years or so, he was involved in the war. In 1416 he returned to Harfleur with the king’s brother, John, Duke of Bedford, to support the garrison there. The following year he took a further force of 100 lances and 300 archers to France and was put in charge of the large fleet patrolling the seas. He was appointed King’s Lieutenant in Normandy in 1418 but received few profits from the position.
Portchester Castle
The Wedding of Henry V and Catherine of Valois
Despite the ongoing war, Henry V married Catherine de Valois, youngest daughter of Charles VI of France. They were married at Troyes Cathedral on 2nd June 1420 and Edmund travelled back to England with the happy couple for the queen’s coronation. In October 1421 he was with Henry when he laid siege to Meaux, which wasn’t captured until the following May. This was to be the king’s last campaign as he became ill and died suddenly at the end of August.
Questions remain about what kind of a man Edmund was, and about how he was regarded by Henry V and by the other nobles. The hazy picture that we do have suggests a straightforward, uncomplicated, basically honest man without personal ambition whose behaviour and personality encouraged people to trust him and who was not seen as a threat to the crown. Though lacking the ability and confidence to be a strong leader, he was certainly entrusted with several significant roles during the war.
Henry VI was still a babe-in-arms when his father died. Edmund was appointed as a member of the Regency Council to rule in the king’s name during his minority. But despite Edmund’s loyalty and his position at the centre of government, for others the dream of having a Mortimer on the throne clearly remained. In 1424 a Sir John Mortimer was tried for treason and executed. He was convicted of plotting a rising in Wales to put Edmund on the throne. It is not clear who this John Mortimer was, but it’s an interesting footnote to the life of the last Mortimer Earl of March, given the traumatic civil war which was still to come.
By this time Edmund seems to have begun to assert himself more. He had a violent quarrel with the Duke of Gloucester about the size of his retinue and he may even have been suspected of being complicit in Sir John Mortimer’s plot. So it could have been convenient to get him out of the way. Whatever the reason, in 1423 he was appointed King’s Lieutenant in Ireland. He certainly needed to visit his ravaged estates there. He eventually sailed in 1424 but died at Trim the following year of plague, aged 33. He had no children and, with his death, the direct senior line of the Mortimers of Wigmore came to an end. The Mortimer estates and the earldom of March passed to his nephew Richard, the 3rd Duke of York and thence to the Yorkist kings before becoming subsumed within all royal estates and titles from Henry VIII onwards.