Welsh Journals

ACCOUNT OF THE KEEPER OF RADNOR CASTLE 9-10 Edward III. By E. J. L. COLE, F.S.A. (Unpublished Crown-copyright material in the Public Record Office has been reproduced by permission of the Controller of HM. Stationery Office.) Edmund Mortimer, 7th lord of Wigmore (d. 1304) married Margaret, daughter of William de Fienes, a kinswoman of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I. Edmund was succeeded by their ambitious son Roger, Earl of March (cr. 1328), rebel, intriguer, paramour of Isabella the widow of Edward II. He was attainted of treason and executed at Tyburn in 1330. His eldest son Edmund, lord of Wigmore, died in 1331/2, leaving an infant son Roger (c. 1327-1360) a ward of the Crown. Roger's great-grandmother was still alive at the time of the younger Edmund's death. She held for life the manors of Knighton, Presteigne, Pembridge, the lands of Gwrthrynion and Kerry, and the castle of Radnor, all held of the inheritance of the infant Roger. Margaret died on 7th February 1333/4. On 27th February these dower lands were committed to the king's yeoman Hugh Tirel (Tyrel, Tyrrel), in whose care they remained for the next seven years. Hugh was accountable to the King's Chamber for the issues of these lands, and it so happens that half a dozen of his accounts have survived and are now in the Public Record Office. The one now under consideration is classed among Ministers' Accounts' as SC.6/1209/6. 9-10 Edward III. Radnor, Gwrthrynion, Kerry, Knighton, Presteigne, Norton, Pem- bridge The first membrane is headed Tertius Compotus', and sixteen lines of preamble set out the terms under which Hugh Tirel was appointed Keeper. Although Ministers' Accounts are not laid out in easy balance-sheet' form, yet it is possible from the figures available here-and they are all legible-to draw up a statement, thus: