Dictionary Definition
Mortimer n : English nobleman who deposed Edward
II and was executed by Edward III (1287-1330) [syn: Roger de
Mortimer]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Proper noun
- A British topographical surname of Norman French origin, from Mortemer in France
- A given name transferred from the surname.
Extensive Definition
- For Mortimer in Berkshire, see Stratfield Mortimer. For the town in Shropshire, see Cleobury Mortimer.
Noble family
Norman origins
The name almost certainly derives from
"Mortemer", site of the Cistercian
Abbaye
de Mortemer between Les Andelys
and Évreux in
Normandy.
The land was gifted to the Cistercians by
Henry
II in the 1180s. Finding the land to be marsh-land (in old
french, 'dead water' or "Morte Mer"), the monks dug out a large
drainage lake and built the Abbaye
de Mortemer. The ruins and lake can still be visited, and the
later XVIth century Abbey hosts tours.
The village of Mortemer-sur-Eaulne further north
in the Seine-Maritime
area is almost certainly later and named after the site of the
abbey.
Medieval magnates
In the Middle Ages, the Mortimers were a powerful
magnate family or dynasty of Marcher
Lords in the Welsh
Marches, centered around Wigmore
Castle in Herefordshire,
and from the 14th century holding the title of Earl of
March.
Close to the throne of England
Through marriage, the Mortimers came during the
reign of Richard
II to be close to the English throne, but when Richard II was
deposed in 1399, the claims of the Mortimers were ignored and the
throne vested in the usurper Henry
of Lancaster instead. The Mortimer claims were later (1425)
transmitted to the House of
York, which ultimately claimed them in the Wars of
the Roses.
Successive Mortimers
Members of the noble Mortimer family
included:
- Ranulph de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire and Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux in Normandy
- Hugh de Mortimer, Lord of Wigmore Castle
- Roger Mortimer of Wigmore
- Ralph de Mortimer
- Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer
- Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer
- Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March
- Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March
- Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March
- Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
- Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March
- Thomas Mortimer, of Toton
- Edmund Mortimer, second son of the 3rd Earl of March, fought with Owain Glyndŵr and plotted with Henry Percy, "Hotspur," to depose King Henry IV of England and divide the Kingdom of England and Wales in three.
Other persons
- Bob Mortimer, English comedian
- Carole Mortimer, English novelist
- Emily Mortimer, English actress
- Favell Lee Mortimer, cynical author of Reading Without Tears and Far Away. Despite having left England no more than 2 times, Favell scrutinizes nearly every country in the known (at that time) world. The Clumsiest People in Europe by Todd Pruzan accounts her life and writings.
- John Mortimer, English barrister, dramatist and author