Roger De MORTIMER

   Ancestral File Number: 8HRJ-PH.

   General Notes:

Signer of Provisions of Oxford, 1st English Constitution 11 Jun 1258.

BOOKS
Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905, p100: "...On June 11 [1258] the magnates once more assembled, this time at Oxford. A petition of twenty-nine articles was presented, in which the abuses of the [Henry III] administration were laid bare in detail. A commission of twenty-four was appointed who were to redress the grievances of the nation, and to draw up a new scheme of government. According to the compact Henry himself selected half this body...
"...In strong contrast to these creatures of court favour were the twelve nominees of the barons. The only ecclesiastic was Walter of Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, and the only alien was Earl Simon of Leicester. With him were three other earls Richard of Clare, Earl of Gloucester, Roger Bigod, earl marshal and Earl of Norfolk, and Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford. Those of Baronal rank were Roger Mortimer, the strongest of the marchers, Hugh Bigod, the brother of the earl marshal, John Fitz Geoffrey, Richard Grey, William Bardolf, Peter Montfort, and Hugh Despenser.
"...The twenty-four drewup a plan of reform which left little to be desired in thoroughness. The Provisions of Oxford, as the new constitution was styled, were speedily laid before the barons and adopted...For the first time in our history the king was forced to stand aside from the discharge of his undoubted functions, and suffer them to be exercised by a committee of magnates. The conception of limited monarchy, which had been foreshadowed in the early struggles of Henry's long reign, was triumphantly vindicated, and, after weary years of waiting, the baronial victors demanded more than had ever been suggested by the most free interpretation of the Great Charter..."

Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Roger Mortimer, Son of Gwladys of Wales and Ralph Mortimer, Mar Maud Daughter of William De Braose, Died 1282."

The Oxford History of England The Fifteenth Century 1399-1485, E F Jacob, Oxford Univ Press, p503:
"...In every instance a change in the succession raised the problem of the local balance of power, and to think of the dynastic struggle as fought out simply between the supporters of Somerset and the queen on the one hand, and an opposition with the traditions of Mortimer, Clare, Salisbury, and the great baronial consolidations of the fourteenth century on the other, is to neglect its organic nature. Just as the barons' wars of the period 1258-1267 were far more than a contest between crown and opposition and involved questions of shire government and the land law, so behind the clash of parties in the middle of the fifteenth century lay problems of local order and economic advantage."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams, Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch I, p54:
[1074] "Already Norman families, who were to make so much of the history of the coming centuries, were rooted in the land. Montfort and Mortimer; Percy, Beauchamp, and Mowbray; Ferrers and Lacy; Beaumont, Mandeville, and Grantmesnil; Clare, Bigod, and Bohun; and many others of equal or nearly equal name. All these were as yet of no higher than baronial rank, but if we could trust the chroniclers, we should be able to make out in addition a considerable list of earldoms which William had established by this date or soon afterwards, in many parts of England, and in these were other great names..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, ThomasB Costain, 1951, Doubleday & Co
p304: "Of less exalted rank was the fourth fair lady to take a prominent part in events. She was wife of Roger de Mortimer, the quarrelsome, avaricious, and generally disagreeable lord of Wigmore who had been the most active enemy of Simon de Montfort in the West. Born Maud de Braose, she had been a great catch, for the Braose holdings to which she had succeeded comprised a large part of Breconshire and a share as well in the immense Marshal inheritance. Her father was the gallant but unfortunate William de Braose who had been detected in an illicit relationship with Joanna, the wife of Llwewlyn (and illegitimate daughter of John of England) and had been publicly hanged by the Welsh leader. This would make her a granddaughter of the unhappy Maude de Braose who was starved to death by John in a cell at Corfe Castle..."
p307: "He remained at Wigmore just long enough for refreshments. The chatelaine, who of course had attired herself to the best advantage, kept busy in the background to be sure that everything was being done properly for the royal guest...
"He would not be too preoccupied to wave his hand in parting to the fair chatelaine of the castle, butat this point he pages of history close over Maud de Mortimer.
"From Wigmore, Edward rode to the rather squat Normand castle of Ludlow on the banks of the Jug, a distance slightly under ten miles. Here he found waiting for him the man he wanted to see above all others, Earl Gilbert of Gloucester. Roger de Mortimer was there also...Edward appreciated the importance of detaching Gilbert the Red from Simon de Montfort's side and he agreed readily enough when the stipulation was madthat the country must be governed in accordance with the Provisions of Oxford. On receiving this promise the young earl agreed to transfer his allegiance to the King's side..."
p316: "[Battle of Evesham] Military experts disagree as to the roads they took and at what stage the army was divided into three parts; two flying wings being constituted and confided to the command of Gilbert of Gloucester and Roger de Mortimer. The fact remains that at some hour of the night, while his equally weary foes were slowly filing into the Vale of Evesham, that lovely and fertile strip of country, Edward found himself astride the road to Alcester and so between the two baronial armies. A little later the prince extended his line asfar east as Offenham, after fording the eastern side of the loop at what came to be called later Dead Man's Ait...
"The plan decided upon was simple, sound, and effective. Gloucester was to take his wing down the west arm of the Avon to prevent a retreat toward the Severn. Mortimer was detailed to cross the east arm of the loop and not only block the one bridge across the river but get himself astride the London road, a minor role. Edward, with the bulk of the army, would drivestraight against the baronial forces in the town.
"The trap had closed..."

A History of the English Speaking People Winston S Churchill Vol I The Birth of Britain Dodd Mead & Co p298:
"In their fatal preoccupation with their possession in France the English kings had neglected the work of extending their rule within the Island of Great Britain...Edward I was the first of the English kings to put the whole weight of the Crown's resources behind the effort of national expansion in the West and North...He took the first great step towards the unification of the Island. He sought to conquer where the Romans, the Saxons, and the Normans all in their turn had failed. The mountain fastnesses of Wales nursed a hardy and unsubdued race which, under the grandson of the great Llewellyn, had in the previous reign once again made a deep dint upon the politics of England. Edward, as his father's lieutenant, had experience of the Welsh. He had encountered them in war, with questionable success. At the same time he had seen, with disapproving eye, the truculence of the barons of the Welsh Marches, the Mortimers, the Bohuns, and in the South the Clares, with the Gloucester estates, who exploited their military privileges against the interests alike of the Welsh and English people. All assertions of Welsh independence were a vexation to Edward; but scarcely less obnoxious was a system of guarding the frontiers of England by a confederacy of robber barons who had more than once presumed to challenge the authority of the Crown. He resolved, in the name of justice and progress, to subdue the unconquered refuge of petty princes and wild mountaineers in which barbaric freedom had dwelt since remote antiquity, and at the same time to curb the priviliges of the Marcher lords."

ANCESTRY.COM
World Ancestral Chart No. 17779 James Carl Romans.

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8HRJ-PH Roger De MORTIMER Mar Abt 1247 Maud BRAOSE (AFN:84ZT-L3).

   Marriage Information:

Roger married Maud De BRAOSE, daughter of William De BRAOSE and Eva MARSHAL, about 1247. (Maud De BRAOSE was born about 1209-1230 in Castle, Bramber, Sussex, England, christened in Gower, Glamorganshire, Wales and died before 20 Mar 1300-1301.)