Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
Sir Roger de Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March, 4th Baron Mortimer of Wigmore, KG (11 November 132826 February 1360) was an English nobleman and military commander during the Hundred Years' War. He was the son of Sir Edmund Mortimer (d. 1331) and Elizabeth de Badlesmere, and grandson of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Inheritance. The Mortimer family lands and titles were lost after the first Earl of March's revolt and death by hanging in 1330, which was followed the next year by the death of Roger's father. Roger thus grew up  with uncertain prospects, and re-acquired the family honours only gradually. Around 1342, he received back Radnor, and the next year the old family baronial seat at Wigmore, Herefordshire. Military career. As a young man he distinguished himself in the wars in France, fighting at Crécy and elsewhere in the campaign of 1347. Afterwards he was given livery of the rest of his lands, was one of the knights admitted at the foundation of the Order of the Garter, and was summoned to parliament as a baron both in 1348. He was knighted on 12 July 1346 at La Hogue  by Edward the Black Prince. Earldom. In 1354, the sentence passed against Mortimer's treacherous grandfather, the first earl, was reversed, and the next year he was summoned to parliament as Earl of March. Also in 1355, he received a number of important appointments, including Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque Ports, and he accompanied an expedition of Edward III to France. Other honours. On 19 October 1356, his grandmother Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville, widow of the first earl, died, and Roger inherited her vast estates, including Ludlow Castle, which was thereafter the Mortimer family  seat and power base. In the following years, he became a member of the Royal Council and was appointed Constable at the castles of Montgomery, Bridgnorth in Shropshire, and Corfe in Dorset. In 1359, and continuing into 1360, he was Constable of Edward III's invasion of France. He fought in the failed siege of Reims and captured Auxerre. The English forces then moved into Burgundy, where Roger died suddenly at Rouvray, near Avallon. Marriage and children. Roger married Philippa de Montagu (1332–1381), daughter of William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury, and Catherine Grandison and had by her at least  four children: Mortimer also had at least one illegitimate child: Arms. Heraldic Coat of Arms: Barry Or and azure, on a chief of the first three pallets between two gyronnies based on the second, over all an inescutcheon argent.