EDMUND DE MORTIMER (1391-1425), 5th earl of March and Ulster, son of the 4th earl, succeeded to his father's claim to the crown as well as to his title and estates. When Richard II. was de posed and the crown seized by Henry of Lancaster in 1399, the young earl of March and his brother Roger were kept in custody by Henry IV., who, however, treated them honourably, until March 5405, when they were carried off by the opponents of the Lancastrian dynasty, of whom their uncle Sir Edmund Mortimer and his brother-in-law Henry Percy (Hotspur) were leaders in league with Owen Glendower. The boys were recap tured, and in 5409 were committed to the care of the prince of Wales. On the accession of the latter as Henry V., in 1413, the earl of March was restored to his estates, his brother Roger having died some years previously; and he continued to enjoy the favour of the king in spite of a conspiracy in 1415 to place him on the throne. March accompanied Henry V. throughout his wars in France, and on the king's death in 1422 became a member of the council of regency. He died in Ireland in 1425, and as ha left no issue the earldom of March in the house of Mortimer became extinct, the estates passing to the last earl's nephew Richard, who in 1435 was officially styled duke of York, earl of March and Ulster, and baron of Wigmore. Richard's son Edward having ascended the throne in 1461 as Edward IV., the earldom of March became merged in the crown.
See T. Rymer, Foedera, etc. ; T. F. Tout, The Political History of England, vol. iii., ed. by W. Hunt and R. L. Poole (19o5) ; W. Dugdale, Monasticon anglicanum (3 vols., 1655-73) ; W. Stubbs, Constitutional History of England (5874-78), vol. ii.
patrick, was made earl of Northumberland by William the Con queror; but being soon afterwards deprived of this position he fled to Scotland, where Malcolm Canmore, king of Scotland, granted him Dunbar and adjoining lands. Two generations of Cospatricks followed in lineal succession, bearing the title of earl, but without territorial designation. Cospatrick II. witnessed the charter of Alexander I. founding the abbey of Scone in II15. The 3rd earl, also named Cospatrick, a liberal benefactor of Mel rose abbey, died in 1166, leaving two sons, the younger of whom was the ancestor of the earls of Home. The elder son, Waltheof, was the first of the family to be styled "comes de Dunbar," about 1174. He was one of the hostages for the performance of the Treaty of Falaise for the liberation of William the Lion in 1175. Waltheof's son Patrick Dunbar (the name Dunbar, derived from the family estates, now becoming an hereditary surname), styled 5th earl of Dunbar, although his father had been the first to adopt the territorial designation, was keeper of Berwick castle, and married Ada, natural daughter of William the Lion. His grandson Patrick, 7th earl, headed the party that liberated King Alexander III. in 1255 from the Comyns, and in the same year was nominated guardian of the king and queen by the Treaty of Roxburgh. He signed the Treaty of Perth (July 6, 1266) by which Magnus VI. of Norway ceded the Isle of Man and the Hebrides to Scotland. His wife was Christian, daughter of Robert Bruce.