nanshe-of-nina:WOMEN’S HISTORY † JOAN OF KENT (19 September 1328 – 7 August 1385)
nanshe-of-nina:WOMEN’S HISTORY † JOAN OF KENT (19 September 1328 – 7 August 1385)Joan of Kent was the third child of Edmund of Woodstock, 1st Earl of Kent and Margaret Wake, 3rd Baroness Wake of Liddell. Her father was a son of Edward I of England by his second wife, Marguerite de France. Edmund had sided with Edward II’s wars during his wars against his wife, Isabelle, and her lover, Roger Mortimer. After Isabelle and Mortimer’s victory, Edmund was executed and his wife and children were placed under house arrest. Later, however, Edward III looked kindly on Margaret and her children and treated them well. Joan was raised alongside Edward III’s oldest son, Edward of Woodstock. At the age of twelve, Joan secretly married Thomas Holland without seeking the approval of the king that was required for all members of the royal family. Not knowing of her secret marriage, it was arranged that she marry William Montacute, the son and heir of the Earl of Salisbury. After Holland returned from the Crusades, naturally, a scandal erupted. In the end, the Pope annulled her marriage to Montacute. She and Holland had five children, one of whom died young. After her first husband’s death, she married her cousin and childhood friend, Edward of Woodstock. Supposedly, Edward and Joan had married secretly in 1360, without permission and without an annulment for their consanguinity. Their marriage was not well-received by Edward’s parents (who were aware of the scandal Joan had been involved in as a young woman) or by the public. Nevertheless, they appear to have been a happy couple with two sons, one of whom died young. Edward pre-deceased his father, leaving his young son, Richard, as his heir. Afterwards, both Joan and Richard’s uncle, John of Gaunt, served as his regents with the caveat that Joan was well-beloved and John was not. She died in 1385 and fortunately did not live to see her son overthrown by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke. Joan and Edward are often called “The Fair Maid of Kent” and “Edward the Black Prince”, but neither were known by those names during their lifetimes. -- source link
#history#english history#14th century