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Roger was a Marcher Lord. He led the baronial opposition to Edward II's favorites (1320-22) and was imprisoned before fleeing to France. There he became the lover of Edwards Queen Isabella with whom he secured Edward's deposition and murder in 1327. He then ruled England in the name of Edward's son, Edward III, until the latter caused him to be executed.
"Roger was the first of several members of his family to attempt to seize the throne of England. ... A descendant of Norman knights who had accompanied William the Conqueror. In 1304 he became 8th Baron of Wigmore on the death of his father, the 7th Baron. He led the baronial opposition to Edward II's favorites (1320-22) and was imprisoned before fleeing to France. There he became the lover of Edward's Queen Isabella with whom he secured Edward's deposition and murder in 1327. He then ruled England in the name of Edward's son Edward III, until the latter caused him to be hanged as a traitor."[1]
" He fought the Scots and made attempts to remove the King's favorites, at first with some success. In 1323 he was imprisoned in the Tower of London, but escaped to France, an event he later commemorated by building St Peter's chapel in the outer bailey of Ludlow Castle.
"In France, Mortimer allied with Queen Isabella, who deserted her effeminate husband, King Edward II of England. They raised an army, invaded England and forced Edward to abdicate in favor of his youngest son, Edward III.
Mortimer entertained Isabella at his castles on the Welsh borders and they became infamous lovers. Meanwhile, Edward II was cruelly murdered at Berkeley Castle in 1327.[2]
"Following Edward's death, Mortimer, acting as regent, was the virtual ruler of England, but he over-reached himself and aroused the anger of other barons. In October 1330 he was arrested at Nottingham and sentenced to death. He was executed at Tyburn in London.
"Later, the ambitions of the Mortimers became part of the great dynastic struggles of the mid-15th century which became known as the "War of the Roses."
"In 1330, Sir William Eland conducted King Edward through a passage in Nottingham Castle when he seized Lord Mortimer, and brought him out of the castle. This was afterwards called Mortimer's Hole, in memory of that unfortunate nobleman, a name which is erroneously given to the principal vault."[3]
It is alleged that William Ogle and Sir Thomas Gurney murdered King Edward II in 1327, allies of Roger Mortimer.[4]
Note: Although Douglas Richardson states that Mortimer was buried at the Grey Friars Church in Shrewsbury Shropshire, per the 14th century Wigmore Chronicles and at Wigmore Abbey per Wikipedia, the author Ian Mortimer in his book "The Greatest Traitor" states that Roger de Mortimer was buried at the Grey Friars Church in Coventry. The reason for this belief is as follows: Upon his death at Tyburn Elms in London, Roger de Mortimer's body was appropriated by the Coventry friars eager to obtain such an eminent corpse. Some doubts remain as to whether Mortimer's body was relocated to Wigmore. A petition from his wife Joan dated 1332 suggests he might have remained buried at Coventry, despite Edward III's order of the previous years which may have ordered burial elsewhere such as possibly the Grey Friars Church in Shrewsbury. Since Coventry was a city within (his lover) Queen Isabella's sphere of influence, it is possible that she persuaded her son Edward III to leave Mortimer buried in the friary there. The church of the Grey Friars in Coventry and Shrewsbury were destroyed in Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century as well as Wigmore Abbey in Herefordshire. As with the tombs of numerous other nobles of that era, the actions of that time has caused Roger de Mortimer's burial place to be lost.
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