Ranulph de Mortimer

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Ranulph de Mortimer (Ralf de Mortemer-en-Bray, Ralph) was Lord of Wigmore, Herefordshire, England and Seigneur of St. Victor-en-Caux in Normandy. He was the founder of the English House of Mortimer of Wigmore in the Welsh Marches, in what is today the county of Herefordshire.

Contents

[edit] Marcher lord and rebel

Ranulph was a Marcher Lord and was granted his lands in the Welsh Marches by William the Conqueror. He had holdings in Herefordshire and Shropshire[1]. Most notably, he acquired Wigmore Castle after William Fitz Osbern's son Roger de Breteuil joined the Revolt of the Earls of 1075. Before 1086 he had been granted Wigmore[2].

Like many of the Marcher Lords, Ranulph took part in the Rebellion of 1088 against William Rufus. In 1089 he took money from William Rufus for support against Robert Curthose[3]. He had presumably submitted to the king when the 1088 revolt failed, for he did not lose his lands. In 1090 he was backing William with his castles in Normandy[4]. A few years later, wavering, he did give support to Robert[5].

In the 1090s he was instrumental in conquering the Welsh district of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren and founding the castles of Dinieithon (near present Llandrindod Wells, not lasting out the twelfth century[6], and Cymaron (1093, between Llanbister and Llangunllo)[7] in Maelienydd (old Radnorshire, now in Powys).

He rebelled against the Crown twice again under Henry I of England, trying to replace him by his son-in-law Stephen; in 1118 he lost his English lands and moved back to France. The English and Welsh lands were turned over to Henry's loyal lieutenant, Pain Fitz John. On Pain's death in 1137 Wigmore Castle was reclaimed by Ranulph's son, Hugh de Mortimer.

[edit] Background and family

Ranulph de Mortimer was born in Normandy before 1070 and died soon after 4 August 1137. He was the son of the Norman lord Roger de Mortimer ("Roger filii Episcopi Mortimer"); his mother was Advisa. His father had originally possessed the castle of Mortemer in Normandy, but had lost it after angering William the Conqueror after the Battle of Mortemer, in 1054. Roger was an uncle of William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, and a descendent of a sister of Gunnor, the wife of Richard I of Normandy.

He married Millicent, whose parentage is currently unknown, and their daughter Hawise de Mortimer (died after 1127) married Stephen, Earl of Albemarle before 1100[8].

Ranulph's son Hugh de Mortimer rebuilt Cymaron Castle in 1144. Wigmore Castle remained the Mortimer dynasty's family home.

[edit] Sources

  • Remfry, P.M., Wigmore Castle, 1066 to 1181 (ISBN 1-899376-14-3)
  • Davies, Norman The Isles: A History, p. 281
  • Tout, T.F. "Ralph (I) de Mortimer". Dictionary of National Biography 39. 130-131. 
  • Weis, Frederick Lewis Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonist Who Came To America Before 1700 (8th ed.), line 136-24

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The National Library of Wales :: Dictionary of Welsh Biography
  2. ^ Wigmore Castle
  3. ^ C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (2001), p. 69.
  4. ^ Frank Barlow, William Rufus (1983), pp. 273-4.
  5. ^ Barlow, p. 324.
  6. ^ British Archaeology, no 34, May 1998: Features
  7. ^ http://www.castles99.ukprint.com/Essays/cymaron.html, http://homepage.mac.com/philipdavis/Welshsites/845.html
  8. ^ Barlow, note p. 278.
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