4th Earl of March and Earl of Ulster (1381-1398)
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland (1381-1384, 1395-1398)
Born 1374 Died 1398
Roger de Mortimer, son of the 3rd earl, succeeded to the titles and estates of his family when a child of seven, and a month afterwards he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, his uncle Sir Thomas Mortimer acting as his deputy. Being a ward of the Crown, his guardian was the Earl of Kent, half-brother to Richard II; and in 1388 he married Kent's daughter, Eleanor.
The importance which he owed to his hereditary influence and possessions, and especially to his descent from Edward III, was immensely increased when Richard II publicly acknowledged him as heir presumptive to the crown in 1385. In 1394 he accompanied Richard to Ireland, but notwithstanding a commission from the king as lieutenant of the districts over which he exercised nominal authority by hereditary right, he made little headway against the native Irish chieftains. March enjoyed great popularity in England though he took no active part in opposing the despotic measures of the king; in Ireland he illegally assumed the native Irish costume. In August 1398 he was killed in fight with an Irish clan, and was buried in Wigmore Abbey.
March's daughter Anne married Richard, Earl of Cambridge, son of Edmund, Duke of York, fifth son of Edward III; their son Richard, Duke of York, was father of King Edward IV, who thus derived his title to the crown and acquired the estates of the house of Mortimer.
Extracted from the entry for MARCH, EARLS OF in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain. | 
