| Birth: | Sep. 29, 1328
Wallingford
Oxfordshire, England | | Death: | Aug. 8, 1385
Wallingford
Oxfordshire, England | 
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 1651 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.
Bio by Charlotte, #47579980
Family links:
Parents:
Edmund of Woodstock (1301 - 1330)
Spouse:
Thomas Holland (1301 - 1360)*
Children:
John Holand (1350 - 1400)*
Joan Holland (1350 - 1384)*
Thomas Holland (1354 - 1397)*
Edward of Angoulême (1365 - 1372)*
King Richard II (1367 - 1400)*
*Calculated relationship
| | | Burial:
Grey Friars of Stamford
Stamford
Lincolnshire, England |
Created by: Ann
Record added: Jan 14, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 46672269 |
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Added by:
nbo
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Added by:
nbo
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