Anne de Mortimer

Anne de Mortimer
Countess of Cambridge
Coat of arms of the Countess of Cambridge.
Born	(1390-12-27)27 December 1390 New Forest, Westmeath, Ireland
Died	c. 22 September 1411(1411-09-22) (aged 20)
Burial	Kings Langley, Hertfordshire
Spouse	Richard, 3rd Earl of Cambridge (m. 1408; her death 1411)
Issue	Isabel of Cambridge, Countess of Essex Henry of York Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
Father	Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March
Mother	Eleanor Holland

Anne de Mortimer, Countess of Cambridge (27 December 1390 – c. 22 September 1411), was the mother of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, and the grandmother of King Edward IV and King Richard III.

Anne Mortimer was born at New Forest, Westmeath, one of her family's Irish estates, on 27 December 1390, the eldest of the four children of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Lady Eleanor Holland. She had two brothers, Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, and Roger (born 23 April 1393, died c.1413), and a sister Eleanor, who married Sir Edward de Courtenay (d. 5 December 1419), but had no issue.

Anne Mortimer's mother was the daughter of Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, and Lady Alice FitzAlan, the daughter of Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel, and his second wife, Eleanor, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, grandson of King Henry III. Thomas Holland was the grandson and senior heir to Joan of Kent.

Anne Mortimer was not only a descendant of Edward I and earlier English monarchs through her mother, but more importantly, a descendant of King Edward III through her grandparents, Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March, and Philippa of Clarence, daughter of King Edward III's second surviving son, Lionel of Antwerp.King Richard II, the grandson of Edward III through his eldest son, had no issue, thus Anne's father, Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, was considered Richard's heir presumptive during his lifetime, and at his death in Ireland on 20 July 1398, his claim to the crown passed to his eldest son, Edmund.