by Ian Mortimer
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The famine worsened. One clerk wrote of the conditions in 1316 in the following words:
After Easter the dearth of corn increased. Such scarcity has not been seen in our time in England, nor heard of for a hundred years … a great famine appeared, and after the famine came a severe pestilence, of which many thousands died in various places. I have even heard it said by some that in Northumbria dogs and horses and other unclean things were eaten … Alas poor England! You who once helped other lands from your abundance, now poor and needy are forced to beg. Fruitful land is turned into a saltmarsh; the inclemency of the weather destroys the fatness of the land; corn is sown and tares are brought forth … Spare, O Lord, thy people!7
As the country starved, tensions which had remained dormant for many years resurfaced. In Bristol, a long-running disagreement between the constable of the town, Bartholomew de Badlesmere, and the townsfolk once again erupted. The disagreement concerned the customs of Bristol. Fourteen merchants, including the mayor, claimed to have control of the customs of the town, on behalf of the constable, but this tradition was opposed by a growing number of merchants. The dispute was overseen by justices, men who were not from Bristol and who, it was suspected by the townsmen, were prejudiced in favour of the constable and the fourteen. In the words of the same chonicler who had bewailed the weather and the famine:
The leaders of the community, seeing that their objections were ignored, and that their rights were set aside by prejudice rather than reason, were much distressed as they left the hall where judgements are given, and spoke to the people, saying ‘Judges have come favourable to our opponents, and to our disadvantage admit strangers, from which our rights will be lost forever’. At these words the senseless crowd turned to rioting, and the whole populace trembled from fear of the disorder. Returning once more to the hall, they entered with a large following and there turned their right to wrong. For with fists and with sticks they began to attack those opposed to them, and nearly twenty men that day lost their lives for nothing. A very natural fear seized noble and commoner alike, so that many leaped out of top-storey windows into the street, and seriously injured their legs as they hit the ground.
About eighty men were indicted and were ordered to be taken to Gloucester. But the people of Bristol hid them. The culprits were ordered to be exiled for their non-appearance, but still the people of Bristol protected them. The king repeatedly summoned the people to present the wrongdoers, but they did not do so. They still had not done so by May 1316, more than two years after the original case had been heard.8
Events over the next two months demonstrate how closely the social life of the nobility and regional politics were meshed at this time. In 1316 Bartholomew de Badlesmere and Roger Mortimer were ordered to take action against the townsmen. At the same time, these two men were discussing an alliance between their families. The plan was that Roger’s son and heir, Edmund, who was turning out to be a clever boy, if not a fighting knight, should marry Badlesmere’s infant daughter, Elizabeth. Negotiations took place at Westminster in the spring and, in mid-May, Roger and his household, together with a number of important guests, made their way to Wigmore to celebrate the wedding. Badlesmere agreed to pay Roger the substantial sum of £2,000 for the marriage.9 At the same time Roger made a settlement of his estates, granting to his executors John de Hothum (recently elected Bishop of Ely) and Philip de Kyme (his steward) the castle and manor of Wigmore, the land of Maelienydd with the castles of Cefnllys and Dinbaud, the land of Cydewain with the castle of Dolforwyn, and the land of Deuddwr, together with the reversion or inheritance of the estates which his mother then held as part of her dower, including Radnor Castle. These the executors were empowered to pass to Edmund. Roger also made the young man the heir to his (Roger’s) mother’s Somerset and Buckinghamshire estates, including Bridgewater Castle. After the business was agreed, it was time for the wedding party to go to the Welsh Marches to hold the ceremony.
At the same time, Roger and many of his wedding guests prepared to attack Bristol.
It is typical of Roger’s character that he should combine in one journey his son’s marriage and a military offensive. To see these as complementary events, as he clearly did, it is necessary to appreciate that he was not a man who hated war but one who saw war as his honourable duty, his ‘profession’ and a matter of pride. Unlike the lords who had avoided Ireland through its difficult years, he had voluntarily gone to defend his estates, and had taken part in the fighting. Like the warrior king, Edward I, his vision of himself was as a leader in arms. War was totally compatible with the diplomatic event of a wedding ceremony. The marriage of his heir had as much to do with estates acquisition as producing a new generation. Testimony to this is the fact that the bride was only three years old at the time of the wedding.10 Marriage was also about military capacity, bringing within his influence a family whose wealth and power could be added to his own. He would henceforth be obliged to help and defend the de Badlesmere family, but he too would benefit from their help and strength. In this particular case, the advantages he would obtain from the marriage were not so much military as political, since Badlesmere had spent many years working his way into a position of great influence at court. In addition there was the £20,000. As early as 1308 Roger had had to acknowledge debts to the Bardi banking house of Florence (one of the principal banking houses of Europe), and had constantly borrowed from friends and family ever since. There was a sound reason why Badlesmere’s was a suitable family to which to link the Mortimers: Bartholomew was not known as Badlesmere the Rich for nothing.
Edmund Mortimer, then aged about fourteen, was married to Elizabeth de Badlesmere in the chapel of the manor house of Ernwood, in Kinlet, Shropshire, on 27 June 1316. At the door of the chapel the ‘couple’ received the manor of Ernwood itself, plus the manors of Cleobury Mortimer, Stratfield Mortimer, and the reversion of the manors of Arlegh in Staffordshire, then held by Hugh Audley, and Bisley in Gloucestershire, then held by Joan, the widow of Henry de Bohun (the knight killed at Bannockburn by Robert Bruce). Those witnessing the gift and present at the wedding included a number of close Mortimer allies. The full list of the witnesses includes, besides Roger himself, his uncle Lord Mortimer of Chirk, William de Montagu, William de la Zouche, lord of Ashby de la Zouche, Roger Damory, John de Charlton, Thomas Botetourt, Robert de Waterville, Thomas de Lovaigne, Thomas Roscelyn, Bartholomew de Burghersh (Badlesmere’s nephew), Giles de Mompesson, John de Coleville, another Robert de Waterville, Robert de Harley, John de Sapy, Robert de Sapy, Edmund Hakelut, Philip ap Howel, Master John Walwayn, Master Richard de Clare, Henry de Burghersh and John de Chelmsford.11 These were the close circle of Mortimer adherents. Interestingly their number included fanatical supporters as well as men who would betray him. Among them was one whose son would ultimately lead Roger to his death.
After the wedding the guests probably returned to Wigmore. This stay, from approximately the end of May to the end of August 1316 (with a couple of weeks away to besiege Bristol), was the longest period Roger would be at his ancestral seat for the rest of his life. At roughly this time the castle was almost totally rebuilt. No accounts survive, since the family archive was mostly destroyed in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century,12 but architectural historians have always ascribed the huge rebuilding programme to Roger’s lifetime, and recent archaeological work has confirmed this theory. Roger inherited a largely defensive thirteenth-century fortress in 1306, but he constructed a grander, more luxurious castle on the same site. This served as his caput – his principal permanent residence, head office, armoury and treasury – for the rest of his life. Thus, it is quite possible that Roger treated his guests to a preview of the building works he planned at Wigmore, before advancing with them to attack Bristol.
Badlesmere had not been able to attend the wedding of his daughter at Ernwood as his presence was required at court. He remained with the king throughout June 1316, and left to go to Bristol to pu
t down the revolt with the Earl of Pembroke and Lord Berkeley in early July. There they met with Roger and his army. The earl took the lead in demanding that the people of Bristol surrender the culprits. He spoke to the leaders in their hall:
The king on hearing your cause has found you guilty, and he warns and commands you to obey the law. Hand over the killers and the guilty, and you and your town shall remain in peace. I promise that if you do this, the king will not be hard but merciful towards you.
The reply from the Bristol townsmen was defiant:
We were not the authors of this wrong; we have not failed the king in anything. Certain men tried to take away our rights, and we, as was proper, tried to defend them. Therefore if the king will remit his penalties, if he will grant us life and limb, rents and property, we will obey him and do as he wishes; otherwise we shall continue as we have begun, and defend our liberties and privileges to the death.13
Having heard this, the Earl of Pembroke returned to the king to discuss his final judgement. It was, predictably, to effect a full siege of the town, if only as an example to other towns and cities that they should obey the law. Badlesmere was placed in charge of the attack, but as he himself was not a military leader, it is likely that Roger organised the setting up of the siege engines.14 These machines, six of which were kept at Wigmore, were capable of projecting heavy stone shot or burning matter for many hundreds of yards. In this case, the purpose was to force the town into submission, so while the townsfolk were incarcerated within their walls without supplies, the siege engines sent huge stones flying into their buildings at five-or ten-minute intervals, flattening houses and crushing property and defences. Such constant crashing and crumbling of buildings invoked terrible fear, which was harder to endure than the lack of food. The townsfolk of Bristol held to a hope that the attackers would give up and go away, as the Earl of Gloucester had done in an earlier assault on the town, but Roger, Badlesmere and the others dutifully carried through their mission. Fearing the whole town would be destroyed, the people of Bristol surrendered on 26 July.15
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Crushing the revolts of Llywelyn Bren and the Bristol merchants were marks of efficient leadership, but they were nothing compared with what was required in Ireland. That country had been driven into a state so appalling, so mutilated and starved under the weight of an occupying army that it was hardly recognisable as a part of Christendom. After Roger had left in December 1315, Edward Bruce had destroyed Kells and moved to Granard, taking what he could from the manor before burning it. This was to be his policy from now on: to take, plunder and destroy. He spent Christmas at Loughsewdy. His army killed any inhabitants who had not fled, took what they wanted and burnt the place behind them. Led by the de Lacy brothers, the Scots ransacked their way around the country, through Leinster to Tethmoy and then to Kildare.16 Here Bruce attacked the castle, but was repulsed by a vigilant garrison. Unable to sustain supplies for his army for any length of time owing to the destruction wrought by his own men and the inclement weather, he could not lay siege to the castle, and moved on to Castledermot. Near here, at Ardscull, on 26 January 1316, he met Edmund Butler, the Justiciar, and other lords, including John FitzThomas and Arnold le Poer, in battle. It was a close conflict, and the Scots losses were heavier than the English, but again it was the English who were put to flight, although their army had been quite large enough to defeat the Scots, according to John de Hothum.17 Once more the English lords had defeated themselves by their own internal divisions. Trim Castle still held out under Roger’s vassal Walter de Cusack, but only because, like Kildare, it was strong enough to resist assault, and there was insufficient food in the vicinity to sustain a besieging army for any length of time. In April, having ransacked and despoiled the south of the country, the Scots returned to the north. On 1 May at Dundalk, Edward Bruce was crowned King of Ireland. And with the exception of Dublin and a few English castles, it was a justified title. It was even more so after the death of Felim O’Connor in August, and the fall of Carrickfergus Castle in September.
That autumn, as the Scots were celebrating their almost total success in Ireland, the Mortimers were once again very much in favour in England. Roger had shown himself to be a thoroughly competent commander by the capture of Llywelyn and the siege of Bristol. At the beginning of October, Lord Mortimer of Chirk was once again restored to his position as Justiciar of Wales, although only for the north part at first, from which he had been removed by adherents of the Earl of Lancaster in January 1315. At the same time he cleverly manipulated the return of the constableship of two royal castles which had been confiscated from him under the Ordinances, claiming that they had been rewards for good service as opposed to demonstrations of unwarranted royal favour. Thus it is not surprising that, although summoned in August to fight the Scots in Scotland, in November Roger convinced Edward to let him return to fight the Scots in Ireland.18
For more than a year the Scots had stretched English resources by fighting a war on two fronts. Roger now persuaded Edward that, by releasing more money and men to continue the war in Ireland, the situation there could be turned to the English advantage. Accordingly Edward gave Roger command of a royal army.19 On 23 November Roger was officially appointed King’s Lieutenant of Ireland20 – Viceroy. It was the most important position a member of the family had held since his grandfather had been guardian of England during the absence of Edward I, forty-five years before. It was a position higher than that of Justiciar, the normal governor of the country. It was the same position that Edward had conferred upon Gaveston in the summer of 1308, when he had been trying to thwart the earls who had forced Gaveston into exile. Roger effectively embodied the government and the legal system of the country, or what there was left of it. Ten years of faithful service had finally reaped the reward of real power.
The next few months were occupied wholly with planning the invasion. Roger remained at court in the north until at least early December, receiving grants for his own benefit and to help him pay his expenses. He was given possession of all lands in Ireland conquered by the Scots. He was given power to remove officials and to receive and pardon felons as he saw fit. He was given authority to make covenants with those who had assisted the Scots, to remit debts due to the Exchequer, to sell or grant custodies of land, wardships of minors, marriages of unmarried lords’ heirs: in other words, anything of value which might be due to the king. Pardons for crimes committed were granted to any men travelling to Ireland in Roger’s company. Orders were given to the Bardi banking house to advance large sums of money to him. His kinsmen and vassals also benefited from his new-found favour. One in particular who later played a small but crucial role later in Roger’s life, Robert de Fiennes, was created Seneschal of Ponthieu.
For those men of status travelling to Ireland with Roger, grants of protection were given. From these we can see that his company included a number of his tried and trusted followers. Hugh de Turpington was in his company, one of many who had fought in Ireland with him in 1310–12 and 1315. Edmund Hakelut and William de la Zouche, who had attended the wedding of Edmund Mortimer, were also present. John Maltravers, who had been knighted with Roger in 1306, had fought with him at Bannockburn and would remain a friend to his dying day, was another. Others included Robert de Harley and Hugh de Croft, who had also both fought with Roger in Ireland in 1310–12, and Gilbert de Bohun, a distant cousin of Roger’s and a relative of the Earl of Hereford. William de Fiennes, another cousin of Roger’s on his mother’s side, also went. John Wogan was of the company, a former Justiciar of Ireland. Many more knights accompanied him, along with one hundred and fifty men-at-arms and five hundred footsoldiers. These numbers were swelled by the order on 4 January to all the lords of the realm who had lands in Ireland, except the Earl of Pembroke, to go in person ‘or send sufficient people according to the quantity of their lands to stay on them for defence’.21 All these men were to muster with their equipment and their horses at Haverford on 2 February 1317. Their writs
attested to the fact that they were under the orders of ‘the king’s cousin, Sir Roger Mortimer of Wigmore’.22
As things turned out, it took longer than expected to assemble the army. A fleet had to be organised, with ships from Bristol and Haverford and the ports in between. Payment had to be arranged through the king’s clerk for the men, for the supplies, and for the mariners ferrying the men across to Ireland. A new captain of the fleet had to be recruited. Sir John de Athy, fomerly a sheriff in Ireland, was appointed, and given orders that when Roger landed, he (de Athy) was to ‘remain at sea for the defence of Ireland and the king’s land of Scotland’. That inevitably meant a battle with the successful Scottish naval captain, Thomas Dun, who still lurked off the coast and patrolled the ports of Ireland. Negotiations began for a thousand Genoese soldiers in plate armour to be placed at Roger’s disposal.23 The schedule began to slip. On 28 January the fleet was still not ready, and the king had to issue a mandate ‘to hasten the navy ordained for the passage of the king’s cousin Sir Roger Mortimer of Wigmore to Ireland, so that it be ready at the day and place assigned and the voyage not be delayed’.24
