12 HISTORICAL MEMORANDA OF 



The ^Mortimers were among the Lords Marchers, who claimed 

 the right of finding spears of silver to support the queen's canopy- 

 on all coronations ; and they exercised this privilege when Eleanor, 

 the queen of Henry III. was crowned. 



Edmund IMortimer, Baron of Wigmore, succeeded his father, 

 Roger, and was present at the decisive battle near Built, in the 

 year 1282, the 10th of Edward I., at which Llewelyn ab Grufydd, 

 the Prince of Wales, was slain, but not by him, as the Rev. J. 

 Duncumb, in his History of Herefordshire, asserts — but by Sir 

 Adam de Francton, an English knight.* On the contrary, Ed- 

 mund was severely wounded in that encounter ; and being convey- 

 ed to the castle of Wigmore, there died. At this period, according 

 to Dugdale, he was seven-and-twenty years of age. He married 

 Margaret, daughter of the Lord William de Fendles, in Spain, cousin 

 of Eleanor, queen of King Edward I. By her he had seven chil- 

 dren, who, being minors, appear to have been under the guardian- 

 ship of their uncle Roger,t as he was called upon to perform the 

 military services immediately after the death of his brother. Their 

 names were, Roger ; Matilda, married to Theobald de Verdun, 

 lord of a moiety of Ludlow ; Johanna, a nun of the Priory of Ling- 

 broke ; John, killed in a tournament at Worcester, and there buried 

 in the Cathedral ; Hugh, rector of Old Radnor ; Walter, rector of 

 Kingsland, in the Vale of Wigmore ; and Edmund, rector of Hod- 

 net, and treasurer of the cathedral church of York. 



Sir Harris Nicolas has been so indefatigable in his researches re- 

 specting the uncle Roger, in his notes to the siege of Caerlaverock, 

 that I shall not hesitate to avail myself of their ample results. In 

 March, 1283, he was summoned to attend, with horse and arras, 

 against the Welsh. Three years after, he obtained a charter of free 

 warren in his lordships of Sawarden, Winterton, Hampton, and 

 others, in Herefordshire and Shropshire ; he was, also, possessed of 

 the lordship of Chirk, in Denbighshire, the castle of which, accord- 

 ing to Camden, he erected, and of which, from its importance, says 

 Sir Harris Nicolas, he was generally described. That territory is 

 said to have fallen into his hands in no very creditable manner, for 



• Hen. De Knyghtouy p. 2464. 



•f- Edward Howe More, in his enumeration of the knights who fought un- 

 der Edward I., mentions this Roger de Mortymer : — "les armes de Mortymer 

 en le escuchon un lion de pourpre ; Sir John de M., les armes de Mortymer, 

 en le escuchon un santour de goules. Sir Henri de Mortymer, barre de or 

 e de goules, le chef palee les armes geronne a un escuchon d'argent ; which 

 last are those on the seal of Edmund de Mortimer."— See Vet. Mon., vol. L, 

 pL XXX. 



