Joan of Kent

• Preferred Name: Joan of Kent ^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]}
  
• Alternate Name: Holland
  
• Alternate Name: Woodstock
  
• Gender: F
  
• Birth: 29 SEP 1326 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England at LATI: N1.8472 LONG: E1.354
  
• Nickname:
  
• Burial: 1385 in Stamford, Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England at LATI: N2.6519 LONG: E0.4793
  
• Appointed: 1378 with note: Description: Lady Companion, Order of the Garter (L.G.)
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: with note: Description: Princess of Wales
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: 4th Countess of Kent
  
• Death: 7 AUG 1385 in Wallingford, Berkshire, England at LATI: N1.5914 LONG: E1.1472
  
• http://familysearch.org/v1/TitleOfNobility: Countess of KentABT 1335 in England with note: Wife of Thomas Holland, "1st Earl of Kent", "2nd Baron Holand", son of Richard III
  
• FSID: KDQ8-TWV
  
• Notes:

  === Life Sketch ===
  Joan, Countess of Kent (29 September 1326/7 – 7 August 1385), known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the mother of King Richard II of England, her son by her third husband, Edward the Black Prince, son and heir apparent of King Edward III. Although the French chronicler Jean Froissart called her "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving", the appellation "Fair Maid of Kent" does not appear to be contemporary. Joan inherited the titles 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell after the death of her brother John, 3rd Earl of Kent, in 1352.
  
  Joan was born on 29 September of either 1326[3] or 1327 and was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent (1301-1330), by his wife, Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Edmund was the sixth son of King Edward I of England by his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of King Philip III of France. Edmund was always a loyal supporter of his eldest half-brother, King Edward II, which placed him in conflict with that monarch's wife, Queen Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Edmund was executed in 1330 after Edward II was deposed; and Edmund's widow and four children (including Joan, who was only two-years-old, at the time) were placed under house arrest in Arundel Castle in Sussex, which had been granted to Edmund in 1326 by his half-brother the king following the execution of the rebel Edmund FitzAlan, 9th Earl of Arundel. It was a time of great strain for the widowed Countess of Kent and her four children. They received respite after the new king, Edward III (Joan's half-first cousin), reached adulthood and took charge of affairs. He took on the responsibility for the family and looked after them well.
  
  Early marriages
  
  In 1340, at the age of twelve, Joan secretly married 26-year-old Thomas Holland of Upholland, Lancashire, without first gaining the royal consent necessary for couples of their rank. Shortly after the wedding, Holland left for the continent as part of the English expedition into Flanders and France. The following winter (1340 or 1341), while Holland was overseas, Joan's family arranged for her to marry William Montagu, son and heir of William Montagu, 1st Earl of Salisbury. It is not known if the 13-year-old Joan confided to anyone about her first marriage before marrying Montagu, who was her own age. Later, Joan indicated that she had not announced her existing marriage with Thomas Holland because she was afraid it would lead to Holland's execution for treason. She may also have been influenced to believe that the earlier marriage was invalid. Montagu's father died in 1344 and he became the 2nd Earl of Salisbury.
  
  When Holland returned from the French campaigns in about 1348, his marriage to Joan was revealed. Holland confessed the secret marriage to the King, and appealed to the Pope for the return of his wife. Salisbury held Joan captive so that she could not testify until the Church ordered him to release her. In 1349, the proceedings ruled in Holland's favor. Pope Clement VI annulled Joan's marriage to Salisbury and Joan and Thomas Holland were ordered to be married in the Church.
  
  Over the next eleven years, Thomas Holland and Joan had five children:
  1. Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
  2. John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter
  3. Lady Joan Holland (1356–1384), who married John IV, Duke of Brittany (1339–1399).
  4. Lady Maud Holland (1359–1391), who married firstly Hugh Courtenay and secondly Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny (1355–1415).
  5. Edmund Holland (c. 1354), who died young. He was buried in the church of Austin Friars, London.
  
  When the last of Joan's siblings died in 1352, the lands and titles of her parents devolved upon her, and she became the 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell. Her husband Holland was created Earl of Kent in right of his wife in 1360.
  
  Marriage to the Black Prince
  Her first husband, Thomas Holland, died in 1360. Some may infer that evidence of a long-held desire by Edward, the Black Prince (son of her half-first cousin King Edward III) for Joan may be found in the record of his presenting her with a silver cup, part of the booty from one of his early military campaigns. Although one generation removed from her, he was probably only three years younger, as the exact date of Joan's birth is undocumented. It is suggested that Edward's parents did not favour a marriage between their son and their former ward, but this may be ameliorated by the fact that King Edward assisted his son in acquiring all four of the needed dispensations for Edward to marry Joan. Queen Philippa (wife of Edward III) had made a favourite of Joan in her childhood. Both she and the King may have been concerned about the legitimacy of any resulting children, but such concerns were remediated by a second ruling of Pope Clement's successor upholding the initial ruling on Joan's previous marriage(s). In addition, Edward and Joan were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. Further complicating matters was the fact that Edward was godfather to Joan's son by Thomas Holland.
  
  At the King's request, the Pope granted the dispensations (4) allowing the two to be legally married. Matters moved fast and Joan was officially married to the Prince barely nine months after Holland's death, the official ceremony occurring on 10 October 1361 at Windsor Castle, with the King and Queen in attendance. The Archbishop of Canterbury presided.
  
  In 1362 the Black Prince was invested as Prince of Aquitaine, a region of France that had belonged to the English Crown since the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry II of England. He and Joan moved to Bordeaux, the capital of the principality, where they spent the next nine years. Two sons were born during this period to the royal couple. The elder son Edward of Angoulême (27 January 1365 – 1370) died at the age of six. At about the time of the birth of their younger son, the future King Richard II, the Black Prince was lured into a battle on behalf of King Peter of Castile and achieved one of his greatest victories; however, King Peter was later killed and there was no money to pay the troops. In the meantime, the Princess was forced to raise another army as her husband's enemies were threatening Aquitaine in his absence.
  
  Transition to Dowager Princess of Wales
  By 1371 the Black Prince was no longer able to perform his duties as Prince of Aquitaine because of his poor health; and shortly after burying their elder son the couple returned to England, where the Black Death was wreaking havoc. In 1372 the Black Prince forced himself to attempt one final, abortive campaign in the hope of saving his father's French possessions; but the exertion left his health completely shattered. He returned to England and on 7 June 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, he died in his bed at the Palace of Westminster.
  
  Joan's son Prince Richard was next in line to succeed his grandfather. One year later, King Edward III died on 21 June 1377, and Richard acceded to the throne as Richard II; he was crowned the following month, at the age of 10. Early in his reign, the young King faced the challenge of the Peasants' Revolt. The Lollards, religious reformers led by John Wyclif, had enjoyed Joan's support, but the violent climax of the popular movement for reform reduced the feisty Joan to a state of terror, while leaving the King with an improved reputation.
  
  As the King's mother, Joan did exercise much influence behind the scenes, and was recognised as doing such during the early years of her son's reign. She also enjoyed a certain prestige and dignity among the people as an elderly, royal dowager. For example, in 1381 on her return to London (via her Wickhambreaux estate in Kent) from a pilgrimage to Thomas Becket's shrine at Canterbury Cathedral, she found her way barred by Wat Tyler and his mob of rebels on Blackheath; however, she was not only let through unharmed, but was saluted with kisses and provided with an escort for the rest of her journey.
  
  In January 1382, Richard II married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia.
  
  Death and burial
  
  John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, was Joan's son by her first marriage; his wife Elizabeth of Lancaster was a daughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster, brother of the Black Prince. In 1385 while campaigning with his half-brother King Richard II in the Kingdom of Scotland, John Holland became involved in a quarrel with Sir Ralph Stafford, son of the 2nd Earl of Stafford, a favourite of the queen, Anne of Bohemia. Stafford was killed and John Holland sought sanctuary at the shrine of St John of Beverley. On the King's return, Holland was condemned to death. Joan pleaded with her royal son for four days to spare his half-brother and on the fifth day (the exact date in August is not known), she died, at Wallingford Castle. King Richard then relented and pardoned Holland, who was sent on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
  
  Joan was buried beside her first husband, as requested in her will, at the Greyfriars in Stamford, Lincolnshire. The Black Prince had built a chantry chapel for her in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral in Kent (where he himself was buried), with ceiling bosses sculpted with likenesses of her face. Another boss in the north nave aisle is also said to show her face.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Kent
  
  Fair maiden of kent
  Princess Joan, suo jure 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell (29 September 1328 – 7 August 1385), known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the first post-conquest Princess of Wa
  
  will
  Last Will and Testament
  
  In the year of our Lord 1385, and of the reign of my dear son Richard, King of England and France, the 9th; at my Castle of Walyngford, in the Diocese of Salisbury, the 7th
  
  Joan of Kent, Countess of Kent - Notes from Document Sources
  Royal Ancestry by Douglas Richardson, Vol. 1 pg 88, 97; Vol. 3 pg 294/423-424
  [nicknamed Fair Maid of Kent], (aged 24 or 26 in 1353)
  
  About 21 Jan 1340/1, during Thomas' absence in Prussia, his wife,
  
  BIO
  BIO: from http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISH%20NOBILITY%20MEDIEVAL.htm#Joandied1385 as of 2/2/2016
  
  JOAN (29 Sep 1328-Wallingford Castle, Berkshire 8 Aug 1385, bur 29 Jan 1386 Greyfriars Church,

• m. 10 FEB 1349 in Donyatt, Chard, Somersetshire, England, UK
• m. ABT 1343

• m. 10 OCT 1361 in Windsor, Berkshire, England
• m. 10 OCT 1361 in Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK

• m. 1340 in Kent, England

1. Thomas Holland 2nd Earl of Kent, b. 1354 in Skelmersdale, Lancashire, England     d. 25 APR 1397 in Arundel Castle, Arundel, Sussex, England

1. Title: The Royal Ancestry Bible, Michel L. Call, Copyright 2006
   Page: Migrated from user-supplied source citation: urn:familysearch:source:2026280052
   
2. Title: Joan, 'Fair Maid of Kent' - English Monarch's
   Publication: Name: https://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_39.html;
   
3. Title: British Chancery Records, 1386-1558
   Publication: Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=7919&h=40731&indiv=try;
   
4. Title: American Genealogical-Biographical Index (AGBI)
   Publication: Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=3599&h=1085690&indiv=try;
   
5. Title: Family of Origin
   Author: Online
   Publication: Name: http://www.englishmonarchs.co.uk/plantagenet_39.html;
   Note: Joan Plantagenet, known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent was born on 29 September, 1328. She was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Joan's father was the second son of King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France. Joan's father, Edmund, Earl of Kent, supported the queen Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer, Earl of March against his half-brother, King Edward II, however, he later became disillusioned with the Queen and Mortimer. Being convinced that Edward, whose funeral had been held in 1327, was still alive, he entered into a conspiracy to rescue him from captivity and restore him to the throne. The plot was discovered and he was beheaded on March 19, 1330. Joan was only two years old at the time, her mother, Margaret Wake and her four children were placed under house arrest in Arundel Castle. When he assumed power from his mother and Mortimer, Joan's cousin King Edward III, took on the responsibility for the family. The Queen, Philippa of Hainault, of whom Joan became a favourite, had her brought up at court, where she became friendly with her cousins, including Edward, the Black Prince, he was just two years younger than Joan and developed a strong affection for her, calling her his 'Jeanette'. Joan grew to be a great beauty, the French chronicler Jean Froissart called her "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving". While Sir John Chandos's herald described her as 'que bele fu pleasant et sage - lovely, pleasant and wise'. In 1340, at the age of twelve, Joan secretly married Thomas Holland of Upholland in Lancashire, the second son of Robert Holland, a disgraced lord. Holland was around thirteen years her senior and the marriage took place without first gaining the consent of the King. The following year, while Holland was abroad taking part in a crusade in Prussia, she was forced by her family to marry William Montacute, the son and heir of the first Earl of Salisbury, both were about thirteen at the time. She later claimed that she did not disclose her existing marriage with Thomas Holland because she had been afraid that disclosing the fact would lead to Thomas's execution for treason. Joan is often identified as the Countess of Salisbury who, legend says, inspired Edward III's founding of the Order of the Garter. However, the countess in question may have been her mother-in-law, Catherine Montacute, Countess of Salisbury. Several years later, Holland returned from the Crusades and the full story of his earlier marriage to Joan was revealed causing a great scandal at the time. Thomas confessed the secret marriage to King Edward III and appealed to the Pope for the return of his wife. The nineteen-year-old William Montacute was unwilling to give up his wife, when he discovered that Joan had supported Holland's case, he kept her a prisoner in her own home. It took Pope Clement VI eighteen months to decide the issue. In 1349, he finally annulled Joan's marriage to the Earl and sent her back to Thomas Holland, with whom she lived for the next eleven years. They had five children before Holland died at Rouen in 1360:-
   Page: Has her mother, father, husbands's names, children's names, where she lived, where she was born
   
6. Title: Fair Maid of Kent
   Author: The Medieval Combat Society
   Publication: Name: http://www.themcs.org/characters/Joan%20Fair%20Maid%20of%20Kent.htm;
   Note: Last Will and Testament In the year of our Lord 1385, and of the reign of my dear son Richard, King of England and France, the 9th; at my Castle of Walyngford, in the Diocese of Salisbury, the 7th of August, I Joan Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Countess of Chester, and Lady Wake. My body to be buried in my chapel at Stanford, near the monument of our late lord and husband, the Earl of Kent. To my dear son the King, my new bed of red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, and heads of leopards of gold with boughs and leaves issuing out of their mouths. To my dear son Thomas Earl of Kent, my bed of red camak [sic.] paled with red and rays of gold. To my dear son John Holland, a bed of red camak. And I appoint the Venerable Father in Christ, my dear friend and cousin, Robert Bishop of London; William Bishop of Winchester; John Lord Cobham; William de Beauchamp, William de Nevill, Simon de Burlee, Lewis Clifford, Richard Atterbury, John Clanvow, Richard Stury, John Worthe, steward of my lands, and John le Vache, Knights; together with my dear chaplains, William de Fulburn and John de Yernemouth; and my loving esquires, William de Harpele, and William Norton, my executors. Witnessed by the Prior of Walyngforde and John James. Proved 9th December 1385.
   Page: It has a rundown of facts
   
7. Title: Joan-of-kent-first-princess-of-wales
   Publication: Name: https://erenow.net/biographies/joan-of-kent-first-princess-of-wales/15.php;
   
8. Title: North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000
   Author: Book Title: Genealogy of the Shethar Family
   Publication: Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=61157&h=3087301&indiv=try;
   
9. Title: UK and Ireland, Find A Grave Index, 1300s-Current
   Publication: Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=60526&h=531024&indiv=try;
   
10. Title: Dictionary of National Biography, Volumes 1-20, 22
    Publication: Name: http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=1981&h=93844&indiv=try;