Thomas Mortimer  Sir Thomas Mortimer (c. 1350–1399) was a medieval English soldier and statesman who served briefly in several important administrative and judicial state offices in Ireland and played a part in the opposition to the government of King Richard II. He was an illegitimate member of the Mortimer family, who were one of the leading noble houses in England and Ireland, and he helped to manage the Mortimer lands during the minority of the family heir, his nephew Roger, earl of March. Sir Thomas was also a close associate of the Lords Appellant who opposed the administration of King Richard II. Sir Thomas took part in the Lords Appellants' rebellion in 1387 against the king, and fought at the Battle of Radcot Bridge, during which he killed Sir Thomas Molineux, one of the royal commanders. 10 years later, when the king took his revenge against the rebels, this act led to his conviction for treason. He fled for his life and died in exile. Thomas was an illegitimate son of Roger Mortimer, 2nd Earl of March (1328–1360). He was described as an esquire in 1367, pointing to a birth date of around 1350. He seems to have been treated by his father and his brother very much as one of the family. Nothing is known of his mother. By 1380 he had acquired considerable military expertise, and had been knighted. When his legitimate brother Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1379, Thomas went with him to Ireland and acted as his Deputy, holding in his name a Great Council at Clonmel. Edmund was charged with the task of subduing the Gaelic clans in Ulster and Munster, but he had only limited success in this task. Edmund's sudden death in December 1381 left the Dublin Government in a quandary, since there were very few men willing or qualified to assume the office of Lord Lieutenant, at a time of exceptional political turbulence in Ireland. Richard Wyre, Bishop of Cloyne, proposed that Thomas Mortimer should be appointed Lord Lieutenant, both for his military experience and his ability to retain the loyalty of his brother's retinue. In the event King Richard II appointed Thomas's nephew, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, a child of seven, as Lord Lieutenant. The absurdity of this choice was lessened to some extent by the appointment of Thomas as Lord Deputy and Lord Chief Justice. On the appointment of Sir Philip Courtenay as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in February 1383, Thomas returned to England.