Did Richard II of England officially name Roger Mortimer or Edmund Mortimer as his heir?

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The answer is no. Richard II simply revoked the letters patent that had been issued by Edward III in 1376. This had the effect of restoring Mortimer's position in the line of succession.


The letters patent issued by Edward III in 1376 is described in Edward III's Entail and the Succession to the Crown by Michael Bennett, published in The English Historical Review, (Vol. 113, No. 452 (June 1998), pp 580-609). The letters patent restricted the succession to male heirs. This had the effect of placing his third surviving son, John of Gaunt, ahead of the descendants of his second surviving son, Clarence, because the Mortimer line of descent passed through a daughter, Philippa of Clarence.


In Richard II and the Succession to the Crown, Ian Mortimer reports that contemporary records state that Richard II revoked Edward III's letter patent of 1376, and so restored the line of Roger Mortimer as his successors, in the Parliament of 1386.

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