heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

336 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
He was buried with his father in Westminster Abbey, where a
beautiful tomb on the south side of the sanctuary marks his resting-place.
By his death his estates were divided amongst his four sisters, and his
title passed into abeyance : Anne, who married Hugh
de Baliol and two
other husbands, but died without issue ; Isabel, who married John, second
Baron Hastings, whose grandson, Lawrence Hastings, was by royal favour
declared (1339) Earl of Pembroke ; Joan, who married John Comyn; and
Margaret, who died unmarried.
MORTIMER.
The place and circumstances of the death of Valence, however, are
appropriately associated with the next subject for our consideration, viz.,
the House of MORTIMER, whose arms are in stone and glass on the south
side of the choir, and furnish, perhaps, the most elaborate arrangement of a
field barre, viz. : Barry of six or, and azure on a chief of the first two pallets
between two esquires of the second, over all an inescutcheon argent.*
It is difficult to reconcile conflicting statements, and thus to define
accurately the origin of the title of Mortimer ;
but it would seem that the
name Mortimer is derived from the Latin words "Mortuum mare," applied
to a little district afterwards called " Vexin Normand," the extreme northeastern
portion of Normandy, between the rivers Oise and Epte, not far
from Rouen, probably a tract of sedgy and marshy ground, ceded to
Duke
Robert of Normandy by Henry I. of France. Dugdale says that "Odo,
"brother of Henry I. King of France, having invaded Eurveux, Duke
"William sent Roger (son or brother of William de St. Martin Earl of
"Warrenne), who had married his fifth daughter, Gundred, to resist his
" attempt, who gave him battle near to the castle of Mortimer, and
" obtained a glorious victory."
I conclude that in consequence of his defending this frontier castle,
Duke William gave him the title, and perhaps the castle of Mortimer, but
suspecting him of treachery he seems to have taken it from him and
given it to his brother William, from whom it
passed to his second son,
Ralph, or Roger, " one of the chiefest commanders in his whole army
"upon his first invasion of this realm;" and shortly after that signal
contestf he was sent into the marches of Wales to encounter Edrich Earl
of Shrewsbury, who still resisted the Norman yoke. He overcame him
and received his castle of Wigmore as his guerdon. There he founded an
abbey of which his son Hugh, at the close of a warlike life, became a
canon ;
and to which his son Roger, in recognition of his father's connection
therewith, granted a spacious and fruitful pasture, saying
to his
* See coloured illustration. t Dugdale.