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Birth:          ABT 1248 of Wigmore, Herefordshire, England
Death:          BEF 1 Apr 1292 

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Mortimer,_lady_of_Clun_and_Oswestry
Isabella Mortimer, Lady of Clun and Oswestry (born after 1247; died before 1 April 
1292[1]) was a noblewoman and a member of an important and powerful Welsh 
Marcher family. Although often overshadowed in modern historiography by her better-
known parents, she is now known to have played an important part in her family's 
struggles against Llywelyn ap Gruffudd and to have helped to secure the frontline at 
Shropshire in the run-up to English conquest of Wales. She was the wife and widow of 
John III FitzAlan, baron of Clun and Oswestry and de jure earl of Arundel. After a 
lengthy widowhood, she married for a second time and largely disappeared from the 
records.
Family[edit]

Isabella was born some time after 1247, possibly at Wigmore Castle, Herefordshire, the 
daughter of Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer and Maud de Braose. Her father was 
a celebrated soldier and Marcher baron; and her mother was a staunch royalist during 
the Second Barons' War who devised the plan for the escape of Prince Edward, the 
future King Edward I of England, from the custody of Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of 
Leicester. She had one sister and five brothers, including Ralph, would-be heir to the 
family estates, who predeceased his parents, and Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron 
Mortimer.

Marriages and issue[edit]

Before 14 May 1260, Isabella married her first husband, John III FitzAlan, the son and 
heir of John II FitzAlan, baron of Clun and Oswestry and de jure earl of Arundel, and 
Maud de Verdun. In due course John the younger would succeed to the baronies of 
Clun and Oswestry, but as long as the dowager countess of Arundel remained alive 
the FitzAlans did not possess the complete earldom or its title. Consequently, Isabella 
Mortimer never held the title of countess of Arundel, which remained until 1282 with 
Isabella de Warenne, the childless widow of Hugh d'Aubigny (d.1243).

Together Isabella Mortimer and John III FitzAlan had at least two children:[2]
Richard Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel (3 February 1267- 9 March 1302), married Alice of 
Saluzzo, by whom he had issue.
Maud Fitzalan (died after October 1298), married Sir Philip Burnell of Condover, 
Holgate, Acton Burnell, and Little Rissington, by whom she had issue.

Isabella's husband died, aged around 25, in the spring of 1272, leaving underage 
children. The couple's son Richard FitzAlan was a boy of about five at the time of his 
father's death and was committed to the wardship of his maternal grandfather, Roger 
Mortimer of Wigmore.[3] Serious errors in our nineteenth-century sources have led to 
the enduring misconception that Isabella Mortimer married Ralph d' Ardern soon after 
the death of John FitzAlan and had three husbands in all. In fact, she remained a 
widow for over twelve years and was a prominent and active contributor to Marcher 
society during that time.[4]

On 2 September 1285, in a private ceremony at Poling, Sussex, she married, as his 
second wife, Robert de Hastang. She was initially heavily penalized for having married 
without royal licence, before it was discovered that her late father had purchased her 
marriage rights many years earlier from King Henry III, and that she and her new 
husband had absolved themselves of any wrongdoing under the terms of this 
agreement, by paying a fine to the executors of father's will.[5] She does not appear 
to have had any children from her second marriage.

Widowhood and the Welsh Frontier[edit]

It was during her protracted widowhood that Isabella Mortimer's contributions to 
Marcher society and Anglo-Welsh relations became clear. With dower and other rights, 
including royal appointments, in several border strongholds, she developed something 
of a working partnership alongside her father. Together they were responsible for the 
security of much of the frontier from the lower edge of Cheshire to southern 
Herefordshire.[3] Among other things, Isabella was charged with victualing Oswestry 
Castle for the incoming garrison at the start of the Anglo-Welsh war of 1282 and, 
several years earlier, with overseeing much needed repairs to the same castle.[4]

In late 1282, as a second war with Llywelyn ap Gruffudd got under way, Isabella was 
replaced by her younger brother Edmund in most of her custodial interests, including 
the frontier fortresses.[3] Although their father was as yet still alive, Edmund was now 
emerging as the new head of the Mortimer family of Wigmore and the natural leader of 
the family's war effort.

Isabella died before 1 April 1292, on which date her husband was released by the 
Crown from paying outstanding sums relating to her own economic activities.[1]

Parents
DE MORTIMER Roger (1231 - 30 Oct 1282)
DE BRAOSE Maud (1224 - BEF 23 Mar 1301)

Siblings
DE MORTIMER Isabella (ABT 1248 - BEF 1 Apr 1292)
DE MORTIMER Margaret (ABT 1250 - ABT 1296)
DE MORTIMER Edmund (1251 - 17 Jul 1304)
DE MORTIMER Isolde (Iseude) (Iswolde) (ABT 1260 - AFT 1335)

Marriage To FITZ ALAN (ARUNDEL) John (14 Sep 1246 - 18 Mar 1272)
    m.  

Notes

Parents
FITZ ALAN John (May 1223 - ABT Nov 1267)
DE VERDUN Maud (Matilda) (ABT 1225 - 27 Nov 1283)

Children by FITZ ALAN (ARUNDEL) John 14 Sep 1246 - 18 Mar 1272
FITZ ALAN Maud (ABT 1264 - AFT Oct 1298)
FITZ ALAN Richard (3 Feb 1267 - 9 Mar 1302)

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