♂William la Zouche Mortimer

William la Zouche Mortimer (died 28 February 1336/7) was an English knight and baron, a younger son of the Mortimers of Richard’s Castle in Herefordshire who took his mother’s family name of la Zouche, sat in Parliament as Lord Zouche and, as a widower, carried off a granddaughter of Edward I to make her his second wife. He was the eighteenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Joyce la Zouche.

Early life and inheritance

William was a younger son of Robert de Mortimer, Baron of Richard’s Castle, and of Joyce, the daughter and heiress of William la Zouche. He was born after 1274, since his elder brother Hugh came of age in 1295, and he apparently fought at the Battle of Falkirk^W in 1298. In 1304 his kinsman Alan la Zouche, Lord Zouche, settled on him the reversion of Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire, Swavesey and Fulbourn in Cambridgeshire, and Treve and Nutbourn in Sussex. When Alan died without sons in 1314, William entered into those estates, and with his mother’s lands and Alan’s in hand he took the name of la Zouche. In 1313 he was pardoned for his part in the death of Piers Gaveston^W, the favorite of Edward II.

Alice de Tony and Lord Zouche

By a license dated 26 October 1316 William married Alice de Tony, the widow of Guy de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, and the heiress of her brother Robert, Lord Tony. Through her he held Walthamstow in Essex, Cherhill in Wiltshire and Elmley Lovett in Worcestershire. They had three sons, Alan, Robert and, it seems, Philip, and one daughter, Joyce. Alice died shortly before 8 January 1324/5.

He was called out against the Scots from 1315 to 1335, to Gascony in 1324–25 and to Ireland in 1332, and he was summoned to Parliament^W from 26 December 1323 to 14 January 1336/7, by writs that named him la Zouche, la Zouche of Richard’s Castle and la Zouche of Mortimer by turns. Over these years he was Justice of the Forest south of Trent, joint Keeper of Caerphilly Castle, Chamberlain of Cardiff and, by 1328, Constable of the Tower of London.

Eleanor de Clare

William backed Queen Isabella^W against her husband. He was at the council at Bristol in October 1326 that chose Prince Edward as Keeper of the Realm, and in November he was sent into Wales with the Earl of Lancaster to pursue and capture Edward II. The king’s favorite, Hugh Despenser the Younger^W, was executed at Hereford on 24 November 1326.

Despenser’s widow, Eleanor de Clare^W, was a daughter of Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester and Hertford, by Joan of Acre, the daughter of Edward I. Her lands were restored to her in April 1328. Shortly before 26 January 1328/9 William abducted her from Hanley Castle in Worcestershire, and married her without the king’s license. Orders for their arrest went out on 5 February in the king’s name from Roger Mortimer^W.

Eleanor was held in the Tower of London and then at Devizes Castle, and in December 1329 she was made to give up Glamorgan, Morgannwg, Tewkesbury and Hanley until the couple paid an impossible fine of £50,000. They were pardoned on 22 February 1329/30, and in January 1330/1 she won her lands back for a fine of £5,000, which was never paid in full. They had two sons, William, who became a clerk, and, it is said, Hugh.

Death

In 1332 William had a protection to go overseas with the Princess Eleanor for her marriage to Renaud, Count of Guelders. He died on 28 February 1336/7 and was buried in Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. Eleanor died four months later, on 30 June 1337, and his son Alan succeeded him.

The family

Alice and William’s eldest son, Alan, born in 1317, became the second Lord Zouche, though he was never summoned to Parliament. He served in Flanders in 1340, in Scotland in 1341 and in France in 1342, fought as a banneret^W in the king’s division at the Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346, and died on 12 November that year. Their son Robert, aged fifty in 1368, became the heir that year of Alan’s son Hugh, who had died without children, and he too died childless, before 1398. Their daughter Joyce married John Botetourt, 2nd Lord Botetourt, before 31 May 1347.

Lines of descent

The line to Nancy Jane Blanchard runs through William’s daughter Joyce la Zouche and her daughter Joyce Botetourt, whose great-granddaughter Joan Mitton is the mother of John Washburn (died 1547). John is probably the John Washburn of Bengeworth whom the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, identifies, and from him the line passes down through several generations of Washburns and their descendants to Nancy Jane Blanchard.

Notes

Sources

William’s parentage, his birth after 1274, his marriages and children, his offices, his part in the events of 1313 to 1332, and his death and burial are given by Douglas Richardson in Magna Carta Ancestry (2005), in the Beauchamp and Despenser chapters, which cite the patent and close rolls, the Complete Peerage and the seals of 1316, 1328 and 1336 that William used. The first edition of the Complete Peerage (vol. 8, 1898) gives his change of name, his writs of summons under three styles, his office at the Tower in 1328, Alan’s age of nineteen at his father’s death, and Robert’s age of fifty in 1368. Richardson calls William’s service at Falkirk “apparently”, Philip “evidently” a son, and Hugh “allegedly” a son of Eleanor de Clare.

His death date

Richardson gives 28 February 1336/7, the date used here. The first edition of the Complete Peerage gives 1 March 1335/6, but it also lists a writ of summons to him dated 14 January 1336/7, which fits the later year.

His first marriage

The Complete Peerage places the marriage to Alice “after Aug. 1315” and her death in 1324; Richardson gives the license of 26 October 1316 and her death shortly before 8 January 1324/5.

The descent through John Washburn

That the John whom the pedigrees give as a son of Joyce Botetourt’s great-granddaughter Joan Mitton was John Washburn of Bengeworth, who died in 1547, is the identification of the Washbournes’ historian, James Davenport, not a record’s, so the descent through him is given here as probable.