heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

344 THE HKRALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
"face," the place where these men commenced the cultivation and
development of their intellect, which has rendered their names illustrious
in their country's records, shall know it no more.
But the Mortimers must not be remembered only for the wicked
actions and illicit intercourse with royalty of one of their line.
Mortimer, the eldest son of Roger, was summoned to Parliament as
Sir Edmund
Baron
Mortimer, and to his son Roger Edward III. reversed the attainder of his
grandfather, restoring him to the earldom of March and his forfeited
lands. He accompanied the King to France, where he was knighted, and
was eventually made constable of Dover Castle and warden of the Cinque
Ports ;
so it is evident that he had redeemed the character of his family.
His son, Edmund, born 1532, further increased the family prestige by
marrying Philippa, daughter and heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence, the
third son of Edward III., whom I have mentioned on page 226. The
Earl of March was member of the Privy Council to Richard II., and
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, of which he died governor in 1381. He
left three sons, Roger, who succeeded him, Edmund and John, and two
daughters Elizabeth, married first to Henry Percy the famous " Harry
;
" Hotspur," and second, to Thomas Lord Camoys and ; Philippa, who
married three times :
first, John Earl of Pembroke
; second, Richard Earl
of Arundel ; third, John Poynings Lord St. John.
The Lord Mortimer mentioned in Shakespeare (i Henry iv., act iii.
sc. is i) evidently Edmund, who married a daughter of Owen Glendower,
for not only is Owen introduced, but his daughter also, of whom Mortimer
says : " My wife can speak no English, I no Welsh," but as he gracefully
expresses it, there was, therefore, no lack of understanding between them.
"I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh
Which thou pour'st down from these swelling heavens
I too am perfect in ;
and but for shame,
In such a parley would I answer thee.
I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,
And that's a feeling disputation
:
But I will never be a truant, love,
Till I have learned thy language ; for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing diversion, to her lute."
Harry Hotspur is also introduced, and his death at the battle of
Shrewsbury graphically rendered in the last act.
Roger Mortimer married Alianor, daughter of Thomas Lord Holland,
and was slain in Ireland by O'Brien and the Irish of Leinster, at a place
called Kenlis. It was to avenge his death that Richard II., who in the
tenth year of his reign had declared him to be his successor, imprudently