MARCH, ROGER MORTIMER, 2ND EARL OF

born Nov. 11, 1328, Ludlow, Shropshire, Eng. died Feb. 26, 1360, Rouvray, near Avallon, Burgundy [now in France] a leading supporter of Edward III of England. The eclipse of the Mortimer family's power following the death of the 1st Earl of March proved no more than temporary. Edward III's friendship with March's grandson Roger, 2nd Earl of March, enabled the latter in 1354 to recover his ancient patrimony. Royal support also lay behind a series of arbitrary decisions, thinly veiled as legal judgments, which restored to the young earl in addition many of the lands acquired by the 1st earl during his years of power, notably the lordship of Denbigh: the claims of the Earl of Salisbury were ignored, and the Earl of Arundel was pacified with the lordship of Chirk. By then, Roger had already served with the king at the Battle of Crcy (1346) and became one of the founder knights of the Garter. Later he accompanied Edward to Picardy in 1355 and, as constable, rode in the van of the great host that went to France in 1359.