Joan "Fair Maid of Kent" PLANTAGENET (Countess of Kent)
TITLE: Countess of Kent
BIRTH: Sep 1328
DEATH: Aug 1385, Wallingford Cast,Berkshire,England
Princess of Wales, and one of the 2 women after which the Order of the Garter
apparently may have been named.
Joan's father Edmund of Woodstock, earl of Kent, the half-brother of Edward II,
was wrongfully beheaded due to a plot by Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabelle, 1330;
Joan and her mother were imprisoned at Salisbury Castle for 9 months. Joan spent
her childhood under the care of William Montague (1st earl of Salisbury) and
Catherine/Katharine Montague, along with 2 of her 3 future husbands, Edward,
Prince of Wales (the Black Prince, to become Edward III), and William Montague.
When she was 12 years old she secretly married her first husband, Thomas Holand.
However, Holand left for military service in France (or Prussia), and Joan's
guardian, Catherine/Katharine Montague, married her to William Montague in 1340;
Upon returning, Thomas petitioned Pope Clement VI to annul the marriage, which
he did in 1349 by a direct papal bull; Joan had 5 children with Holand. Three
months after Holand died in 1360, she secretly married Edward (the Black
Prince and her 2nd cousin) in Oct 1361, with whom she had 2 children.
Her son Richard became king Richard II of England in 1377.
She became known as a peacemaker and was a patron of John Wycliffe , founder
of the Lollards.
The story of the founding of the Order of the Garter has been retold many times,
and apparently with relish. Costain provides a modern version of the story of
the founding of the Order of the Garter .
Although Froissart declared her to be "the most beutiful woman in the whole
realm of England, and the most attractive", The DMC notes that the surviving
portraits and busts "do not corroborate the traditions of her beauty."
She is said to have died over grief resulting from conflict between her sons
by different marriages.