Joan de Geneville, died on 19th October 1356, at the age of 70/ 71.
All charges against Roger had been reversed by King Edward III so she died as Dowager Countess of March. Her 28 yr old grandson Roger was by this time the 2nd Earl of March.
Joan was buried at Wigmore Abbey with a good number of other Mortimers.
Only 4 of the Mortimer children outlived Joan: three daughters; Beatrice, Agnes, Katherine, and the son Geoffrey who had inherited the French lands.
Some interesting connections from this marriage.
It was Edmund Mortimer, Joan and Roger’s great grandson and the 3rd Earl, who made the most important marriage for the future Mortimers. He wed Philippa of Clarence, granddaughter of King Edward III. This gave the Mortimers one of their claims to the English throne, since Philippa was the daughter and only child of King Edward’s second son Lionel, Duke of Clarence.
In the 14th century, with the death of her brother without children, Anne Mortimer was the sole heir and so inherited the Mortimer estates.
Anne Mortimer was married to Richard, Earl of Cambridge, younger son of the Duke of York. The much more famous son of Anne and Cambridge was Richard Duke of York who claimed the English throne through the royal line of both his father and mother. Thus a major player in the Wars of the Roses. His sons Edward, Earl of March, and Richard, Duke of Gloucester, ultimately becoming the Yorkist Kings of England as Edward IV and Richard III. Both had Mortimer blood.
Through Edward IV’s daughter, Elizabeth of York, who became Queen of England and wife of Henry Tudor, the Mortimers also had a solid connection with the future Tudor monarchs.
Another fascinating connection came through Joan and Roger’s daughter Katherine Mortimer who wed into the de Beauchamp family, Earls of Warwick.
Through this line Joan and Roger’s great great granddaughter was Anne Beauchamp, the Warwick heiress, who married Richard Neville, who took the title Earl of Warwick in the name of his wife. This was the King Maker of course. Their daughter Anne Neville became Queen of England as wife of King Richard III.
There are no remaining tombs of any of the Mortimers at Wigmore Abbey although we know the names of many who were buried there including Joan and Roger’s parents. The whole of the Abbey was destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII, including any evidence of the tombs. The Abbey which is habitable today is the Abbot’s guesthouse. The rest is gone.
Was Roger Mortimer, Ist Earl of March, buried at Wigmore Abbey? The jury is still out on this one.
Edward III forbade it at first. – in case it became a centre for rebellion by any loyal to the Mortimers. Tradition suggests that he may have been buried in Coventry or in Shrewsbury. The tomb of course no longer exists after the Reformation destructions.
I like to think that King Edward III looked on Joan with some compassion in her fight for recognition of her inheritance and that of her family. When her Mortimer children were allowed once again to inherit, I think the King might have permitted Joan to bring Roger’s body back to Wigmore Abbey.
There is no true evidence one way or the other. But it is possible.
Such rumours are of course always an interesting proposition for a writer of historical fiction. Visits to Ludlow and Wigmore Castles always encourage me to have ideas on what might have happened.
