John, 3rd Earl of Kent

John, 3rd Earl of Kent, Baron Wake of Liddell (7 April 1330 – 26 December 1352) was an English nobleman who was the posthumous son of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent, and the cousin of King Edward III of England.

Family

He was born on 7 April 1330 at Arundel Castle, Sussex, England, the youngest son and posthumous child of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell.^[1] One of his sisters was Joan of Kent, who was the mother of King Richard II of England by her second husband Edward, the Black Prince.

John's father was executed for treason on 19 March 1330 by the orders of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March just three weeks before his birth, leaving his elder brother Edmund as the 2nd Earl of Kent. Upon Edmund's death in October 1331, John succeeded to the title of 3rd Earl of Kent and Lord Woodstock. He succeeded to the titles of Baron Wake of Liddell on 29 September 1349 as a result of his mother Margaret having died of the plague. John received livery of all his lands on 10 April 1351, upon coming of age three days earlier.^[2]

Marriage

On 3 April 1348, John married, by Papal dispensation,^[3] Isabella of Jülich (died 6 June 1411), the daughter of William V, Duke of Jülich and Joanna of Hainaut, a younger sister of Queen consort Philippa of Hainault. The marriage was childless.

John died on 26 December 1352 and he was buried at the Church of Greyfriars at Winchester. His titles passed to his only surviving sister Joan who became the 4th Countess of Kent, and the 5th Baroness Wake of Liddell suo jure.

His wife may also have been known as Elizabeth, Countess of Kent, in 1396^[4]

Ancestry

References