Joan de Geneville, 2nd Baroness Geneville

[5][6] She was due to inherit these upon the death of her grandfather, but in 1308, Baron Geneville conveyed most of the Irish estates which had belonged to his late wife Maud de Lacy to Joan and her husband Roger Mortimer.

The baron died on 21 October 1314 at the House of the Friars Preachers at Trim, and Joan subsequently succeeded him, becoming the suo jure 2nd Baroness Geneville.

[7] Marriage to Joan was highly beneficial to Mortimer as it brought him much influence and prestige in addition to the rich estates he gained through their matrimonial alliance.

[10] Two hundred and fifty-nine other young men received knighthoods along with Mortimer including the Prince of Wales who would shortly afterwards succeed his father as Edward II.

King Edward exploited his new popularity in the wake of his military victory at Leeds to recall to England the Despensers, whom the Lords Ordainers, led by Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, had forced him to banish in August 1321.

[15] The Marcher lords, already in a state of insurrection for some time prior to the Despensers' banishment,[n 1] immediately rose up against the King in full force, with Mortimer leading the confederation alongside Ordainer Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford.

[20] In April 1324 Joan was removed from Hampshire where she had been confined in a lodging under house arrest and sent to Skipton Castle in Yorkshire; there she was imprisoned in a cell and endured considerable suffering and hardship.

[25] From 1327 to 1330, Mortimer and Isabella jointly held the Office of Regent for her son, King Edward III who was duly crowned following his father's death.

This made Joan henceforth, the Countess of March; although it is not known what she thought about her husband's illegal assumption of power and flagrant affair with the Queen.

When Mortimer ordered the execution of Edmund, Earl of Kent, half-brother of the late King Edward, anger and outrage engulfed the country.

[27] Following her husband's execution, Joan – as the wife of a traitor – was imprisoned again, this time in Hampshire where years before she had been placed under house arrest; her children were also taken into custody.

In 1331, she was given an allowance for household expenses; however, her lands were only restored to her in 1336 after King Edward III granted her a full pardon for her late husband's crimes.

Lady Geneville's numerous direct descendants include the current British Royal Family, Sir Winston Churchill, and American Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, William Howard Taft, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Joan is a supporting character in Les Rois maudits (The Accursed Kings), a series of French historical novels by Maurice Druon.