edwardslovelyelizabeth: Maud de Braose, Baroness Mortimer (1224 – shortly before 23 March 1301
edwardslovelyelizabeth:Maud de Braose, Baroness Mortimer (1224 – shortly before 23 March 1301)Maud was born in Wales in 1224, the second eldest daughter and co-heiress of Marcher lord William de Braose and Eva Marshal.Maud had three sisters, Isabella, wife of Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn; Eva, wife of William de Cantilupe; and Eleanor, wife of Humphrey de Bohun. Being a member of the powerful de Braose family which held many lordships and domains in the Welsh Marches Maud was a wealthy noble heiress.In 1247 Maud married Roger Mortimer of Wigmore, the eldest son of Ralph de Mortimer and his Welsh wife, Princess Gwladys Ddu, member of another important Marcher family. Maud was seven years his senior, and they had been betrothed since childhood. He was the grandson of Llewelyn, Prince of Wales, the man who had ordered the execution of Maud’s father when she was 6 years old. Roger and Maud had been married for 35 years (until Roger’s death) and had at least 6 children together.Maud was described as beautiful and nimble-witted. She, like all medieval women, was expected to govern her husband’s estates, manage his business affairs, arbitrate in tenants’ disputes, and defend the family property during the times he was absent. These tasks Maud performed with great skill and efficiency.It was Maud during the Second Baron’s War who devised a plan for the escape of Prince Edward (future Edward I) after he had been taken hostage by Simon de Montfort. On 28 May 1265, when the Prince was held in custody at Hereford Castle, Maud sent a party of horsemen to carry him away to Wigmore Castle while he was out in the open fields, some distance from the castle, taking exercise by racing horses with his unsuspecting guardians as she had instructed him to do in the messages she had smuggled to him previously. At a signal from one of the horsemen, Edward galloped off to join the party of his liberators, and they escorted him to Wigmore Castle, twenty miles away, where Maud was waiting. She supplied the Prince with food and drink before sending him on to Ludlow Castle.At the Battle of Evesham on 4 August 1265, Maud’s husband Roger fought on the side of Prince Edward, and personally killed Simon de Montfort. As a reward, Roger was given de Montfort’s severed head and other parts of his anatomy, including his genitals. Roger sent these gruesome trophies home to Wigmore Castle as a gift to Maud. Maud evidently being proud of her husband’s success held a great feast that very night and de Montfort’s head was elevated in the Great Hall, still attached to the point of the lance.Maud died on an unknown date shortly before 23 March 1301, and she was buried in Wigmore Abbey. Maud was grandmother of Roger Mortimber, 1st Earl of March, de facto ruler of England from 1327 to 1330. All the monarchs of England from 1413, as well as Mary, Queen of Scots, were directly descended from Maud, as is the current British Royal Family. Queen consorts Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr were also notable descendants of Maud de Braose through the latter’s daughter Isabella, Countess of Arundel. Queen consorts Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr also descended from Maud’s son, Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer. (x) -- source link
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