Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March

Thomas Holland's mother, Joan of Kent, a granddaughter of Edward I, was the mother of Richard II by her second marriage; Alice Fitzalan was the daughter of Richard FitzAlan, 3rd Earl of Arundel, and his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, grandson of King Henry III.

Henry IV accused Sir Edmund of deserting to Glyndŵr, refused to ransom him, and confiscated his property.

[10] This agreement was apparently connected to a plot to free Edmund and his brother Roger from King Henry's custody and carry them into Wales.

[11] As a result of the failed abduction, on 1 February 1406, Edmund and Roger were put under stricter supervision at Pevensey Castle under Sir John Pelham (d.1429), where they remained until 1409.

[15] On 17 January 1415[18] Edmund obtained a papal dispensation to marry 'a fit woman' related to him in the third degree of kindred or affinity.

[15] While preparations for the invasion were underway, some discontented nobles launched the Southampton Plot, to take Mortimer to Wales and proclaim him king.

[15] He took part in several campaigns in Normandy, including the Siege of Harfleur, where he contracted dysentery, and was forced to return to England.

On 15 August 1416 he was appointed a captain of the expedition sent to relieve Harfleur under John, Duke of Bedford, and Sir Walter Hungerford, and was with the army which conquered Normandy in 1417 and 1418.

He returned to France with Henry V in June 1421, and was at the Siege of Meaux, where the King fell mortally ill, dying on 31 August 1422.

[6] On 9 May 1423[23] he was appointed the King's lieutenant in Ireland for nine years, but at first exercised his authority through a deputy, Edward Dantsey, Bishop of Meath, and remained in England.

[19] The Wigmore chronicle describes Edmund Mortimer as "severe in his morals, composed in his acts, circumspect in his talk, and wise and cautious during the days of his adversity".

In the play, Shakespeare accurately identifies the former as Hotspur's brother-in-law, but simultaneously conflates him with his nephew by referring to him as "Earl of March".

The Southampton Plot is dramatized in Shakespeare's play Henry V. However, its intent is misstated, and Mortimer's role in exposing it and condemning the plotters is completely omitted.

In reality, Richard was thirteen years old when his uncle died, and at the time was being raised in the north of England as a ward of the crown by Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland.