MORTIMER, Roger, 8th Baron of Wig more and 1st Earl of March, English noble: b. about 1287; d. Smithfield, 29 Nov. 1330. He had been convicted of treason in the reign of Edward II and pardoned; but notwithstanding the king's clemency took part in the rebellion of the Earl of Lancaster, and was made pris oner in 1322. Having escaped from the Tower, where he was confined, he went to France and at Paris in 1325 met Queen Isabella, who had been sent thither by Edward to negotiate a treaty. Fascinated by his pleasing address, the queen was soon known to be living in guilty intimacy with the exile, and, having secured the person of her young son, began to mature plans with Mortimer and the other leaders of the barons for getting possession of the kingdom. Mortimer went with her to England in 1326; the king was deposed and his son Edward III proclaimed in his stead, and for some years Isabella and her paramour governed the realm in the name of the young prince. Mortimer
is popularly regarded as responsible for the death of the dethroned monarch in his prison (1327). The failure of the Scottish expedition in 1327, and the "shameful peace" with Scot land in the following year, had wounded the pride of the English people. The nobles wearied of his arrogance and Edward resolved to take the sceptre into his own hands. While the queen and Mortimer were in Nottingham castle during the session of Parliament at that town, the king and Lord Montacute with at tendants entered by night through a subter ranean passage and carried off the earl. The king summoned a new Parliament to meet him at Westminster, and on 26 November Mortimer was condemned by this Parliament and ex ecuted three days later.