PLANTAGENET, Countess Joan

1328 - 1385  (56 years)  Submit Photo / Document

 Set As Default Person

• Name	PLANTAGENET, Joan
  Prefix	Countess
  Birth	29 Sep 1328	Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England
  Gender	Female
  _TAG	Reviewed on FS
  Burial	Aug 1385
  Death	8 Aug 1385	Wallingford, Berkshire, England
  Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
  Person ID	I45593	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
  Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

  
  

  Father	ENGLAND, Prince Edmund ,   b. 5 Aug 1301, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Englandd. 19 Mar 1330, Winchester, Hampshire, England (Age 28 years)
  Mother	WAKE, Countess Margaret ,   b. 1299, Liddel, Cumberland, England Liddel, Cumberland, Englandd. 29 Sep 1349, Liddel, Cumberland, England (Age 50 years)
  Marriage	6 Oct 1325	Blisworth, Northamptonshire, England
  Family ID	F23196	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	HOLLAND, Knight Thomas de ,   b. 5 May 1314, Upholland, Lancashire, England Upholland, Lancashire, Englandd. 26 Dec 1360, Normandy, France (Age 46 years)
  Marriage	1346
  Children	3 sons and 2 daughters
  + 1. HOLLAND, Earl Thomas de ,   b. Abt 1354, Upholland, Lancashire, England Upholland, Lancashire, Englandd. 25 Apr 1397, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England (Age 43 years)   2. HOLLAND, Edmund de ,   b. Bef 1352, Lancashire, England Lancashire, Englandd. 15 Sep 1408, Upholland, Lancashire, England (Age > 56 years)   3. HOLLAND, Joan de ,   b. Abt 1356, Lancashire, England Lancashire, Englandd. Nov 1384, Upholland, Lancashire, England (Age 28 years)   4. HOLLAND, Maud de ,   b. 1 Jul 1356, Upholland, Lancashire, England Upholland, Lancashire, Englandd. 5 Jan 1390, Upholland, Lancashire, England (Age 33 years)   5. HOLLAND, Count John I ,   b. 29 Mar 1352, Upholland, Lancashire, England Upholland, Lancashire, Englandd. 16 Jan 1400, Pleshy, Essex, England (Age 47 years)
  Family ID	F23169	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

  Family 2	MONTAGU, Earl William de ,   b. 25 Jun 1328, Salisbury, Wiltshire, England Salisbury, Wiltshire, Englandd. 3 Jun 1397, Donyatt, Somerset, England (Age 68 years)
  Marriage	Abt 1346	Donyatt, Somerset, England
  Family ID	F6921	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

  Family 3	ENGLAND, Edward IV ,   b. 15 Jun 1330, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Englandd. 8 Jun 1376, Westminster, Middlesex, England (Age 45 years)
  Marriage	10 Oct 1361	Windsor, Berkshire, England
  Children	1. ENGLAND, King Richard ,   b. 6 Jan 1367, Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France Bordeaux, Aquitaine, Franced. 14 Feb 1400, Pontefract, Yorkshire, England (Age 33 years)
  Family ID	F23269	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jan 2022

  
  

• Photos

  At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

  
  

• Notes

  NAME Joan "Fair Maid Of Kent" Princess Of WALES Princess of Wales, and one of the two women after which the Order of the Garter apparently may have been named. Joan's father, Edmund of Woodstock, Earl of Kent, was the half-brother of Edward H. Edmund was wrongfully beheaded due to a plot by Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabelle in 1330. Joan and her mother were imprisoned at Salisbury Castle for nine months. Joan spent her childhood under the care of William Montague (first earl of Salisbury) and Catherine/Katharine Montague, along with two of her three future husbands, Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and William Montague. When she was 12 years old she secretly married her first husband, Thomas Holand. However, Holand left for military service in france (or prussia), and Joan's guardian, Catherine/Katharine Montague, married her to William Montague in 1340; Upon returning. Thomas petitioned Pope Clement VI to annul the marriage, which he did in 1349 by a direct papal bull; Joan had five children with Holand. Three months after Holand died in 1360, she secretly married Edward (the Black Prince, her second cousin), with whom she had two children her son Richard became king Richard II of England in 1377. She became known as a peacemaker and was a patron of John Wycliffe, founder of the Lollards. The story of the founding of the Order of the Garter has been retold many times, and apparently with relish. Costain provides a modern version of the story of the founding of the Order of the Garter. Although Froissart declared her to be "the most beutiful woman in the whole realm of England, and the most attractive," the DMC notes that the surviving portraits and busts "do not corroborate the traditions of her beauty." She is said to have died over grief resulting from conflict between her sons by different marriages. -------- Joan Plantagenent, "The Fair Maid of Kent," so called from her extraordinary beauty. This distinquished woman inherited the Earldom of Kent and Earldom of Woodstock, honours of her father, and the Barony of Wake, a dignity of her mother, from which latter peerage she styled herself "Ladyof Wake." She was celebrated as one of the most beautiful women of her time and is said to have been the heroine of the episode upon which the "Order of the Garter" was founded. King Edward III (her first cousin, their fathers both being sons of Edward I), stooped to pick up a garter she had dropped on the ballroom floor. To the guffaws of the crowd, he responded in French, "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Evil to him who evil thinks), and fastened it about his own leg. She married three times. She was called "The Fair Maid of Kent" because of her extraordinary beauty. She was celebrated as one of the most beautiful women of her time and was probably the heroine upon which the "Order of the Garter" was founded. The French chronicler Froissart called Joan "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving." She was much loved by the people of England and by her family. Joan of Kent was born in 1328 to Edmund of Woodstock Plantagenet, 1st Earl of Kent, son of King Edward I of England, and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. She was the third of four children. Her father, the Earl of Kent, was executed for political reasons when Joan was only a toddler. Her cousin, King Edward III, took responsibility for the family, and brought them to live at the royal court with him. When Joan was twelve years old, she fell in love with a soldier named Thomas Holland. They married in secret, without the approval of Joan's parents. However, that same year, Thomas was sent overseas to fight in the Hundred Years' War, and that winter, Joan's parents married her to William Montague, son of the 1st Earl of Salisbury. Joan did not disclose her previous marriage to Thomas because she feared that he would be executed for treason. Several years later, Thomas returned to England and discovered that his wife had been married to another man. Now, Thomas confessed his secret marriage to Joan in the hopes that her marriage to Montague would be declared invalid. When Montague discovered that Joan supported Thomas's case, he became very angry and locked Joan in their home as a prisoner. The marriage between Joan and Montague was eventually annulled in 1349, when Joan was twenty-one. Joan then went to live with Thomas, and the happily reunited couple had several children before Thomas's death in 1360. Their children were: Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent, born 1350; John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, born circa 1352; Joan Holland, born 1356, who married John V, Duke of Brittany; and Maud Holland, born 1359, who married Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny. Some sources also list a fifth child, Edmund Holland, born 1354, who died young. Joan inherited the titles of Countess of Kent and Lady Wake of Liddell in 1352 with the death of the last of her siblings. Joan's second marriage in 1351 was to her first cousin once removed, Edward the Black Prince, the eldest son of King Edward III. Though their marriage would have been forbidden because they were closely related, Pope Innocent VI intervened and granted a dispensation which allowed the couple to be married. When Edward was invested Prince of Aquitaine, the couple moved to France, where they had their two children, Edward, born 1365, and Richard, born 1367. She requested in her will she be buried with her first husband, Sir Thomas, at Grefriars Church, which is now the site of a hospital. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the 16th century Anabaptist known as Joan of Kent, see Joan Bocher. Joan of Kent Princess of Wales Princess of Aquitaine Countess of Salisbury 4th Countess of Kent 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell Joan of Kent.jpg Born 29 September 1328 Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England Died 7 August 1385 (aged 56) Wallingford Castle, Wallingford, Berkshire, England (present-day Wallingford, Oxfordshire) Burial Stamford, Lincolnshire, England Spouse Thomas Holland, 1st Earl of Kent William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury Edward, the Black Prince Issue Edmund Holland Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter Joan Holland, Duchess of Brittany Maud Holland, Countess of Ligny Edward of Angoulême Richard II of England House Plantagenet Father Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent Mother Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell Joan of Kent (29 September 1328 – 7 August 1385), known to history as The Fair Maid of Kent, was the mother of King Richard II of England, whom she bore to her third husband Edward, the Black Prince, son and heir 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.[1] Joan assumed the title of fourth Countess of Kent and fifth Baroness Wake of Liddell after the death of her brother, John, in 1352. Joan was the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Her father Edmund was the son of King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of Philip III of France. Edmund's support of his older half-brother, King Edward II of England, placed him in conflict with the queen, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Edmund was executed after Edward II's deposition, and Joan's mother, along with her children, was placed under house arrest in Arundel Castle when Joan was only two years old. In 1340, at the age of twelve, Joan secretly married Thomas Holland of Upholland, Lancashire, without first gaining the royal consent necessary for couples of their rank. The following winter (1340 or 1341), while Holland was overseas, her family forced her to marry William Montacute, son and heir of the first Earl of Salisbury. Joan later averred that she did not disclose her existing marriage with Thomas Holland because she had been afraid that disclosing it would lead to Thomas's execution for treason upon his return. She may also have become convinced that the earlier marriage was invalid. Several years later, Thomas Holland returned from the Crusades, having made his fortune and the full story of his relationship with Joan came out. He appealed to the Pope for the return of his wife and confessed the secret marriage to the king. When the Earl of Salisbury discovered that Joan supported Holland’s case, he kept her a prisoner in her own home. In 1349, Pope Clement VI 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 four known children (though some sources list five), before Holland died in 1360. Their children were: Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter Lady Joan Holland (1356–1384), who married John V, Duke of Brittany (1339–1399). Lady Maud Holland (1359–1391), who married firstly to Hugh Courtenay and secondly to Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny (1355–1415). Edmund Holland (c. 1354), who died young. He was buried in the church of Austin Friars, London. [6] When the last of Joan's siblings died in 1352, she became the 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Lady Wake of Liddell. Descendants of Lady Joan and Thomas Holland include [Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Stafford] not |Lady Margaret Beaufort Countess of Richmond and Derby]] (mother of King Henry VII) and queens consort Anne Neville, Elizabeth of York, and Catherine Parrd 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 Wales as wife to Edward, the Black Prince, son and heir 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.[1] Joan assumed the title of 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 the daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell.[2] Her father Edmund was the son of King Edward I and his second wife, Margaret of France, daughter of Philip III of France. Edmund's support of his older half-brother, King Edward II of England, placed him in conflict with the queen, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. Edmund was executed after Edward II's deposition, and Joan's mother, along with her children, was placed under house arrest in Arundel Castle when Joan was only two years old. The Earl’s widow, Margaret Wake, was left with four children to care for. Joan's first cousin, the new King Edward III, took on the responsibility for the family, and looked after them well. His wife, Queen Philippa (who was also Joan's second cousin), was well known for her tender-heartedness, and Joan grew up at court, where she became friendly with her cousins, including Edward, the Black Prince. In 1340, at the age of twelve, Joan entered into a clandestine marriage with Thomas Holland of Upholland, Lancashire without first gaining the royal consent necessary for couples of their rank.[3] The following winter (1340 or 1341), while Holland was overseas, her family forced her to marry William Montacute, son and heir of the first Earl of Salisbury. Joan later averred that she did not disclose her existing marriage with Thomas Holland because she had been afraid that disclosing it would lead to Thomas's execution for treason upon his return. She may also have become convinced that the earlier marriage was invalid.[4] Joan is often identified as the countess of Salisbury who, legend says, inspired Edward III's founding of the Order of the Garte In 1349, Pope Clement VI 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 four known children (though some sources list five), before Holland died in 1360. Their children were: Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter Lady Joan Holland (1356–1384), who married John V, Duke of Brittany (1339–1399). Lady Maud Holland (1359–1391), who married firstly to Hugh Courtenay and secondly to Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny (1355–1415). Edmund Holland (c. 1354), who died young. He was buried in the church of Austin Friars, London.[5] When the last of Joan's siblings died in 1352, she became the 4th Countess of Kent and 5th Lady Wake of Liddell. Descendants of Lady Joan and Thomas Holland include Lady Margaret Beaufort (mother of King Henry VII) and queen consorts Anne Neville, Elizabeth of York, and Catherine Parr. Evidence of the affection of Edward, the Black Prince (who was her first cousin once removed) 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. Edward's parents did not, however, favour a marriage between their son and their former ward. Queen Philippa had made a favourite of Joan at first, but both she and the king seem to have been concerned about Joan's reputation. English law was such that Joan's living ex-husband, Salisbury, might have claimed any children of her subsequent marriages as his own. In addition, Edward and Joan were within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. The secret marriage they are said to have contracted in 1360[6] would have been invalid because of the consanguinity prohibition. At the King's request, the Pope granted a dispensation allowing the two to be legally married. The official ceremony occurred 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 which belonged to the English Crown since the marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II. He and Joan moved to Bordeaux, the capital of the principality, where they spent the next nine years. Two sons were born in France to the royal couple. The elder son, named Edward (27 January 1365 - 1372) after his father and grandfather, died at the age of six. Around the time of the birth of their younger son, Richard, the Prince was lured into a war on behalf of King Peter of Castile. The ensuing battle was one of the Black Prince’s greatest victories, but King Peter (Spanish: Pedro) was later killed, and there was no money to pay the troops. In the meantime, the Princess was forced to raise another army, because the Prince’s enemies were threatening Aquitaine in his absence. By 1371, the Black Prince was no longer able to perform his duties as Prince of Aquitaine, and returned to England, where plague was wreaking havoc. In 1372, he forced himself to attempt one final, abortive campaign in the hope of saving his father’s French possessions. His health was now completely shattered. On 7 June 1376, a week before his forty-sixth birthday, he died in his bed at Westminster. Joan’s son was next in line to succeed King Edward III. Edward III died on 21 June 1377 and Richard became King. He was crowned Richard II at the age of 10 in the following month. Early in his reign, the young King faced the challenge of the Peasants' Revolt. The Lollards, religious reformers led by John Wyclif, had enjoyed the protection of Joan of Kent, 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.[citation needed] As a power behind the throne, she was well loved for her influence over the young king - for example, on her return to London (via her Wickhambreaux estate) from a pilgrimage to Becket's shrine at Canterbury Cathedral in 1381, she found her way barred by Wat Tyler and his mob of rebels on Blackheath but was not only let through unharmed, but saluted with kisses and provided with an escort for the rest of her journey. In 1385, Sir John Holland, an adult son of her first marriage, was campaigning with the King in the Kingdom of Scotland, when a quarrel broke out between him and Ralph Stafford, son of the 2nd Earl of Stafford, a favourite of the new 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 son for four days to spare his half-brother. On the fifth day (the exact date in August is not known), she died, at Wallingford Castle. Richard relented, and pardoned Holland (though he was then sent on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land). Joan was buried, as requested in her will, at the Greyfriars, the site of the present hospital, in Stamford in Lincolnshire, beside her first husband. Her third husband, the Black Prince, had built a chantry for her in the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral (where he was to have been buried), with ceiling bosses of her face. (Another boss in the north nave aisle is also said to be of her.)[1] Joan of Kent may have been represented in A Knight's Tale (2001) as the blonde woman sitting next to Edward, the Black Prince at the final jousting tournament in the film. 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.