Joan PLANTAGENET Fair Maid of Kent ¹⁸⁵⁰

   FamilySearch ID: KDQ8-TWV
Find A Grave ID: 46672269

  General Notes:

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 Greyfriars Church, which is now the site of a hospital. ~ Bio by Charlotte, #47579980

During her lifetime, she amassed a number of titles including: 1st Princess of Wales, 4th Countess of Kent , and 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell.
A quote from her 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; 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."

Marital History
Joan's marital history is convoluted. She was married by her family in 1340/1 to William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. In 1349, she challenged the validity of this marriage, stating that in 1340, before her marriage to Salisbury, she had secretly wed a lowly knight, Sir Thomas de Holand, who had since accumulated some wealth serving in the wars on the Continent. Her marriage to Salisbury was declared invalid, and she cohabitated with Holand until his death when she remarried (with Salisbury still living) in 1361 to Edward 'the Black Prince'.

  Burial Notes:

Plot: 'in a sumptuous chapel recently built next the choir.'

  Noted events in her life were:

1. Clan: Plantagenet,,. ¹⁸⁵⁴

2. Title of Nobility: Princess of England,, in , , , England. ¹⁸⁵⁴

3. She has conflicting birth information of 29 September 1327 and Wallingford, South Oxfordshire, Oxfordshire, England.

4. Title of Nobility: Countess of Salisbury, between 1344 and 1349,. ¹⁸⁵⁴

5. Title of Nobility: 4th Countess of Kent, between 1352 and 1385, in , , Kent, England. ¹⁸⁵⁴

6. Title of Nobility: 5th Baroness Wake of Liddel, between 1352 and 1385, in , , , England. ¹⁸⁵⁴

7. Title of Nobility: Princess of Wales, between 1361 and 1376,. ¹⁸⁵⁴

8. Title of Nobility: Princess of Aquitaine, between 1362 and 1372, in , , Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. ¹⁸⁵⁴

Joan married Sir Thomas DE HOLLAND, son of Robert DE HOLLAND II and Maud LA ZOUCHE, in 1340.¹⁸⁵² (Sir Thomas DE HOLLAND was born on 5 May 1314 in Upholland, West Lancashire, Lancashire, England,¹⁸⁵³ died on 26 December 1360 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France ¹⁸⁵⁰ and was buried in Stamford, South Kesteven, Lincolnshire, England ¹⁸⁵².)

Joan next married William DE MONTAGU 2ndEarl of Salisbury about 1343.¹⁸⁵⁴ (William DE MONTAGU 2ndEarl of Salisbury was born on 25 June 1328 in Donyatt, , Somerset, England ¹⁸⁵⁴, christened in Donyatt, , Somerset, England,¹⁸⁵⁴ died on 3 June 1397 in Bisham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England ¹⁸⁵⁴ and was buried in June 1397 in Bisham, Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England ¹⁸⁵⁴.)

Joan next married Edward of WOODSTOCK 'The Black Prince' on 10 October 1361.¹⁸⁵⁴ (Edward of WOODSTOCK 'The Black Prince' was born on 15 June 1330 in Kings Langley, , Hertfordshire, England,¹⁸⁵⁴ died on 8 June 1376 in Westminster, , Greater London, England ¹⁸⁵⁴ and was buried on 29 September 1376 in Canterbury, , Kent, England ¹⁸⁵⁴.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

1. They have conflicting marriage information of Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. ¹⁸⁵⁴
(Windsor Castle, Windsor, Berkshire, England.)