Joan of Kent
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- For the Anabaptist Joan of Kent burned at the stake in 1550, please see Joan Bocher
Joan, Countess of Kent, Princess of Wales (September 29, 1328 – August 7, 1385) is known to history as "The Fair Maid of Kent", and was the wife and cousin of Edward, the Black Prince. The French chronicler Froissart called her "the most beautiful woman in all the realm of England, and the most loving."
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[edit] Lineage
Joan was daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake. Her paternal grandparents were Edward I of England and his second Queen consort Marguerite of France.
Her father was a younger half-brother of Edward II of England. Edmund's support of the King placed him in conflict with the Queen, Isabella of France and her lover Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March. When Edward II was deposed, Joan's father was executed.
[edit] Early life
The Earl’s widow, Margaret Wake (descendant of Hereward the Wake), was left with four children. Her younger daughter, Joan, was only two years old. Joan's cousin, the new King Edward III, took on the responsibility for the family, and looked after them well. His wife, Queen Philippa, 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.
[edit] Marriage(s)
At the age of twelve, Joan entered into a clandestine marriage with Thomas Holland of Broughton, without first gaining the royal consent necessary for couples of their rank. The following year, while Holland was overseas, her family forced her into a marriage with William Montacute, 2nd Earl of Salisbury. Joan was afraid that disclosing her previous marriage would lead to Thomas's execution for treason on his return, and so did not.
As Countess of Salisbury, Joan moved in the highest society. Some historians identify her as the mystery woman who appeared at a banquet in Calais and attracted the attention of every man present. Allegedly, while dancing with the King, the lady lost her blue velvet garter, and this was the origin of the Order of the Garter. It is more likely that the woman involved was Catherine Grandisson, Joan's mother-in-law.
It was not for several years that Thomas Holland returned from crusade, having made his fortune, and the full story of his earlier relationship with Joan came out. John appealed to the Pope for the return of his wife and confessed it to the king. When the Earl of Salisbury discovered that Joan supported Holland’s case, he kept her a virtual 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 children, then Holland died in 1360. Their children were:
- Thomas Holland, 2nd Earl of Kent
- John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter
- Joan Holland, who married John V, Duke of Brittany
- Maud Holland, married Waleran III of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny
In the meantime, when Joan's brother died in 1352, she had succeeded him as Countess of Kent and Lady Wake.
[edit] Legendary beauty
Joan, now widowed but only thirty-two, of proven fertility, and a countess in her own right, was an extremely desireable match. She was strikingly beautiful, with perfect features, thick honey blonde hair that reached to her waist, and violet eyes, and was regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the country and Christendom.
[edit] Marriage again, and life in France
The Black Prince had been in love with her for years, but his father and mother disapproved. Queen Philippa might have made a favourite of Joan at first, but as her son grew older, she had become concerned about the budding romance between the two cousins, and set herself against it. Simon Islip, Archbishop of Canterbury also warned the Prince that there could be doubts cast on the legitimacy of any children Joan might bear him, in view of the fact that one of her previous husbands, the Earl of Salisbury, was still alive, but the marriage went ahead with an assurance of absolution from Pope Innocent VI.
They were married in 1361 at Windsor Castle, and almost immediately set sail for France, since the Black Prince was also the Prince of Aquitaine, a region of France which belonged to the English Crown. Two children were born in France, both of them sons. The elder son, named Edward 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 Pedro the Cruel, ruler of Castile. The ensuing battle was one of the Black Prince’s greatest victories, but King 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.
[edit] Husband's death and son's coronation
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.
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 her 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 Hugh Stafford, 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) but the damage was done.
Joan was buried at the Greyfriars, the site of the present hospital, in Stamford in Lincolnshire, beside her first husband. Her second husband, the Black Prince, 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])
Diana, Princess of Wales (1981–1996) · Mary of Teck (1901–1910) · Alexandra of Denmark (1863–1901) · Caroline of Brunswick (1795–1820) · Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha (1736–1751) · Caroline of Ansbach (1714–1727) · Catherine of Aragon (1501–1502) · Anne Neville (1470–1471) · Joan of Kent (1361–1376)
