22 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OP 



great charter of the land ; his castles and mansions were in good 

 repair ; his manors and farms were well stocked with cattle and all 

 the requisites of husbandry, and he had 20,000 marks in his trea- 

 sury. Such was his hereditary rank and consequence that, in case 

 Richard should die without issue, he was nearest to the throne ; 

 and, in provision for an occurrence of that nature, the parliament 

 of 1385 nominated him heir })resumptive to the crown.'* Six 

 months after his father's decease, fifth of Richard II., he was ap- 

 pointed lieutenant of Ireland. He had been originally betrothed 

 to the daughter of the Earl of Arundel, but the king, at the inter- 

 position of his own mother, the princess Joan,t set aside the match 

 in favour of her grand-daughter Eleanor, daughter of Thomas 

 Holand, Earl of Kent. The character of Roger Mortimer, as given 

 by the aforesaid historian, forms an ample comment upon the epi- 

 thet " courtois,'* applied to him, in the French metrical poem, by 

 Creton, respecting the deposition of Richard II.J " He was dis- 

 tinguished for the qualities held in estimation at that time — a stout 

 tourneyer, a famous speaker, a costly feaster, a bounteous giver, in 

 conversation afiable and jocose, in beauty and form surpassing his 

 fellows." His splendid mode of living, his liberal and cheerful dis- 

 position, were sure passports to the regard of his sovereign, and had 

 been, probably, modelled from his own example. In the seven- 

 teenth of Richard II. Mortimer, then in his twentieth year, accom- 

 panied the first expedition into Ireland, having in his retinue one 

 hundred men at arms, of which two were bannerets and eight 

 knights, two hundred archers on horseback, and four hundred 

 archers on foot. Richard, hastily returning to England, left the 

 inexperienced youth to govern that turbulent island. He had, 

 however, competent advisers under him, if he would have listened 

 to their councils — as Lord Lovel, Sir John Stanley, Sir John 

 Sandes, Sir Ralph Cheyney, and others. In the nineteenth of 

 Richard II., he had an especial commission and lieutenancy for the 

 province of Ulster, Connaught, and Meath : and, in the next year, 

 he was instituted, once more, lieutenant of that whole realm. He 

 was summoned to attend the parliament at Shrewsbury, at which 

 he appeared at the head of a crowd of retainers, clad chiefly, at his 

 own expense, in white and crimson, with great pomp and pagean- 



* Leland, Collect.y vol. ii., p. 481. 



•f Called the fair maid of Kent. 



X See a translation of this, with most learned notes, by my worthy firiend 

 the Rev. John Webb, of Tretire, one ot which is copied verbatim in the text 

 above.— ^rcAeo/., voL xr. 



