Mortimer

For Mortimer in Berkshire, see Stratfield Mortimer. For the town in Shropshire, see Cleobury Mortimer.

Mortimer is a popular English name, used both as a surname and a given name.

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 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 Wigmore
• Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Wigmore
• 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
• Emily Lord, Countess of Durham
• 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.
• 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.
• Christopher Benjamin Mortimer, Duke of Stony Lane