Despite the 1st Earl of March’s closeness to Queen Isabella in the final years of his life,  he and his wife Joan previously had 20 years of successful marriage which included 12 children. The oldest boy, Edmund, was probably born in 1302. At the age of 14 he was married to Elizabeth de Badlesmere who was just 3 years old. Following his father’s arrest and subsequent exile, Edmund was imprisoned with his brothers, first in Windsor castle and then in the Tower. Freed on Roger’s triumphant return to England with the queen, he was knighted with his brothers by the young Edward III. A year later, in 1328, his wife Elizabeth gave birth to their first child, another Roger.

Following the Earl’s trial and execution in 1330, his extensive estates and the earldom of March were forfeit. The Mortimers of Wigmore were then living in very reduced circumstances. Perhaps contrary to expectations, however, the new king proved charitable and forgiving. Roger’s widow, Joan, was treated kindly and most of her lands were eventually given back to her. As early as 1331, various lords were urging the king to be generous to Roger’s son Edmund and in October he restored Wigmore to him, together with Maelienydd and other lands in Wales. And he went further: a month later Edmund was called to attend parliament and is consequently held to have become Baron Mortimer, a new creation distinct from that forfeited by his father.

Things were looking good and Edmund must have hoped that he would gradually recover more of his father’s lands and significance. Tragically, within a month of the parliament, he died of a fever. Aged about 28 when his father died, Edmund was the last lord of Wigmore to be an adult when he succeeded his father. From now on until the male line failed in 1425, it is a story of successive lords dying young, to be succeeded by minors. Over that period the last four lords of Wigmore had direct control of their estates for a total of only 41 of the 94 years.

Roger’s teenage years were a time when Edward III was ramping up his claim to the throne of France. In a provocative move he changed the royal coat of arms, adding the arms of France to the lions of England, and the pursuit of this claim was to result in the Hundred Years War. Roger’s potential as a soldier became clear at an early age. He was only 15 when he distinguished himself at a tournament held in Hereford in 1345, taking part alongside many of the most noble lords in England. Only 2 years later, aged just 17, he crossed to France as part of the king’s army and was knighted by the Black Prince at La Hogue. He fought alongside the king at the battle of Crécy and was rewarded by being given livery of all his lands in Herefordshire and the Marches.

The following year, 1348, Roger was summoned to parliament as both Baron Mortimer and Baron Mortimer of Wigmore. He was further honoured by being selected as one of about 25 founder knights of the Order of the Garter, a distinction which remains the highest order of chivalry in the United Kingdom. In 1354 he was successful in securing the reversal of his grandfather’s attainder, allowing him to gain control of all his the 1st earl’s estates except those held in dower by his mother and grandmother, both of who were to die in 1356. Even more significantly as far as his image was concerned, he was able to inherit his grandfather’s earldom and become the 2nd Earl of March.