MORTIMERMortimers and their Irish tenantry. Whether militarily
or in a social context, therefore, the Mortimers cer-
tainly had experience of native society.
Chief Governors
It was exactly this, combined with their position at
court and in Ireland, that brought all but one of the
earls to the chief governorship of Ireland, and with
some success. On November 23, 1316, around the time
of Robert Bruce’s landing in Ulster, Roger Mortimer
was named as the king’s lieutenant in Ireland. During
the ensuing eighteen months, he set about restoring
peace, brokering compromises between disputing
Anglo-Irish lineages, particularly in Cork and Water-
ford, where large fines were extracted from warring
factions, and making war on the lordship’s enemies.
Having exiled the Lacys of Rathwire in June 1317, he
devastated Irish communities in Connacht and what is
now County Wicklow. On his return to Ireland as jus-
ticiar in June 1319, in the aftermath of the battle of
Faughart, more importantly, he received native Irish-
men into English common law, attempting to mitigate
one of the grievances expressed in the Irish Remon-
strance.
When Edmund Mortimer arrived in Ireland in May
1380 by popular acclaim, the administration was pen-
niless. Nevertheless, if chronicle accounts are accurate,
he was able temporarily to regain his lordship in Ulster
and northern Connacht, taking the homage of many
“nobles of the Gael” and Niall Óg Ua Néill, captain
of the Irish of Ulster, before sweeping south, crossing
the Shannon, and tackling recalcitrant Irish and
English kin groups in Thomond.
Pneumonia, however, ended his life on December
27, 1381, and his successes evaporated. Experiments
with Thomas Mortimer, Edmund’s brother, as deputy
for his infant nephew, Roger, provided no boon against
Irish encroachment and forced Richard II into journey-
ing to Ireland himself. He was accompanied in 1394
by Roger Mortimer, fourth earl of March, who had
initially been made lieutenant in July 1392, but had
been delayed by disputes over his inheritance. During
Richard’s stay, the king, who wished to conciliate
some of the leading Irish kin groups, forced Roger into
accepting the negotiated homage of the O’Neills. Upon
Richard’s departure, however, Roger was left as lieu-
tenant in Ulster, Connacht, and Meath. After gathering
an army including the earls of Ormond and Desmond
and many other prominent members of the settler com-
munity under the king’s banner, he ravaged modern
counties Longford and Cavan in an attempt to regain
control of his lordship of Meath. He then launched an
attack on the position of his rivals, the O’Neills, in
Armagh, bringing them temporarily to heel. In April
1397, Roger was granted the sole governorship of Ire-
land, and he appears to have attempted to wrest control
of the country back for the king. Such ephemeral suc-
cesses, however, were curtailed by his murder on a
raid into Leinster in August 1398.
Roger would be the second of his name to die in
Ireland. He would not be the last. His son, Edmund
(1391-1425), fifth earl of March, died at Trim on Jan-
uary 18, 1425, while vainly trying to employ the
resources of Ireland as lieutenant in the defense of his
familial estates.
Throughout the fourteenth century, the Mortimer
earls of March had accumulated the single most impor-
tant patrimony in Ireland. Far from remaining perma-
nent absentees, unlike many of their contemporaries,
they made frequent, if fleeting visits to Ireland, where
their skills as warlords, peacemakers, and figures of
compromise ensured their place at the zenith of land-
holding society and made them essential agents in the
maintenance and development of English lordship.
Premature deaths and minorities, however, meant that,
ultimately, their lands could not be adequately
defended, and they too became the unfortunate per-
sonal victims of the failure of the English lordship in
Ireland to make any temporary successes endure.
PAULR. DRYBURGHReferences and Further Reading
Cosgrove, Art. Late Medieval Ireland, 1370–1541. Dublin:
Helicon, 1981.
———.A New History of Ireland: Medieval Ireland, 1169—
1534. Edited by F. J. Byrne, Art Cosgrove, and T. W. Moody,
2nd ed. Oxford, 1993.
Curtis, Edmund. Richard II in Ireland, 1394–5, and the Sub-
missions of the Irish Chiefs. Oxford: Clarendon, 1927.
Dryburgh, Paul R. “The Career of Roger Mortimer, First Earl
of March (c.1287–1330).” PhD diss., University of Bristol,
2002.
Frame, Robin. Colonial Ireland, 1169–1369. Dublin: Helicon,
1981.
———.English Lordship in Ireland, 1318–61. Oxford: Clar-
endon, 1982.
———.The Political Development of the British Isles,
1100–1400.Oxford: Clarendon, 1990.
———.Ireland and Britain, 1170–1450. London: The Ham-
bledon Press, 1998.
Hagger, Mark S. The Fortunes of a Norman Family: The de
Ve rduns in England and Wales, 1066–1316. Dublin: Four
Courts Press, 2001.
Johnston, Dorothy. “Chief Governors and Treasurers of Ireland
in the Reign of Richard II.” In Colony and Frontier in Medi-
eval Ireland. Essays Presented to J. F. Lydon, edited by
T.B. Barry, Robin Frame, and Katherine Simms, pp. 97–115.
London: The Hambledon Press, 1995.
Mortimer, Ian. The Greatest Traitor. The Life of Sir Roger Mor-
timer, 1stEarl of March, Ruler of England, 1327–1330. Lon-
don: Jonathan Cape, 2003.