The title of this article refers to Joan, Princess of Wales, mother of Richard II. She became known as the “Fair Maid of Kent”, a sobriquet acquired posthumously. But, was she the most beautiful woman in England? According to the standards of her time yes, she certainly was, although the contemporary likenesses we have don’t indicate her apparently outstanding loveliness. If the carving shown above is accurate, perhaps today we’d called her handsome rather than beautiful? As for the illustration below, well, it’s hard to tell anything.
She was the daughter of Edmund, Earl of Kent (1307-30), younger son of Edward I’s second marriage, and therefore half-brother of Edward II and half-uncle of Edward III. You can see Joan’s family connections in the tree below. She appears just under halfway up on the extreme left.
Edmund was drawn into believing that his brother Edward II was still alive, even though supposedly killed by his queen, Isabella of France, and her lover Roger Mortimer (if he was her lover!) By this time Edmund’s nephew Edward III was on the throne, and so Edmund was deemed to be a traitor attempting to overthrow the legal king and executed on 19 March 1330.
Joan was controversial from the get-go, and of a sexual maturity beyond her years, because at the age of only twelve she met the man who was clearly the love of her life, Thomas Holand (c. 1314 – 26 December 1360) of Upholland in Lancashire. He was therefore at least twelve years older than her, and some might say he should have known better, but that doesn’t take into account the convention that girls were considered mature enough for marriage at the age of twelve. Not that this was often acted upon, because girls were mostly at least fourteen before they were taken into the marriage bed.
Anyway, meeting Thomas was when Joan’s life became scandalous for the first time, because she claimed she was “forced” into marrying 13-year-old William Montacute, heir of the Earl of Salisbury. Whether she was forced or not is impossible to say with complete conviction, because the story she and Thomas Holand put out a few years later is that they had been married first, but Thomas had then gone abroad to fight and only discovered what had happened to his “wife” on his return. The fact that Thomas was actually William’s seneschal added extra spice to the scandal. A royal bride had preferred the servant to the master? Shock. Horror. Joan and Thomas claimed the Montacute marriage was bigamous and therefore illegal, and eventually the Pope agreed and gave Joan to Thomas. Thomas prospered greatly from the union because Joan’s brother died shortly afterward and she became Countess of Kent in her own right. Thus Thomas became Earl of Kent.
That she loved Thomas with all her heart is clear from all the scandal and opprobrium she endured in order to be with him, but whether they were married before she was wed to William Montacute is debatable. Perhaps they met afterward, fell hopelessly in love and told porkies in order to release her from a marriage she no longer wanted? Who knows, but there is always more than one way of looking back at things.
Needless to say William wasn’t best pleased and tried to keep her, but he eventually gave in and went on to marry elsewhere and have a family. Which means, of course, that if Joan and Thomas fibbed, then their marriage was not the only one that was bigamous, William’s second nuptials were too!
Anyway, she and Thomas had a family, two surviving sons and two daughters, before he died in Normandy on 26 December 1360. She was a widow with children to guard and provide for. But, if we are to believe in her incredible beauty, she captivated her cousin, Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known to posterity as the Black Prince. Edward III wasn’t amused, not least because if the Montacute marriage had been true, then her actual husband was still alive! The king was therefore disapproving when his son and heir chose such a tainted bride over a grand foreign match, but the prince would have none other. The marriage was allowed, and the result was Richard II. Whispers about his legitimacy dogged him, spread by his enemies.
Joan proved to be a quietly competent and influential Princess of Wales, and eventually became greatly respected. The marriage last sixteen years until the prince died before his time in the summer of 1376, and she, widowed for the second time, did all she could to protect the boy Richard from the predations of rapacious magnates and some of his royal uncles. In the end, of course, Richard fell prey to this opposition, and was murdered by his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke (c. April 1367 – 20 March 1413), son and heir of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. This usurper promptly had himself crowned Henry IV, and thus began the House of Lancaster’s illegal tenure of the crown. But Joan was long dead before these tragedies.
It’s said that another family tragedy entirely brought about her demise, when in 1385 the younger of her Holand sons, John, was involved in a quarrel with and the death of Sir Ralph Stafford, son and heir of the Earl of Stafford. So involved, in fact, that he was accused of murder and condemned to death. This so distressed Joan that she pleaded with Richard (by then king) to spare John’s life. When Richard refused, it was too much for Joan’s by then frail constitution and she died within a few days. This is the story that has come down to us through the centuries. John was pardoned soon after, but it was too late to save Joan.
As a final shock to the medieval world she asked to be lain to rest not with the Prince of Wales in the grandeur of Canterbury Cathedral, but in the seclusion of Greyfriars, Stamford, Lincolnshire with Thomas Holand, who was, I believe, her only true love. Their tombs have been lost, courtesy of Henry VIII.
So, as you can see, Joan of Kent’s life was eventful even in death. You can read more here: Category: Joan Of Kent – Meandering Through Time (weebly.com) and here Joan Of Kent: The Remarkable Life Of The Fair Maid of Kent (salonprivemag.com). And for a lot of illustrations from her period go to this link: Grim Facts About Edward The Black Prince, The King Who Never Was (factinate.com)
Footnote: It occurs to me that the tangle of Joan’s marriages would be an excellent case to deliberate in a modern court, along the lines of that programme ages ago when Richard III was “tried” again and found innocent. Would Joan too be found innocent? Were she and Thomas Holand telling the truth about being married first? Or would it be found that her marriage to William Montacute came first and was perfectly legal? Her lengthy episode with Thomas Holand was therefore bigamous, as were all their children. And as William was still alive when Joan married Edward of Woodstock, this marriage too was bigamous. And Richard II was baseborn! I wonder what the verdict would be in such a modern court case?
murreyandblue 