SIR THOMAS DE Holande, EARL OF KENT

Sir Thomas de Holande, Earl of Kent, already the son of an infamous man Sir Robert de Ilolland, began his career in an unusual way with the marriage to the beautiful Joan PlantagenC, fair maid of Kent, daughter of Prince Edmund Plantagenet and his wife, Margaret Wake. During her youth and womanhood she was regarded as as "prize". Her husband would not only inherit titles and estates in Kent, but would be the envy of knights and noblemen alike.

Thomas was b. ca 1314 in UpHolande, Lancashire, England, d. 1360 Normandy, France, fighting in tile wars for the King. On Edward III's expedition to Flanders in 1340 against the French, Thomas went, later campaigning with the Spanish Christians against the Moors of Grenade and with the Teutonic knights against tile heaten in East Prussia.

The same year, 1340, he married Joan, secretly, in Kent. This love story has been totd several times by historians, all versions being quite similar and considered accurate. Joan, b. 1329, was the youngest daughter of Edmund of Woodstock, Earl Of Kent, who was the son of King Edward I and his second wife, Princess Margaret, the daughter of Philip III, King of France.

Not only was she quite a catch, but was beautiful, goldenhaired, gay, Laughing easily. The day came when she had to consider marriage. Two contestants came forward for her hand, the Young Earl of Salisbury (son of the King's fair Katherine) and Sir Thomas de Ilolland, the steward of the royal household. both were madly in love with "the little Jeanette", as prince Edward called her.

The two rivals struggled to obtain her favor. Holande had gained the upperhand by obtaining a contract of marriage. but before the ceremony could be performed, he was summoned to France where war had begun. Another tale relates that the King frowned upon the impending marriage, and that Holande, determined to win Joan, slept in her bed. Not ready to set up housekeeping, he was called to go to war.

When he returned, he round that the Earl of Salisbury had taken advantage of his absence and married her. Thomas then referred his problem to Pope Clement VI, who, after considering the matter, finally gave judgment to Holande. Thus, in 1349, Joan was given in marriage to Sir Thomas de Holande.

In 1342 Thomas went with Sir John d'Artevelde to Bayonne to defend the Cascon frontier. He was appointed the King's lieutenant and captain-general in France and Normandy, greatly distinguishing himself during the wars in France, particularly at the battle of Cresy where he commanded the van of Prince Edward's army, and acquired such a high reputation that in 1344 he was made Knight of the Garter, along with his brother Otho, the same year the Order was instituted by the King. Forty knights Were chosen, esteemed to be the bravest in Christendom. The knights swore to maintain and keep the ordinances.

Two years later, Thomas Holande went with the King, now claiming the French throne, into Normandy, and participated in the capture of Caen. Here, the brave native townsmen marched confidently to Eight the English. The English soldiers shouted as they marched, scarcing the townspeople into a retreat before a battle could occur. They ran back into the town.

When the Constable of France and Count of Tancarville saw this cowardice, they waited Tot the English at the foot of a draw-bridge seeing Englishmen chase running townsmen, killing them. They saw a gentleman, an English knight who had only one eye, whom they knew, called Sir Thomas Holande. They had seen and known him at Grannda and Prussia. They called to him.

"Sir Thomas, speak to us!"

Sir Thomas Holande, remembering them in campaign at Granada and Prussia, was happy to take them as prisoners worth 100,000 moutons (a French coin stamped with a lamb, equal to five English shillings of that period). Taking them as prisoners, they were guaranteed safety.

Sir Thomas Holande sold the Constable of France to the King for 80,000 florins. Afterwards the prisoner was committed to the custody of Sir Otho Holande, a brother of Sir Thomas, upon the condition that the prisoner not be allowed to leave England or to bear arms until he should have paid his full ransom to the King. Later, nevertheless, Sir Otho Holande took the Constable with him to Calais where he was seen armed. For this insult, Sir Otho Holande was brought to the King's bench before the Chancellor where he admitted the charge. For this, he was committed to the custody of the marshal.

His marriage to Joan Plantagenet not only brought him the title of the Earl of Kent and its estates, but he was granted 100 marks per year for the better support of Joan, and was given possession of all the lands of her inheritance, except the dowry for Elizabeth, widow of John, late Earl of Rent. His distinction in the wars of France won him arms: azure. semce of fleur-de-lis, a Lion rampart guordont argent.

In 1350 he was appointed captain-general of the dukedom of Brittany, made governor of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark and Alderney. Four years eEterwards, he was Earl of Kent in right of his wife, which title summoned him to Parliament that year. He died December 20, 1360 in Normandy and was buried in the Church of the Grey Friars in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

By Thomas de Holande, Joan had issue: Thomas, John, Matilda, Joan and Maud. Joan, now aged thirty-two, was still beautifl and had much physical vitality. As a widow, she was pursued. lier only brother had died and she had become Countess of Kent and Lady Wake of Liddell in her own right, having wide possessions and 8 handsome pension from the crown during her lifetime.

Another notable romance began for the blonde Joan, this time with a kinsman, the Prince of Wales, known as "the Black Prince". All chronicles of this romance concur. She had many suitors after the death of her husband, Sir Thomas de Holande. One petitioner, Sir Bernard de Brocas, was so much in love with her, that he persuaded Edward.

He much in love with her, that he persuaded Edward, "the black Prince", to convey his message to Jonn. Edward, now thirty years of age himself, had heretofore had little to say when suitors asked for his cousin, Joan. Sir Bernard de Brocas pressed so intently, that Edward sent for Joan.

"Fair cousin," she said, "I shall never marry again."

"Why do you refuse to marry any of my friends?" he asked.

"You may have your choice of them."

Joan began to weep. "I desire none of them."

The prince found it difficult to retain his claim, saying: "There is no lady under heaven that I hold so dear as you!"

As she continued to weep, he took her into his arms and kissed her. "Do you not know," he forced himself to say, "that the one I have spoken of to you is a chivalrous knight' That he is the most honorable of men?"

She whispered, "Ah sir, before Cod, do not talk to me thus. For I have already given myself to the most chiverous knight under heaven. because of my love for him, I will never marry again so long as I live." She added. "It is impossible that Z should have him to my husband, and so my love for him parts me from all men."

The prince demanded to know the name of the man whom she loved. Finally, she said "My dear and indomitable lord, it is you ! It is for love for you that I will never have any other knight by my side."

Edward was quite amazed at this admission and Eellat once into a fervent protestation of his love. "My lady", he declared, "I vow to Cod that as long as you live never will I have another woman save you to be my wife!"

On October 10, 1361 Joan married again, Edward, the Prince of Wales, in Windsor Chapel. Edward and Joan had issue: Richard II, who became King of England. Richard m. 1st 1382, Anne of Dohemia, 2nd, in 1396, Isabelle of Dalois (succeeded him in 1377), deposed in 1393, probably murdered. He was called Richard of Bordeaux, and lived with his half-brothers, the Holandes. Richard was almost six feet tall, slender and gracefully turned. his bones were dug up in 1871 and examined. Iris face was round, with delicate features, making him appear slightly effeminate.

Richard's step-brothers were known to be noisy, quick- tempered, and fond of horseplay. Sir John Holande, later Duke of Exeter, was involved in much political intrigue during his halfbrother's reign, at one time ordering the murder of a Carthusian friar who was publicly charging the Duke of Lancaster with plotting the death of the Iting. The crowded streets seethed with excitement and conjecture. had the Duke of Lancaster conspired with Holande to get rid of the witness against him. Or had the king and his party arranged the killing so that the duke would have no chance to refute the charge? Thomas of Woodstock (Edward's brother), took the latter view. Although he and his brother continued on bad terms, he came storming into the king's chamber declaring that the whole affair was a conspiracy. The king, he cried, had abetted it. "I will kill anyone," he declaimed with any oaths, his face black with rage, "who brings such charges against my brother. I will kill anone. No matter whom !"

Sir John Holande later become the central figure in a still more violent episode. As a member of the inner circle of favorites, he had ridden in the royal train to Scotland. One of his squires was attacked by an archer in the train of Hugh, the son of Earl of Stafford. Holande did not wait for explanation. He started out that night for the StaEEord camp in a surly temper. It happened that Ralph, a Stalford son, decided at the same time to wait on Ilolland in an effort to make amends. Their paths crossed in the darkness.

"Who rides abroad at this late hour?" demanded Holande.

"Ralph of Stafford", was the answer.

Without waiting for another word, the surly Holande drew his sword and lunged out into the darkness. The blade pierced the young knight's side and he fell from his saddle, mortally wounded. Without waiting, Ilolland turned and rode back to his own camp. The brother of a king could do no wrong.

But King Richard took a different view. He realized that he could not condone unprovoked murder. The Earl of Stafford demanded that the vicious Holande be made to pay for his murderous attack and it was clear that the nobibility were back of him. Holande fled into the sanctuary of the church of St. John of Beverley. In the meantime, the King confiscated all of Holande's properties.

Word had reached the ears of Queen Joan (wife of Edward, the Black Prince), John's mother. She sent frantic messages to her son, King Richard II, begging for mercy. her condition had been growing worse and this blow was more than she could stand. She died in August of 1385 while her royal son was leading his army across the Scottish border and before receiving a definite word of her other yen, John Holande's, fate. Queen Joan, b. 9/29/1328 at Woodstock, Kent, d. 8/1385, was buried in the Chapel at Stamford, England.

The punishment finally imposed upon John.Holande was light. He was ordered to provide chantries where Masses could be said in perpetuity for the soul of Ralph of Stafford, two to be stationed at the spot where the murder was committed and the third at his grave.

John Holande married Elizabeth, a daughter of John of Gaunt, and was later made Duke of Exeter. Later his title was reduced to that of Earl of Huntingdom. John, proud and arrogant, bitterly resented the loss of his higher rank. lie disregarded his family ties and threw in his lot with a conspiratorial ring to restore his imprisoned brother, Richard, to the throne. He remained near tendon to keep an eye on developments there. When he learned of the collapse of the plat, he tried to cross the channel, but the ship was driven back by heavy winds. He was captured at Plesby where he fell into the hands of the countess of Hereford, the mother of the Bohun sisters, and, therefore, mother-in-law of the now Kent Henry! This fate was unfortunate indeed.

With the downfall of King Ricard II, the fate of the Holande brothers was in jeopardy, causing them to cease to be dukes. Remarkably, Thomas Holande died of natural causes two years before his half-brother, King Richard II, in 1397, which in itself is miraculous in such times of political conspiries on behalf of King Richard II.

ISSUE OF THOMAS DE Holande AND WIFE, JOAN PLANTAGENET

1. Thomas de Holande, second Earl of Kent, b. 1350 Lancashire, England, d. 4/25/1397 Westminster Abbey, London, England m. After 4/10/1365 Alice FitzAlan.

2. John de Holande, Earl of Huntingdon, b. 1354 Lancashire, England, d. 1400 Pleshy, Devonshire, England (beheaded) m. Elizabeth, daughter of John of Gaunt.

3. Matilda de Holande b. Lancashire, England m. Sir Hugh de Courtenay.

4. Joan de Holande b. Lancashire, England.

5. Maude de Holande b. Lancashire, England m. 1365 in Kent, England, Lord Hugh Courtenay.

DESCENDANTS OF THOMAS dE HOLANDE AND HIS WIFE, ALICE FITZALAN:

Alice was b. ca 1352 in Arundel, Sussex, England, d. 1416, the daughter of Richard FitzAlan, the Earl of Arundel and his wife, Eleanor Plantagenet.

1. Thomas de Holland, third Earl of Kent, Duke of Surrey, b. ca 1374 Lancoshire, England, d. 1/4/1399 Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England (beheaded) m. Joane Stafford, Countess. No issue."

2. Edmund de Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, b. 1384 Kent, England, d. 9/5/1408 Brittany (slnin) m. 1/24/1406 at St. Mary Ovary, Southwark, London, England, Lady Lucy Visconti. He m. (2) Lady Constance.

3. Joan de Holland, Duchess, b. 1380 Kent, England, d. 1434 Kent, England m. (1) 1393 Edmund Langley, Duke of York. (2) William Willoughby (3) Henry Scope (4) Sir Henry Bromflete.

4. Eleanor de Holande m. Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury.

5. Margaret de Holande, Duchess, b. 1378 Lancashire, England d. Clarence m. (1) John Beaufort, Earlof Somerset, England (2) Bishop Henry Cardinal.

6. Aleanore de Holande d. 10/23/1405 m. (1) 1399 UpHolande, Lancashire, England, Roger de Mortimer, Earl of March (2) Sir Edward de Cherleton.

7. Elizabeth de Holande b. 1384 Lancashire, England m. Sir John Nevill.

8. Bridget de Holande, b. 1386 Lancashire, England. She was a Nun at Barking. Unmarried.

DESCENDANTS OF JOHN DE Holande, Earl of Huntingdon, b. 1354 Lancashire, England, d. 1400 Fleshy, Devonshire, England (beheaded) m. Elizabeth.

1. Constance de Holande b. Dartington Hall, Devonshire,England, buried St. Catharine, London, England

2. Richard de Holande.

3. John de Holande, second Duke of Exeter, b. 1394 Dartington Rall, Devonshire, England, d. 8/1447 Devonshire, England, buried St. Catharine, London, England, m. (1) Anne. John m. (2) Beatrice, an illegitimate daughter of John I, King of Portugal, d. 1439, and m. (3) Anne, daughter of John Montacute, the Earl of Salisbury. By Beatrice he had issue: Anne de Holande who m. (1) John, Lord Nevill, (2) Sir John Nevill. John's christening is recorded by Thomas Codling in an Inquisition to prove his age. The LWT of John de Holande dated 6/16/1447 directed that his body be buried in a chapel of the Church of SE. Catharine, beside Tower of London, on north end of the High Altar in a tomb there ordained for himself and Anne, his first wire.

4. Edward de Holande. John Holande, second Duke of Exeter, was the son of John Holande, the first Earl of Huntingdon and Duke of Exeter who had been deprived of both titles, and his wife, Elizabeth of Lancaster. he had one sister, Constance, and two brothers, Richard and Edward who both died unmarried, Richard having lived just long enough to come of age and into possession of the great estates (Devonshire, Cornwall, Somerset), but he died young and the estates passed to John Holande.

John Holande was born in 1394, proven by an Inquisition made in 1425 when Thomas Codling testified that the Abbot of Tavistock, in county Devon, being one of the godfathers, immediately after the baptism gave him a cup of gold with a circle about it, framed after the Eauhion of a lily, and ten pounds of gold therein, and to the nurse, 20 shillings. Also, that the Prior of Plympton, who was the other godfather, gave him 20 pounds in gold and 40 shillings to the nurse. And that Joan, the wire of Sir John Pomeraie, arried him to the chancel to be christened....the same Sit John Pomeraie, her husband, and Sir Jolrn Dynharn, knipht, conducting her by the arms. Likewise, that 24 men proceeded them with 24 torches, which torches, as soon as he was baptized by that name, were kindled. It was a provincial baptism worthy of the baby nephew of the reigning king.

For young John Ilolland was, on his mother's side, Elizabeth of Lancaster, the great-grandson of King Edward III, and was also descended in two separate lines, though John of Caunt and his wife, Blanche, from King Henry III. By another line, through his Paternal grandmother, the Fair Maid of Kent, he descended from King Edward I.

The baptism took place in Devonshire because John was born at Dartington Hall, close to Totnes, a manor which had fallen into the Crown through the failure of heirs of the Lords Audley (its previous Holders), and had been granted by King Richard to John Holande, Earl of Huntingdon, the father of little John Holande.

John Holande and his elder brother, Richard, and younger brother, Edward, and their sister, Constance, were bred as children at Dartington.

Henry V succeeded to the throne 3/20/1413, when young Holande was age 19, and made him, on the coronation, a knight of the new Order of the Bath. In 1415, John Holande was made Knight of the Garter, and in 1417, his elder brother having died, the Earldom of Huntingdon was restored to him by Act of Parliament. Later, John Holande earned recognition fighting with the King against France and became Earl of Huntingdon, Duke of Exeter and Lord High Admiral of England.

John Holande died August 5, 1447, age of 53. His LWT dated 7/16/1447 directed that his body be buried in a chapel of the Church of St. Catharine, beside the Tower of London, on the north end of High Altar, in a tomb there ordained for him and Anne, his first wife, as also for his sister, Constance, and Anne, his other wife, then living. Named his daughter, Anne.

John Holande had three wives. He m. Ist, Anne, widow of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, son of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and wife, Alianora Holande. Anne was the daughter of Edmund, Earl of Stafford. By his first wife, he had HENRY, the third Duke of Exeter who married a Stafford. John Holande m. 2nd, Beatrice (d. 10/23/1439, buried at Arundel), widow of Thomas, Eorl or Arundel, illegitimate or perhaps legitimatized daughter of John I, King of Portugal, by Donno Agnese Pereze. By his second wife, he had a daughter, ANNE who married first Lord Nevill and 2nd, Sir John Nevill. John m. 3rd, Anne, widow of John FitzAlan, dau. of John Hontacute and Eleanor Holande of Kent.

Two bastard sons were born to John Holande, viz: WILLIAM and THOMAS Holande.

Sir Thomas de Holande