MORTIMER, third Earl of Marche, and had by him two sons, ROGER MORTIMER, his successor, and Sir Edmund, who married a daughter of Owen Glendower, and two daughters, Elizabeth, who married Henry Percy, surnamed "Hotspur," and Philippa, the wife successively of John Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, Richard Earl of Arundel, and John, Lord St. John. Roger Mortimer, fourth Earl of Marche in right of his father, and Earl of Ulster in that of his mother, married Eleanor Holland, daughter of Thomas Holland Earl of Kent, by Alice Fitzalan, which Thomas was son of Thomas Holland, also Earl of Kent, in virtue of having married Joan, Countess of Kent, commonly called the "Fair Maid of Kent." Roger Mortimer who, as before observed, had been declared heir presumptive to Richard II., in 1387, died in that 2 Henry Percy, surnamed "Hotspur," is a lineal ancestor of the present Duke of Northumberland, who is fourteenth in descent from that famous warrior. Shakspeare, in the first part of King Henry IV., has been led into an error with respect to the marriages of some of his characters. He makes Hotspur call his wife Kate, and styles her "Lady Percy, sister to Mortimer," whilst he calls "Lady Mortimer daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer," whom he styles "Edmund, Earl of March." It is evident that the poet has put the son for the father, Roger Mortimer, whose brother, Sir Edmund Mortimer, knight, married the great Welshman's daughter. Roger Mortimer died in 1398, two years before the battle of Holmedon, at the date of which the play commences. king's life-time, 1399, leaving by Eleanor Holland three children, Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor. Edmund Mortimer, who was the true heir to Richard, was never able to obtain his right; he married Anne, daughter of the Earl of Stafford, by Anne, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, but dying in 1424 without issue,3 his right to the succession belonged to his sister and heir ANNE, who married her kinsman RICHARD PLANTAGENET, Earl of Cambridge, and conveyed her right to her son RICHARD, Duke of York, who thus became the representative of the two lines of Clarence and York, and although he did not succeed in obtaining the actual title of royalty, he at one time possessed the power, and his son sat on the throne as EDWARD IV. 3 Edmund Mortimer died in the castle of Trim, in Ireland, 3 Henry VI., having been detained a prisoner for twenty-one years. His sister Eleanor became the wife of Hugh Courtney, eldest son of Hugh, Earl of Devon, but died without issue. In the first part of King Henry VI., Edmund Mortimer is correctly introduced as a prisoner, though his place of confinement is there made to be the Tower of London. "Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign, ᎣᎣᎣᎣᎣ CHAPTER XI. Thy father, Earl of Cambridge,-then derived 1 P. KING HENRY VI. "I have considered with myself The title of this most renowned duke; 2 HENRY VI. Act i. sc. 1. The Descent of EDWARD IV. from EDMUND Langley. DWARD IV. was derived from EDWARD III., ED in unbroken male descent, from his fifth son EDMUND, surnamed of Langley, who was created Earl of Cambridge by his father in 1362, and Duke of York in 1385, by his nephew Richard II., to whom he was one of the three guardians; but his natural indolence made him give way before his more impetuous brother of Lancaster. He was one of the commissioners appointed by parliament, 1398, and invested with the whole power both of Lords and Commons. In 1399 the Duke of York was left sole guardian of the realm upon the occasion of Richard II. going to Ireland: "To-morrow next We will for Ireland, and 'tis time, I trow; RICHARD II. During Richard's absence Henry Bolingbroke landed from exile, under pretence of claiming only his patrimonial inheritance : His coming hither hath no further scope, Turning his popularity to account, Henry obtained the crown of the deposed king, to which he had rightful claim by inheritance. Shakspeare places in York's mouth the fine description of the entry of Bolingbroke and Richard into London. The duke died in the reign of his nephew Henry IV., in 1401, according to Glover, but in 1402 according to Sir Harris Nicolas. His first wife was Isabel of Castile, "a woman very tender and delicate," (the "Duchess of York" in Richard II.,) youngest daughter of Peter, King of Castile and Leon, and by her he had one daughter, Constance, who first married Thomas Despencer, Earl of Gloucester, and two sons, Edward, first created Earl of Rutland, then Duke of Albemarle, 1397, the "Aumerle" in the play, who succeeded his father as Duke of York; he married Philippa,' daughter and co-heir of John de Mohun, Lord Dunster, but left no issue; he fell gloriously upon the field of Agincourt, where he had "the leading of the vaward." Edmund Langley's second son was RICHARD, surnamed of Coningsburg, who was created Earl of Cambridge in 1414; he married Anne, great granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, sister and heir of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of Marche, as shown in the preceding chapter. The Earl of Cambridge, in the reign of Henry V., entered into a conspiracy to place his brother-in-law Mortimer upon the throne, but the plot being detected, the Earl of Cambridge, Henry, Lord Scrope of Masham, and Sir Thomas Grey of Heton, were executed in 1415. In the play of Henry V., Shakspeare makes out that they suffered the penalties of treason for having conspired to kill the king, Philippa, widow of the Duke of York, married secondly, Walter Fitzwalter, who, or a son, is brought strangely into collision with "Aumerle," in the play of Richard II., under the title of "Lord Fitzwater." 2 York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg The leading of the vaward. K. Hen. Take it, brave York. HENRY V. Act iv. sc. 3. 3 Holinshed states that he was born in the very ancient castle of Coningsburg, of which Sir Walter Scott gives so interesting a description in his "Ivanhoe." |