him in September 1738 the symptoms of his illness (Burton, Memoir of Boerhaave, p. 69). Some account of the Roman remains found by him near Maldon in Essex is in the 'Archæologia,' xvi. 149, four letters from him, and numerous communications to him are in the possession of the Royal Society, and a letter sent by him to Dr. Waller on 28 July 1729 is printed in the 'Reliquiæ Galeanæ' (Bibl. Topogr. Brit. iii. 155-6). He drew up an index to the fishes for the 1743 edition of Willoughby's four books on the history of fish, and Dr. Munk assigns to him a volume on 'The Volatile Spirit of Sulphur,' 1744. When Kalm came to England, on his way to America to report on its natural products, he visited Mortimer, and at his house made the acquaintance of many scientific men.
[Gent. Mag. 1752 p. 44, 1777 p. 266, 1780 pp. 17, 510; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 7, 27, 423–6, 433, vi. 2–3, 99, 144–5, ix. 615; Munk's Coll. of Phys. 2nd edit. ii. 11; Memoirs of Martyn, 1830, pp. 40–2; Morant's Essex, ii. 133; Stukeley's Memoirs (Surtees Soc.), i. 233–4, 235, ii. 10–11, 320, iii. 6–7, 468; Dobson's Hogarth, p. 324; Thomson's Royal Soc. pp. 8, 10–11; Noble's College of Arms, p. 409; Cat. of MSS. and Letters of Royal Soc. passim; Kalm's Travels (trans. Lucas, 1892), pp. 19, 40, 61, 114–15.]
MORTIMER, EDMUND (II) de, third Earl of March (1351–1381), was the son of Roger de Mortimer (V), second earl of March fq. v.], and his wife Philippa, daughter of William Montacute, first earl of Salisbury [q. v.], and was born at 'Langonith' (? Llangynwyd or Llangynog) on 1 Feb. 1351 (Monasticon, vi. 353). When still a child there was an abortive proposal in 1354 to marry him to Alice Fitzalan, daughter of Richard Fitzalan II, earl of Arundel [q. v.] On 26 Feb. 1360 the death of his father procured for the young Edmund the succession to the title and estates of his house when only in his tenth year. He became the ward of Edward III, but was ultimately assigned to the custody of William of Wykeham [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, and of the above-mentioned Richard, earl of Arundel (Dugdale, Baronage, i. 148). Henceforth he was closely associated with the king's sons, and especially with Edward the Black Prince. Mortimer's political importance dates from his marriage with Philippa, only daughter of Lionel of Antwerp, duke of Clarence [q. v.], the second surviving son of Edward HI, by his wife Elizabeth de Burgh, the heiress of Ulster. Philippa was born in 1355, and her wedding with Mortimer took place in the spring of 1368, just before the departure of Lionel for Italy (Cont. Eulogium Hist. iii. 333). Before the end of the year Lionel's death gave to his son-in-law the enjoyment of his great estates. When, on coming of age, Mortimer entered into public life, he represented not simply the Mortimer inheritance, but also the great possessions of his wife. Besides his Shropshire, Herefordshire, Welsh, and Meath estates, which came from the Mortimers and Genvilles, he was, in name at least, lord of Ulster and Connaught, and by far the most conspicuous representative of the Anglo-Norman lords of Ireland. He was now styled Earl of Ulster as well as Earl of March. But important as were the immediate results of Edmund's marriage, the ulterior results were even more far-reaching. The descendants of Philippa before long became the nearest representatives of the line of Edward III, and handed on to the house of York that claim to the throne which resulted in the Wars of the Roses. And not only the legitimist claim but the territorial strength of the house of York was almost entirely derived from the Mortimer inheritance.
In 1369 Mortimer became marshal of England, an office which he held until 1377. In the same year he served against the French. On 8 Jan. 1371 he received his first summons to parliament (Lords' Report on Dignity of a Peer, iv. 648). In 1373 he received final livery of his own estates. On 8 Jan. 1373 he was sent as joint ambassador to France, and in March of the same year he was chief guardian of the truce with Scotland (Doyle, Official Baronage, ii. 468). The Wigmore family chronicler (Monasticon, vi. 353) boasts of the extraordinary success with which he discharged these commissions, and erroneously says that he was only eighteen at the time. In 1375 he served in the expedition sent to Brittany to help John of Montfort, and captured the castle of Saint-Mathieu (Walsingham, Hist. Angl. i. 318-319 ; Froissart, viii. 212, ed. Luce).
Mortimer's close association with the Prince of Wales and his old guardian, William of Wykeham, necessarily involved an attitude of hostility to John of Gaunt. Ancient feuds between the houses of March and Lancaster still had their effects, and Edmund's dislike of Gaunt was strengthened by a feeling that Lancaster was a possible rival to the claims of his wife and son to the succession. Accordingly he took up a strong line in favour of the constitutional as against the court party, and was conspicuous among the aristocratic patrons of the popular opposition in the Good parliament of 1376. He was, with Bishop Courtenay of London, the leader of the committee of twelve magnates appointed at the beginning of the session, on
